Bowers & Wilkins is a brand that has accustomed us to high-end sound equipment with height and price features also beyond the reach of the average user. However, in recent years is trying to bring some devices to the medium-high ranges and sample of this is the new line that we bring you today.
This is Formation, a whole new range of speakers and audio equipment designed to mount a multiroom sound system at home with one or several devices distributed by different rooms.
Formation consists of five different products: Formation Duo, Formation Wedge, Formation Bar, Formation Bass and Formation Audio, all of them with a great design both external and internal, compatible with AirPlay 2 and with its own wireless communication system that promises to keep the audio synchronized with a delay time less than 1 ms.
All the speakers can be controlled and installed by an application for Android and iOS, they are compatible with Spotify Connect, with Bluetooth aptX and they support audio tracks of up to 96 KHz and 24 bits, however, their forms and types of use are very different, as we will see below.
Formation Duo
Topping the catalog we find the Formation Duo speakers, a pair of active, wireless speakers that have a cylindrical and rounded shape similar to the brand’s higher ranges. In fact, they have the same 6.5-inch driver as the 800 series of the brand and a 1-inch tweeter made of carbon fiber separated from the rest of the acoustic box and placed on it in its own enclosure.
Available in different finishes (black and white), its internal amplifiers offer a total of 2 x 125 watts with a frequency response down to 25 Hz. They have WiFi connectivity and an Ethernet RJ45 port. The price? They will go on sale for about $3999.
Formation Wedge
The next on the list is the B & W Formation Wedge, a dedicated wireless speaker that features a beautiful 120-degree design with the backside in curved wood and the fabric-covered front concealing two 1-inch dome tweeters, two 3-way drivers, 5 inches for medium frequencies and a 6-inch subwoofer.
It is the ideological successor of the famous Zeppelin model of the brand, albeit with minor modifications. Their amplifiers offer 2×40 watts for the treble, others 2×40 watts for the media and 1×80 watts for the subwoofer. Its price will be around $899.
Audio Formation
Formation Audio is not a speaker itself, but rather a hub or hub to which we connect our passive speakers and sound equipment that we want to make compatible and communicate with the new range of Bowers Formation.
It does not have amplification, but it does have WiFi connectivity, Airplay 2 and Bluetooth from the rest of the equipment in the range. It has RCA analog and optical connections both input and output for for example using an old CD player or a vinyl record player. Its price will be about $699.
Formation Bar
For lovers of home cinema have presented the Formation Bar, an ultra-thin model of 109 x 1240 x 107 mm three channels with a total of 9 drivers. It has 3 tweeters of 25 mm and 6 woofers of 65 mm for medium-low frequencies.
It connects to the TV through an optical port and will not have HDMI, supporting the decoding of Dolby Digital tracks. The amplification power is 6×40 watts with a frequency response that they claim is between 40 Hz to 28 kHz. Its price will reach $1999.
Formation Bass
Finally, we have the Formation Bass, a wireless subwoofer with a cylindrical shape that was born to complement the rest of the speakers in the range and can be installed together with them to improve the response at low frequencies.
It is built around a dual driver design opposite and uses two 6.5-inchwith a total power of 250 watts amplified by a Class D stage with dynamic equalization. Its price will be $999.