Bowers & Wilkins 802D User Manual

Diamond domes

B&W’s diamond diaphragm tweeter is just one of many new developments and refinements

PRODUCT B&W 802D

TYPE Floorstanding loudspeaker

PRICE £8,000 per pair

KEY FEATURES Dimensions (WxHxD): 37x115x56cm

Weight: 80kg P Three-way design P Separate

enclosure for each ‘way’ in separate tube-loaded module

Surroundless Kevlar-cone FST midrange driver

drivers

Twin terminal pairs

CONTACT 콯 01903 221500 q www.bwspeakers.com

he 1997 launch of B&W’s revolutionary Nautilus 800 Series, stuffed with radical innovations, was a startling commercial

success. It changed the whole perception of upmarket loudspeakers, both here in Britain and all round the world.

Seven years on, this Worthing-based market leader has given the whole range a major makeover – not that one might realise it at first glance. The new models look remarkably similar to their predecessors, but B&W cites Porsche as a very successful precedent, and points out that the 800s had never used style for its own sake, but were always based on strict form-follows-function principles. Anyway, the numerous underskin engineering improvements mean that roughly 90 per cent of the parts in the new models are indeed new.

Diamond diaphragm tweeter

Twin 200mm bass

On the name front, the Nautilus bit has been quietly dropped for this new 800 Series (even though B&W’s inspirational original snail-shaped flagship model is currently selling better than ever). Each of the N800s has its successor among the new 800 Series. A number of entirely new models have also been added, mostly on the home cinema side of things (since the company found that around 60 per cent of its Nautilus customers were taking the multichannel route).

There are now seven stereo pairs in toto, numbered bottom-to-top from the 805S that we reviewed last month through to the top-of-the-line 800D. There are even two 803s – an 803S and an 803D. The suffix is a crucial distinction between the top four and the bottom three models, representing the difference between the S models – equipped with aluminium dome tweeters – and the much more costly D models, which use a diamond dome tweeter diaphragm.

Growing synthetic diamonds (via a process known as vapour deposition) is a very expensive process, so this 802D costs £8,000 per pair, which is £2,000 more than its Nautilus 802 predecessor. (By comparison the 805S costs just £200 more than the earlier

Nautilus 805 model.) But, why diamond? Theoretically, it has the best possible stiffness-to-density ratio on earth, and takes the dome’s break-up frequency up to 74kHz – more than an octave above the aluminium dome’s 29kHz.

If that’s the highlight, there’s much, much more. From the ground up, this three-way has a cast alloy plinth that houses and isolates the crossover network and the twin terminal pairs. This plinth comes fitted with ball-castors, but an optional reversible spike/foot kit has the option of nylon studs or massive, wicked spikes.

‘Massive’ is the adjective that runs throughout this design. Most of the bass enclosure is formed from a single piece of 26mm thick veneered plywood, shaped in a continuous curve around the sides and back. Inside, additional rigidity is supplied by honeycomb Matrix stiffening. Twin 200mm drivers supply the urge, along with a port firing downward between the base and the plinth. The drivers are a new design, using 150mm diameter sandwich diaphragms with 8mm-thick cores of Rohacell structural foam, laminated between woven carbon fibre. This improves rigidity and reduces the transmission of unwanted sound from inside the enclosure.

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B&W 802D loudspeaker

single top-quality Mundorf capacitor. Kippel’s

developments have already been applied in

part to B&W’s existing Signature and

700-Series models.

SOUND QUALITY

Installed immediately after the 805S had left the listening room, the contrast

was truly dramatic. While the little

standmount is a superior example of

the breed, changing over to this big

802D floorstander highlights the

inadequacies of small loudspeakers.

Whereas the little 805S does a

fine job of reproducing most of the

signal it’s fed, and perhaps even

delivers a slightly more neutral

balance than the much larger 802D,

the latter completely destroys the

small one’s pretensions as soon as it’s

hooked up. It provides a dose of

genuinely convincing reality that the

baby 805S simply fails to approach.

Vivid dynamic drama, a real feeling of

grip and tension and a healthy dose of

hitherto unheard of realism are what this

costly floorstander brings to the party.

And you’d better believe it’s a heady mix

that quickly becomes seriously addictive.

The very essence of music lies in the

generation of sonic contrasts, and the

ability to recreate these contrasts with

convincing and dramatic realism is what

really sets this speaker way ahead of the

norm. Most impressively for a three-way,

there seems little evidence of time-smear

here, and the consequent transient integrity

is a key factor responsible for the 802D’s

serious dynamic capabilities.

So, what about that diamond tweeter? No, it doesn’t add sparkle – indeed its strength seems to be that it doesn’t add anything readily identifiable at all. You get the high frequencies alright, but they’re so clean and well integrated you don’t notice them – you’d only notice if they were missing. The most

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The midrange and tweeter both have their own sub-enclosures. The unique ‘free edge’ midrange driver with its 140mm woven Kevlar cone is housed in a large heavy teardrop, made in mineral-loaded Marlan, while a substantial tapered metal tube on the very top houses the 25mm tweeter. A small mesh grille covers the fragile diamond dome, and is probably best left on as an accident here could be very

“Vivid dynamic drama and a healthy dose of realism are what this costly floorstander brings to the party.”

expensive. Both mid and top sections are expressly designed to absorb (rather than reflect) the rearward radiation from behind the diaphragms, and are smartly finished in high gloss black.

Based on work done by a German academic called Kippel, the linearity of the magnetic motors driving the bass and midrange cones have been substantially improved, reducing distortion. A new tweeter suspension has lowered its fundamental resonance, allowing a simple first-order crossover network with just a

obvious direct evidence for the tweeter’s contribution is found in the reproduction of hiss, either inherent FM hiss, or the tape hiss on early recordings, both of which have a quite unfamiliar and distinctive silky smoothness. Applause too is unusually sweet, yet also uncommonly realistic, and vinyl surface noise seems somehow less intrusive than usual.

In fact, vinyl sounded simply magnificent through these speakers. The sheer transparency of the 802Ds did a fine job with all the material they were fed, yet in no way disguised the

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