September 22, 2022 Bowers & Wilkins announce a new eight-strong line-up of floorstanding, stand-mount, and center-channel loudspeakers. The new Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series is empowered with many of the same technologies found in the brand’s flagship range, the 800 Series Diamond and continues the company’s policy of deploying concepts and technologies cascaded from its flagship range.
Beautiful design, premium detailing
The new 700 Series remains Bowers & Wilkins most comprehensive range, featuring eight models including three floor-standing speakers, three stand-mount speakers plus two dedicated center channels for home theater use. The new range introduces slimmer cabinets featuring a curved front baffle and drive units mounted in external ‘pods’ that form a direct visual and technical link to the 800 Series Diamond range. This revised form dramatically reduces the impact of the loudspeaker baffle on sound quality by minimizing the ‘cabinet diffraction’ effect, and as a result, the new range is better than ever at ‘disappearing’ acoustically. The new cabinet forms are also offered in an all-new Mocha finish, a beautiful, highly grained wood that joins the Gloss Black and Satin White finishes previously offered to form a three-strong range of options for most global markets.
Upgraded drive units, new acoustic forms
Bowers & Wilkins now offers Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top technology in four of the new 700 Series models, the 702 S3 and 703 S3 floorstanding loudspeakers, the 705 S3 standmount model and the HTM71 S3 center channel loudspeaker. The Tweeter-on-Top form itself has been comprehensively re-engineered. Machined from a single, solid block of aluminum, the new 700 Series Tweeter-on-Top enclosure has been significantly lengthened, reducing distortion and ensuring an even cleaner presentation. This longer form is further enhanced by improved two-point decoupling that better isolates the assembly from the loudspeaker cabinet. The Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm retains the Bowers & Wilkins Carbon Dome tweeter, with its 47kHz first break-up performance, coupled to improved, vented voice coils with upgraded magnets. Models that feature tweeters mounted in the baffle – 707 S3, 706 S3, 704 S3 and HTM72 S3 – benefit from all these changes.
Biomimetic Suspension
In all three-way loudspeakers in the new range, Bowers & Wilkins has introduced its revolutionary Biomimetic Suspension – first revealed last year in the new 800 Series Diamond range—that dramatically reduces unwanted noise from the output of the spider as the midrange cone operates. Used alongside all of Bowers & Wilkins other proprietary midrange cone technologies – including decoupling for the entire midrange assembly, an aluminum drive unit chassis featuring tuned mass dampers for reduced resonance, FST™ surround-less suspension and the Continuum™ cone material – the result is simply astonishing midrange transparency. Models with mid/bass drive units – 707 S3, 706 S3, 705 S3 and HTM72 S3 – have been upgraded too, with new motor systems and improved chassis for cleaner output.
Bass uses the latest generation of Bowers & Wilkins famous Aerofoil™ Profile bass cone technology, based around a composite ‘sandwich’ of materials with a carefully formed variable profile aimed at delivering cleaner, lower distortion bass.
Optimized for performance
The new 700 Series range introduces upgraded, 800 Series Diamond-inspired speaker terminals that feature more substantial contact connections and are better laid out for use with spade-terminated speaker cable. These feed carefully upgraded crossovers that continue to use Mundorf capacitors as before, enhanced with multiple bypass capacitors and improved heatsinking for even cleaner performance. All models in the range feature updated, larger diameter Flowports that offer a more substantial output, ensuring a bigger and more expansive sound. In the 702 S3 floorstander, that approach is taken one stage further – and even closer than ever to the configuration of 800 SeriesDiamond floorstanding loudspeakers – thanks to the re-orientation of its port to fire downwards on its integrated plinth.
Finally, all floorstanding models feature significantly upgraded spikes to anchor them to the floor. On 704 S3 and 703 S3, stainless steel M6 spikes are included with their integrated plinths: on 702 S3, heavy- duty M10 spikes are provided. Even stand-mount models in the range benefit from similar mechanical upgrades, thanks to the FS-700 S3 floor-stand, which has been visually upgraded to match the slimmer, curved profile of the new cabinet design, while also offering acoustic improvements thanks to the introduction of those stiffer M6 spikes.
Models and prices:
- 702 S3, Floorstanding loudspeaker, Tweeter-on-Top $7000/pr
- 703 S3, Floorstandng loudspeaker, Tweeter-on-top $6000/pr
- 704 S3, Floorstanding loudspeaker $4000/pr
- 705 S3, Standmount loudspeaker, Tweeter-on-Top $3400/pr
- 706 S3, Standmount loudspeaker $2200/pr
- 707 S3, Bookshelf/standmount loudspeaker $1800/pr
- HTM71 S3, Center-channel loudspeaker, Tweeter-on-Top $2500/ea
- HTM72 S3, Center-channel loudspeaker $1500/ea
- FS-700 S3, Floor stand $800/pr
For More Information: www.bowerswilkins.com