600 Series www.bowers-wilkins.
It’s that time again. When B&W unveils the latest edition of its 600 Series. It’s been going on since the mid-1990s. Even on its debut the 600 Series swept up five star reviews and product of the year awards for its affordable, audible brilliance. Every three years or so since then, as new editions have appeared, it’s been the same story. The new 600 Series – the fourth generation – has been a little longer coming, so the heat’s been off the competition. But it’s back.
There’s no room for dreams in business. That’s what we’re told. B&W is different. Its success stems from the dream of founder John Bowers to create the perfect loudspeaker – one that neither adds to nor takes away from the recorded performance. And, in the laboratories and listening rooms of our dedicated Research Establishment in southern England, that’s been our goal from day one.
You might think that seeing a movie at home can never compare to seeing it at the cinema. Well, that’s what the B&W 600 Series is here for: to bring the big screen experience into your home. With a sound system that can deliver every word, whisper, pin drop and tyre screech in super-sharp clarity, from any point in your room, you’ll find yourself living every moment. And, when you’re winding down from that experience, switch the system to audio to enjoy your favourite music in revelatory sound quality.
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Behind the scenes. The creation of the 600 Series has engaged just about everyone at Bowers & Wilkins in some way. Here’s a look at some of the detail and thinking from two of the people involved. Mike Gough, Senior Product Manager When you are faced with creating a new 600 Series, how does your approach differ from that for a reference level range? In one respect, surprisingly little. After all, our customers’ passion for music is governed by their hearts not wallets.
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Treble. Mobile phones, DVD players, car navigation systems… Sooner or later, most technological advances become accessible. Few, though, will generate as much sheer pleasure as the innovations now found in the 600 Series. When we develop a breakthrough technology for one of our studio-standard ranges, every other B&W product feels the benefit. What was state-ofthe-art in the high-end series becomes state-ofthe-art in more affordable ranges. Everything that goes into a B&W speaker has a pedigree.
Midrange. Owners of earlier 600 Series speakers will be wondering how we could improve on the clarity and detail of a midrange drive unit that’s already in a class of its own. That’s just the kind of challenge we like. In all our 600 Series midrange/bass units the distinctive yellow woven Kevlar® cone snuffs out the kind of concentric standing waves that build up in standard, homogeneous cones, while a light, airy ‘open’ chassis cuts down echo from behind the cone.
Bass. When push comes to shove, you have to be serious about bass. At B&W, it’s a science. We test materials, structures and circuits to their limit to get better bass for your buck. You might not think a material like paper would tie in very well with a B&W bass driver. Turn the volume up on one of our 600 Series subwoofers, for instance, and you could probably shake wallpaper off walls. So it might surprise a lot of listeners to find that paper plays a vital part in what they’re hearing.
Finishes. We don’t believe in spoiling your enjoyment of what you hear by designing speakers that you don’t want to see. Choose from a wider-than-ever set of finishes and tailor your 600 Series speakers to their setting. Speakers, after all, are furniture. They have a form as well as a function. You’ll find the craftsmanship and quality of finish on B&W 600 speakers reflect the high standard of engineering and innovation inside them.
Want to ride with Hopper and Fonda in Easy Rider? Fly into the Death Star with Luke? Or eavesdrop on the neighbours in Rear Window with James Stewart? If your requirements from a home theatre system don’t run to maximum power, but you’d still like sound that can drop you headfirst into the action, we suggest the 684 Theatre.
Home theatre packages. With two bookshelf speaker models, two floorstanders, two centre speakers and three subwoofers in the 600 Series, there’s a lot of potential ways to assemble a home theatre system. Here are three groups that, to our ears, go together as harmoniously as the Beach Boys or Ladysmith Black Mambazo. 685 Theatre The most compact of the three set-ups, the 685 Theatre is a bookshelf-based arrangement for more enclosed listening environments.
So, that’s it. Or is it? At B&W, the pursuit of perfect sound continues. For over 40 years, we’ve been dedicated to creating a loudspeaker that neither adds nor takes away from the recorded sound. In the process, we’ve become a world leader, developing award-winning speakers like the 600 Series. It’s a passion. Thankfully, we’re not alone. There are others – musicians, technicians, critics, customers – who are as dedicated as we are.
Main Centre 683 684 685 686 HTM61 HTM62 Technical features Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter Kevlar® brand fibre cone FST™ midrange Aluminium/Paper/Kevlar® cone bass driver Flowport™ Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter Kevlar® brand fibre cone bass/midrange Kevlar® brand cone bass driver Flowport™ Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter Kevlar® brand fibre cone bass/midrange Flowport™ Technical features Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter Kevlar® brand fibre co
Subwoofer Surround ASW610XP ASW610 ASW608 Technical features Dual voice coil drive unit Paper/Kevlar® stiffened cone 200W + 200W ICEpower® amplifier Paper/Kevlar® cone drive unit 200W ICEpower® amplifier Paper/Kevlar® cone drive unit 200W ICEpower® amplifier Technical features Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter Kevlar® brand fibre cone bass/midrange Description Active closed-box subwoofer system Active closed-box subwoofer system Active closed-box subwoofer system Description 2-way
03/07. PU16575 B&W Group Ltd Dale Road Worthing West Sussex BN11 2BH England T +44 (0) 1903 221800 F +44 (0) 1903 221801 info@bwgroup.com www.bowers-wilkins.com B&W Group (UK Sales) T +44 (0) 1903 221 500 E uksales@bwgroup.com B&W Group North America T +1 978 664 2870 E marketing@bwgroupusa.com B&W Group Asia T +852 2 790 8903 E info@bwgroup.hk Nautilus and Flowport are trademarks of B&W Group Ltd. Kevlar is a registered trademark of DuPont. ICEpower is a registered trademark of B&O ICEpower A/S.
