Bang & Olufsen’s Beosound Explore is a rugged portable speaker that’s ready for adventure

Summer’s coming, and there’s little point – as far as Bang & Olufsen is concerned – in hiking your way through the Lake District in the sunshine if you can’t soundtrack such adventures with your best Phil Collins megamix. Enter the Beosound Explore (£169), a lightweight, portable and rugged Bluetooth speaker that’ll rival Sonos’ very similarly pitched Roam. Rugged is the key word here, though, with B&O outfitting its speaker in scratch-resistant type 2 anodised aluminum. Its maker says it’s the first speaker on the market to to feature such armour, and it’s IP67 dust and waterproof to boot. The Beosound Explore, which weighs in at a backpack-friendly 631g, promises big omnidirectional sound and ‘supreme’ bass. You can form a stereo pair if you pick up a second one, and should expect about 27 hours of battery life at typical listening volumes. Cranking the thing up too high will only frighten the sheep anyway.