B&W 804 D4

B&W is likely the world’s most venerated loudspeaker manufacturer, because it’s pushed the boundaries of performance, sound quality and aesthetics ever since it was established in Britain in 1966 by John Bowers and Roy Wilkins.

During the more than half-century it’s been building loudspeakers, B&W has produced some decidedly weird-looking designs (look up B&W’s Nautilus speakers on Google!) and even the company’s more conventional 800 Series Diamond flagship designs are too ‘out there’ (or maybe just too large) to suit many buyers.

This B&W 804 D4 is the company’s entrylevel floor-standing loudspeaker in the 800 Series Diamond and includes all the technology developed for this series but presents them in a more traditional enclosure design and size.

OUT OF THE BOX

Although B&W says that its 804 D4 is more conventional in appearance than the other floorstanders in the 800 Series Diamond range, it’s still a totally dramatic and distinctive enclosure, not least because it stands an impressive 1.07 metres high on its standard rubber-booted steel peg feet, and even higher on its chromed spiked feet. Our review pair looked absolutely superb in the new Walnut finish created specifically for this new 800 Diamond series, but they look equally good in the B&W’s other three finishes.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Initially we thought that the curved textured black top surface of the 804 D4 was some type of faux leather, but it turned out that it was the real thing, and not just any old leather either, but ‘Leather by Connolly’. The Connolly Leather company, founded in 1878, is one of Great Britain’s most famous and most prestigious tanners. Connolly supplies the leather for cars bearing the badges of Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Ferrari, and Maserati plus it was also used to outfit the QE2 and the benches in the British Houses of Parliament. The soft, sweet-smelling leather covers an all-new aluminium top plate.

We were very surprised to find that the tweeter was far more compliantly attached than any of B&W’s previous ‘tweeter on top’ designs, so much so that it felt decidedly ‘wobbly’ to the touch, but we’ll get to this later on in this review.

BASS DRIVER DESIGN

As you can see from the photographs accompanying this review, the 804 D4 has two bass drivers. Rated by B&W with a diameter of 165mm, we could not confirm this because of the way the drivers are mounted in the baffle, which is unusual due to the extreme curvature of the 804 D4’s cabinet. What B&W has done is install each of the drivers in its own metal tube, and these tubes are then fixed through the baffle in such a way that they protrude from it