British high-end audio brand Bowers & Wilkins has announced a new line-up of floorstanding, stand-mount and center-channel 700 Series loudspeakers

They are described by the company as “the best-performing, most elegant range in the class”.

The new Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series features many of the same technologies found in the brand’s flagship range, the 800 Series Diamond – usually found in world-famous recording studios. The new 700 Series brings studio sound home, the company says, “with elegant, high-performance models that will suit every décor and preference”.

The new 700 Series continues to be Bowers & Wilkins most comprehensive range, featuring eight models including three floor-standing speakers, three stand-mount speakers plus two dedicated center channels for home theater use.

In a first for the 700 Series, the new range introduces slimmer cabinets featuring a curved front baffle and drive units mounted in external ‘pods’ that form a direct visual and technical link to the 800 Series Diamond range, the manufacturer notes.

This revised form is said to reduce the impact of the loudspeaker baffle on sound quality by minimizing the ‘cabinet diffraction’ effect, and as a result, the new range is better than ever at ‘disappearing’ acoustically, so you can just concentrate on the music, rather than the sound of the loudspeaker cabinet.

A new finish – Mocha, joins the Gloss Black and Satin White finishes previously offered to form a three-strong range of options for most markets globally: a fourth Rosenut finish will also be offered exclusively in Asian and Pacific markets.

Upgraded drive units, new acoustic forms

In a significant step forward for acoustic performance, Bowers & Wilkins now offers its iconic Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top technology in four models in the new 700 Series, representing half the range in total. Now, the 702 S3 and 703 S3 floorstanding loudspeakers, the 705 S3 standmount model and the HTM71 S3 center channel loudspeaker include Tweeter-on-Top. This means, for the first time in a 700 Series range, owners have the option of building a complete 700-Series home theater system featuring Tweeter-on-Top throughout, B&W says.

The Tweeter-on-Top form itself has been comprehensively re-engineered in the new range, the company says. Machined from a single, solid block of aluminum, the new 700 Series Tweeter-on-Top enclosure has been significantly lengthened, notes B&W, reducing distortion and ensuring an even cleaner presentation. This longer form is further enhanced by the introduction of improved two-point decoupling that better isolates the assembly from the loudspeaker cabinet, ensuring a more free and open soundstage.

Beyond these mechanical improvements, the Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm retains the Bowers & Wilkins Carbon Dome tweeter, with its 47kHz first break-up performance, coupled to improved, vented voice coils with new, upgraded magnets.

Even models that feature tweeters mounted in the baffle – 707 S3, 706 S3, 704 S3 and HTM72 S3 – benefit from all these changes, alongside a significantly elongated tube-loading system that, as with the Tweeter-on-Top, works to reduce distortion and ensure a cleaner sound.

Biomimetic Suspension

In all three-way loudspeakers in the new range, Bowers & Wilkins has introduced what the company describes as its “revolutionary” Biomimetic Suspension – first revealed last year in the new 800 Series Diamond range.

Replacing the conventional fabric spider found in the suspension of almost all loudspeakers built over recent decades, the Biomimetic Suspension reduces unwanted noise from the output of the spider as the midrange cone operates. Used alongside all of Bowers & Wilkins other proprietary midrange cone technologies – including decoupling for the entire midrange assembly, an aluminum drive unit chassis featuring tuned mass dampers for reduced resonance, FST™ surround-less suspension and of course the famous Continuum™ cone material – the result is simply astonishing midrange transparency. Models with mid/bass drive units – 707 S3, 706 S3, 705 S3 and HTM72 S3 – have been upgraded too, with new motor systems and improved chassis for cleaner output.

Bass, meanwhile, uses the latest generation of Bowers & Wilkins famous Aerofoil™ Profile bass cone technology, based around a composite ‘sandwich’ of materials with a carefully formed variable profile aimed at delivering cleaner, lower distortion bass.

Optimized for performance

Ensuring that these drive units are given the best possible platform to succeed, the new 700 Series range introduces upgraded, 800 Series Diamond-inspired speaker terminals that feature more substantial contact connections and are better laid out for use with spade-terminated speaker cable. These feed carefully upgraded crossovers that continue to use Mundorf capacitors as before, enhanced with multiple bypass capacitors and improved heatsinking for even cleaner performance.

Finally, all floorstanding models feature significantly upgraded spikes to anchor them to the floor. On 04 S3 and 703 S3, stainless steel M6 spikes are included with their integrated plinths: on 702 S3, heavy- duty M10 spikes are provided. Even stand-mount models in the range benefit from similar mechanical upgrades, thanks to the FS-700 S3 floor-stand, which has been visually upgraded to match the slimmer, curved profile of the new cabinet design, while also offering acoustic improvements thanks to the introduction of those stiffer M6 spikes.

Commenting on the new range, director of product marketing and communications for Bowers & Wilkins, Andy Kerr said: “We’re hugely proud of our new range. By introducing some of the reference- quality technologies of our 800 Series Diamond range into the latest generation of 700 Series, we’ve made studio-quality sound more accessible than ever.”

Key Selling Points

• “Revolutionary” Biomimetic Suspension
• Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top technology in four models
• New Mocha finish

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