Studio sound comes home: New technology meets classic design in the new Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — The new Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series delivers exceptional performance from a wide-ranging, comprehensive collection of loudspeakers. The series sees the implementation of technology first seen in the high-end 800 Series Diamond, a range of class-leading speakers that are regarding by many as the best loudspeakers in the world, alongside bespoke technology seen here for the first time.

Technologies that have ‘trickled down’ from the 800 Series Diamond include the revolutionary Continuum midrange driver, which is the cleanest and most transparent midrange cone material Bowers & Wilkins has ever used. It reveals details in your music conventional cone materials simply can’t uncover, and it now features on every model in this new range.

The new 700 Series also benefits from a bespoke version of the Aerofoil profile bass driver plus improved tweeter-on-top housings on the two flagship models that are crafted from solid billets of aluminium. Both were first seen on the 800 Series Diamond.

New technologies come first and foremost in the shape of Carbon Braced tweeters. This new technology delivers sweeter, cleaner high-frequency performance even further up the audible bandwidth than the previous Aluminium Double Dome tweeters, and is the best-performing ‘non-Diamond’ tweeter that Bowers & Wilkins has ever produced.

The combination of these technologies, alongside the countless hours of tuning by the very best engineers in the business, is a range of loudspeakers that has to be heard to be believed.

The new 700 Series comprises eight models, two with Tweeter-on-Top technology including the flagship 702 S2. The range includes three floorstanding models, three standmount speakers and two dedicated centre channels for surround sound and home theatre use. All models are available in a choice of Gloss Black, Satin White and Rosenut finishes.

The launch also sees the announcement of a new subwoofer. The fourth model in the new DB Series, the DB4S is a single-driver subwoofer that shares drive unit technology, amplification and preamp section with the dual-driver DB2D, but in a single driver format. It has a single 10in Carbon Aerofoil drive unit in a forward-firing configuration plus 1000w of amplification and a digital preamp section with Dynamic EQ, Room EQ and an App-based configuration system. It is available in colours to match the 700 Series.

The Technology
Carbon Dome Tweeter
The new 700 Series introduces an entirely new Bowers & Wilkins tweeter technology: the Carbon Dome. A tweeter that bridges the performance gap between the Aluminium Double Dome used in the 600 Series and the Diamond Dome used in the 800 Series Diamond. The Carbon Dome is composed of two sections. The front portion is a 30 micron aluminium dome that has been stiffened by a PVD (Physical Vapour Deposition) coating of carbon. The second section is a 300-micron Carbon Ring that has been profiled to match the form of the main dome. This is then bonded to the inner face of the structure. The outcome is exceptional stiffness and resistance to distortion without undue mass and a first break-up point of 47kHz.

Solid Body Tweeters
The 705 S2 and 702 S2 Tweeter-On-Top designs feature Solid Body Tweeter technology. This design is derived entirely from the approach used in the 800 Series Diamond and has the same performance benefits. Instead of using a hollow zinc housing, the 705 S2 and 702 S2 use a shape milled from a solid mass of aluminium to provide a stiffer and less resonant structure. Weighing over 1kg, it is exceptionally inert. This design allows the use of the mass of the tweeter body as a heatsink, and means it can benefit from the same decoupling mechanism and acoustically transparent grille design as the 800 Series Diamond.

Continuum cone
Each model in the new 700 Series features the Continuum cone midrange drivers first seen in the 800 Series Diamond. The Continuum cone’s design is based on the concept of optimised and controlled flexibility. This helps it avoid the abrupt transition from pistonic to break-up mode behaviour that drastically impair the openness and neutrality of a conventional drive unit. It delivers improved sound but shows continuity of approach with Kevlar. Like Kevlar, it is a woven composite that gives highly controlled break-up, for a sweeter, more detailed midrange.

Midrange chassis
The new 700 Series has three floorstanding loudspeakers in the range, all equipped with dedicated midrange drive units. These midrange units use a new Finite Element Analysis-optimised aluminium chassis that is stiffer than the zinc chassis of the outgoing CM Series. This optimised form is further enhanced with the addition of a tuned mass damper on the front face of the chassis. This dampens any remaining resonance in the structure, resulting in a cleaner midrange presentation.

Midrange decoupling
A new midrange decoupling system simplifies the design used in the 800 Series Diamond, and replaces the drawbar design previously employed in CM10 S2. The simpler design performs better and has resulted in midrange decoupling being introduced to every floorstanding loudspeaker in the range, for a significant improvement in midrange spaciousness across the board.

New Aerofoil cone
A new implementation of the Aerofoil cone used in the 800 Series Diamond has been developed for the 700 Series. The new design uses paper rather than carbon fibre skins, and the sandwich filling material is now EPS, not syntactic foam as used in 800 Series Diamond and DB Series subwoofer. The result is a dramatic uplift in bass performance from the outgoing CM Series 2.

The Range

702 S2
$2,250 each
Floor stander
3-way vented-box
Tweeter on Top
3 x 165mm Aerofoil Profile bass
1 x 150mm Continuum FST midrange, decoupled
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter in Solid Body Tweeter-on-top

705 S2
$1,250 each 
Stand-mount
2-way vented-box
Tweeter on top
1 x 165mm Continuum bass/midrange
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter in Solid Body Tweeter-on-top

703 S2
$1,750 each 
Floor stander
3-way vented-box
2 x 165mm Aerofoil Profile bass
1 x 150mm Continuum FST midrange, decoupled
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter

704 S2
$1,250 each 
Floor stander
3-way vented-box
2 x 130mm Aerofoil Profile bass
1 x 130mm Continuum FST midrange, decoupled
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter

706 S2
$900 each 
Stand-mount
2-way vented-box
1 x 165mm Continuum bass/midrange
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter

707 S2 
$600 each 
Stand-mount
2-way vented box
1 x 130mm Continuum bass/mid
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter

HTM72 S2
$800 each 
2-way vented-box
2 x 130mm Continuum bass/mid
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter

HTM71 S2
$1,350 each 
3-way vented-box
2 x 165mm Aerofoil Profile bass
1 x 100mm Continuum FST midrange
1 x 25mm Carbon Dome tweeter

FS-700 S2
$250 each
Speaker stand for use with 707 S2, 706 S2 and 705 S2, available in Black or Silver finishes.

DB4S
$1,600 each
Single 10in forward-firing drive unit 
Carbon Aerofoil cone
1000w Hypex amplifier
DB-D digital pre-amp technology plus App control

About Bowers & Wilkins
Bowers & Wilkins is Britain’s leading manufacturer of the world’s most advanced, luxury audio technology. Since 1966, Bowers & Wilkins’ “Quest for Perfection” has resulted in a succession of technical loudspeaker innovations that have satisfied the world’s most demanding listeners. Its products’ rave reviews and universal endorsement as reference monitors for professional recording industry have helped Bowers & Wilkins become the premium loudspeaker company of choice for audiophile quality sound.

SOURCE Bowers & Wilkins