The 700 Series from Bowers & Wilkins has long been the loudspeaker range upon which many of the brand’s customers settle. A new 700 Series generally follows fairly swiftly upon the heels of a new flagship 800 Series, the speakers to which some of those customers might aspire, and the designs which carry the company’s reputation, not least by being installed inside some of the world’s finest recording studios, including Abbey Road Studios in London. Hence Bowers & Wilkins can boast that if you want to hear precisely what those recording engineers heard when they were mastering Abbey Road albums and soundtracks, you can — living with the flagship 800 Series in the walls of your own home.
So a new 800 Series arrives with a prestigious major launch, the cue for Bowers & Wilkins to roll out all the company’s very latest innovations, fresh from the company’s new UK Southwater Research & Engineering facility. With the 800 Series comes the big reveal of flagship design technologies and often new advanced materials that extend the art of loudspeaker making.
The 800 Series can, however, be a little large for the average lounge. That’s where the 700 Series comes in. A new 700 Series also shows how many of the latest technologies have ‘trickled down’ to the lower range which, after all, may be the loudspeakers that many of us can actually afford. The 700 Series benefits from such “cascading concepts and technologies”, as the company puts it, bringing some of that 800 Series magic into models that are not only far more affordable but also have more emphasis on fitting less intrusively into modern décor.
Now is the time. The most recent 800 Series D4 launched in August 2021. Just over a year later, the new 700 Series 3 was announced, all now available. So what have they got, and how do they sound?
702 S3 – RANGE-TOPPER
The bestanother 13cm of height from that famous ‘tweeter on top’. As with all 700 Series models in Australia, they are available in all four colour options — a nice bonus as most markets had to choose between either the new Mocha finish or the company’s longstanding Rosenut. We’re getting both, in addition to gloss black and satin white.
