Bowers & Wilkins Formation Series Overview HD

The new Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) series is called Formation and currently consists of 5 new products – bookshelf speakers, a soundbar, a versatile speaker named the wedge, subwoofer, and a piece they call “audio” – a central hub-like unit. Wireless music systems can be tricky to set up, dropouts in audio are quite common as well as delays from room to room and even between components in the same room. Bowers & Wilkins wanted to eliminate all of these issues with Formation. B&W analyzed the three aspects that all occur at the same time in wireless systems: 1. Communicating with your wireless network 2. Keeping a pair of wireless speakers in the same room in perfect sync 3. Keeping all of the wireless speakers in your home in perfect sync After much testing, they came up with a system that uses multiple wireless antennas for each of these purposes. With this system, B&W have virtually eliminated the problems that can plague a wireless audio system. We were fortunate enough to personally experience the Duo, a pair of wireless speakers that look a lot like their 805 bookshelf speakers. They can sit on an optional stand or on a cabinet/shelf. These have similar speaker components to Bowers & Wilkins’ 705 speakers and we have to say, they sounded fantastic! These new speakers allow you to have a complete music system with just two speakers that provide outstanding audio quality. Due to the fact that they are powered and have EQ to enhance the deep bass, they produce bass down to around 25hz, which is amazing for a small speaker. The three-dimensional sound stage they threw out was just incredible. Being powered also gives the advantage of having great dynamic impact. It is rare that we tap our toes to a wireless music system. We have to say, B&W figured out the timing issue with wireless systems, and we were quickly tapping our toes after music started up on the Duos. The Duo will sell for $3,999/pair and comes in a black or white finish. The next piece in the lineup is the B&W Formation Bar, a powered soundbar. The look is contemporary to match today’s flat panel TVs. We love that they elected to go with an optical input from your TV rather than trying to use the audio return channel via HDMI since optical is 100% reliable. This speaker has nine drivers with a dedicated center channel speaker system to make the dialogue incredibly clear. It has auto sensing that will switch from music to the optical input when your TV turns on. Like most good soundbars these days, it can learn the volume functions of your TV remote. The Bar will sell for $1,199. The Wedge is Formation’s all-in-one music speaker. It has a dedicated subwoofer in the center and a pair of midrange and tweeter drivers on each side of the Wedge to really fill your room with big sound. We have to say, this is probably the largest all-in-one speaker we have ever seen, but the Formation team did a really cool job of making it look small with its faceted front grill. The B&W W