B&W reinvents its flagship line-up to create 800 Series Diamond range

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.

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