B&W makes a Bluetooth speaker with honeycomb inspired design

Everyone has a Bluetooth speaker these days, from people known for sound to people not known for sound, and even some brands who should probably stay away from sound altogether. Bowers & Wilkins isn’t that last group, though, making products that shine, and now it has a Bluetooth speaker to add to its range of audiophile gear.

That speaker is the T7, a Bluetooth speaker that takes a departure from the classic B&W Zeppelin we’ve seen for the past few years, removing the need for a dock now that we’re living in a wireless world and making the speaker the entire device.

Technology and design is coming from the 800 Series Diamond speakers made by B&W and used in Abbey Road Studios in the UK, with the speaker sitting inside a frame held in place by a honeycomb structure Bowers & Wilkins calls “Micro Matrix” which doesn’t just look interesting, but also holds the speaker in place to reduce resonance and vibrations, resulting in a clearer sound.

Two 50mm drivers sit inside the speaker, with two bass radiators designed to make the speaker push out a large amount of the low sounds, while the Micro Matrix structure does its thing to stop the speaker from vibrating in large amounts, meaning the bass should be better and the speaker should be clearer and more stable across the board.

You can expect from digital to analogue converters on-board here, and there’s also aptX support working with the Bluetooth, meaning high-end audio should be able to be sent to this speaker and played back with ease.

“Here in T7 we have another standard-setting product from Bowers & Wilkins,” said Geoff Matthews, CEO of Convoy International, the company that brings in B&W products to Australia.

“The speaker utilises Micro Matrix technology ensuring the maintenance of our legendary quality speaker sound. A sweetener is the 18 hour battery life which just adds to the convenience of this superb product.”

B&W’s change to the interface looks particularly interesting, mostly because B&W has actually thought about a way of making the speaker interesting to use, rather than just push a bunch of buttons and either hear nothing or generic sound effects, hoping in the end that it all works, which in truth is the way most use Bluetooth speakers.

Instead, the B&W has come together with Mira Calix, an international artist and performer that has developed a series of audio cues to work when you press the buttons. Almost all Bluetooth speakers do this in some way, but the partnering with a musician could make this more interesting, and hopefully easy to understand across the board.

As for pricing, the Bowers & Wilkins T7 will be priced in the mid-to-high end of the Bluetooth speaker spectrum, with a recommended retail price of $499.95 when it lands at the Apple store, David Jones, and specialist retailers across Australia.

Given the audio heritage B&W has, we can’t say we’re surprised, and are now very keen to play with this speaker.