“The best loudspeaker isn’t the one that gives the most; it’s the one that loses the least.”
innovation was the key to any company’s future. As he once said, “If you can make a better product, you can sell it.”
Unassuming beginnings, then, for a company that has since focused so single-mindedly on ‘true sound’ – the closest possible approximation of what the musician intended, faithful in every last nuance, speakers that compromise neither the engaged listener nor the original performer. As Bowers himself said: “The best loudspeaker isn’t the one that gives the most; it’s the one that loses the least.”
Given those beginnings, it’s amazing that Australia had access to Bowers & Wilkins as early as 1971, the start of one of the longest-standing hi-fi distributorships in the world. Convoy International was, in fact, established a year before B&W, in 1965, and since it first brought B&W Down Under the Sydney-based company has maintained 45 years of consistent nation- al distribution and support through its local network of dealers.
“It’s hard to say how many B&W products we’ve sold in Australia in 45 years,” says Convoy’s John Martin. “We conservatively estimate in the region of between 300,000 and 400,000 pairs or units. Both we and B&W have always been committed to moving with the times, so that today you see enormous diversity within the range – from high-end to personal audio, outdoor, custom, in-car and more. We actively sell more 100 different B&W models – without counting colour variants. And most we carry in stock 365 days a year.”
Bowers & Wilkins has indeed spent its five decades constantly breaking new ground in research, development and design. Profits from the original P1 were spent on audio test equipment (Bowers’ passion for test gear is legendary) rapidly yielding an updated P2, while 1968 saw the arrival of the DM1 and DM2, the company’s first domestic monitors aimed at serious music lovers – people like Bowers himself.
The 1970s saw B&W open a new production facility, complete with laser technology, and the release of a real breakthrough speaker design, the DM70. This was an 11-module curved slimline device that took the hitherto unheard-of step of separating the tweeter from the main cabinet. It was as much a statement of intent from Bow- ers as the new 800 Series Diamond is today, and was fully created in-house, including its drive units, bringing Bowers the control he needed over every performance-related element of the loudspeaker.
The icons have continued – the instrument-like Emphasis, the snail-shelled Nautilus design (left), still bewitching customers after more than 20 years on the books. Whether it be Sir Kenneth Grange crafting the original 801 or Morten Warren mapping out the Zeppelin, this is a company that believes solutions to speaker design need not all be black boxes. Yet despite their variety, B&W designs are somehow instantly recognisable, a device that looks the part yet most importantly can deliver Bower’s promise for that “best loudspeaker… the one that loses the least.”
Today B&W speakers are to be found wherever a better audio experience is paramount. When Paul McCartney sought to start tweaking ‘Let It Be’, his engineers did it on B&W speakers in Abbey Road. When George Lucas wanted audio to accompany the visuals for his ‘low budget science fiction adventure’, he used the British brand. Wherever audiophiles gather, B&W speakers head the list for listening. For public spaces as well as private – when PJ Harvey wanted to create an album in public view in Somerset House, she picked B&W speakers that she could rely on under pressure. When Bjork wanted a sound system to sound like we were inside her mouth, above her head and within her heart, she came to B&W. The brand’s influence has never been greater, and under its new ownership by Eva Automation, a Silicon Valley start-up led by Gideon Yu, Bowers & Wilkins is primed to continue its iconic success in existing and expanding markets. It has also
Over the past five decades, one English company has created, diversified, evolved, perfected, scrutinised and studied the elusive everyday nature of sound. Bower & Wilkins’ founder John Bowers – a classical music enthusiast in the grand tradition of soldering-iron-wielding British boffins – set himself on the hi-fi trail after wondering why stereo recordings rarely matched the vibrancy of a live concert. We are still hearing the benefits of his pioneering research 50 years on.
The company’s inception came in 1966, in a small Worthing TV rental and repair shop which had a sideline in PA systems for schools and churches. Bowers began designing and assembling loudspeakers at the back of the shop, believing that The Bowers & Wilkins name first appeared above this radio & television retail and repair shop in Worthing, UK.