Limited Edition

Bowers & Wilkins

Bowers & Wilkins 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition Floorstanding Speakers

Name: Bowers & Wilkins 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition Floorstanding Speakers
Brand: Bowers & Wilkins
SKU: 801D4/ABBEYRD
Price: 80000 CAD
Availability: InStoreOnly

SKU:

801D4/ABBEYRD

$80,000.00

/pair

IN STOCK

Only one pair remains available for purchase from Bay Bloor Radio.

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About Bowers & Wilkins

Description

Celebrating the unique 45-year relationship between Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition takes the 801 D4 Signature and reframes it in homage to the home of music making.

Based on the flagship 801 D4 Signature, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition boasts a carefully crafted Vintage Walnut cabinet inspired by the countless iconic musical instruments that have illuminated Abbey Road over the decades. Complementing this unique wooden finish is a bespoke red Leather by Connolly trim that references both the control room in Studio Two, arguably the world’s most legendary individual studio space, and the red leather chairs used by generations of performers across all of Abbey Road’s iconic studios.

Limited to 140 pairs worldwide, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition is the ultimate expression of high-performance engineering, iconic music heritage and timeless craftsmanship. Every pair includes a specially commissioned book detailing the rich history of both Abbey Road and Bowers & Wilkins.

Where music history is made

For almost a century, Abbey Road has witnessed the creation of some of the world’s most celebrated songs, albums, films and game scores by the most revered artists and composers.

The start of something special

In 1979, John Bowers and his team developed the first 801 — a loudspeaker crafted for unrivalled accuracy. In 1980, John Bowers visited Abbey Road Studios to demonstrate his new design, the first of what he described as "a new generation of loudspeakers designed for both the professional and the exceptionally critical listener."

Designed to be the ultimate loudspeaker for hi-fi enthusiasts, the 801 was also specifically developed to be accurate enough for use in professional studios. Abbey Road engineers immediately understood its value and soon adopted it as their monitor of choice, becoming the first recording studio in the world to use the 801.

45 years of iconic sound

Over the last 45 years, six successive generations of 800 Series loudspeakers have graced Abbey Road’s control rooms and contributed to the endlessly iconic music and film scores recorded there.

Celebrating a timeless legacy

The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition is a celebration of the unique 45-year relationship between Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road. It takes the best loudspeaker Bowers & Wilkins currently manufactures and reframes it in homage to the home of music making.

A benchmark in performance

Today, the latest incarnation of the 801, the 801 D4, remains the benchmark by which other high-performance loudspeakers are judged. It’s the ultimate expression of True Sound, and ideally suited to its role as the loudspeaker of choice for Abbey Road.

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.

Solid Body Tweeter

The latest incarnation of our iconic Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top housing features an elongated form with a longer tube-loading system and an ultra-thin tweeter grille design, that has been optimised to produce an even more free and open sound with high frequencies. As before, the carefully decoupled housing is milled from a single solid block of aluminium to better resist resonance.

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.

Matrix

Matrix bracing uses interlocking panels to reinforce loudspeaker cabinet walls in all directions internally, reducing resonance and creating a more believable soundstage. The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition benefits from our most advanced Matrix design that combines solid plywood construction with 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

The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition 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

Featuring the significantly upgraded cabinet design from the 801 D4 Signature, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition includes an optimised aluminium top section for even greater stiffness. The same design also provides a perfect mounting point for all-new Leather by Connolly detailing, with luxurious full-grain red leather to complement the Vintage Walnut cabinet.

Upgraded Crossovers

Like the 801 D4 Signature the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition uses upgraded rear-mounted crossovers fitted to 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 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition features an optimised aluminium top-plate, covered in a red Leather by Connolly trim that references both the control room in Studio Two, arguably the world’s most legendary individual studio space, and the red leather chairs used by generations of performers across all of Abbey Road’s iconic studios.