Bowers & Wilkins’ 800 Series is the most revered loudspeaker range ever created. The new Diamond D5 models do not merely enhance the listening experience: they authenticate it.
What constitutes ‘good’ sound? Clarity? Nuance? Pure fidelity to what the recording artist wanted the listener to hear? Expect all this—along with extraordinary detail, dynamics and a remarkably three-dimensional soundstage—from the new 800 Series Diamond D5 from Bowers & Wilkins.
Founded in Worthing in 1966, the British audio specialist has spent the period since pursuing a deceptively simple idea: that the best loudspeaker should not impose itself upon the music, but instead reproduce the original recording as faithfully as possible, with unimpeded listener engagement the inevitable result.
It was an idea that came directly from founder John Bowers, whose belief was that high-fidelity audio equipment should—to quote from the book that accompanies the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition —“be to the ear what a flawless pane of glass is to the eye: allowing the clear passage of a sensory image, uncorrupted and faithful in every nuance to the original.” Bowers & Wilkins calls this ‘True Sound’, and it remains at the heart of the company philosophy today.
Bowers, from the outset, wanted to make loudspeakers not just for the most highly discerning listener but also professional users. And so, he sought the expertise of the finest audio engineers in the business and progressively brought the development and manufacture of every Sound Investment Bowers & Wilkins’ 800 Series is the most revered loudspeaker range ever created. The new Diamond D5 models do not merely enhance the listening experience: they authenticate it.element of loudspeaker design in-house, driven by an uncompromising pursuit of perfection. His conviction that “if you can make a better product, then you will sell it” remains a guiding principle.
That pursuit has produced many landmark loudspeakers, but few have acquired the mythology of the 800 Series. Its story began in 1979, when Bowers and his team developed the original 801, conceived as both the ultimate loudspeaker for hi-fi enthusiasts and a monitor accurate enough for recording studios. At the iconic Abbey Road, engineers immediately understood its potential. The studio adopted the 801 as its monitor of choice, becoming the first recording studio in the world to use it full time.
That decision began a relationship that has endured for more than 45 years. Since 1980, successive generations of Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series loudspeakers have occupied Abbey Road’s control rooms. Across those decades, Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road have been part of the creation of music by artists including Kate Bush, Massive Attack, Pink Floyd, Oasis, Adele, Radiohead and Muse, alongside some of the most celebrated film scores ever recorded there, from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park to Skyfall and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Is there a more resounding endorsement? For people who actually make music, the ability to hear exactly what has been recorded is not a luxury but a professional necessity. And it is this relentless pursuit of accuracy that has helped turn the 800 Series from a product into a benchmark: a loudspeaker range whose successive generations have become reference points for both serious listeners and the professionals responsible for creating the music they love.
The ethos extends beyond sound alone. Bowers & Wilkins has always believed that engineering should determine design, rather than decoration being applied afterwards. The 800 Series is consequently an exercise in form following function, its distinctive shapes dictated by the demands of acoustic performance (which makes them all the more visually striking to true music aficionados). Previous generations benefited from the vision of renowned industrial designer Sir Kenneth Grange, whose work included the 801 Matrix, Matrix 800 and Signature Diamond, helping establish an aesthetic that is now as recognisable as the technology concealed within it.
The 800 Series has served as a proving ground for Bowers & Wilkins, with innovations developed for its most ambitious loudspeakers (from Continuum Cones to Biomimetic Suspension, Aerofoil Profile bass cones and much more) subsequently cascading into the wider range. It is the same doctrine that now informs the 700 Series and 600 Series, as well as the company’s automotive systems for marques including Aston Martin, BMW and McLaren, and its newer generation of wireless speakers, plus headphones.
This is a story of steady evolutionary leaps, culminating in the latest 800 Series Diamond D5, a range of speakers which has been revealed as Bowers & Wilkins celebrates its 60th year; and it is the fifth generation of 800 Series loudspeakers to feature the company’s Diamond Dome tweeter. Unveiled this summer at the HIGH END Vienna audio exhibition, and bringing together six decades of meticulous research, engineering, craftsmanship and critical listening experience, the 800 Series Diamond D5 represents a comprehensive rethink of how every component of a speaker can contribute to the experience of listening.
Acoustic, mechanical and electrical improvements include a newly engineered Space Frame Bracing system and Enhanced Matrix cabinet construction, which helps to suppress unwanted vibration and resonance, while a re-engineered plinth uses tuned-mass damping to further control movement. Alongside this, upgraded drive-unit motor systems, crossover components and internal wiring are designed to reduce distortion and improve the accuracy of the sound. Even the Diamond Dome tweeter benefits from a new grille mesh that allows greater acoustic transparency.
The 800 Series’ distinctive silhouette, meanwhile, is as recognisable as its acoustic reputation, and the latest generation is, whichever units you choose, a striking visual statement. There are four finishes: Stealth Black, Warm White, Light Walnut and Dark Walnut. The first, as the name implies, offers an imperiously monochromatic, contemporary presence; Warm White introduces softer tones with champagne-coloured detailing; Light Walnut adopts the same champagne accents, including an elegant painted Turbine Head assembly; Dark Walnut takes its cue from the limited-production 801 Abbey Road Signature Edition, pairing dark wood and metal detailing with black leather by British luxury giants Connolly.
The company describes its design credo as one in which “science shapes art”, and the D5 makes a persuasive case for the marriage. In all models, panel gaps have been reduced, visible transitions minimised and fixings concealed. Paint processes have been upgraded for richer, more lustrous finishes. The new aluminium top plate has been strengthened and mechanically refined.
The new range, meanwhile, comprises five principal loudspeaker models, from the compact 805 D5 stand-mount to the imposing 801 D5, alongside two centre-channel models for home cinema. Prices begin at £10,000 for the 805 D5 and rise to £43,000 for the flagship 801 D5. Yet while their scale, specification and price may differ, they share the same underlying ambition: to get out the way of—and thus authenticate and enhance—the music.
