“The best loudspeaker isn’t the one that gives the most; it’s the one that loses the least.” John Bowers
The latest & greatest: Bowers & Wilkins 800 D3, a ground-breaking ground-up redefinition of reference-quality sound.
FROM SIGNALS TO SPEAKERS
O
ver the past five decades, one English company has created, diversified, evolved, perfected, scrutinised and studied the elusive
everyday nature of sound. Bower & Wilkins’ founder John Bowers – a classical music enthusiast in the grand tradition of soldering-iron-wielding British boffins – set himself on the hi-fi trail after wondering why stereo recordings rarely matched the vibrancy of a live concert. We are still hearing the benefits of his pioneering research 50 years on. The company’s inception came in 1966, in a small Worthing TV rental and repair shop which had a sideline in PA systems for schools and churches. Bowers began
The P2 loudspeaker, John Bowers’ revision of his original P1, built because he was himself “a dissatisfied customer” of existing designs, especially with regard to classical music.
Born in 1922, John Bowers was 17 at the outbreak of World War II. He joined the Royal Corps of Signals as a special operations executive, and was in clandestine radio contact with allied resistance operatives in occupied Europe. He was based at the now-famous Bletchley Park, and also spent time behind enemy lines. During his time in the armed forces he met Roy Wilkins, and after Bowers left the army and studied Telecommunications Engineering in Brighton, the two became business partners in a Worthing retail shop specialising in radios and televisions. The Bowers & Wilkins name was born. But John Bowers himself became “a dissatisfied customer” of
speaker designs that were then available, in particular to deliver the classical music he so loved. Over the next 20 years he spent time modifying and then designing speakers in the converted garages at the rear of the shop. By 1966, as word of mouth increased and demand grew for his designs, Bowers was ready to set up B&W Electronics specifically to design and build speakers, with close friend and new business partner Peter Hayward, who had joined the Bowers & Wilkins retail team in the 1950s. Hayward’s passion for recording and his contacts in that industry helped the company introduce B&W designs to many of the world’s finest recording studios.
The Bowers & Wilkins name first appeared above this radio & television retail and repair shop in Worthing, UK.
fact, established a year before
design, the DM70. This was an
B&W, in 1965, and since it first
11-module curved slimline
brought B&W Down Under
device that took the hitherto
the Sydney-based company
unheard-of step of separating
has maintained 45 years of
the tweeter from the main
consistent national distribution
cabinet. It was as much a
and support through its local
statement of intent from
network of dealers.
Bowers as the new 800 Series
“It’s hard to say how many
fully created in-house, includ-
Australia in 45 years,” says
ing its drive units, bringing
Convoy’s John Martin. “We
Bowers the control he needed
conservatively estimate in the
over every performance-related
region of between 300,000
element of the loudspeaker.
and 400,000 pairs or units.
designing and assembling loudspeakers at the back of the shop, believing that innovation was the key to any company’s
Bowers & Wilkins’ famous Nautilus design is still bewitching customers after more than 20 years.
Diamond is today, and was
B&W products we’ve sold in
The icons have continued
Both we and B&W have always
– the instrument-like Empha-
been committed to moving
sis, the snail-shelled Nautilus
with the times, so that today
design (left), still bewitching
you see enormous diversity
customers after more than 20
within the range – from high-
years on the books. Whether it
end to personal audio, outdoor,
be Sir Kenneth Grange crafting
custom, in-car and more. We
the original 801 or Morten
actively sell more 100 different
Warren mapping out the
B&W models – without counting
Zeppelin, this is a company
colour variants. And most we
that believes solutions to
carry in stock 365 days a year.”
speaker design need not all
Bowers & Wilkins has indeed
be black boxes. Yet despite
spent its five decades con-
their variety, B&W designs are
future. As he once said, “If you can make
stantly breaking new ground
somehow instantly recognis-
a better product, you can sell it.”
in research, development and
able, a device that looks the
Unassuming beginnings, then, for a
design. Profits from the original
part yet most importantly can
company that has since focused so single-
P1 were spent on audio test
deliver Bower’s promise for
mindedly on ‘true sound’ – the closest
equipment (Bowers’ passion
that “best loudspeaker… the
possible approximation of what the
for test gear is legendary)
one that loses the least.”
musician intended, faithful in every last
rapidly yielding an updated P2,
nuance, speakers that compromise nei-
while 1968 saw the arrival of
be found wherever a better
ther the engaged listener nor the original
the DM1 and DM2, the com-
audio experience is para-
performer. As Bowers himself said: “The
pany’s first domestic monitors
mount. When Paul McCartney
best loudspeaker isn’t the one that gives
aimed at serious music lovers –
sought to start tweaking ‘Let
the most; it’s the one that loses the least.”
people like Bowers himself.
It Be’, his engineers did it on
Given those beginnings, it’s amazing that Australia had access to Bowers & Wilkins as early as 1971, the start of one of the longest-standing hi-fi distributorships in the world. Convoy International was, in
In the last 10 years B&W has delivered enormous diversity in its range, from the Zeppelin wireless speaker (below) to outdoor, custom, in-car, headphones and more.
The 1970s saw B&W open
Today B&W speakers are to
B&W speakers in Abbey Road.
a new production facility,
When George Lucas wanted
complete with laser techno-
audio to accompany the visuals
logy, and the release of a
for his ‘low budget science
real breakthrough speaker
fiction adventure’, he used the British brand. Wherever audiophiles gather, B&W speakers head the list for listening. For public spaces as well as private – when PJ Harvey wanted to create an album in public view in Somerset House, she picked B&W speakers that she could rely on under pressure. When Bjork wanted a sound system to sound like we were
inside her mouth, above her head and within her heart, she came to B&W.
B&W: THE FACTS Kevlar drive units, the same material used in bulletproof vests. John Bowers realised the material had the ideal
The brand’s influence has never been greater, and under its new ownership by Eva Automation, a Silicon Valley start-up led by Gideon Yu, Bowers & Wilkins is primed to continue its iconic success in existing and expanding markets. It has also formed strategic partnerships with luxury brands that share its appreciation of craft. The automotive market has proven particularly fruitful – from a Jaguar concept car to a BMW diamond, via a Volvo tweeter. The relationship is also two-way: in its Seven Notes project the Maserati inspired the look and feel of the finished speakers. B&W stands out from its counter-
BOWERS FROM BLETCHLEY: During World War II John Bowers was based at the world-famous Bletchley Park where he helped the Allied war effort by intercepting radio signals. He also spent time behind enemy lines, and upon returning to England in 1946 he set up an electrical shop called Bowers & Wilkins with his army buddy Roy Wilkins.
parts through its insistence on craft – nothing is off the shelf, everything is custom. And this leads to what Convoy’s John Martin sees as the most essential element of all, the ‘ownership experience’ of products of true quality. “Having a great ownership experience is a very important part of the formula we try to deliver, creating value over and above the inherent qualities of the product. There’s a top-down commitment to customer support from B&W globally and from Convoy here in Australia, and that instills a sense of loyalty and advocacy from customers. Repeat purchases are extremely strong for us – I met a customer at a recent event whose last B&W purchase was 30 years ago, and he had come to upgrade to a set of the new 800 series, after all that time.” All that time, yes. What’s clear after 50 years in the industry is that Bowers & Wilkins is not about the slavish following of trends or fashion, but a process of constant progression. The latest models are some of the best devices ever made, the 800 D3 a ground-breaking redefinition of reference-quality sound, the best loudspeaker Bowers & Wilkins has ever produced. Yet still the company moves forward. As Joe Atkins, CEO, put it recently, “I’m now thinking, how does a 50-year-old brand become a 75-yearold brand?”
Original article: Andy Morris
MISS KNIGHT’S LEGACY: The company was helped on its way by a generous donation of £10,000 (worth over £130,000 today) by a kind benefactor called Miss Knight. John Bowers had sold her a pair of the loudspeakers he was then making at the back of the shop, and she was so impressed she left him the money in her will with the express instructions that he should set up the loudspeaker manufacturing company that he had often talked about. SIR KENNETH: In 1974, John Bowers brought on board one of the world’s leading industrial designers, Kenneth (now Sir Kenneth) Grange of the famous Pentagram design agency, responsible for the design of such icons as the InterCity 125 train, razors for Wilkinson Sword, and Kodak’s Instamatic camera. The first product Sir Kenneth worked on with John Bowers was the much-loved DM6, affectionately known as the ‘Pregnant Penguin’. BULLET-PROOF SPEAKERS: The DM6 was the first Bowers & Wilkins speaker to feature
properties for good midrange sound, even though it took years of research to discover just why that was the case. Kevlar has been a feature in Bowers & Wilkins speakers for over 40 years and is still used today in the company’s CM Series and 600 Series.
AS USED IN ABBEY ROAD: 1979 saw the launch of the 801, a loudspeaker that quickly became the reference monitor for the world’s greatest recording studios, including Abbey Road, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon. Its success enabled a seismic shift in Bowers & Wilkins; the company was only just entering its second decade but it willingly took on the mantle of the manufacturer of the reference loudspeaker for a major proportion of the recording industry. UNIVERSITY OF SOUND: In 1981, John Bowers realised his dream of freeing R&D from the demands of manufacturing and sales by moving the research department to the small village of Steyning in the South Downs. Removing
these constraints quickly fostered a sense of freedom at the ‘University of Sound’ that allowed for pioneering research which not only developed technologies that changed Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers, but changed the way the entire industry made loudspeakers.
NAUTILUS RISING: Before John Bowers died, he gave his engineers the brief to create the world’s best loudspeaker, with cost not being a consideration. The result of this five-year project was Nautilus, a speaker that is still in production over 20 years after its inception. Nautilus sound is like no other speaker you would have heard, and the speakers can be ordered in any colour you desire.
DIAMOND DOMES: Bowers & Wilkins was the first loudspeaker manufacturer to use diamond as a tweeter material. Manufactured by Element 6, part of the De Beers Group, synthetic diamonds are ‘grown’ by a technique called Chemical Vapour Deposition using temperatures as hot as the surface of the sun. Diamond dome tweeters are used in the 800 Series Diamond and the audio system for the all-new BMW 7 Series.
Bowers & Wilkins are proudly distributed in Australia by: Convoy International | 02 9666 0700
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