Signature loudspeaker designs were once exactly that… loudspeakers that bore the actual signature of the person responsible for designing them. That’s still true in some cases, but in many other situations, it’s now used more in the spirit of a top chef’s ‘signature’ dish. Certainly in this case an actual signature would not, sadly, be feasible, the design’s originator John Bowers having died in 1987, and his founding partner Roy Wilkins, after leaving the company many years earlier, also long since departed.
So when it comes to the ‘Signature’ used on the newest 805 D4 Signature model, Bowers & Wilkins says the epithet here indicates that the speaker “features fully optimised technologies, including that all-important diamond dome tweeter and solid body tweeter-on-top.”
But those two technologies are also fitted to the standard non-Signature 805 D4. However, the real ‘Signature’ differences do start on the solid body tweeter-on-top housing, which has a new tweeter grille, said to produces “an even more free and open sound”. The crossover network has also been upgraded; this is mounted inside an aluminium plate that sports stiffening spines on its external surface, and the crossover’s elements and phyiscal design (capacitors, resistors, inductors) in the ‘Signature’ version have all been upgraded.
Despite the technical differences, the two 805 D4 models look almost identical. So to make sure you can’t mistake
