HP Replaces Beats with Bang & Olufsen as Audio Partner for Tablets, Laptops

Sometime last year, Apple purchased Beats Audio for $3 / €2.7 billion, thus leaving old-time partner HP out in the cold.

HP was allowed to continue selling products bundling Beats audio technology until 2015, so the US-based PC maker had to go looking somewhere else to fill the void.

But this week, HP officially announced that it entered a partnership with Bang & Olufsen that will extend onto its Spectre, Omen and Envy product lineup.

So from now on, whenever we see a new HP tablet or laptop make its way into the wild, we'll find a speaker and headphone jack provided by Bang & Olufsen or the company’s own B&O Play brand.

The products will be custom-tuned and will take advantage of designs that allow the separation of audio circuitry from other critical components like motherboard signals. Limited amounts of metal will be used in the production of headphone jacks in order to produce clearer sounds.

In partnership with Bang & Olufsen, HP will design an audio control panel that will allow users to customize their sound experience based on their respective needs.

The first HP hardware taking advantage of the new sound technology are set to start appearing in spring 2015, so we should see them arrive soon enough.