Bowers & Wilkins 805S Bookshelf Speaker Review

[martin900]

They're a tough speaker to review by listening. I know lot of folks will go "wow" within the first song but you have to give them time and then the bubble bursts and you start noticing the recessed midrange.
What also struck me with the N802's was the fact that you could hear the tweeter playing on top, you could close your eyes and point with the hand where the sound was exactly coming from.

 

[tuga]

I would expect the response below to be more "bright and bassy" as the whole "warmth" (upper-bass) and "fullness" (lower-mids and mids) region (200-1,000Hz) is recessed, more obvious and taxing with classical music.
The 805S will likely produce a more "distant" sonic perspective, even if the JBL does also exhibit a very sligth and wide dip in the "presence" region.

 

[Koeitje]

Exactly matches my own experience with B&W. At first it sounds fine, but then you notice something is not quite right.

 

[tuga]

805S vs. HDI-1600 -> Estimated In-Room Response w/ psychoacoustic smoothing:

 

[Razorhelm]

What is with the people who lurk round this forum saying things shouldn't be reviewed?

All the reviews add to our knowledge and help us understand the audio world a bit better.

This one in particular is a no brainer its a classic speaker by a well known company, how is it not useful to know how it measures?

As people have already mentioned there are reviews out there you can compare to which is really interesting, you might see one second hand and make an informed choice wether to pick it up, it gives you a sense of what that manufactures products were like and how they have evolved.

It's such a wierd thing to complain about what someone has done for you, for free no less!

 

[Beave]

More discussion https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/b-w-805.7500/

There are also more modern versions, like D3 tested in Stereophile https://www.stereophile.com/content/bowers-wilkins-805-d3-loudspeaker-measurements

Notice how both the 805S and the 805D3 have very similar resonances right around 1kHz, as seen on frequency response plots AND in impedance plots. The newer version of the speaker has a different cone material (now continuum, no longer kevlar) but still appears to have the same problem as the older version of the cone. It's probably a surround termination issue that happens regardless of cone material.

Also note how similar the impedance is for the two speakers, both in magnitude and phase. The curves are very similar.

The new one seems to have less of a cone resonance around 3-4kHz getting through the crossover, so that's a good thing. It's probably where the newer cone material shows its benefit.

But the newer diamond tweeter is hot in the newer D3 version, with a big peak around 10kHz.

 

[Thomas savage]

What is with the people who lurk round this forum saying things shouldn't be reviewed?

All the reviews add to our knowledge and help us understand the audio world a bit better.

This one in particular is a no brainer its a classic speaker by a well known company, how is it not useful to know how it measures?

As people have already mentioned there are reviews out there you can compare to which is really interesting, you might see one second hand and make an informed choice wether to pick it up, it gives you a sense of what that manufactures products were like and how they have evolved.

It's such a wierd thing to complain about what someone has done for you, for free no less!

Well said , welcome to humanity 2020.

It blows my mind as well .

 

[DSJR]

Responding to a previous comment, modern Harbeths DON'T measure as bad as this, the presence area coming nearer to 'flat' in current models. Please don't judge the entire brand and subsequent product evolution over twenty odd years on a deliberately response-tailored BBC monitor replacement!

What worries me with B&W's though, is that these and their larger similarly balanced siblings are used in some mixing (Abbey Road) and mastering suites (product placement/sponsorship?). Hopefully the engineers can adapt to the 'sound' of these.

 

[Robbo99999]

Well said , welcome to humanity 2020.

It blows my mind as well .

Thomas, what's your new avatar there, it was bugging me that I couldn't work out if that was an arm or part of a car or part of a horse or carriage or something as you were going along that road?!

 

[MZKM]

Thomas, what's your new avatar there, it was bugging me that I couldn't work out if that was an arm or part of a car or part of a horse or carriage or something as you were going along that road?!

Looks like a dog on a leash.

 

[Robbo99999]

Looks like a dog on a leash.

Ah, the neon is a leash....dog is as big as a horse, may as well strap a carriage to it!

 

[andreasmaaan]

Ah, the neon is a leash....dog is as big as a horse, may as well strap a carriage to it!

Or a chariot with @Thomas savage in it.

 

[tuga]

Responding to a previous comment, modern Harbeths DON'T measure as bad as this, the presence area coming nearer to 'flat' in current models. Please don't judge the entire brand and subsequent product evolution over twenty odd years on a deliberately response-tailored BBC monitor replacement!

What worries me with B&W's though, is that these and their larger similarly balanced siblings are used in some mixing (Abbey Road) and mastering suites (product placement/sponsorship?). Hopefully the engineers can adapt to the 'sound' of these.

Most Classical music is monitored on B&Ws:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ers-are-the-classical-music-pros-using.12225/

 

[thewas]

Responding to a previous comment, modern Harbeths DON'T measure as bad as this, the presence area coming nearer to 'flat' in current models. Please don't judge the entire brand and subsequent product evolution over twenty odd years on a deliberately response-tailored BBC monitor replacement!

The current Harbeths don't have such an obvious presence dip on-axis but off-axis and in the sound power (similar holds also for other "BBC retro loudspeakers" like Spendor and Graham audio) as they use too high crossover frequencies for their midwoofers size and lack of waveguided tweeters, here a more recent example (look at the 30° curve, if they would measure higher angles it would be even more obvious):

Source: https://www.inputaudio.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/harbethsuperhl5plus_audio4_2015.pdf

I prefer such too though compared to similar driver loudspeakers that are crossed lower and show rather elevated sound power in the presence region, its a well sounding compromise from the good old BBC audio research days if you cant or do not want to use wave guides.

 

[Thomas savage]

Thomas, what's your new avatar there, it was bugging me that I couldn't work out if that was an arm or part of a car or part of a horse or carriage or something as you were going along that road?!

Ha ha.

I can't claim credit for this one , it's a picture of a members dog that passed away recently.

I thought it was beautiful so as a tribute I used it for my avatar.

 

[30 Ounce]

Odd that the original Nautilus 805’s measure better than subsequent ones.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/bw-nautilus-805-loudspeaker-measurements

How do you get a tweeter to put out 94 db at 100hz?

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

The 80x S series was rather during the transition period of B&W from the previously more neutral measuring and sounding loudspeakers with steeper crossovers like 80x Matrix to the nowadays even more ragged ones with minimalistic crossovers and specific voicing.
...

True, the 805S' crossover consists of one inductor (woofer) and one capacitor and one resistor (tweeter). Unfortunately, because drivers are very good.
With steeper crossover filters this would be a very good loudspeaker.

 

[thewas]

Odd that the original Nautilus 805’s measure better than subsequent ones.

As I wrote here in the early 2000s the company's orientation changed to other prioritites than linear frequency response.

 

[Vladimir Filevski]

How do you get a tweeter to put out 94 db at 100hz?

"Bleeding" from woofer output, because it is not close field measurement.

 

[thewas]

True, the 805S' crossover consists of one inductor (woofer) and one capacitor and one resistor (tweeter). Unfortunately, because drivers are very good.
With steeper crossover filters this would be a very good loudspeaker.

With a steeper crossover the vertical directivity wouldn't have such big lobes but the horizontal directivity would become worse, unless they would also change the crossover frequency which would totally change the voicing and also introduce a different disavantage.