B&W 800 Diamond active speakers?

[John Duncan]

They haven't said they are replacing the kevlar cone, but that they've discovered something that makes a dramatic difference.

Continuum!

(Presumably like Unobtainium but a bit more...er...obtainable)

 

[Vladimir]

They're dropping the Kevlar, the design team finally got their way over the marketing departmnet.

Are you speculating or can you link us to a reference please?

I was being facetious. It was baseless, I can't see it happening.

For a moment there I had hope and my heart stopped working. Crisis averted.

 

[Vladimir]

Double post.

 

[Andy Clough]

http://www.whathifi.com/news/bw-reveals-new-800-series-diamond-speakers

 

[Vladimir]

They moved on from Kevlar, but 'Continuum' is still a woven composit with isotropic mechanical characteristics on the macro level. They used what they learned from the years of R&D with the Kevlar.

The cabinet build quality looks simply superb. Well done B&W.

 

[Electro]

They haven't said they are replacing the kevlar cone, but that they've discovered something that makes a dramatic difference.

Continuum!

(Presumably like Unobtainium but a bit more...er...obtainable)

It was obviously brought back in time from the future *smile* .

 

[SteveR750]

They haven't said they are replacing the kevlar cone, but that they've discovered something that makes a dramatic difference.

Continuum!

(Presumably like Unobtainium but a bit more...er...obtainable)

Discontinuum?

 

[Frank Harvey]

They moved on from Kevlar, but 'Continuum' is still a woven composit with isotropic mechanical characteristics on the macro level. They used what they learned from the years of R&D with the Kevlar.

There is a fair difference between the two materials though. Comparing the two via a fluid dynamics type presentation, the Continuum driver behaved far better than the Kevlar equivalent.

 

[ellisdj]

I was wong they are now proper fugly - Wilson Audio all day

 

[jjbomber]

I don't dislike them, and they're certainly identifiable.

My beauty queen vote goes for the Piega Classic 80.2 in polished Makassar. Just don't know how to upload a photo but I'm sure you can google them.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I was wong they are now proper fugly - Wilson Audio all day

Honestly, wait until you see them in the flesh. There are some photos on our Flickr page, but they were taken with an iPhone 4S (wish I'd take my proper camera now!).

 

[ellisdj]

It was only a joke, the smaller models are never as nice looking as the larger models, they are always majestic and there are no pics of them sadly

They are very nicely curved speakers and a statement no doubt

 

[stavvy]

They haven't said they are replacing the kevlar cone, but that they've discovered something that makes a dramatic difference.

Continuum!

(Presumably like Unobtainium but a bit more...er...obtainable)

My thoughts exactly! Intrigued to what the cone is actually made of.

 

[ellisdj]

The video on the B&W website under the 800 section is an absolute work of art, if the speakers are half as good as that video then wow.

Thats the best thing I have seen for a speaker company - all should take note of it

Simply Awesome B&W

Website is beautfiful as well

 

[steve_1979]

I'm not going to start giving too much away, but they're not active.

Shame.

 

[bluedroog]

Vladimir - Ha! Only just checked to see my facicious cooment actually came to fruition witht the dropped Kevlar! I always had a suspicion that being fixed to that signature yellow Kevlar was not in the best interest of design. I wonder how differnent this new material is? I'm quite keen to hear these.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Vladimir - Ha! Only just checked to see my facicious cooment actually came to fruition witht the dropped Kevlar! I always had a suspicion that being fixed to that signature yellow Kevlar was not in the best interest of design. I wonder how differnent this new material is? I'm quite keen to hear these.

It looks a very similar material, but when comparing the fluid dynamics type presentations of their behaviour, the new material is far better behaved.

Edit - apologies, mentioned that earlier - didn't realise as I'm posting on a few different threads on various forums.

 

[bluedroog]

What colour is it? The photographs seem to be deliberately almost monochrome.

 

[Frank Harvey]

What colour is it? The photographs seem to be deliberately almost monochrome.

Unless there was something colour in the photo with a pair of gloss black, you could easily be tricked into thinking you were looking at a monochrome photo! If you look on our Flickr page you'll see a pair of 803s in Rosenut which will show it well - it is silver/grey. Which I think works really well on the gloss black models.

 

[Vladimir]

Especially the standing proud metal mounting rings for the drivers. As mentioned by ellisdj also the website and video is very well done. If I was a Brit I would be really proud of B&W (even though a Canadian accountant owns it).

 

[gowiththeflow]

There's a clearer look in these videos....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guVXbSAJ1uk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uAS8JU7gQo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1c-XHjeNg4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkOdKoMBevk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RoLboKB3UM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8oPUTo3_bc

 

[John Duncan]

Fantastic to see the amount of real engineering that has gone into these products, rather than buying in OEM drivers and shoving them in an mdf box.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Fantastic to see the amount of real engineering that has gone into these products, rather than buying in OEM drivers and shoving them in an mdf box.

Plus, the majority of it that is manufactured in-house too. There have been a few bits and bobs over the years that start out being made somewhere else in the UK, but Bowers & Wilkins usually end up bringing it in-house at some point.

 

[Vladimir]

Looks like quite a bit of time goes into making these, even with CNC and robots.

Bowers & Wilkins factory: making the 800 D3 Series

 

[chebby]

Looks like quite a bit of time goes into making these, even with CNC and robots.

Bowers & Wilkins factory: making the 800 D3 Series

It all seems a bit too competent to be British.

It reminds me a little of the B&o virtual factory tour videos from a few years ago.

Like this one ...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=c-DLwf_MKp4