Big Picture Big Sound

Bowers and Wilkins Formation Wireless Speakers Work Like Sonos, Sound Like British HiFi

By Chris Boylan

At a press event last week in New York City, British high-end speaker maker Bowers and Wilkins (don't call us "B&W") unveiled their first five offerings in a new line of whole home wireless speakers. The Bowers and Wilkins Formation system will include a soundbar, a subwoofer, an audiophile-grade mini-monitor, a tabletop speaker, and an interface module that enables any audio source - even a turntable - to be part of the new wireless platform.

The first products in the Formation line include:

  • Formation Bar ($1,199) - a powered 3-channel soundbar designed to enhance the sound of movies and TV programming
  • Formation Duo ($3,999) - a stereo pair of wireless audiophile-quality mini-monitor speakers built with the same components and design elements as the company's high-end wired speakers
  • Formation Wedge ($899) - a discrete and elegant-looking one-piece stereo tabletop radio that can fill a room with high quality stereo sound
  • Formation Bass ($999) - a powered subwoofer that can pair with any of the Foundation series speakers for enhanced bass response.
  • Formation Audio ($699) - an interface device that allows you to turn any audio source (such as a turntable, or media player) into a wireless digital source for any room in your home
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Bowers and Wilkins' Formation series will launch with five products, each suited to different applications.

Impressive... Most Impressive

At the event, we got a chance to hear these new speakers and I must say, the sound was impressive. The Formation Bar soundbar drew me into the action of the movie clips with clear dialog and an expansive soundstage. The Foundation Duo bookshelf speakers created that pinpoint three dimensional stereo soundstage that we've come to expect from high-end Bowers and Wilkins speakers. But the most impressive of the bunch may have been the Foundation Wedge. This stylish little one-piece speaker, placed in a corner, filled the room with music, with deep solid bass and a stereo soundstage that expanded far beyond the physical cabinet. As with other Bowers and Wilkins speakers, vocals were clear and articulate, stringed instruments sounded delicate and natural, but the Wedge also brought the boom to the room.

All I could think of during the demo was the poor Sonos Play:5 - a fine-sounding one-piece speaker in its own right - getting its ass kicked (sonically) by this little upstart. The company did not have any competitive products on display at the demo, but I've spent enough time with enough of them to know that this little Wedge is something special.

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The Bowers and Wilkins Formation Wedge provides room-filling stereo sound from a compact and stylish package.

Like Sonos, the Bowers and Wilkins Formation's wireless capabilities rely on a proprietary mesh network. Each speaker includes both a transmitter and a receiver to establish the mesh network within your home. Communication among the various Formation speakers happens over this dedicated wireless network so the platform is not limited by your existing WiFi speed or bandwidth. With this mesh networking technology, Bowers and Wilkins claims they can deliver uncompressed High Res Audio at 96 KHz/24-bit with less than a microsecond of delay. This means that all of the speakers in your home will be synchronized together, with no audible lag and with extremely high fidelity to the original source.

A Source is a Source, Of Course, of Course

Sonos has a huge headstart on Bowers and Wilkins, from a content perspective. The Sonos platform has access to (and integration with) dozens of different streaming music sources and platforms, including Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music, Pandora and many more. At launch, Bowers and Wilkins will support just a few methods of delivering music wirelessly: Spotify, Roon, Apple AirPlay and Bluetooth. The Formation app is available today for both Apple and Android platforms. Meanwhile, the Sonos app has been available and enhanced over more than a decade, so it's pretty solid.

Sonos has also had an Amazon Alexa skill available for its wireless music platform for a few years, and has actually built Alexa voice control into its Sonos Beam and Sonos One speakers. Sonos says integrated Google Assistant compatibility is also planned. At the press event, Bowers and Wilkins reps told us that they are also planning to take a skills-based approach, but the company offered no specific timeline for that. With a skills based approach, you'll be able to use your voice to control music playback on your Formation speakers from Alexa (or Google Assistant), but you won't be able to use the Formation speaker itself as a voice controller. So you'll still need an Amazon Echo or similar device in order to start and control your Formation speakers via voice.

The company expects to begin shipping all five products in the Formation series soon, but did not have exact dates at press time.

More about Bowers and Wilkins

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