Bang & Olufsen has partnered with HiFiBerry to launch a new DIY open-source product that’ll help you upgrade your vintage speakers and turn them into wireless ones. The Beocreate 4 Channel Amplifier is a combination board that’s designed for music playback with passive loudspeakers. It can work on its own as a digital amplifier, but you’ll need a Raspberry Pi to enable Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capabilities.
The Beocreate 4 has a 4-channel amplifier (2 x 30W and 2 x 60W) and power is supplied by a single external 12-24V source. HiFiBerry says it’s capable of driving up to four of 4-8 Ohm speakers, with sample rates of up to 192kHz. The Raspberry Pi just plugs into the amplifier, so there’s no need for any soldering, and the speakers can be connected via screw terminals. The Beocreate 4 comes with software that allows users to activate a Beovox CX50, CX100 or any generic speaker and use them to play music via Airplay, Bluetooth, or Spotify. HiFiBerry says the software is open-source, with plans to add more functionality in the future.
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The Beocreate 4 is more so aimed at those who have experience tinkering around with speakers, and it looks like a really involved process where you need to experiment with various components. Still, it’s a notable and worthwhile effort from B&O to offer something that gives life back to otherwise idle speakers. So far, HiFiBerry have detailed guides on how to up-cycle the CX100 and CX50 speakers, with guides for the Beovox RL2000 and Beovox RL6000 “coming soon.”
The Beocreate 4 is available now for $189. If you’re not really into tinkering, there are other options to turn your existing speakers wireless, such as Google’s $25 Chromecast Audio device.
