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/Meridian Audio 40th Anniversary Edition System

Meridian Audio’s 808 Signature Reference CD player features a legacy CD-ROM drive that allows for data recovery and error correction. A master clocking system and timing circuitry minimizes jitter. Meridian’s Digital Active Loudspeakers provide resolution up to standard 24-bit and lacks the modern reference high resolution 32-bit processing of normal high-end DACs. Built-in amplification for the speakers include one each 150 watt units on midrange and tweeter and three 150 watt units for the bass drivers (one amplifier per driver). Frequency response in-room is 20 Hz to >20 kHz (±3dB).

Limited to only 40 numbered editions world-wide, each system comes with an engraved plate showing its unique system number and signed by Bob and Allen. The speakers also have coordinated glass inset panels, loudspeakers grilles and tweeter surrounds, with new, polished bezels surrounding the drivers. Each set will also include a book, illustrating the rich history of Meridian’s exceptional Digital Signal Processing (DSP) loudspeakers, which is also signed by Bob and Allen.

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Special Gadgets/Göbel Epoque Reference Loudspeakers

The German high-end loudspeaker manufacturer Göbel unveil Epoque, their lates reference class loudspeaker. With two options in terms of colors including the brilliant white and black, the majority of the speaker’s body has been created out of aluminum, which has been given anodized treatment to give a special smooth finishing.
The black rectangles on these speakers are actually the latest version of Göbel’s signature bending wave drivers. Although previous models were crafted from thin wooden membranes, this latest iteration uses nine layers of laser-cut carbon fiber in addition to the wooden core. Of course neither carbon-fiber nor wood can produce sound on their own accord so the actual tunes are produced by four aluminum longthrow chassis drivers and eight passive radiators that reside within the driver unit.

Each instance carries 6 outlets with 12 subwoofers and a front-mounted control panel, all these being able to let out a sound that tickles every ear out there, whether listening to black metal music or chill-out and lounge.
Within the next few months the Epoque Reference Loudspeakers with almost 200 kilograms in weight will make its journey to the most renowned hifi dealers in Europe. Regardless whether you are in Berlin, Munich, London or Paris, Göbel will visit you and give you an opportunity to experience the patented Göbel bending wave loudspeaker.

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Special Gadgets/Sonus Faber Fenice Loudspeaker

Forgetting the audio for a moment, the Sonus Faber’s Fenice Loudspeaker is absolutely stunning from a visual standpoint. Regardless of the finish, this massive speaker looks elegant and powerful. But, of course, the visual aspect is only a small piece of the system.

The Fenice loudspeakers incorporates three new patents in one system, further enriched by new technical adjustments in order make the product unique and inimitable, one of the most expensive in the world. Fenice is destined to change the audio world dramatically.

Sonus Faber’s Sound Field Shaper allows for moving the rear driver and adjustment of it’s output for optimum room integration and listener preference. On the rear of the unit are knobs that includes the ability to adjust four levels of Soundstage Depth, a knob for Soundstage Azimuth (right/left) and volume output.

Or, the internal treatment of the reflex ports with insulating material, an extremely astute technical expedient. In the internal construction of the loudspeakers, an opening toward the outside, is usually built by means of ports of various sizes. Now, these internal tuning ports, treated with the proper material, permit obtaining tune frequencies tied to a pure sound and an of the low frequencies better than ever. Finally, the suspension and decoupling system of the floor loudspeakers, which, combined with the innovative “mass-damper” system, permits avoiding the vibrations naturally created by every loudspeaker, by dissipating them inside this internal device.

Driver compliment includes a 25 mm hybrid Neodymium/Samarium-Cobalt Larsen/Goeller ring radiator. This tweeter is visco-elastically decoupled from the main baffle board. A 6.5-inch cone was chosen for the critical midrange frequencies and employs a blending of traditional cellulose pulp with Papyrus and other natural fibers . The powerful Neodymium magnet system keeps the 1.5-inch voice coil moving in a very linear fashion. The basket is optimized to eliminate resonance and is CNC machined from solid billets of Avional and Gun metal. For the lowermost frequencies, a pair of 10-inch woofers with innovative sandwich cone structure was chosen, This driver is made with syntactic foam core covered on the two external surfaces by coated cellulose pulp skins and uses a 3″ voice-coils on Kapton formers. Lastly, a 15-inch subwoofer also uses a sandwich structure with the main surface made of nano carbon fiber on the syntactic foam core.

The name means ‘Phoenix’, and the massive speakers, standing over 1.7m tall and weighing 305kg apiece (670 pounds), are being made in a limited edition of just 30 pairs, with each pair costing €140,000 (over $177,555).  So if you pick one up, make sure you bring a friend to help you carry it. And a truck.

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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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Special Gadgets/Magico Q3 Loudspeakers

Magico is a leader in high-performance loudspeaker design and manufacture. Now, Magico has developed a new Q3 Loudspeakers that generates sounds like in recording studio.

This five driver three-way floorstanding speaker is housed in a fully-braced, fully-damped, aluminum and brass hard-anodized enclosure. It utilizes a number or proprietary Magico design elements and technology to break the efficiency barrier. Featuring a complete set of Magico-designed drivers, including three new 7″ Nano-Tec woofers, delivers overall system efficiency of 90dB/W/m. Magico’s three new woofers are complemented by a 6″ Nano-Tec midrange and the MBe-1 Beryllium dome tweeter. Together, these drivers represent Magico’s continued pursuit of developing and implementing some of the finest loudspeaker drivers.

The Q3 builds upon the proven concept of the Q platform first developed for the award-winning Q5, which was the first Magico product to take advantage of complete in-house control of all design and build variables. Substantial collar-locking isolation feet are also a highlight in the pursuit of ultimate performance.

Now we can conclude the most important facts. Overall sensitivity is 90dB/W/m, impedance is 5 Ohms and frequency response is from 26 Hz to 50 kHz. Cabinet dimensions are 47 x 16 x 10.5 (HxDxW in inches) and each unit weights 250 pounds.

Regardless of the genre of music, these speakers with price of $34,000 per pair will bring true symphony of sound in your room.

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