Assessment: Bowers & Wilkins T7 Bluetooth Speaker

When it comes to high-end client audio, Bowers & Wilkins has extra hits than The Beatles. The previous half-decade has observed the venerable Brits prove a slew of serious merchandise: implausible transportable headphones (the P5s), one crazy-beautiful iPhone dock (the Zeppelin), beautiful desktop audio system (MM-1s), the primary really nice AirPlay speaker (the Zeppelin Air), a knockout soundbar (the Landscape), some mega-designy earbuds (C5s), and 2 embarrassingly sumptuous over-ear headphones (the P7s). OK, perhaps no longer relatively as many #1s because the Fabs, however you get the purpose. Those guys know what is up.

Now, the corporate has fastened its points of interest at the transportable Bluetooth speaker—a product class so crowded with mediocre plastic nonsense that it will have to be unimaginably simple for the pish-posh B&W group to swoop in, display everybody how a right kind speaker will have to sound, glance, and perform, then all of us have a Pimm’s Cup and move house.

Proper? Ahem.

The Bowers & Wilkins T7 speaker is not a failure, however it isn’t the beautiful luck one would be expecting to look from a emblem so carefully related to amazing-sounding, well-designed audio merchandise. It sounds nice, however no longer nice, and it suffers from each too excessive of a value and too clumsy of a design. I will be able to nonetheless counsel it if you are on the lookout for one thing exceedingly good-looking (they nailed that section) that will get loud. However remember that there are a number of Bluetooth audio system available in the market that value much less cash, sound higher, and are more effective.

The T7 is impressively compact for the way tough it’s. At the back of the steel grill are a couple of forward-facing, 2-inch audio system pushed by means of twin 12-watt amps. There also are two passive bass radiators; one within the entrance between the primary drivers, and one focused within the again. That is a large number of floor house, and likely sufficient, the T7 strikes a large number of air. It will get loud. All this in an enclosure that is 9 inches large and simply a few inches thick.

>The principle speaker field “floats” within a cushion of honeycomb-like subject material.

When small audio system get driven laborious, they continuously begin to sound messy. So as to decrease distortion, Bowers & Wilkins deploys some cutting edge {hardware} and tool tips. First, the primary speaker field form of “floats” within a cushion of honeycomb-like subject material. At the outdoor of that honeycomb ring is a thick rubber pores and skin. This honeycomb helps to keep the shaking to a minimal, and the rubber helps to keep the field from damn round at the desk most sensible—or, as one continuously sees with Bluetooth audio system, dancing off the desk and onto the ground. The T7 is nice at staying put.

At the tool finish, the proprietary chips within the T7 compress the audio relying at the playback quantity to best possible go well with the design audio system. This implies as you flip it up, the sound is EQ’d in a technique to stay the audio system from distorting. Now, Bowers & Wilkins hasn’t ever been shy about making use of Virtual Sign Processing (DSP) ways to its audio system, however to my ears, the engineers have taken the DSP too some distance within the T7. Flip it up previous about 6 or 7 and the sound persona morphs noticeably, going from a full of life, most commonly herbal sound with a refined low-end spice up, to a honky, compressed, mid-rangey bleat. Whilst I assumed it sounded nice simply plunking away with some quiet classical guitar, I discovered not anything interesting concerning the excessive quantity playback.

Some other little bit of weirdness: Charging over USB isn’t an choice (there’s a USB port within the again, however it is only for firmware updates). As an alternative, the T7 calls for a wall-wart charger. A complete fee earns you over 15 hours of playback, however you are caught with any other cable and small energy brick to pack on your baggage if you are taking this on holiday. Talking of holidays, stay it clear of the pool, the seaside, and the recent bathtub—it has no IPX mojo and isn’t water-proof and even splash-proof. It additionally lacks the power to double as a speaker telephone, so you’ll be able to’t use it to make telephone calls.

It is difficult to look a $350 speaker saddled with such shortcomings, particularly making an allowance for there are audio system below $300—amongst them the superb new UE Megaboom and the longtime favourite Large Jambox—that outperform the B&W T7 within the audio division and feature higher options. However like I mentioned previous, it is not all static. The T7 is small, well-built, and in reality handsome. And if you happen to like that distinctive, subtly bass-enhanced B&W sound, you won’t thoughts the heavy-handed DSP. Simply ensure that the sound ranges at your birthday party keep accurately respectable—extra Ludwig Van than Van Halen—and you’ll be able to be OK.