B&W reinvents its flagship line-up to create 800 Series Diamond range
New from Bowers and Wilkins is a complete flagship range: the Diamond 800 Series.
The seven-strong line-up features the company's diamond tweeter technology throughout, right down to the entry-level 805 Diamond speakers, at £3750 a pair.
The range-topping model is the 800 Diamond itself, the latest version of the speakers used for monitoring in studios such as Abbey Road and Skywalker Sound.
Selling for £18,500, it benefits from improvements made across the range, including a new quad-magnet 'motor' for the diamond tweeter, giving greater efficiency and improved dispersion characteristics.
The bass has been improved with a new dual-magnet drive system, using neodymium magnets to improve linearity, the crossover uses a unique silver/gold/oil capacitor design, and oxygen-free copper terminals and links are fitted.
The speakers also use the company's Kevlar FST midrange drivers, Nautilus tube-loading for the tweeters, and high-rigidity Matrix bracing inside the cabinets.
The 800 uses a spherical 'head' to house the tweeter and midrange driver, and this carries over into the £11,500-a-pair 802 Diamond, described as the 'home-friendly version' of the 800, with a reduced footprint, and tuning improvements to give what's said to be 'dramatically improved bass performance' compared with the outgoing model.
Two more floorstanding models are available: the 803 Diamond is a smaller version of the 802, selling for £7500 a pair and using three 18cm bass drivers instead of the larger speaker's twin 20cm units. The £5750-a-pair 804 Diamond is the smallest floorstander in the line-up.
New to the range is the 805 Diamond, the only standmounter in the line-up. B&W describes this as 'possibly the most requested speaker that Bowers & Wilkins has never made… until now.'
Two centre speakers complete the 800 Diamond series: the £1950 HTM4 Diamond is designed to be used in systems employing the 804s and 805s, while the larger HTM2 Diamond, at £3950, matches the larger speakers.
All the Diamond 800 Series speakers are made in the UK, at B&W's Worthing factory, and will be available in a choice of Rosenut, cherry or piano black gloss when they hit the shops next month.
Comments
Had the privilege of spending an evening listening to my best mate's new 802Ds a few days ago - now due to envy issues, I'm not sure if he is my best mate any more
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I was astounded. Absolutely sublime detail, combined with an amazing dynamic delivery.
There have been a myriad of detailed reviews recently. Believe the good ones and B&Ws own hype. These are phenomenal speakers. They need the best source you can give them though as their delivery is so incredibly detailed and uncoloured, they are VERY unforgiving of poor input - we switched to Apple TV steaming lossless recordings from B&W SOS and the speakers just laughed at the dreadful Apple TV performance! I think a Linn Akurate DS is on the horizon now...
Personally I am very excited about this announcement. I currently have the 805s and have been wanting to move up the the 802D. Now it looks like my waiting will be rewarded.
Can't wait to hear it.