B&w 802d loudspeaker, Review – Bowers & Wilkins 802D User Manual

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“Vivid dynamic drama and a healthy
dose of realism are what this costly
floorstander brings to the party.”

single top-quality Mundorf capacitor. Kippel’s

developments have already been applied in

part to B&W’s existing Signature and

700-Series models.

SOUND QUALITY

Installed immediately after the 805S
had left the listening room, the contrast

was truly dramatic. While the little

standmount is a superior example of

the breed, changing over to this big

802D floorstander highlights the

inadequacies of small loudspeakers.

Whereas the little 805S does a

fine job of reproducing most of the

signal it’s fed, and perhaps even

delivers a slightly more neutral

balance than the much larger 802D,

the latter completely destroys the

small one’s pretensions as soon as it’s

hooked up. It provides a dose of

genuinely convincing reality that the

baby 805S simply fails to approach.

Vivid dynamic drama, a real feeling of

grip and tension and a healthy dose of

hitherto unheard of realism are what this

costly floorstander brings to the party.

And you’d better believe it’s a heady mix

that quickly becomes seriously addictive.

The very essence of music lies in the

generation of sonic contrasts, and the

ability to recreate these contrasts with

convincing and dramatic realism is what

really sets this speaker way ahead of the

norm. Most impressively for a three-way,

there seems little evidence of time-smear

here, and the consequent transient integrity

is a key factor responsible for the 802D’s

serious dynamic capabilities.

So, what about that diamond tweeter? No, it

doesn’t add sparkle – indeed its strength
seems to be that it doesn’t add anything
readily identifiable at all. You get the high
frequencies alright, but they’re so clean and
well integrated you don’t notice them – you’d
only notice if they were missing. The most

obvious direct evidence for the tweeter’s
contribution is found in the reproduction of
hiss, either inherent FM hiss, or the tape hiss
on early recordings, both of which have a quite
unfamiliar and distinctive silky smoothness.
Applause too is unusually sweet, yet also
uncommonly realistic, and vinyl surface noise
seems somehow less intrusive than usual.

In fact, vinyl sounded simply magnificent

through these speakers. The sheer transparency
of the 802Ds did a fine job with all the material
they were fed, yet in no way disguised the

expensive. Both mid and top sections are
expressly designed to absorb (rather than
reflect) the rearward radiation from behind
the diaphragms, and are smartly finished in
high gloss black.

Based on work done by a German academic

called Kippel, the linearity of the magnetic
motors driving the bass and midrange cones
have been substantially improved, reducing
distortion. A new tweeter suspension has
lowered its fundamental resonance, allowing a
simple first-order crossover network with just a

The midrange and tweeter both have their

own sub-enclosures. The unique ‘free edge’
midrange driver with its 140mm woven Kevlar
cone is housed in a large heavy teardrop, made
in mineral-loaded Marlan, while a substantial
tapered metal tube on the very top houses the
25mm tweeter. A small mesh grille covers the
fragile diamond dome, and is probably best
left on as an accident here could be very

B&W 802D loudspeaker

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Review

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