Back in August, I received an email from Editor Jim Austin. Subject line: “Want to do a big review?” He had my attention. Jim wrote that he had visited Bowers & Wilkins parent company Masimo Consumer in Carlsbad, California, for a demo of the brand-new B&W 801 D4 Signature and 805 D4 Signature loudspeakers. (That visit was chronicled by Jim in the September 2023 Industry Update section.) B&W had offered Stereophile the first US review of both products—look for John Atkinson’s review of the 805 D4 Signature in the coming months—and Jim thought the big 801s would be “right up my alley.”
Indeed! The voice of my full-range system in the living room is a pair of B&W 808 speakers, ca late 1980s. The smaller-scale system at our house upstate features a pair of B&W 805 D2s. So, outside of my mastering studio, most of the music I listen to is through Bowers & Wilkins speakers. I am accustomed to and enjoy B&W sound and styling.
A whole lotta speaker, with a heritage
Before the introduction of the Signature, the standard 801 was B&W’s top-line offering; “D4” indicates the design’s fourth generation. The Signature Editions are occasional special releases featuring upgrades both functional and aesthetic. B&W describes Signature speakers as “the culmination of Bowers & Wilkins’s enduring dedication to performance and elegance.”
Compared to the standard 801 D4, the Signature Edition uses heavier bracing, upgraded bass motor systems, a flared metal, downfiring port, and extra high-quality parts in the crossover networks.1 On the aesthetic side, there’s a choice of two high-end finishes: “Midnight Blue Metallic” and “California Burl Gloss.” The pair I enjoyed in my living room for two months were the former: a rich, deep, dark blue. They scored high with the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF), though most importantly, she really dug the sound.
B&W speakers have appeared often in this magazine,2 but the last time we reviewed the company’s flagship speakers was 2011; that was Kal Rubinson’s review of the 800 Diamond.3 The company has a long history, dating from the WWII-era British MI6 service of John Bowers and Roy Wilkins. The two friends were amateur radio enthusiasts and, following VE Day, they started a radio and audio shop in Bowers’s hometown of Worthing. Bowers was a classical music fan, and he wasn’t satisfied with the sound of 1950s loudspeakers. He modified existing speakers, made custom units for the shop’s customers, and gained a reputation among British audiophiles. One of his customers, an opera singer, bequeathed him enough money to go into speaker design full-time, leaving Wilkins to run the shop. Wilkins’s son Paul was the first director of UK sales.4
Bowers was a science and measurements man, and to this day the company retains its science-based design philosophy. Over the years, his approach centered on keeping the bass, midrange, and treble drivers apart, in separate chambers within nonresonant cabinets. That approach continues today.
