Bowers & Wilkins 802D - Manual (Page 2)

“Vivid dynamic drama and a healthy
dose of realism are what this costly
floorstander brings to the party.”
single top-quality Mundorf capacitor. Kippel’s
developments have already been applied in
part to B&W’s existing Signature and
700-Series models.
SOUND QUALITY
Installed immediately after the 805S
had left the listening room, the contrast
was truly dramatic. While the little
standmount is a superior example of
the breed, changing over to this big
802D floorstander highlights the
inadequacies of small loudspeakers.
Whereas the little 805S does a
fine job of reproducing most of the
signal it’s fed, and perhaps even
delivers a slightly more neutral
balance than the much larger 802D,
the latter completely destroys the
small one’s pretensions as soon as it’s
hooked up. It provides a dose of
genuinely convincing reality that the
baby 805S simply fails to approach.
Vivid dynamic drama, a real feeling of
grip and tension and a healthy dose of
hitherto unheard of realism are what this
costly floorstander brings to the party.
And you’d better believe it’s a heady mix
that quickly becomes seriously addictive.
The very essence of music lies in the
generation of sonic contrasts, and the
ability to recreate these contrasts with
convincing and dramatic realism is what
really sets this speaker way ahead of the
norm. Most impressively for a three-way,
there seems little evidence of time-smear
here, and the consequent transient integrity
is a key factor responsible for the 802D’s
serious dynamic capabilities.
So, what about that diamond tweeter? No, it
doesn’t add sparkle – indeed its strength
seems to be that it doesn’t add anything
readily identifiable at all. You get the high
frequencies alright, but they’re so clean and
well integrated you don’t notice them – you’d
only notice if they were missing. The most
obvious direct evidence for the tweeter’s
contribution is found in the reproduction of
hiss, either inherent FM hiss, or the tape hiss
on early recordings, both of which have a quite
unfamiliar and distinctive silky smoothness.
Applause too is unusually sweet, yet also
uncommonly realistic, and vinyl surface noise
seems somehow less intrusive than usual.
In fact, vinyl sounded simply magnificent
through these speakers. The sheer transparency
of the 802Ds did a fine job with all the material
they were fed, yet in no way disguised the
expensive. Both mid and top sections are
expressly designed to absorb (rather than
reflect) the rearward radiation from behind
the diaphragms, and are smartly finished in
high gloss black.
Based on work done by a German academic
called Kippel, the linearity of the magnetic
motors driving the bass and midrange cones
have been substantially improved, reducing
distortion. A new tweeter suspension has
lowered its fundamental resonance, allowing a
simple first-order crossover network with just a
The midrange and tweeter both have their
own sub-enclosures. The unique ‘free edge’
midrange driver with its 140mm woven Kevlar
cone is housed in a large heavy teardrop, made
in mineral-loaded Marlan, while a substantial
tapered metal tube on the very top houses the
25mm tweeter. A small mesh grille covers the
fragile diamond dome, and is probably best
left on as an accident here could be very
P
B&W 802D loudspeaker [ Review ]
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