Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond Loudspeakers (Pair) | Pre-Owned

For someone who appreciates aesthetic design, the arresting style of the 802’s cabinet work would be the place to start a description. Up top, in a machined wedge within the gloss black midrange ‘egg’ its the diamond tweeter in its own flute-shaped enclosure. The midrange pod it selflies—in a soft leather surround—atop a Matrix reinforced curved cabinet of 35mm ply which is shaped by a proprietary method atB&W’s own factory in the United Kingdom.Our review pair came in a nice furniture-grade cherry veneer that seamlessly wraps around the curved enclosure. Alternatives are real wood veneer in rosenut: also available is a gorgeous piano black gloss finish.

Diamonds are Forever
The 25mm diamond tweeter belongs to the Nautilus family of high frequency transducers and features a number of refinements that improve on previous generations.

B&W claims diamond possesses properties that make it close to ideal as a material for tweeter domes; it’s extremely stiff while being very light. The tweeter is driven by not one, but four powerful neodymium-iron-boron magnets designed for maximum flux concentration, while the overall design has been engineered to provide maximum output and wide dynamic range at very low distortion. The long Nautilus tube is a simple and clever mechanical means of drawing the tweeter’s back wave away from the dome’s rear surface and out the back of the tapering tube. Being housed in its own decoupled pod, which sits in a compliant compound, actually allows a far better dispersion pattern that is unaffected by the front baffle and isolates the tweeter from enclosure vibrations.

The elongated and organic midrange ‘egg pod’ is constructed from ‘Marlan’, a hard material with suitable resonant properties for the 152mm diameter yellow Kevlar FST driver (now a B&W trademark driver) and is beautifully finished in gloss black. FST stands for ‘Fixed Suspension Transducer’ and is a unique method of attaching the cone to a foam/polymer instead of the traditional rubber or foam surround. Benefits are claimed in terms of midrange transient response and cone resonance control. An aluminium phase plug protrudes from the centre of the driver. The main enclosure houses twin 203mm Rohacell drivers of very high spec. Twin magnet systems reduce distortion and improve cone control while enhancing dynamics and allowing higher playback levels. The bass drivers are aided by B&W’s dimpled ‘Flowport’ bass
reflex system, whose port exits at the bottom of the enclosure which itself stands on an elevated plinth. The crossovers use very high quality parts, including Mundorf capacitors and a host of other quality components that B&W says were chosen only after extensive listening tests. The speaker features custom high-quality binding posts suitable for bi-wiring. Included with each speaker is an adjustable spiking system that is amongst the best I have seen on any loudspeaker system.