Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus Speakers/Review

Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus Speakers

Available at Hammacher Schlemmer for $60,000.

The Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus Speakers is a triumph of engineering and design – the result of five years extensive reseach and development tasked with designing the perfect loudspeaker.

Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus Speakers are the four-way speakers that provide the clearest three-dimensional soundstage performance available.
Precise to the finest level, and great in external aesthetics, there are 1-inch and 2-inch tweeters along with 4-inch mid-range driver that play a crucial role in giving out a rather crisp, clear, and more vibrant sound output. On further probing, it is said the vibration patterns are monitored to the level of 1/3000th of a millimeter by using Laser-Doppler velocimetry. The result of that is of course the precision and crispness of the sound. For the times when bass plays an important role, there are 12-inch bass drivers which are housed in a curved spiral tube, thus enabling waves to travel without reflection.

Also, B&W Nautilus speakers use an active crossover design that allows each driver to operate on its own frequency unlike the more-than-common passive crossover designs. This lends a crisper and clearer final tone output, and this means that you will need four separate amplifiers for each speaker to power them.
The speakers’ bodies are handcrafted from fiberglass-reinforced ABS and are finished with paints and lacquer systems used for luxury cars.

Drive Units (High Frequency): 2 domed units of anodised aluminium of similar construction, 50mm and 25mm in diameter, handle the 880Hz – 3.5kHz and 3.5kHz – 25kHz ranges respectively. All drive units are completely mounted on silicone rubber O-rings to decouple from the cabinet

Drive Units (Mid-Range/High Frequency): From 220Hz – 800Hz, a 100mm flat-fronted unit is employed to prevent the gentle cavity resonance found in conventional cone units at around 2kHz interfering with the output from the upper/midrange unit. A rare earth magnet assembly with hollow pole is used to minimise the obstruction to the rear radiation from the diaphragm

Drive Units (Bass): A 9.5kg (21 lbs) magnet with a 100mm (4”) voice coil acts as the massive motor of the 300mm (12”) bass unit (10Hz – 220Hz). This, when used in the exponential line enclosure, results in a high-pass behaviour so over-damped that the traditional second-order characteristic is replaced by two distinct first-order slopes and no stored energy. A 250 micron one-piece aluminium cone ensures coherent motion to beyond 1.5kHz

    Frequency Response: 25Hz – 20kHz ± 0.5dB on reference axis
    Frequency Range: -6dB at 10Hz and 25kHz
    Power Handling: 100W – 500W into 8 ohms, one amplifier is required for each drive unit
    Electronic crossover supplied with speaker
    Dimensions (H x W x D): 1210mm x 430mm x 1105mm
    Net Weight: 110kg (Loudspeaker – 60kg, Base – 50kg)
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SPECIAL GADGETS/ Bowers & Wilkins’ C5 Earbud is a winner

In the sea of low quality earbud headphones currently on the market, the Bower & Wilkins C5 is a definite standout.

The earbud has a cool looking industrial-style tungsten and aluminum colorway.  It’s major innovation from a design perspective is the “Secure Loop,” which is used to keep the earbud in place.  Since everyone’s ear canals are shaped differently, getting the right fit can be tricky. The Secure Loops, however, fits under the inner ridge of your ear to lock the headphone in place.

Sonically, the Bower & Wilkins C5 is a major winner as well, produing a far more open sound that most other earbuds.  Instead of making it seem like the music is playing inside your head, the C5 creates a a “spatial ambiance” like a high quality over-ear headphone would do.  The mesh on the back of the headphone creates an open soundstage that makes the music you’re listening to sound more realistic.

At$179.95 the Bowers & Wilkins C5 is a bit more pricey than your average, run of the mill earbuds, but for the money they deliver some of the best sound out there. If you are considering upgrading from the stock headphones your mp3 player came with and like the in ear design, this would be a great option.

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Special Gadgets/Bowers & Wilkins PM1 Speakers – Most Refined Small Loudspeaker

Bowers & Wilkins PM1 Speakers – Most Refined Small Loudspeaker

Bowers & Wilkins’ latest bookshelf speakers, the PM1, attempt to tread the middle ground between the more affordable CM5s and high-end 805 Diamond models. Touted as the most refined small speaker yet created, B&W PM1 speakers, features a carbon braced tweeter that extends well into the mid-range frequency at 20 khz that brightens the instruments and voices of performers with great accuracy.

For the true audiophile the company has created speakers with new technological innovations with a carbon base that makes the B&W aluminum domes even more impressive. Sitting below the Carbon Braced Tweeter is what at first appears to be a regular Bowers & Wilkins Kevlar® cone bass/midrange driver, as found on the likes of the well-regarded CM1, and which is renowned for its ability to deliver clarity and detail at mid frequencies.

The PM1’s drive unit features a new Anti-Resonance Plug: a mushroom-shaped device that is a tight fit inside the voice coil former, helping to damp the motion of the former. This reduces cone break-up, for a smoother, more refined sound, again raising the performance of a key Bowers & Wilkins technology to a new level of performance.

These bookshelf speakers are a mere 25-inches tall but weigh 20lbs each and costs $2,800 per pair. The delicious Mocha Gloss finish makes the speaker look the cost of admission alone.

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