Bowers & Wilkins 802D - Manual

T he 1997 launch of B&W’s revolutionary
Nautilus 800 Series, stuffed with radical
innovations, was a startling commercial
success. It changed the whole perception of
upmarket loudspeakers, both here in Britain
and all round the world.
Seven years on, this Worthing-based market
leader has given the whole range a major
makeover – not that one might realise it at first
glance. The new models look remarkably
similar to their predecessors, but B&W cites
Porsche as a very successful precedent, and
points out that the 800s had never used style
for its own sake, but were always based on
strict form-follows-function principles. Anyway,
the numerous underskin engineering
improvements mean that roughly 90 per cent
of the parts in the new models are indeed new.
On the name front, the Nautilus bit has been
quietly dropped for this new 800 Series (even
though B&W’s inspirational original
snail-shaped flagship model is currently selling
better than ever). Each of the N800s has its
successor among the new 800 Series. A
number of entirely new models have also been
added, mostly on the home cinema side of
things (since the company found that around
60 per cent of its Nautilus customers were
taking the multichannel route).
There are now seven stereo pairs in toto,
numbered bottom-to-top from the 805S that
we reviewed last month through to the
top-of-the-line 800D. There are even two
803s – an 803S and an 803D. The suffix is a
crucial distinction between the top four and
the bottom three models, representing the
difference between the S models – equipped
with aluminium dome tweeters – and the
much more costly D models, which use a
diamond dome tweeter diaphragm.
Growing synthetic diamonds (via a process
known as vapour deposition) is a very
expensive process, so this 802D costs £8,000
per pair, which is £2,000 more than its
Nautilus 802 predecessor. (By comparison the
805S costs just £200 more than the earlier
Nautilus 805 model.) But, why diamond?
Theoretically, it has the best possible
stiffness-to-density ratio on earth, and takes
the dome’s break-up frequency up to 74kHz –
more than an octave above the aluminium
dome’s 29kHz.
If that’s the highlight, there’s much, much
more. From the ground up, this three-way has a
cast alloy plinth that houses and isolates the
crossover network and the twin terminal pairs.
This plinth comes fitted with ball-castors, but
an optional reversible spike/foot kit has the
option of nylon studs or massive, wicked spikes.
‘Massive’ is the adjective that runs
throughout this design. Most of the bass
enclosure is formed from a single piece of
26mm thick veneered plywood, shaped in a
continuous curve around the sides and back.
Inside, additional rigidity is supplied by
honeycomb Matrix stiffening. Twin 200mm
drivers supply the urge, along with a port firing
downward between the base and the plinth.
The drivers are a new design, using 150mm
diameter sandwich diaphragms with
8mm-thick cores of Rohacell structural foam,
laminated between woven carbon fibre. This
improves rigidity and reduces the transmission
of unwanted sound from inside the enclosure.
Diamond domes
B&W’s diamond diaphragm tweeter is just one of many new developments and refinements
PRODUCT B&W 802D
TYPE Floorstanding loudspeaker
PRICE £8,000 per pair
KEY FEATURES Dimensions (WxHxD): 37x115x56cm
P Weight: 80kg P Three-way design P Separate
enclosure for each ‘way’ P Diamond diaphragm tweeter
in separate tube-loaded module P Twin 200mm bass
drivers P Surroundless Kevlar-cone FST midrange driver
P Twin terminal pairs
CONTACT ట 01903 221500 q www.bwspeakers.com
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