Milan Design Week 2026 is wrapping up, and while most people came for furniture and lighting, high-end audio didn’t stay quiet. After Klipsch and OJAS teased their kO-R2 collaboration for indoor spaces, Bang & Olufsen showed up with something far more ambitious for the outdoors: the Beosound Haven, developed with Italian stone specialist Antolini.
That matters, because the custom install category isn’t what it used to be. Outdoor audio has gone from weatherproof boxes you tolerated to fully engineered systems you actually want to listen to. Brands like Theory Audio Design, DALI, Sonus faber, Focal, and Monitor Audio have raised the bar with serious build quality, proper environmental protection, and performance that doesn’t collapse the second you step outside.
So Beosound Haven isn’t walking into an empty garden. It’s stepping into a category where expectations are finally high and where design alone won’t save you. Bang & Olufsen knows how to win a room indoors. Outdoors, the rules are different.
Rooted in craftsmanship but clearly aimed at a very specific clientele, the partnership between Bang & Olufsen and Antolini leans into the idea that outdoor audio doesn’t have to look like outdoor audio. The Beosound Haven blends B&O’s acoustic engineering with Antolini’s stonework to create something that’s meant to disappear into the landscape visually while still delivering a controlled, high-end listening experience. It’s not just about sound — it’s about how that sound lives in the space.
To drive that point home, the companies built a full outdoor installation at Milan Design Week rather than sticking the speaker on a pedestal and hoping for the best. The exhibit framed Beosound Haven as part of a complete environment—integrated into stone, greenery, and architectural elements to show how landscape design, materials, and audio can work together instead of competing for attention. The goal is clear: move outdoor audio beyond background noise and into something that actually contributes to how a space looks, feels, and more importantly sounds.
“Design at Bang & Olufsen has always been about understanding the relationship between technology, materials, and the spaces people inhabit. With this installation, that philosophy extends beyond the traditional room, exploring how beautiful sound can engage the senses and transform outdoor environments into immersive, sensorial spaces,” said Kresten Bjørn Krab-Bjerre, Senior Director of Design, and continues: “Through Beosound Haven – our forthcoming landscape speaker – we explore sound as an architectural language. It interacts with materials and forms an atmosphere, creating a refined sense of place that is both subtle and powerful. It reflects our ambition to find new ways for sound to enrich the experience – not only as something you hear, but as something you truly feel.“
The Besound Haven Preview Experience
Set inside the Antolini Milano Duomo Stoneroom, the Beosound Haven wasn’t just dropped into a corner and labeled “outdoor speaker.” Bang & Olufsen and Antolini built a controlled environment to show how it’s meant to be used. The installation leaned on natural elements like greenery, stone, and a central reflective water table where droplets created subtle ripples, tying the visual design back to the idea of sound moving through space. Surfaces featured Antolini’s Taj Mahal quartzite in a matte finish, keeping reflections low and letting texture and light do the work without distracting from the audio.
At the center is a simple concept: treat sound as part of the architecture, not an afterthought. Beosound Haven combines B&O’s aluminum driver and electronics housing with Antolini’s stonework, designed to be specified early in a project instead of bolted on later. That’s the real pitch here. Integrate the system from day one so it works with the space instead of fighting it.
It also lines up with Antolini’s broader push beyond interiors. They built their reputation on high end stone applications indoors, and this is a logical move into outdoor environments where materials, durability, and placement matter just as much as aesthetics.
“In collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, we have moved beyond traditional design to embrace the open air. By blending the raw elegance of natural stone with precision sound, we’ve created a bridge between nature and technology. These landscape speakers are not just objects; they are a dialogue between the elements, transforming gardens and terraces into living galleries where history and avant-garde meet to host your most meaningful moments,” remarks Carlo Alberto Antolini, Owner of Antolini.
Bang & Olufsen Atelier Program Contribution
Through Bang & Olufsen’s Atelier program, aluminum, the company’s core material, has been shaped into Beosound Haven’s spherical form and paired directly with stone from Antolini. Antolini, a family owned Italian company with roughly 70 years of experience working with marble and natural stone, brings a level of material expertise that aligns with B&O’s approach to industrial design and speaker construction.
A range of natural stones are used across the collaboration, selected for their variation in pattern, density, and surface texture. The idea is straightforward: treat stone as a primary material in the system, not just a decorative shell around it.
The end result is less about making a statement piece and more about showing how materials and audio hardware can be integrated from the start. The stone surfaces frame the installation and influence how the speaker is perceived in the space, both visually and acoustically, without trying to overwhelm either side of the equation.
Pro Tip: Final details for Beosound Haven, including full specifications and release timing, have not been announced yet.
Beolab 18 Refresh
In addition to Beosound Haven, Bang & Olufsen and Antolini have also revisited the Bang & Olufsen Beolab 18, a floorstanding speaker that originally launched in 2013. The update focuses on materials rather than acoustics, with new natural stone finishes in a matte treatment, including Amazonite, Retro Black Petrified Wood, Patagonia Original, Dalmata, Cipollino GreyWave, and Taj Mahal.
This is being positioned as a limited edition series, with each unit reflecting the natural variation of the stone used. The goal is consistent with the Haven concept, extending the use of architectural materials into both interior and outdoor settings without changing the core speaker platform.
Pro Tip: Pricing and availability for the Beolab 18 Bang & Olufsen and Antolini editions have not been announced yet. For full features and specifications, refer to the official Bang & Olufsen Beolab 18 product page.
The Bottom Line
Since 1925, Bang & Olufsen has built its reputation on design led audio that looks as expensive as it sounds. But outdoors is a different fight. Aside from the Bang & Olufsen Beosound Bollard, the brand has not been a major player in landscape audio, where durability, coverage, and system integration matter just as much as aesthetics.
Beosound Haven is unique because it is not trying to compete as a traditional outdoor speaker. It is positioned as part of the architecture itself, developed alongside Antolini and intended to be specified early in a project, not added later. That puts it in a different category than most outdoor systems, which are still designed around concealment or basic weather resistance rather than material integration.
Who is this for? Not someone looking to upgrade a patio with a few speakers and call it a day. This is aimed at high end residential projects, landscape architects, and custom integrators working on properties where materials, layout, and audio are planned together from the start. The unknowns still matter. Final design options, system configuration, and pricing have not been confirmed, but none of this is likely to come cheap. If it delivers on performance to match the design, it could push expectations higher in a category that has already started to take itself more seriously.
Related Reading:
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- Bang & Olufsen Unveils Beolab 90 Zenith and Monarch Editions: Ultra-Luxury Anniversary Speakers Push Design and Price Into the Stratosphere
- Bang & Olufsen Expands 100th Anniversary Lineup With New Beolab 90 Phantom and Mirage Editions
- Bang & Olufsen’s 100th Anniversary Beolab 90 Titan Edition: For Those Who’d Rather Hear Their Money Than Drive It
