About The Bowers & Wilkins 803 D4 Speakers
Bowers & Wilkins most compact headed model brings all of the technical advantages of a dedicated midrange enclosure – the iconic Turbine Head – to a smaller footprint that's easily accommodated in any home. Small doesn't mean compromised, either: 803 D4 still bristles with technical innovation throughout.
Turbine Head: Hear the sound, not the cabinet. Bowers & Wilkins's all-aluminium Turbine Head is a phenomenally stiff and inert housing for the crucial midrange cone, carefully damped to avoid unwanted resonances and decoupled from both the bass enclosure and the tweeter body. The result? The most realistic midrange sound yet.
Solid Body Tweeter On Top: The latest incarnation of Bowers & Wilkins's iconic Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top housing features an elongated form with a longer tube-loading system, producing an even more free and open sound with high frequencies. As before, the carefully decoupled housing is milled from a single solid block of aluminium to better resist resonance.
Reverse Wrap Cabinet: Instead of a flat-fronted speaker with a curving back, Bowers & Wilkins's cabinets are formed from one continuous curve, held together with a spine of solid aluminium. Fewer joins make for a stiffer, more inert structure, and a curved front means less baffling around the drive units. So sound dispersion is improved, and cabinet reflection is reduced.
Matrix™: Matrix™ bracing uses interlocking panels to reinforce loudspeaker cabinet walls in all directions internally, reducing resonance and creating a more believable soundstage. Every model in the new 800 Series Diamond benefits from an upgraded Matrix design that combines solid plywood construction with aluminium bracing to reinforce key stress points.
Biomimetic Suspension: Sometimes, making a big difference takes unconventional thinking. For decades, Bowers & Wilkins's designers thought nothing could improve on the sound of their famous yellow Aramid Fibre midrange cones, but eventually the Continuum cone technology changed their minds. Now, they've turned their attention to another crucial element in a loudspeaker cone: the fabric spider. The all-new Biomimetic Suspension revolutionises midrange cone performance by greatly reducing the unwanted air pressure and coloration that a conventional fabric spider can generate. The result? Midrange transparency you wouldn't believe possible.
Continuum Cone™: Thanks to its composite construction, the Continuum™ cone avoids the abrupt transitions in behaviour that can impair the performance of a conventional drive unit. The result is a more open, neutral performance that delivers voices and instruments with precision and transparency.
Decoupled Midrange Assembly: Every 800 Series Diamond loudspeaker aside from the stand mount 805 D4 has a dedicated midrange cone using four key Bowers & Wilkins technologies: the Continuum cone, FST™ (Fixed Suspension Transducer), Biomimetic Suspension and midrange decoupling, the latter ensuring minimal interference from the operation of the loudspeaker's bass drivers.
Aluminium Top-Plate: Every stereo model in the new 800 Series Diamond range has a significantly upgraded cabinet design with an all-new aluminium top section for even greater stiffness. The same design also provides a perfect mounting point for all-new Leather by Connolly cabinet detailing, with luxurious black leather for dark cabinets and light grey for lighter finishes.
Crossover: All stereo models in the new 800 Series Diamond range now use rear-mounted crossover designs mounted on stiff aluminium spines. This isolates the sensitive capacitors from the unwanted effects of air pressure within the enclosure and makes for a very effective heatsink to ensure optimum performance when in use.
Aluminium Plinth: A great speaker needs a rock-solid foundation. The 803 D4 uses a downwards-firing Flowport™ exiting on to a solid aluminium plinth complete with a steel constrained layer damping sheet, which controls unwanted resonance. The 803 D4 also retains the wheel-plus-spike configuration introduced in 2015, making each model far easier to manoeuvre to the perfect listening position than any rival design.
Leather by Connolly: The top section of every stereo model features an aluminium top-plate, covered in all-new Leather by Connolly trim. Bowers & Wilkins use luxurious, full-grain black leather for Gloss Black and Satin Rosenut finishes, and a light grey leather for White and Satin Walnut.
Finishes: The Bowers & Wilkins 803 D4 is available in a range of beautiful finishes to match your décor. The Gloss Black & Satin Rosenut models come with black grilles & black Connolly leather on the top plate. The White & Satin Walnut models come with light grey grilles & light grey Connolly leather on the top plate.
Our Take On The Bowers & Wilkins 803 D4 Speakers
The 800 Series Diamond is where Bowers & Wilkins pull the gloves off and shows us what they are truly capable of. The 803 D4 is where the range gets serious with the appearance of the iconic Turbine Head which means you hear more of the sound, not the cabinet. Bowers & Wilkins's all-aluminium Turbine Head is a phenomenally stiff and inert housing for the crucial midrange cone, carefully damped to avoid unwanted resonances and decoupled from both the bass enclosure and the tweeter body. The result? The most realistic midrange sound yet.
On top of this, the tonal uniformity from top to bottom, glistening clarity and effortless bass dynamics are all spectacular. Music just seems to flow and come alive. Please note, however, that this is a high-performance product that will only show the heights of what it is capable of with other high-performance products such as an amplifier with the current capability and dynamic drive to properly power the speaker and a top-class source component such as a turntable, streamer or CD/SACD player that can feed the amplifier and speakers the highest quality of musical signal they need to perform at their best. Get this right and you will be rewarded with a system that should keep you happy for a very long time. Pure Bliss!
Main Features & Specifications
- Design: 3-Way, 4-Driver Floorstanding Speaker
- Diamond Tweeter
- Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top
- Turbine Head Midrange Enclosure
- Continuum™ Cone FST Midrange
- Anti-Resonance Plug
- Biomimetic Suspension
- Matrix™
- Aerofoil™ Cone Bass Units
- Downwards Firing Flowport™
- Bass Reflex Vented Box System
- Wheel-Plus-Spike Configuration
- Drive Units
- 1 x 25mm (1") Diamond Dome Tweeter
- 1 x 130mm (5") Continuum Cone FST Midrange
- 2 x 180mm (7") Aerofoil Cone Bass Drivers
- Frequency Range: 16Hz to 35kHz
- Frequency Response: 19Hz to 28kHz (+/-3dB from reference axis)
- Sensitivity: 90dB (on axis at 2.83Vrms at 1m)
- Harmonic Distortion: 2nd and 3rd harmonics (90dB,1m on axis)
- <1% 80Hz – 20kHz
- <0.3% 100Hz – 20kHz
- Nominal Impedance: 8Ω (minimum 3.0Ω)
- Recommended Amplifier Power: 50W – 500W into 8Ω on unclipped programme
- Max Recommended Cable Impedance: 0.1Ω
- Available Finishes
- Gloss Black with black grilles & black Connolly leather on the top plate
- Satin Rosenut with black grilles & black Connolly leather on the top plate
- White with light grey grilles & light grey Connolly leather on the top plate
- Satin Walnut with light grey grilles & light grey Connolly leather on the top plate
- Included In The Boxes: 2 Midrange grilles, 4 Bass grilles, 4 Terminal link wires, 4 Stabilisers, 4 Stabiliser caps, 1 T45 stabiliser adjustment and midrange end cap removal wedge tool, 1 Metal spike adjustment bar, 1 Cleaning cloth
- Dimensions (WxHxD): 357 x 1,165 x 511mm
- Weight: 62.15 kg each
- Manufacturer's Warranty: 5 Years
Note: Features & Specifications Subject To Change Without Notice. E&OE