Bowers & Wilkins Opens Curtains on 6th-Generation 600 Series Speakers

A June U.S. patent application based on a May 2016 filing (see 1807030015) assigned to B&W parent company EVA Automation, described the unnamed Continuum as a fiber material that “performs as well as, if not better than” Kevlar, “which is expensive and which has limits on how it can be presented (particularly having in mind that the natural colour of Kevlar is a creamy-yellow colour).” Continuum, it said, has a “mirror-like appearance” that “may have an attractive sparkly or otherwise unusually striking appearance.” It could mask or provide a “distraction from” the unattractive appearance of the damping material used, it said.

The company redesigned the tweeters in the latest 600 Series with a dual-layer aluminum double dome design that’s said to be stiffer than the previous series. Engineers kept the same diaphragm but positioned it closer to the grill, and they upgraded to neodymium to “provide a superior product while also maintaining a price to value proposition,” said Andy Kerr, B&W director-product communications. He acknowledged neodymium is more expensive than the ferrite magnets used in the midrange and bass drivers, saying “we have upgraded the power and quality of the neodymium magnets on the 600 Series with very little price increase passed on to the consumer."

Bowers & Wilkins puts a lot of stock in the 600 Series, its entry point for what it hopes is a stepping stone to the higher end 700 and 800 Series speakers, headphones and premium sound systems in BMW, Volvo, Maserati and McLaren vehicles. But the 600 Series is the volume producer: “We’re confident that over a million of these speakers have been sold,” Kerr told journalists at a June prebriefing, noting the speakers’ extended history dating to 1991. If B&W can reach a new class of customers with the new 600 series, those purchasers might “go buy something else and move up the ranges to the 800 series,” he said. “That’s the hope,” he said, of the flagship line that includes a pair of $29,998-per-pair three-way floor-standing speakers. The 600 Series buyers are “at least choosing to get involved with us and that means they’re much more likely perhaps to get involved with something else we do,” he said.

Appearance is a key focus in the sixth-generation 600 Series speaker line. The company moved the speaker port to the rear for a minimalist look and brought in the nickel-plated terminal tray from the 700 Series for a cleaner look and sound, Kerr said. Designers replaced the dated vinyl woodgrain black veneer of previous models with more contemporary black matte, satin black and satin white finishes. In a “rationalization” of the lineup, B&W dropped the 684 ($574 at Best Buy’s Magnolia Home Theater stores); the larger of two center-channel speakers, the HTM 61 ($749); and the $849-per-pair DS3 dipole speaker.

Kerr referenced “cascading technologies” in the 600 Series, bringing 700 series technologies to an “attainable price point…wherever possible.” That helps improve “the alignment of our storytelling” and bring consistency to the product lines. It seemed “discontinuous” to have Kevlar cones in one product range and Continuum in the others, he said. “Now it’s continuous across the board; it standardizes the look and gives a more coherent feel,” he said. At the same time, the company wants to have a reason for customers to step up to the 700 series, so elements of the technology remain different, including finish, he said.

B&W’s new HTM6 center-channel speaker ($599) is a scaled-down version of a previous model built around a pair of 6.5-inch drivers, with a 4-inch midrange and a high-frequency driver. It was a “great piece,” said Kerr, but it didn’t sell well because most customers “wanted to buy a center channel that would fit into the piece of furniture they had, rather than buying a center channel that was the correct choice for their system.” They often ended up buying big tower 683 speakers and then a mismatched smaller center-channel speaker to go with them. The solution was to try to “produce a hot rod" and "squeeze a quart into a pint pot,” he said.

B&W wants to bring consistency to model numbers so customers can understand differences among speaker lines, said Kerr. Series model numbers weren’t consistent, making it difficult for customers to understand the justification for a step-up model. The 707 is a 700 Series 5-inch two-way bookshelf speaker, and it has an entry-level counterpart, the 607, in the new 600 Series. If a customer likes the 607 but wants a wooden cabinet instead of the cabinets with satin black and white or flat black finishes, it’s an easy mental jump from 607 to 707, he said.

Models in the 600 Series line are the 603 ($900 each), a floor-standing model; 606 bookshelf speakers ($400 each), 607 bookshelf model ($300 each), HTM6 center-channel speaker ($599) and the ASW610XP ($1,200), ASW610 ($650) and ASW608 ($500). The subwoofers remained largely unchanged, but finishes were updated to match the speakers, said Kerr. The lineup is in mass production and due in distribution in mid-September, he said. Distribution will remain the same as that for the previous series, said Campbell.

On fierce competition in the market where the 600 Series plays, Kerr cited B&W’s aspirations for growth, noting the company is “all about premium performance.” Responding to a question on whether B&W might start at a lower price point to broaden its customer reach, Campbell said, “I don’t honestly know how we could do a simplified product that would justify itself as a true Bowers & Wilkins product." He called the latest 600 Series prices pretty affordable already “so I’m not sure we’re going to gain that much more in terms of shelf space or positioning in the market by having something that’s maybe a couple of hundred dollars.”

Kerr said if the company doesn’t engage desired luxury-level customers it wants to reach through loudspeakers, it can appeal to those demographics through automotive partnerships, headphones and soon, premium Philips TVs in international markets.

B&W and TP Vision announced a multiyear partnership in June (see 1806190054) in which the companies expect to “redefine the parameters of sound quality and performance on a TV.” B&W will get a branding boost from the relationship via a five-second screen shot showing “Sound by Bowers & Wilkins,” following a five-second Philips cameo, when the TV first powers on, Kerr said. B&W logos will also be on the TV boxes.

The first sets out of that partnership will be unveiled next week at IFA. The speaker array includes two 19mm tweeters and two “racetrack-style” midrange units running beneath the TV screen, all four of which use neodymium magnets, Kerr said. “You don’t put in neodymium magnets into a loudspeaker system unless you’re serious about it,” he said. The speakers are forward-firing, pointing at listeners’ ears, not below or behind, setting the sound system apart from other built-in speakers on the market, he said. All cones and motors were re-engineered for placement in a TV, he said. The TV launched next week won’t have Dolby or DTS audio, he said.

On whether working on TV audio will lead to a return to sound bars for B&W, Campbell said the two have “nothing to do with” each other. “We have had sound bars in the past, and as we evaluate the road map and try to evaluate the right place to be in, that’s something we constantly look at. ... It doesn’t automatically follow that you choose one or the other.” It could be possible for TV owners to have great TV sound such as that with the Philips TVs and a separate sound bar for times when they want to crank up the sound to home theater levels. “I don’t see the two mutually incompatible,” he said. A decision to produce a sound bar is about “finding the right opportunity, the correct space. We had a very successful product a few years ago,” he said.