Bowers & Wilkins A7/ Wireless
speaker
B&W’s Zeppelin products had a
characteristically adventurous style that we came to love – so it’s a surprise
to see the A7 opting for such a subdued design. As it happens, that’s the
point: unlike the attention-seeking (and now iconic) Zeppenlin, the A7 is designed
to blend into its surroundings. It doesn’t even have a dock. Instead, Apple’s
AirPlay tech is the primacy connection, so you essentially place it out of the
way, anywhere you like.
Bowers
& Wilkins A7
Of course, just because the A7 is designed
to blend in doesn’t mean it’s dull or dreary – this is B&W, after all. No,
what you get is a seriously solid block of classy audio design. Apart from the
logo, the only other detail on the typically unfussy brushed-metal face of the
A7 is a single LED light that changes color depending on which input is
selected.
The sides are just as uncluttered. On the
left the metal band doubles as a power button, on the right it’s a volume control
while on the back there’s a neat row of inputs beneath the bass port. That’s
right, while the A7 is clearly designed primarily as an Airplay speaker; it
still has a standard 3.5mm aux-in and a USB input for a computer. There’s also
an Ethernet socket for those not yet ready to go wireless.
Set up no longer requires a computer and is
just about as simple as Airplay gets, and once done your A7 appears whenever
you press the AirPlay icon on your Apple portable or iTunes computer (be it a
Mac or a PC). And of course there’s nothing to stop you filling your house with
multiple A7s, Zeppelin Airs or soon-to-be-released A5s to create a simple and
stylish multi-room system. True, you can send music from an iOS device to only
one of these at a time, but a computer can stream to all of them for when you
want to entertain a party that’s spilled into every room of the house.
Fantastic audio quality
Sitting at the top of the Bowers &
Wilkins audio ‘dock’ range means the A7 comes with a great deal of sonic
expectation. Honestly, can it really sound so much better than the excellent
Zeppelin Air and really justify the extra money it’s expected to command? Why,
yes. Yes it can.
It might share the Air’s five-driver array
but the bigger woofer and increased cabinet volume of the A7 results in
significantly greater bass extension. Play a lossless version of Polica’s
haunting I See My Mother and there’s a depth and gravity to the introductory
bass line that the Air can’t match: it lends extra, immediately engaging impact
to the track.
The Zeppelin Air’s broad wingspan can make
you assume that it would be the better of the two at spreading sound to the
left and right, but in practice it’s the A7 that provides the wider soundstage.
In fact, the way it handles the strategically placed left and right effects of
the track occasionally fools you into thinking you’re listening to a pair of
properly separated and toed-in speakers. Be in no doubt, this will fill all but
the most humungous of rooms.
The
A7might not have the Zeppelin’s eye-catching looks, but it does deliver
head-turning sound
It does subtlety, too
But despite its looks, the A7 is no blunt
instrument. The complicated, largely electronic strands of I See My Mother are
defined with truly impressive detail, while maintaining cohesion with the
presentation as a whole, and the vocals are projected with such clarity that
it’s almost possible to make out singer Channy Leaneagh’s ambiguous, heavily
vocoded lyrics.
Switching to Bloc Party’s Real Talk via
streaming proves that the A7 can also work its magic on more heavily compressed
tracks too. Here, the punch of the bass impresses as much as the depth and
weight, and while the track is more narrowly mastered it still benefits from
the A7’s exceptional ability to give each instrument its own space – it’s more
like standing right in front of the band than a single box fed a compressed MP3
should ever really be.
If you want to hear the a7 at its very
best, hook it up to your computer. While The Mother from The Road OST is
detailed and subtly dynamic with AirPlay, playing it via USB releases extra
definition and nuance to make it achingly, beautifully melancholic.
Connecting a device using a 3.5mm jack
doesn’t result in quite the same level of audio quality, but it’s still a match
for AirPlay, and those wanting to connect something with an optical output can
use a mini-optical cable that 3.5mm aux-in doubles-up as a digital connection.
For some it will be a slight shame that
B&W hasn’t sought to include DLNA or Bluetooth support, but the A7 is all
about simplicity. It’s about just throwing a tune from your phone with genuine
hi-fi sound quality. We’d say it’s a job well done.
The A7 can fool you into thinking
you’re listening to a pair of proper hi-fi speakers – and it will fill all but
the most humongous of rooms
AirPlay set-up app
Browers & Wilkins AirPlay Setup (Free)
Setting up a Zeppenlin Air when it first
came out was a rather fiddly process that involved a computer, Ethernet cable
and network addresses, but any B&W AirPlay device you buy now can be
installed using this rather descriptively titled app.
AirPlay
set-up app
Essentially, the first time you turn on
your A7 (or A5 or Zeppenlin) it creates its own wireless network, which the app
prompts you to connect to. It’s a bit of a shame that doing so means leaving
the app and going into your phone’s Wi-Fi settings, but we suspect that most
iOS users will be perfectly comfortable with that and B&W has thoughtfully
included audio instructions for those who aren’t. From there it’s back to the
app, tap in your home network’s details and about 90 seconds later your A7 is
connected and ready to go.
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Specifications
§
Speakers: two 25mm tweeters (2 x 25W), two mm
mid-range drivers (2 x 25W), one 150 mm subwoofer (1x 50W)
§
Frequency response: 40 – 36,000 Hz, +/- 3dB
§
Connectivity: RJ45 Ethernet, Wi-Fi, mini-jack,
USB 2.0
§
Dimensions: (L x W x H): 360 x 160 x 220 mm
§
Weight: 5.7kg
§
Price: $999.99
§ Rating:
5 stars
§ For:
A fantastically deep, wide, well-organized presentation; bags of detail;
awesome build
§ Against:
Lacks connection options
§ Verdict:
If you use AirPlay from your Apple portable and want awesome sound, the A7
demands your attention. But in a subtle way…
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