For some people, it’s enough just to hear music. But some of us want more. We want to experience it – in its purest, most unadulterated form. To savour every nuance and detail. To feel as close to a musical performance as if we were there, with the artist at the moment it was recorded. At Bowers & Wilkins, we’ve been pursuing this dream for half a century. And now we’ve made our biggest leap forward yet. Welcome to the 800 Series Diamond.
This changes everything Change. It’s what we do at Bowers & Wilkins. Our approach to acoustic design and engineering has always been driven by relentless innovation – by questioning what went before, in order to make things better. With the 800 Series Diamond, our approach was no different. But this time, we’ve gone further than ever before. And the result is something truly radical.
Reimagining an icon The 800 Series isn’t just another speaker range. For decades, it’s served as the benchmark for high-end audio performance. So how do you improve on the best? Answer: you start from the beginning. So when we set out to create the new 800 Series Diamond, we went back to the drawing board, embarking on one of the most ambitious research and development projects we have ever undertaken.
We’ve introduced a few changes. Eight hundred and sixty-eight of them, to be exact. Using new computer modelling techniques, we examined every single element of the speaker, searching for the smallest weaknesses so we could understand how to overcome them. As a result, almost every component of every speaker has been reimagined from the ground up, from drive unit materials all the way to the position of screw fixings. The new 800 Series Diamond isn’t an evolution. It’s a revolution.
Product range We believe the way you hear music matters. And if you care about hearing music the way it was intended, this range was designed for you. Whether you’re a recording engineer or a home audio enthusiast, you’ll find a model to suit your listening requirements. Introducing the world’s most advanced loudspeaker range.
802 D3 Reveal your music If you are looking for stunning realism, then the 802 D3 is the loudspeaker for you. The beneficiary of all the technical innovation the new 800 Series Diamond has to offer – from the innovative Turbine head and Continuum cone to the radical new plinth design – at home or in the studio, it will reveal depth and detail in music you never knew existed.
803 D3 True sound comes home The 803 D3 is the first of its kind: a full-range, studio-quality speaker built for the home, and the most compact headed unit we’ve ever produced. While this elegant speaker comes in a living room-friendly size, it shares the same revolutionary technologies and design features as its larger sibling, including our Turbine head and reverse-wrap cabinet.
804 D3 Wolf in sheep’s clothing It might have a more traditional appearance than other speakers in the range, but don’t let that fool you. The 804 D3 delivers incredible acoustic transparency, thanks to unique 800 Series Diamond features such as our Continuum cone and augmented Matrix bracing system. So while its looks may be conventional, its performance is anything but.
805 D3 Small sounds beautiful The smallest speaker in the 800 Series Diamond range is also one of the most groundbreaking. Packed with cutting-edge technologies never seen before in a speaker of its class, it’s the only stand-mounted speaker in the world to feature a diamond dome tweeter. For lifelike spaciousness and detail, no other small speaker comes close.
Technologies Welcome to the future. The 800 Series Diamond is a game-changer in terms of technological innovation. From drive units to cabinet geometry, every major component has been rethought and reinvented. And the rulebook for loudspeaker design has been ripped up and rewritten in the process. The future of loudspeaker technology starts here.
Turbine head Hear the sound, not the cabinet. That’s the principle behind our separate head units – a feature we introduced when we launched the first 800 Series speaker in 1979. Now, thanks to a radical redesign, the 800 Series Diamond head unit performs better than ever. Constructed from a single piece of aluminium, braced with internal radial fins and with a raised, slimmer profile, the Turbine head is almost totally inert, producing a sound that’s free from cabinet coloration.
Continuum cone For decades, we thought that nothing could beat Aramid Fibre as a midrange cone material. But now, following eight years of intensive development, we’ve finally come up with something even better. Thanks to its composite construction, the Continuum cone avoids the abrupt transitions in behaviour that can impair the performance of a conventional drive unit. The result is a more open, neutral performance. And a giant leap forward for loudspeaker design.
Reverse wrap cabinet When it came to designing the ideal shape for the 800 Series Diamond cabinet, we did a U-turn. Quite literally. Instead of a flat-fronted speaker with a curving back, we produced a cabinet with a front and sides formed of one continuous curve, held together with a spine of solid aluminium. Fewer joins make for a stiffer, more inert structure, and a curved front means less baffling around the drive units. So sound dispersion is improved, and cabinet reflection is reduced.
Plinth A great speaker needs a rock-solid foundation. By moving the crossover from the plinth to the main body of the speaker, we’ve been able to create a base for the 800 Series Diamond that’s more stable and resonance-resistant than ever. Replacing the original open-box design, the new plinth is constructed from a solid piece of aluminium weighing in at a mighty 17kg. This improves stability by lowering the centre of mass and counter-balancing the weight of the Turbine head.
Diamond domes Some things don’t change. While almost every component of the 800 Series Diamond has been reinvented, the element that gave the range its name remains unchanged: the speaker’s diamond tweeter domes. Our diamond domes remain the ultimate in tweeter technology, capable of unrivalled acoustic detail, naturalism and spaciousness.
Diamond: the super-material The properties of diamond are prized in highly specialised industrial applications, from neurosurgery to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Its unique stiffness-to-lightness ratio also makes diamond the perfect tweeter material. Developed especially for the 800 Series Diamond, diamond tweeter domes push the break-up frequency threshold to a remarkable 70kHz, resulting in superb clarity and detail.
The making of 800 Series Diamond How did you first approach the challenge of improving the 800 Series Diamond? head design is definitely a big step up from where we were previously. Fundamentally, no loudspeaker is perfect; elements of it are imperfect in different degrees. So you start with what you think are the biggest imperfections first. And as you remove one imperfection, the veil of noise and distortion and coloration lifts. That then reveals other imperfections.
What inspired you to start working with Bowers & Wilkins back in 1988? Why was this reverse wrapped cabinet so exciting? They have a unique approach to sound. John Bowers’ approach dictated that whatever was recorded, or intended in the recording studio, is what Bowers & Wilkins is trying to reproduce authentically within their loudspeakers. If they were eyewear, they would be the most clear, most vivid, most transparent pair of glasses you could possibly wear.
Specifications 802 D3 803 D3 804 D3 Technical features Diamond Tweeter Continuum Cone FST™ Turbine head Aerofoil cone bass units Flowport™ Optimised Matrix Solid body tweeter Anti-Resonance plug Tweeter on top Diamond Tweeter Continuum Cone FST Turbine head Aerofoil cone bass units Flowport Optimised Matrix Solid body tweeter Anti-Resonance plug Tweeter on top Diamond Tweeter Continuum Cone FST Aerofoil cone bass units Flowport Optimised Matrix Solid body tweeter Anti-Resonance plug Tweeter on top D
805 D3 HTM1 D3 HTM2 D3 Technical features Diamond Tweeter Continuum cone bass mid Flowport Optimised Matrix Solid body tweeter Anti-Resonance plug Tweeter on top Diamond Tweeter Continuum Cone FST Aerofoil cone bass units Flowport Optimised Matrix Solid body tweeter Anti-Resonance plug Tweeter on top Diamond Tweeter Continuum Cone FST Aerofoil cone bass units Flowport Optimised Matrix Solid body tweeter Anti-Resonance plug Tweeter on top Description 2-way vented-box system 3-way vented-box system
10/15 PU33898 www.bowers-wilkins.com FST, Nautilus, Flowport and Matrix are trademarks of B&W Group Ltd. Copyright © B&W Group Ltd. Stands featured within this brochure are not supplied with the speakers. E&OE. Design Thomas Manss & Company. Printed by mibrand.com. B&W Group Ltd. reserve the right to amend details of the specification without notice in line with technical developments.