The history of the hi-fi manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins is truly impressive. For decades, the British brand has stood for the high art of loudspeaker construction. With the unrivaled Nautilus and the constantly updated 800 series, B&W has set the standards by which the rest of the hi-fi world has to be measured.
Also when it comes to modern trends, new markets and changing interests among customers, B&W has always been up to date. Those who want to set up a really good home theater will at least consider the British brand. The same applies to the search for high-quality architectural speakers. When many other hi-fi manufacturers did not take iPod and iPhone seriously as a music source, B&W presented the Zeppelin - a powerful dock speaker with a polarizing design, at the time twice as expensive as all competing products, but also far superior in terms of sound. Lo and behold, the premium customers who were willing to pay premium prices for Apple's premium products were also willing to spend money for premium sound - who would have thought ...
In the course of the general changeover to wireless connections such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, the Zeppelin logically became a wireless loudspeaker. At the same time B&W presented a large number of headphones and other products for modern music enjoyment. All excitingly designed, provided with high quality materials and great sound.
But what Bowers and Wilkins announced about the Easter holidays is a big step even for such an innovative manufacturer. With the new FORMATION SUITE, the British are introducing a whole product world that is intended to revolutionize the market for multiroom devices in several ways.
On the one hand, there is the promise of sound that inevitably comes with the name Bowers & Wilkins. As Zeppelin & Co. have proven in the past - if it says B&W on the front, it will provide a sound qualtity worthy of the name. With the new Formation products, the developers leave nothing to chance: Drivers and electronics developed in-house are used throughout, and all products are manufactured in-house, too.
For the active speaker pair FORMATION DUO (details of the individual products follow below), the British even adopted the carbon tweeter from the 700 series and the Continuum mid-range driver from the current 800 series.
On the other hand, there is the FORMATION technology itself. This is what Bowers & Wilkins calls the wireless network, streaming and multiroom technology on which the new products are based. Instead of burdening the home Wi-Fi with streaming data, the FORMATION devices connect to each other via their own wireless network; the connection to an existing Wi-Fi is only used for control and streaming from the Internet. The so-called mesh network is extremely robust and can therefore work very reliably with high resolution music files - 96 kHz / 24 bit is the standard here. Furthermore, the new technology allows synchronized playback of several connected devices to a degree of accuracy which was not possible until now. B&W keeps a low profile on technical details in this regard, but promises a breathtakingly low latency time of just one microsecond - regardless of whether the synchronized devices are next to each other as a stereo pair or in a completely different room. To avoid misunderstandings: This is not a typo, we are actually talking about a delay of only one millionth of a second - within the framework of human perception, this translates into "simultaneously".
B&W is pleasantly open and versatile when it comes to connection standards: Apple AirPlay 2 as well as Bluetooth 4.1 with aptX HD are supported, and all FORMATION SUITE devices are certified as "Roon ready". Via Roon and the high-quality streaming services integrated there (Tidal Masters, Qobuz), B&W is making the promise of a real high-resolution streaming system come true.
When Bowers & Wilkins was taken over by EVA Automation in 2016, speculation turned over what could result from the combination of British sound know-how with the technology of the Silicon Valley start-up. We had to wait almost three years for this, but with the FORMATION SUITE we now have the answer. If B&W can fulfill all associated promises - and we assume that after the first demos without reservation - the innovative British will once again show the industry how modern hi-fi works. And the full potential of the new FORMATION technology is not even known: The products are to be supplemented with additional features and functions over time via regular updates. So it remains exciting!
Link for those in a hurry: https://www.auditorium.de/marken/unsere-marken/bowers-wilkins/bw-formation/
The Wedge is a smart stereo speaker with a total of 240 watts of power and room-filling sound. As with all FORMATION products, WLAN, Roon, AirPlay2 and Bluetooth are on board, setup and operation are carried out via the B&W Formation app. With its curved 120 ° design, the wedge is ideal for placement in the corner of the room, but also unfolds its visual and acoustic effect when it is free-standing. Available in black and silver.
More information about the B&W FORMATION Wedge
As the name suggests, this is the FORMATION range of soundbars. Specially arranged chassis generate a wide sound image, a high-performance center channel ensures the best speech intelligibility. The B&W Formation Bass can be added wirelessly if the home cinema experience can be a little more powerful.
More information about the FORMATION bar
With chassis technology from the 700 and 800 series, B&W sets an example with the FORMATION Duo streaming stereo pair. This is not about additional sound, but about really high-quality music enjoyment that lives up to the name Bowers & Wilkins.
More information about the FORMATION Duo
With the FORMATION series, B&W also thought of music lovers who don't just want to scrap their existing systems. With the FORMATION Audio streaming hub, every hi-fi system can take the step into the modern streaming world.
More information about FORMATION audio
In most situations, neither wedge, bar nor duo will really need a subwoofer. But if larger rooms want to be filled with sound or just a little more "punch" is required, the right support is available with the bass - naturally connected wirelessly and fully integrated into the FORMATION network. This is where the extremely low latency of the new technology will pay off at the latest!
More information about the FORMATION Bass
