Studio sound comes home with the new 700 Series
The new Bowers & Wilkins range comprises a total of eight models including columns, bookshelf monitors and central channels to offer the best in performance and elegance within the achievements of its class.
The new Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series houses many of the technologies found in the brand’s flagship 800 Diamond Series, a series used by the world’s most famous recording studios. The new 700 Series brings the sound of the recording studio to the home with elegant, high-performance models that are easy to integrate into any environment or style.
The new 700 Series follows the Bowers & Wilkins philosophy of applying concepts and technologies imported from its flagship 800 range. An exhaustive three-year development program has transformed virtually every element of the new range; from the design of the enclosure, the construction and the finishes to important improvements that have a resounding impact on the acoustic and mechanical fields.
Beautiful design and premium details
The new 700 Series continues to be Bowers & Wilkins’ most extensive range, comprising a total of eight models, namely three floorstanding speakers, three bookshelf monitors and two dedicated center speakers for use in home cinema systems.
In a first for the 700 Series, the new range uses narrower enclosures with a curved front panel and loudspeakers mounted in external enclosures that form a visual and technical connection to the 800 Series Diamond. This renewed shape drastically reduces the impact of the front panel – baffle – of each loudspeaker on the sound quality by minimizing the effect of “enclosure diffraction”, the result being a range of loudspeakers better achieved than ever by “disappearing” from the acoustic point of view and allow the user to concentrate on the music instead of the sound of the speaker enclosure.
The new cabinet shapes are not only slimmer than before but are also available in the new Moka finish, a beautiful, highly grained wood that perfectly complements the revised proportions and premium details of the new Series cabinets. 700. The Moka finish joins the gloss black and satin white finishes already existing in the previous range, to form a complete proposal of three options aimed at the global market, while a fourth Rosenut finish is also available exclusively for Asian markets.
Improved drivers, new acoustic shapes
In a significant step forward in acoustic performance, Bowers & Wilkins now offers its iconic Tweeter-on-Top technology in four models of the new 700 series, that is to say half of the range. The 702 S3 and 703 S3 columns, the 705 S3 bookshelf model and the HTM71 S3 center speaker now include a Tweeter-on-Top. This means that, for the first time in a 700 Series, users have the option of configuring a complete Home Cinema system made up of models from the range incorporating the aforementioned technology.
In the new range, the shape of the Tweeter-on-Top itself has been extensively redesigned. Machined, as always, from a solid block of aluminium, the Tweeter-on-Top enclosure used in the new 700 Series has been significantly lengthened, thereby reducing distortion and ensuring an even cleaner sound presentation. This longer shape is further enhanced by the introduction of two decoupling points that better isolate the assembly from the main enclosure of the loudspeaker, guaranteeing a freer and more open soundstage.
Beyond these mechanical enhancements, the Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm maintains Bowers & Wilkins’ carbon dome tweeter – with its first breakup frequency of 47 kHz – mated to newer, improved magnet vented voice coils. Even the models with the tweeter mounted on the front panel -707 S3, 706 S3, 704 S3 and HTM71 S3- benefit from all these changes together with a significant extension of the tubular loading system that, like the Tweeter- on-Top works to reduce distortion and ensure a cleaner sound…
Biomimetic Suspension
On all three-way models in the new range, Bowers & Wilkins have incorporated their revolutionary Biomimetic Suspension, used for the first time last year on the new 800 Series Diamond. Replacing the internal suspension -spider- of conventional fabric that appears in almost all loudspeakers built in recent decades, the Biomimetic Suspension drastically reduces the unwanted noise coming from the spider during the operation of the media cone. Used in conjunction with other proprietary Bowers & Wilkins midrange cone technologies – including full-frame decoupling, an aluminum chassis with mass-tuned absorbers to reduce resonances, fixed peripheral suspension FST and, of course, the already famous Continuum cone – allows to obtain a spectacular transparency in the reproduction of medium frequencies. Also the models equipped with mid/bass speakers -707 S3, 706 S3, 705 S3 and HTM72 S3- have been improved with new magnetic motors and redesigned chassis for a cleaner sound.
The woofers, meanwhile, employ the latest generation of Bowers & Wilkins’ celebrated Aerofoil Profile cone technology, based on a “sandwich” composite structure with variable thickness carefully calculated to deliver cleaner bass. and with less distortion.
Optimized for performance
To ensure that all of these transducers have the best possible platform for maximum expression, the new 700 Series features for the first time improved connection terminals inspired by those of the 800 Series Diamond that include very generous contact surfaces and they are more suitable for use with cables terminated in spade-type connectors. These terminals feed carefully upgraded crossovers that, like the previous 700 Series, feature Mundorf capacitors complemented by multiple bypass capacitors and an improved heatsink for an even cleaner sound.
All models in the range feature larger-diameter Flowport bass-reflex ports that deliver a substantially higher output level, thus ensuring a fuller, more expansive sound. In the case of the 702 S3 column, this approach is taken not only one step further but even closer than ever to the 800 Series Diamond floorstanding speaker configuration by reorienting its port to output towards below at its base –plinth- integrated.
Finally, it should be noted that all floor models are equipped with improved decoupling tips for optimal anchoring to the ground. The 704 S3 and 703 S3 are supplied with high rigidity stainless steel M6 bits with their integrated bases while the 702 S3 is supplied with the – even more robust – M10 bits. Even the shelving models in the range benefit from similar mechanical enhancements thanks to the optional FS-700 S3 floor stand, which as well as being visually enhanced to match the slimmer curved profile of the new cabinet design, is also provides improvements in sound thanks to the introduction of the aforementioned M6 tips.
Commenting on the new range, Andy Kerr, Director of Marketing and Product Communications at Bowers & Wilkins, said. “We are enormously proud of our new range. By introducing some of the most iconic technologies from our flagship 800 Series Diamond range, in the latest generation of the 700 Series we have made recording studio sound more accessible than ever..”
Designed, built and finished to the standards of excellence you have come to expect from Bowers & Wilkins and equipped with some of the world’s most advanced acoustic and electro-acoustic technologies, this is simply the best 700 Series ever created, offering an exquisite combination of features. and elegance.
The new one 700 series will be available from next September 21st.
models and prices
