The Bang & Olufsen BeoAmp 2 Is Smaller Than a Hardcover Book and Delivers 150W Per Channel. Here’s What That Actually Means.
Most power amplifiers have a presence about them. They’re heavy. They run warm. They take up shelf space and remind you they exist with their ventilation slots and their weight and their general sense of importance.
The BeoAmp 2 does none of that.
It’s 42mm tall. You could fit two of them in a single 1U rack space. It weighs 1.9kg. It runs cool enough that there’s no fan, no ventilation requirement, no thermal management beyond passive cooling built into the chassis. And from that unassuming little box it delivers 150 watts per channel peak into 8 ohms. 300 watts per channel into 4 ohms if that’s what your speakers need.
The first time you pick one up the reaction is almost always the same: there’s no way this is the whole amplifier.
It is. That’s the point. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
What the BeoAmp 2 Actually Is and Who It’s For?
The BeoAmp 2 is a stereo power amplifier built specifically for custom installation. That phrase custom installation is worth unpacking because it shapes everything about this product.
Custom installation means the amplifier is going to live in a rack, or behind a panel, or inside a technical room, or somewhere it will never be seen by anyone. It needs to be small because rack space and wall cavities have limited room. It needs to run cool because it’s going to be enclosed. It needs to be reliable because nobody wants to pull apart a finished installation to service an amplifier. And it needs to sound genuinely good because the whole point of a custom-installed audio system is that it sounds better than whatever it replaced.
The BeoAmp 2 satisfies all four of those requirements convincingly, which is why it’s become a go-to choice for B&O custom installations in homes and B&O is clear about this in their own literature professional environments too.
The Full Specs
Output Power (RMS): 100W per channel, 8Ω (1% THD+N at 1kHz) Peak Power: 150W per channel at 8Ω / 300W per channel at 4Ω Amplifier Technology: ICEpower Class D Cooling: Passive no fan Dimensions: 42mm (H) × 200mm (W) × 250mm (D) Weight: 1.9kg Rack: Fits 1U space (two BeoAmp 2 units per 1U) Inputs: Stereo RCA Line In, RJ45 PowerLink input Outputs: Stereo RCA Loop Out, RJ45 PowerLink Loop Out, Phoenix speaker terminals Power Management: Audio input sense, 12V trigger, PowerLink auto-on/standby Standby Power: Under 0.5W Mains: Universal 85–264V AC, 45–65Hz
Two things on that spec sheet are worth pausing on.
The standby power consumption under 0.5 watts is genuinely impressive for a 150W per channel amplifier. This is one of the real-world advantages of ICEpower Class D technology over traditional Class AB designs. It doesn’t sit there drawing current when nothing’s playing. In a permanent installation that’s running 24 hours a day, that adds up meaningfully over months and years.
The PowerLink inputs and outputs are the other one. PowerLink is B&O’s proprietary protocol for connecting and controlling B&O components in a system. If you’re building a B&O system with a Beosound Core as the source, PowerLink means the BeoAmp 2 wakes up and goes to standby automatically in response to the Core with no separate automation required. Clean, reliable, exactly what you want in an installation that needs to work without intervention.
How Does It Actually Sound?
We’ll be straight about this: evaluating a power amplifier in isolation is somewhat artificial. An amplifier is always part of a chain source, preamplifier or streamer, amplifier, speakers and the sound you hear is the product of that whole chain, not any individual component.
What we can say about the BeoAmp 2 is that it gets out of the way. That’s genuinely the highest compliment you can pay a clean amplifier design, it doesn’t add character, it doesn’t impose its own signature on the signal, it just amplifies what arrives at its input and delivers it to the speakers as faithfully as the circuit allows.
The ICEpower Class D modules B&O uses in the BeoAmp 2 have a good reputation in the custom installation world specifically for this quality. They’re not warm and euphonic the way a valve amp is. They’re not slightly analytical the way some Class A solid-state designs are. They’re clean and controlled and they deliver power efficiently, which is exactly what a CI amplifier should do.
Paired with the Beosound Core as a source which is the most natural pairing in a B&O installation context the combination sounds very good. Detailed, spacious, well-controlled at the bottom end. We ran it through a pair of in-wall speakers for several weeks and it handled everything from quiet background listening to considerably higher volumes without complaint.
The Size- Why It Actually Matters in Practice
We keep coming back to the physical dimensions because until you’ve tried to install audio equipment in real residential spaces, it’s easy to underestimate how much size matters.
A standard 19″ rack unit is 44.45mm tall. The BeoAmp 2 is 42mm tall. Two BeoAmp 2 units- meaning four channels of amplification, enough for a two-zone stereo installation fit in a single 1U rack space. That’s extraordinary density for this power output. In a bespoke AV rack that also needs to house a Beosound Core, a network switch, perhaps a media player and patch panels, every millimetre of rack space is genuinely valuable.
For wall-cavity or furniture installations where there’s no rack at all, the small footprint and cool running temperature mean the BeoAmp 2 can go in spaces where a conventional amplifier simply won’t fit or would create heat problems. We’ve seen it mounted flat inside custom joinery with minimal ventilation clearance, something you’d never attempt with a Class AB amplifier producing meaningful heat at idle.
The BeoAmp 2 is a power amplifier only. It has no streaming capability, no preamplifier, no volume control. To build a working system you need to pair it with something upstream.
The most natural combination in the B&O ecosystem is the Beosound Core. Core handles all the streaming- AirPlay 2, Chromecast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, Bluetooth, hi-res audio up to 24-bit/192kHz and feeds the BeoAmp 2 via PowerLink or RCA. Add passive speakers and you have a complete, properly integrated B&O audio system for a room. Clean, controllable, and able to be extended with a Beoremote Halo for physical control if you want it.
The Beosound Core + BeoAmp 2 combination is particularly well-suited for in-wall or in-ceiling speaker installations, the kind of setup where you want genuinely good audio throughout a room without any visible equipment. Core goes in the rack or the AV cupboard, BeoAmp 2 goes in the same space, speakers are in the walls or ceiling, and the room looks like a room rather than a listening studio.
For multi-zone installations you’d use multiple BeoAmp 2 units one per zone all fed from the same source or independent sources depending on the design. Two units per 1U means you can amplify a lot of zones in a relatively compact rack.
How It Compares
vs. Sonos Amp: The Sonos Amp is a compelling product for Sonos ecosystem installations built-in streaming, app control, Airplay 2. If you’re building a Sonos-based system it’s a natural choice. If you’re in the B&O ecosystem or want the flexibility of a dedicated source component, the BeoAmp 2 is the more serious amplifier with higher peak power and better integration with B&O products.
vs. Denon HEOS Amp: Similar concept for the Denon/HEOS ecosystem. The BeoAmp 2 has more power and better build quality. Different ecosystem choices.
vs. a traditional Class AB stereo amplifier of similar power: The BeoAmp 2 wins on size and heat output by a massive margin. A traditional 150W per channel Class AB amplifier is significantly larger, heavier, and generates considerably more heat at idle. For installation contexts where size and thermal management matter which is most of them Class D is simply the practical choice.
vs. other CI amplifiers (Sonance, Anthem, etc.): The BeoAmp 2 holds its own on sound quality and significantly outperforms on size-to-power ratio. The PowerLink integration makes it a more natural fit for B&O installations than any third-party CI amplifier.
Who Should Buy This
Someone building a custom B&O audio system in a new home or renovation, particularly one with in-wall or in-ceiling speakers, needs a compact, reliable amplifier that integrates properly with the Beosound Core.
Someone upgrading an existing B&O system from powered speakers to a passive speaker setup wants to keep everything within the B&O ecosystem.
A custom installer or integrator working on a B&O project who needs a CI-grade amplifier with PowerLink compatibility.
Someone building a multi-zone audio installation needs compact amplification that can stack efficiently in a rack.
Who it’s not for: someone who wants an all-in-one streaming amplifier that handles source and amplification in one box. The Beosound Core plus BeoAmp 2 combination covers that but requires two components. Someone looking for a desktop or bookshelf amplifier for visible placement the BeoAmp 2 is designed to be hidden, and its purely utilitarian aesthetic reflects that.
Questions We Get Asked
What speakers can the BeoAmp 2 drive?
Any passive speakers rated for 4 or 8 ohm impedance. In the B&O context it works particularly well with B&O in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, Beolab passive models, or passive speakers from brands like DALI. 150W peak per channel at 8 ohms gives it enough headroom to drive most residential speaker installations without strain.
What’s the price in India? Does it need a preamplifier?
Yes, the BeoAmp 2 is a power amplifier only. You need a source component with volume control or a separate preamplifier upstream. The Beosound Core is the most natural pairing in a B&O installation.
Does it get hot?
No, this is one of the genuine advantages of the ICEpower Class D design. Passive cooling only, no fan, generates minimal heat even at sustained output. Safe for enclosed installations with minimal ventilation clearance.
Can it work in multi-zone installations?
Yes, each BeoAmp 2 handles one stereo zone. For multiple zones, use multiple units. Two fit per 1U rack space so you can fit considerable zone count in a modest rack.
Does PowerLink work with the Beosound Core?
Yes, the Beosound Core and BeoAmp 2 communicate via PowerLink for automatic standby and power-on in response to source activity. Clean integration, no separate automation required for basic operation.
Is the universal mains input important in India?
More than you might think. The BeoAmp 2 accepts 85–264V AC, which means it handles voltage variations that occasionally cause problems for equipment with narrower input ranges.
Can it be used professionally?
B&O explicitly supports professional installation use. The rack-mount design, Phoenix speaker terminals, and PowerLink connectivity are all features oriented toward professional CI contexts.
Final Thoughts
The BeoAmp 2 is not a product that’s going to make anyone’s pulse race in the way a beautiful pair of speakers or a well-designed remote control might. It’s an amplifier. It lives in a rack or a wall cavity. Nobody sees it.
But the people who install audio for a living have an expression: the best equipment is the equipment that works without requiring attention. The BeoAmp 2 fits that description well. It’s compact enough to fit anywhere, cool enough to install in enclosed spaces, powerful enough to drive real speakers properly, and integrated enough with the B&O ecosystem to behave predictably in a complete system.If you’re building a B&O system around passive speakers, particularly an in-wall or in-ceiling installation the BeoAmp 2 paired with the Beosound Core is a genuinely strong foundation. Everything else in the B&O lineup can build on top of it.