Which Bowers & Wilkins D4 Speakers are Right for You?

The 805 D4 is the entry-level model of the 800 Series Diamond line. It’s compact and designed to be mounted at the perfect height on the FS-805 D4 stand, but can be mounted on a tabletop as well. It has a single 6.5" bass/mid driver with a Continuum Cone made of Bowers & Wilkins’ proprietary composite material that eliminates abrupt transitions caused by conventional drive units, and a front-firing port. The 805 D4 also shares many of the premium features of the rest of the 800 series diamond line, including the beautiful one-piece reverse wrap cabinet, the Matrix interior bracing system that eliminates resonance, and the one you can’t take your eyes off of: the iconic Tweeter-on-Top.

If your design sensibilities lean towards floor-standing speakers, but away from space-age enclosures, the 804 D4 is for you. The 804 D4 gives you the amazing sound of double Aerofoil bass drivers augmented by the Flowport bass port, which fires downward into the newly designed aluminum plinth with a steel damping sheet, giving the 804 D4 a rock-solid foundation that also controls unwanted resonance. The gorgeous reverse-wrap cabinet isn’t only to dazzle your eyes — especially with the new Satin Walnut finish — its one-piece design reinforced by aluminum virtually eliminates the joints and edges that can add vibration and color to the sound.

The 804 D4 and the larger models in the series also share an innovation to the drivers themselves. Instead of the standard fabric suspension system employed by speaker manufacturers since the dawn of amplification — called a “spider” — which Bowers & Wilkins determined generates its own air pressure that can color the sound of a speaker — the 804 D4 drivers are suspended in a design that is free of vibrations. This new Biomimetic Suspension system gets its name from its uncanny resemblance to a spider web.

As with all design elements of the 800 Series Diamond speakers, the looks are striking, but the goal is the delivery of pure, uncolored sound.

Perfect for mid-sized home theater rooms, the 803 D4 is the smallest footprint that has the iconic Turbine Head midrange driver. Newly designed with an all-aluminum housing that provides rigidity and even more isolation from the rest of the cabinet, the Turbine Head enclosure allows the midrange driver to reproduce the mids of any music or soundtrack with complete transparency. The Turbine Head is just part of the equation, however: The midrange drivers in all 800 Series Diamond speakers are decoupled from the rest of the cabinet, and Bowers & Wilkins' Continuum Cone composite material makes the driver’s response smooth and efficient, without the sudden jumps in performance that traditional cone materials exhibit.

It’s not just the midrange driver that got the attention of Bowers & Wilkins' engineers: The bass drivers in all floorstanding models in the line benefit from the new Aerofoil cone material, which reinforces key areas of the bass cone with varying thickness. A new Anti-Resonance Plug cradles the voice coil, lowering the distortion that can be generated as the coil goes through its full range of motion. The result is the clearest bass sound of any Bowers & Wilkins speaker system.

Combined with the new all-aluminum cabinet head, Matrix bracing system, one-piece Reverse Wrap aluminum-reinforced cabinet, solid-body Tweeter-On-Top enclosure, and the new aluminum plinth, the isolation of each component of the three-way systems in the line enables transparency and clarity unlike anything you’ve heard before.

The 802 D4 offers the most detailed, transparent sound you’ve ever heard in a floorstanding speaker for medium to large home theaters. All of the substantial design and construction advances evident in all of the 800 Series Diamond speakers help the 802 D4 achieve its remarkable sound quality, including the superb isolation of the bass drivers, the decoupled midrange driver enclosed in the all-aluminum Turbine Head housing, the Solid Body isolated tweeter, plus the vibration-free Matrix reinforcement and Reverse Wrap cabinet construction of the housing, as well as the all-aluminum cabinet top and steel-reinforced plinth.

Bowers & Wilkins did more than create the most inert housing and cabinet on the market, they eliminated the sound coloration that can be caused by traditional driver and voice coil suspension systems, and by the speaker electronics themselves. Contributing to the astonishing clarity of the 802 D4’s midrange is the new Biometric Suspension, which replaces the traditional fiber system and eliminates the creation of air pressure that can affect sound. The new Anti-Resonance Plug cradles the voice coil of the bass drivers, eliminating resonance that can occur as the coil moves through its range of motion. On all the stereo units, the crossover electronics are mounted at the rear of the Reverse Wrap cabinet, and mounted on stiff aluminum spines. This keeps the capacitors isolated from air pressure within the cabinet, which eliminates unwanted sound coloration, and makes for a highly effective heat sink, too.

It’s not just one technological advancement, or even a handful of improvements that make the 800 Series Diamond speakers so amazing. Every aspect of the entire range has been designed and crafted to ensure the sound that comes out of each driver is the sound that was intended, and not affected by vibration and resonance of the speaker or cabinet itself.

The 801 D4 is the epitome of perfection in sound reproduction — which is why you’ll see this model in the control rooms of the top recording studios and sound stages around the world. If the artists, engineers, and producers who create the music and movies we love ensure that the product they deliver to us sounds as they intended by playing their work back on these speakers — then anyone who is obsessed with flawless sound clarity really should give these amazing speakers a listen.

You can do exactly that at our showrooms, as World Wide Stereo is one of the only dealers in the Northeast U.S. authorized to demonstrate and sell Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond speakers. When you come in, our experts will be happy to explain each of the technical details and improvements that have gone into each of the speakers in the 800 Series Diamond line, and exactly how they contribute to the most pristine sound available anywhere — but the bottom line will be what you hear.

What you won’t hear is sound that is colored or affected by cabinet resonance or vibration, speaker cone inconsistencies, interference between drivers, or the operation of electronic components. The 801 D4 housing is completely inert, thanks to new innovations such as the aluminum-reinforced Reverse Wrap cabinet, the Matrix bracing system, the all-aluminum midrange and tweeter enclosures, and the aluminum top and base. The movement of the drivers themselves is facilitated by the elimination of unwanted air pressure caused by suspension systems. And the drivers themselves — from the reinforced composite Aerofoil bass speaker cones to the Continuum Cone midrange driver and to the diamond Tweeter On Top — are crafted to deliver unparalleled response and clarity.

For a premium home theater system in a modest space, a set of the 803 D4 or 804 D4 speakers are perfectly paired with the HTM82 D4 center channel speaker. Its compact midrange drive unit is ideally sized to match those of its siblings and its ample output will ensure a seamless and cohesive listening experience. The same design innovations of the 803 D4 and 804 D4 are featured in the HTM82 D4, including a completely inert cabinet reinforced by B&W’s upgraded Matrix bracing, a decoupled midrange driver in its own isolated aluminum housing, and the solid body diamond Tweeter-on-Top.

Innovations to the speaker cones themselves include the Aerofoil bass cones, which are made of a composite material that is varied in thickness to bolster smooth and efficient movement, the Contiuum Cone midrange driver with Biometric Suspension and Anti-Resonance Plug, as well as the isolated crossover electronics which are housed at the back of the enclosure, preventing air pressure interference with the sensitive capacitors. The FS-HTM Stand is designed to place the HTM82 D4 at a height that is perfectly matched with the drivers of the 803 D4 and 804 D4.

Designed for use with the 801 D4 or 802 D4 to become the heart of the finest multichannel system available, the HTM81 D4 has bass power and midrange extension that perfectly matches the quality of its intended stereo partners. The HTM81 D4 has all of the incredible design and tech innovations that make the 801 D4 and 802 D4 the most transparent reference speakers on the market, including the completely isolated and resonance-free diamond Tweeter-on-Top, decoupled midrange driver housed in a solid aluminum housing, and bass units with Anti-Resonance Plugs and Aerofoil composite cones, all of which combine to provide you with sound that has no interference, vibration, or resonance introduced by the cabinet or components.

The FS-HTM Stand is designed to place the HTM82 D4 at a height that is perfectly matched with the drivers of the 801 D4 and 802 D4.