Bowers & Wilkins (B & W) has announced a new addition to its wireless speaker range. The T7 is the company's first Bluetooth speaker, and the most portable standalone speaker B & W has ever produced. It features two speaker drivers and two bass radiators, and sees the first commercial outing for the company's Micro Matrix cabinet technology.
Based on the honeycombed cabinet design of B & W's 800 Series Diamond speakers, but on a smaller scale, the job of the T7's Micro Matrix is to reduce vibration and distortion for improved acoustics. Within the eye-catching housing, the high end British audio equipment house has installed two "highly optimized" 2-inch drive units, each sporting glass fiber diaphragms, and two force-canceling, high output auxiliary bass radiators tuned to 66 Hz.
A combination of digital signal processing, high-end digital-to-analog converters and two 12 W Class-D amplifiers should help deliver the kind of top notch audio performance B & W is known for. The T7's Bluetooth chip supports the aptX codec to ensure music detail isn't lost in wireless transmission, and users are promised up to 18 hours of continuous playback at "normal" volume levels between charges of its Li-ion battery.
There's a 3.5 mm input jack for feeding in music from non-streaming sources, and the speaker's simple interface controls are supported by a number of audio cues developed with composer, artist and performer Mira Calix.
B & W says that the T7 delivers best in class sound for portable wireless speakers. But there's an awful lot of very capable competition around today and many fly in a whole lot cheaper than the T7's US$349.99 asking price.
Fortunately, you won't have a long wait to find out if the "small but perfectly formed" T7 lives up to its promise. It's available from the end of this month.
Have a look at the short promo video below.
Product page: B & W T7