B&W A5 and A7 auditioned

[NHL]

A5,

+

Small, like a table top radio

-

Midband a bit constrained

More like a table top radio sound wise, which can be found cheaper

A7,

+

Bass

Never stressed

-

Not quite 2 separate speakers

A little bit big

Actually ordered one A7!

 

[NHL]

Do you reckon this to be Hi-Fi ?

Will actually stream my 30 classic CD's.

Will probably get an iMac as the streaming hub. With iTunes 11 all pieces will fall into place.

 

[chebby]

Do you reckon this to be Hi-Fi ?

I'll tell you later this week. I am going to be trying out a couple of 'next system' ideas including the A7.

 

[NHL]

WHF seems to rate A7 as the current Airplay leader.

Have also auditioned the B&O (even more expensive) Airplay. Not quite as impressive as the A7, B&O did sound very class D.

 

[Cypher]

IMO the A7 has a very natural sound. Does not sound digital at all.

 

[NHL]

Have also auditioned Focal Bird 2.1, the sound was uneven. Some passages of the music did fit great while others not. Also, at low volume level, the very tiny left/right speakers did not impress.

 

[NHL]

Design wise, I believe the A7 hints to old Klipsch speakers (although not equal in size).

 

[NHL]

Online review:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/blog/2012/11/21/review-bowers-wilkins-a7-airplay-speaker

 

[chebby]

Online review:

http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/blog/2012/11/21/review-bowers-wilkins-a7-airplay-speaker

Their reviewer didn't find the mini Toslink connection. (It doubles up with the analogue 3.5mm input.)

 

[Twill]

Interested in what you're thinking of for your next system ideas Chebby?

As you'll know from chats on other threads about the MCR603, I'm looking at this area myself. I love B&W sound, and still like my ancient DM601 speakers, but I can't help thinking £700 is a lot of money for what is, essentially, an airplay speaker with a couple of aux input.

I need something with a network streaming option because I can't fit much of my lossless collection on my iPhone for beaming across, and buying a nettop or something to stream my main collection from a NAS would only add to the A7's cost.

I like the look of the Denon Ceol from that point of view, and wonder how something like Ceol+Q Acoustics 2020i would compare to the A7 in terms of sound.

All very interesting anyway. May trial the A7 just to see.

 

[NHL]

Carried the box home yesterday. Felt reassuringly heavy. Our home is being rebuilt, will unpack it in a weeks time. Have installed iTunes 11 and are ripping classic CD's in the meantime.

 

[NHL]

Just got it working!

Not for the inexperienced computer user!

Had to

* reset the A7 like 7 times, really

* try both with a computer and iPad to register the A7 on the home network

* re configure the firewall, otherwise error message -15000, really

 

[bigboss]

I had this for about a week:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Altec-Lansing-Airplay-Speaker-System/dp/B0061JQ0RG

Sold it for 2 reasons:

1) Sound kept dropping even when connected via Ethernet to the router.

2) Didn't want to get stuck with AirPlay which is Apple proprietary. This has allowed me to not get restricted with iDevices only in the future.

 

[NHL]

Chopin in CD quality, perfect for a Friday evening!

Airplay wasn't as easy as I'd thought.

 

[Cypher]

Do you like the sound NHL ?

Some people don't hear it but IMO there's a big difference between the A5 and the A7. The A7 should be better (more expensive) and it is.

 

[NHL]

@cypher: the sound is very dynamic, not the most forward speakers, more balanced. Makes a good complement to the Rega combination in the living room. The A7 is the one to go for, skip the A5.

One more setup thing: if using a guest network, then communication between devices has to be enabled, otherwise the device pairing will get stuck (no error message, of course).

 

[NHL]

Firewall log: Having the Airplay device on the guest network attracts a lot of port attacks (UDP broadcasts the presence of the device) aimed towards the airplay device. Luckily, this specific hw should not be vulnerable. It would be interesting to know the internal sw used in the device.

Have enabled inbound UDP ports 6001-6003, but still can not get the airplay remote to ffwd or rfwd the songs, or set the volume. Also, adjusting the volume from iTunes causes 1-2 sec sound drop. Q is which more ports to adjust?

 

[chebby]

Well you've put me off the idea of hearing the A7 now.

Way too much faffage.

When I installed AirPlay on my Marantz it was a doddle in comparison (apart from momentarily not being able to tell between a 0 and an O in the code I had to enter when registering for it).

I've not experienced any problems or dropouts (or any issues you have described) in the 20 months i've had the M-CR603.

AirPlay (with an iPhone) has been my daily (and primary) source so I couldn't have tolerated any of this for a moment.

 

[chebby]

Q is which more ports to adjust?

I can only refer you to B&W's own support page...

http://bowersandwilkins.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/55/~/firewall-ports-utilised-by-airplay

 

[bigboss]

To me it appears as if AirPlay is exact opposite of Apple's ethos. Apple is all about simplicity and "It just works" policy. AirPlay is getting far more complicated than that.

 

[NHL]

I guess that the real reason why Naim never have added Airplay is because the combinations of

OS+firewall+router

are to many!

Thanks Chebby for the port list. A problem is that the page does not state if it is inbound/outbound or both. Also, the win7 pdf have a different formula: Add iTunes & Bonjour as trusted apps and enable udp ports 6001-6003 (which are not mentioned in the table).

Will continue to struggle until everything works as it should. 16-bit streaming to the A7 is very enjoyable!

 

[chebby]

I guess that the real reason why Naim never have added Airplay is because the combinations of

OS+firewall+router

are to many!

They know that AirPlay users can just add an ATV or AE.

In this case it's odd that B&W don't seem to make things as easy as it can be.

After registration I only had to enter my network password and AirPlay was suddenly 'discoverable' by iTunes on our iMac and our PCs and laptop (the AirPlay symbol became 'live' with "Marantz M-CR603" listed). Obviously there was no problem with my iPhone 'finding' the Marantz.

I never had to tinker with any firewalls or run set-up apps or anything.

 

[NHL]

Chebby, can you adjust the volume without any sound drop?

 

[chebby]

Chebby, can you adjust the volume without any sound drop?

No dropouts at all whether I control the volume from my iPhone or from the Marantz's own volume control. (If I change the volume from the Marantz, the volume slider on the iPhone goes up or down to match.)

 

[chebby]

If I were you, i'd get rid of this thing whilst you are still within the returns period. Sounds like B&W don't 'do' AirPlay very well and you don't want to be still grappling with it after the returns period has ended.