Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature Floorstanding Speakers

Bowers & Wilkins

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature Floorstanding Speakers

Name: Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature Floorstanding Speakers
Brand: Bowers & Wilkins
SKU: 801D4/SIG
Price: 72000 CAD
Availability: InStoreOnly

SKU:

801D4/SIG

$72,000.00

/pair

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Description
Specs
Dimensions
About Bowers & Wilkins

Description

An optimized version of our most advanced loudspeaker. The 801 D4 Signature tower speaker features optimized technologies, including that all-important Diamond Dome tweeter and Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top, an all-new tweeter grille, and upgraded crossover.

The larger model in the new Signature range is the 801 D4 Signature, a powerful three-way floorstanding loudspeaker that builds on the specification of the iconic 801 D4 as found in Abbey Road Studios. Based on the brand’s Diamond Dome tweeter and Continuum Cone FST midrange drive unit, the 801 D4 Signature adds powerful twin 250mm (10”) Aerofoil Cone bass drivers with upgraded and improved magnets to their motor systems relative to the 801 D4 model. It also includes a radically enhanced aluminium top plate beneath its Turbine Head midrange enclosure; this new design uses a new optimised skeletal structure and carefully placed damping material to significantly reduce unwanted resonance from the top of the enclosure. The result is even more midrange transparency and openness to the already outstanding performance of the 801 D4.

The port output on 801 D4 Signature has received similarly significant upgrades; it is now cast from aluminium, creating a stiffer and quieter structure that is less prone to unwanted port noise. In combination with the updated Aerofoil Cone bass drivers, this results in even cleaner, lower distortion and more accurate sounding bass.

As with all Signature models over the years, the 801 D4 Signature benefits from careful upgrades to its crossover aimed at further increasing transparency with new and upgraded bypass capacitors for every element of the assembly. Finally, the 801 D4 Signature introduces a new FEA-optimised design of tweeter grille mesh that builds on the already impressive transparency offered by existing Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers. The new mesh provides a new superior blend of transparency and stiffness, allowing even more energy from the Diamond Dome tweeter into the room, while guarding the diaphragm against unwanted damage

800 Series Signature

Expertly crafted, diligently honed and optimised for perfection. The 800 Series Signature models build on the pioneering foundations of our most advanced range of loudspeakers. Refined technologies, timeless design and unique characteristics combine for a pinnacle loudspeaker. The 800 Series Signature models are loudspeakers like no other. They are the culmination of Bowers & Wilkins’ enduring dedication to performance and elegance.

Crafted.

We are inventors, pioneers and innovators, continuously developing technologies and products that raise the bar for audio excellence. Bowers & Wilkins engineers craft our 800 Series Signature models with the same care and precision that all our category-defining audio systems are renowned for. The results, however, are unique.

Honed.

Built on the foundations of our most advanced technologies, we carefully optimise our 800 Series Signature models to reflect the latest developments in audio excellence. The small details can make the biggest difference – and these are the ones we pay close attention to fine-tuning.

Perfected.

We’re passionate about providing the best, truest listening experience we can. Our 800 Series Signature models draw from this lifelong goal and offer a pinnacle in performance and design. We’ve evolved our reference loudspeakers to optimum heights. This is the best of our best.

Signature Technology

As with preceding generations of Signature, both 805 D4 Signature and 801 D4 Signature employ a series of carefully engineered audio upgrades designed to deliver the best possible sound. These changes take in structural modifications designed to improve mechanical behaviour and acoustic transparency, drive unit enhancements aimed at delivering even greater resolution and crossover upgrades that ensure fully optimized performance from the complete system.

Aluminum Top-Plate

A new aluminum top plate features a series of machined-out holes in the structure, strategically positioned to change the resonant frequency of the aluminum.

Damping Collar

The aluminum top-plate in 801 D4 Signature is paired with a new design of leather-trimmed plastic ‘collar’ that slots into the aluminum top-plate. The collar contains strategically positioned wedges of Techsound damping material. The revised aluminum top-plate and the new damping material on the collar combine to improve the mechanical behaviour of the structure around the critically important area of the top of the cabinet. This results in even lower mechanical noise and as a result, a less audible cabinet contribution effect.

Tweeter Grille Mesh

Both models introduce a new design of tweeter grille mesh. The new grille mesh offers a carefully optimized combination of stiffness – necessary to protect the fragile dome from unwanted damage – and openness. The new design is more open than ever, which enhances both resolution and spaciousness. The orientation of the structure is specific and engineered to ensure the best results. We had over 25 iterations in the development process of this new design.

New Bass Unit

In 801 D4 Signature, 10-inch low-frequency unit has been re-engineered to deliver even lower distortion.

Aluminum Port

In a standard model, the Flowport flare is plastic: in 801 D4 Signature, it is replaced with cast aluminum. This tightens up the bass response and improves the leading edges of bass notes.

Upgraded Crossovers

Both 801 Signature and 805 Signature feature upgraded bypass capacitors. These are also doubled-up in quantity across the boards. The result is an even cleaner sound.

Signature Finishes

To properly identify their prestigious position within the Bowers & Wilkins portfolio, both the 801 D4 Signature and 805 D4 Signature are only available in two exclusive new finishes. The Midnight Blue Metallic paint is the same as offered on the iconic Nautilus loudspeaker, featuring a total of eleven coats of paint and lacquer that are machine polished to a gleaming and lustrous finish. Excluding curing times, the paint application process alone is in excess of 18 hours of labour. Midnight Blue Metallic loudspeakers are further celebrated with a bespoke blue Leather by Connolly trim on the top plate.

Alternatively, both models can be purchased in an exceptional California Burl Gloss wood veneer, featuring unique wood figuring and a luxurious high gloss finish trimmed in black Leather by Connolly. The wood veneer is sustainably sourced engineered wood from Italian specialist, ALPI. Including no less than fourteen coats of lacquer and multiple sanding processes, the total finishing time for a single 801 D4 Signature in California Burl Gloss is in excess of 24 hours.

Flagship, perfected

The 801 D4 Signature is an optimized version of our most advanced loudspeaker. It features meticulously evolved technology, carefully crafted design, and unique finishes that culminate in the pinnacle of performance. This is Bowers & Wilkins' flagship loudspeaker perfected.

Turbine Head

Hear the sound, not the cabinet. Our all-aluminium Turbine Head is a phenomenally stiff and inert housing for the crucial midrange cone, carefully damped to avoid unwanted resonances and decoupled from both the bass enclosure and the tweeter body. The result? The most realistic midrange sound yet.

Diamond Dome Tweeter

One of our most significant accomplishments over the past two decades, the ultra-stiff, supremely accurate Diamond dome tweeter is the perfect combination of low mass, exceptional stiffness and outstanding accuracy. 15 years after we introduced it, we haven’t found a better tweeter dome technology.

Diamond Dome Tweeter

All-new tweeter grille

Our Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top housing features an elongated form with a longer tube-loading system and an all-new design of tweeter grille, producing an even more free and open sound with high frequencies.

Reverse Wrap Cabinet

Instead of a flat-fronted speaker with a curving back, our cabinets are formed from 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.

The ultimate Matrix

Matrix bracing uses interlocking panels to reinforce loudspeaker cabinet walls in all directions internally, reducing resonance and creating a more believable soundstage. The Matrix assembly in 801 D4 is our best yet, upgraded with extensive aluminium bracing to reinforce key stress points.

Biomimetic Suspension

Sometimes, making a big difference takes unconventional thinking. For decades, we thought nothing could improve on the sound of our famous yellow Aramid Fibre midrange cones, but eventually our Continuum cone technology changed our minds. Now, we’ve turned our attention to another crucial element in a loudspeaker cone: the fabric spider.

Our all-new Biomimetic Suspension revolutionizes midrange cone performance by greatly reducing the unwanted air pressure and coloration that a conventional fabric spider can generate. The result? Midrange transparency you wouldn’t believe possible.

Continuum cone

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 that delivers voices and instruments with precision and transparency.

Aerofoil™ bass cone

Our Aerofoil bass cone technology remains an outstanding solution to the conundrum of combining low mass and high stiffness in bass cones, thanks to its carbon-fibre skin and variable-profile foam core. Now, we have added the foam Anti-Resonance Plug for lower distortion and even cleaner bass.

Decoupled Midrange assembly

Every 800 Series Diamond loudspeaker (aside from the standmount 805 D4) has a dedicated midrange cone using four key Bowers & Wilkins technologies: the Continuum cone, FST, Biomimetic Suspension, and midrange decoupling — the latter ensuring minimal interference from the operation of the loudspeaker’s bass drivers.

Aluminium top-plate

Every new 800 Series Signature model has a significantly upgraded cabinet design with an all-new, optimized aluminum top section for even greater stiffness. The same design also provides a perfect mounting point for Leather by Connolly cabinet detailing, with luxurious full-grain blue leather for our Midnight Blue Metallic models and full-grain black leather for our California Burl Gloss models.

Upgraded crossover

Both new 800 Series Signature models use upgraded rear-mounted crossover designs mounted on stiff aluminium spines. This isolates the sensitive capacitors from the unwanted effects of air pressure within the enclosure and makes for a very effective heatsink to ensure optimum performance when in use.

Leather by Connolly

The top section of both speakers features an optimised aluminium top-plate, covered in all-new Leather by Connolly trim. We use luxurious, full-grain blue leather for Midnight Blue Metallic, and full-grain black leather for California Burl Gloss.

Description

3-way vented-box system

Drive Units

1x ø25mm (1in) diamond dome high-frequency

1x ø150mm (6in) Continuum cone FST midrange

2x ø250mm (10in) Aerofoil cone bass units

Technical Features

Diamond tweeter

Solid body Tweeter-on-Top

Continuum cone FST

Anti-Resonance plug

Biomimetic Suspension