bowers & wilkins

BlueAnt's Embrace headphone will coddle your ears

The BlueAnt Embrace on-ear headphones ($200) look luxurious and, if you don't mind, adult. I sometimes think a lot of today's headphones are designed to look cool to 15-year-olds, with boosted bass and highs designed to dazzle young ears. The Embrace's demeanor is more, shall we say, reserved?

Maybe it's the all-black color scheme and lack of flash that first appealed to me, but then I fell in love with the thickly padded headband and pillowlike ear cushions. My ears and head appreciate being coddled like this. The sound mimics the Embrace's look and feel: … Read more

Bowers & Wilkins' C5 earbud is a winner

First things first: I think most in-ear headphone designs are pretty uninspired-looking things. Sure, ear-canal headphones are so tiny there's not a lot to work with, but I have to say Bowers & Wilkins' new C5 is a stunning piece of industrial design. The tungsten and aluminum headphone is the prettiest in-ear design I've seen to date.

The headphones' proprietary Secure Loop cable is a unique design element and can be adjusted to fit in the inner ridge of your ear to help secure the tip in place. My ear canals are bigger than average, so I don'… Read more

B&W intros loopy C5 in-ear headphones

First it was iPod docks. Then computer speakers and over-the-ear headphones. Now Bowers & Wilkins, a brand once known for expensive high-end speakers, is further expanding into the mainstream with a set of $179.95 C5 in-ear headphones.

Along with touting the C5's "pristine, natural audio," B&W is highlighting the earphones' signature design trait, the Secure Loop, "an ingenious innovation where a cushioned loop fixes quickly and comfortably in the inner ridge of the user's ear." The company adds that the Loop is "infinitely adjustable, so it works perfectly with anyone's ears.

The C5 comes with a Made For iPhone-compatible cable, which allows you to make calls, and a quilted pouch. For more specs, you can go to the C5's product detail page.

The C5 earphones will be available in August for $179.95 (U.S. & Canada). We'll let you know what we think of them as soon as we get our hands on a set. We're particularly interested in trying out that Secure Loop. … Read more

B&W Zeppelin Air with Apple AirPlay (review)

B&W, which is now branding itself by its longer, more formal name, Bowers & Wilkins, is known for its high-end speakers. However, a few years back the company dipped into the more mainstream consumer market with its first iPod speaker system, the $600 Zeppelin, followed by the smaller and more affordable Zeppelin Mini.

Now the company is back with a new version of the Zeppelin called the Zeppelin Air that shares many design traits with the original Zep but offers better sound and one very important new feature: support for Apple's AirPlay. That feature allows you to … Read more

Listening to B&W's $15,000 diamond speaker

I first wrote about Bowers & Wilkins updated diamond speakers in January, but I finally got to hear them a few weeks ago at Innovative Audio & Video, one of B&W's New York City dealers.

Specifically, I listened to the 802 Diamond speaker that sells for $15,000 a pair. The speaker has a big and beautiful, carefully honed design.  The 159-pound speaker stands 44-inches high by 14.5-inches wide by 22-inches deep. It has a 1-inch synthetic diamond dome tweeter, 6-inch woven Kevlar midrange driver, and two 8-inch Rohacell woofers. Rohacell is a super lightweight, yet highly rigid material that is ideal for woofers that need to move a lot of air without flexing.

The 6-inch midrange driver is housed in a teardrop shaped "head" that is crafted from inert Marlan composite material, a synthetic, mineral-filled resin. This granite-hard enclosure is sprayed with seven coats of hand-polished black lacquer. The head's internal cavity--a sphere closely coupled to a short tube--absorbs most of the sound from the back of the driver. On the outside, the teardrop shape smoothly disperses the sound around the speaker, creating a solid, three-dimensional stereo image.

The diamond tweeter is fitted to a tapering tube that is filled with absorbent wadding to control the energy that radiates off the tweeter's backside. The diamond tweeter doesn't look like a diamond at all, it's a dull gray dome, so it wasn't just used for show. B&W favored aluminum tweeters for its top models for years, but now uses  diamond domes because of their higher stiffness-to-density ratio. According to B&W, diamond gets closest to the sound of a hypothetically perfect tweeter.

I've heard my share of high-end speakers, but the thing that struck me first about the 802 Diamond's sound was its purity. It's the second-generation diamond model, the original version was the 802 D--the company changes it models every five to seven years. B&W offers a complete range of 800 Diamond Series speakers for hi-fi and home theater systems. … Read more

Are B&W MM-1 PC speakers worth $500?

In recent years, Bowers & Wilkins, one of the legendary names in British hi-fi audio, has been branching out beyond its high-end speakers that have long appealed to audiophiles. It has created a line of uniquely styled Zeppelin iPod speaker systems and now it is offering the highly rated P5, a $300 pair of headphones as well as the $500 MM-1 multimedia speakers.

The first thing you're probably saying to yourself is: wow, $500 for a pair of PC speakers. What do I get for that?

For starters, these speakers are slick-looking with black cloth grilles and brushed metal … Read more

The MM-1: The B&W of computer speakers

Bowers & Wilkins staked out its claim as Britain's highest-profile speaker manufacturer long ago, and it's now easily the country's best-selling brand. B&W speakers are favored by audiophiles and grace many of the world's top recording studios.

I recently wrote about B&W's terrific new headphone, the P5, which was introduced at the same time as the MM-1 computer speaker. They're both extremely handsome designs, and that's something we've come to expect from B&W.

The speakers black cloth grilles and brushed metal trim are indeed tasteful; the shiny black and chrome remote is also pretty slick. The remote controls power, volume, play/pause, and next/previous track selection for iTunes. The speakers make a cute little "plop" sound and the left speaker blue LED flashes when you raise or lower the volume. The MM-1 feels right.

The MM-1 is pretty small; it's 6.7 inches high and 3.9 inches wide and deep; they have a 3-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter. The right speaker houses four 18-watt Class D amplifiers, two of which power the left speaker. I noticed the powered speaker's aluminum top panel runs warm to the touch. The USB connection is fed to an "audiophile" quality digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that incorporates equalization to increase the 3-inch woofers bass output.

We can't agree with B&W's "no need to add a subwoofer" claim. Computer speaker systems with high-quality subs, like Altec Lansing's Expressionist Ultra MX6021 PC speaker-subwoofer system ($199), can produce dramatically more and very high-quality bass. This Altec system is one of the very best I've heard, with great dynamic power and overall clarity. Then again, you can't add a sub to the MM-1, but the wee B&Ws take up a lot less room than the Expressionist Ultra MX6021. As always, size does matter.

Listening to streaming radio with the MM-1s, sitting about 2 feet away from them, was mostly not so pleasant. The streams grit and harshness were all too evident. But there were exceptions, and the MM-1's woofers got a nice workout from WFMU.org's 128k MP3 reggae programming. Bass was deep and punchy, though no match for the mighty Altec sub.

The MM-1 all too clearly revealed marginal sounding MP3's shortcomings, so I mostly played CDs for my MM-1 listening sessions.

The MM-1's bass on the opening organ passages from Philip Glass' "Koyaanisquatsi" CD were fairly deep and clear, without the bloated boom we've heard from a number of computer speakers. … Read more

B&W's sweet new P5 headphones

Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) has a new headphone, the P5.

B&W is one of the more legendary names in British hi-fi, and its speakers are used in many of the world's top studios, including the Beatles' favorite, Abbey Road.

B&W is also known for its sleek styling, and the P5 is definitely a looker. Its real leather and chunky construction put all of the other $300 headphones on the market to shame. The P5 is a handsome luxury design, on par with B&W's high-end speakers.

Comfort? The P5's thickly padded leather headband and ear pads are soft and comfy. That's great, but the full leather-to-ears contact may promote perspiration. My ears didn't sweat, but they sure felt hot when I wore the P5s for extended periods. The upside to the close contact design is that it blocks a fair amount of external noise. Not as effectively as noise-canceling headphones, but the P5 doesn't need batteries.

The P5 is being marketed as a portable design, so it's smaller than most full-size, over-the-ear headphones. The included quilted carry bag is nicer than what you get with most headphones.

A user-replaceable 48 inch cable is attached to the left earcup. The P5 is supplied with two cables, one of which, the MFI cable with built-in microphone, is for use with the very latest Apple iPod and iPhone models. The removable (magnetically attached) earpads are more squarish than round, about 3 inches high, and they fold flat against your chest when you put the headband on your neck.

.… Read more

B&W's new P5 headphones, MM-1 PC speakers available soon

Late last year, Bowers & Wilkins was quietly showing off its fancy new P5 headphones and MM-1 multimedia speakers. Well, we got word that those products should be available for purchase in the next month or so, with the P5s priced at $299 and the MM-1s at $499.

With the distinct and stylish P5s, B&W's touting their natural sound, which allows you to wear them for longer without experience listening fatigue. The company claims these guys have "some of the most advanced technology ever to be put into a set of headphones," including specially developed … Read more