Quick Summary
Bowers & Wilkins has revealed its new generation of flagship speaker, the D5 take all versions of the 800 to a new level of audio, thanks to new materials and advanced engineering.
Bowers & Wilkins has unveiled a new generation of its flagship speaker series. Released five years after the D4's, the 800 Series Diamond D5 are the result of 60 years of engineering and promise the very best quality thanks to improved materials and engineering.
The 800 Series has been the showcase of the Bowers range since its creation in the 1970s and was cemented in history when the 801 speaker was adopted as the reference monitors for Abbey Road Studios.
Today, the 800 Series still represents the very best the brand has to offer, with the speakers being handmade in its factory in Worthing, West Sussex.
The Diamond Series is so called because of the diamond-dome tweeter on the top of the speaker housing, with its signature comet-like aluminium form.
The new D5 models continue the Bowers & Wilkins philosophy of 'Nothing added. Nothing taken away' with its sound. It's a pure experience that allows you to hear every detail of the sound – perhaps why it's still used in Abbey Road Studios.
As with previous 800 series models, it comes in a range of sizes. There's the iconic 801 D5, the full floorstanding speaker engineered for recording studio performance. It features two 10-inch Aerofoil bass cones, one 6-inch Continuum cone mid-range and a 1-inch diamond dome tweeter. The casing comes in four colours with matching leather trim and is priced £43,000 / $65,000 / €50,000 per pair.
The 802 D5 are also floor-standing speakers engineered for reference-grade audio, with two 8-inch bass drivers, a 6-inch Continuum cone mid-range and the 1-inch diamond tweeter on top. Priced £32,500 / $45,000 / €37,000.
With a smaller footprint, the 803 D5 are the most compact to still feature the turbine head configuration for the 5-inch mid-range Continuum cone and 1-inch diamond tweeter, and also feature two 7-inch Aerofoil bass cones. Priced £25,500 / $35,000 / €30,000.
The 805 D5 can be stand-mounted for the best performance, or on a side unit. Suitable for smaller spaces, these use a single 6.5-inch Continuum bass/mid-range cone and a 1-inch diamond dome tweeter on top. These are priced at £10,000 / $15,000 / €12,000.
Other models include the floorstanding 804 D5 and the HTM81 D5 and the HTM82 centre channel speakers to be paired with the 801/802 or the 803/804 models respectively for home cinema setups. Find more information on the new D5 range on the Bowers & Wilkins website.
