Zeppelin Mini, the eagerly anticipated little brother of the now iconic  B&W Zeppelin iPod speaker, is now available in an increasing number of stores and countries.

Amazon.com and John Lewis.com both have stock as do many Apple stores.

France, Denmark, Spain and Italy should all be be receiving stock this week and many other European countries will be following.

We recommend contacting your local dealer who’ll be able to let you know more exact delivery details.

Bowers & Wilkins is delighted to announce it received six awards at the prestigious What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision Awards. The five category winners and a Product of the Year award perfectly display not only Bowers & Wilkins’ commitment to high-quality new technologies, but also the value Bowers & Wilkins products offer over a lifetime of listening.

Heading up the awards is a Product of the Year in the Style Speaker Packages category for the new MT-25 system. This compact home theatre package combines five M-1 mini monitors with the compact ASW 608 subwoofer. This proved to be a winning combination, offering dynamic and well-integrated sound in a highly desirable package.

The MT-30 system, which features the M-1 satellites, this time with the legendary PV1 subwoofer, won Best Style Speaker Package above £1500 once again.

The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin was a repeat winner, taking the award for best iPod speaker system over £300 for the second year running. A testament to the long-lasting quality of this extremely desirable speaker system, in what is a very fast moving category.

The repeat winners continued in the Best Speaker Package category, where the 685 Theatre was named as best system above £1000 for the second year running.

Finally, Bowers & Wilkins dominated the subwoofer category, winning both awards available for the ASW 610 and the PV1. The latter winning a What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision award for an incredible sixth year running.

You can watch What Hi-Fi? Sound & Vision’s video review of the MT-25 here.

B&W Zeppelin Mini

US customers can now pre-order  Zeppelin Mini from www.amazon.com

Two years and an unprecedented collection of glowing reviews and prestigious awards later, the classic B&W Zeppelin iPod speaker is joined by Zeppelin Mini. Zeppelin Mini attains the same high standards in sound quality and design set by Zeppelin, but in a more compact form.

There are major design advances, too, including an updated version of the docking arm. On Zeppelin Mini it rotates 90 degrees, allowing you even easier access to your music through the Cover Flow menu system. You can also watch videos and enhanced podcasts in this manner.

Bowers & Wilkins’ iconic Zeppelin redefined what could be expected from an iPod speaker system. Digital music needn’t be harsh, brash, or unpalatable - it can be delivered in glorious high-fidelity. Plus, the device that provided this amazing sound could be a thing of beauty. Two years and an unprecedented collection of glowing reviews and prestigious awards later, Zeppelin is joined by Zeppelin Mini.

Zeppelin Mini attains the same high standards in sound quality and design set by Zeppelin, but in a more compact form. It is reduced in size, not in sound, and has amazing volume levels for such a diminutive package.  It’s ideal for lounges just like its larger sibling, but it can easily be slotted into a bedroom, kitchen, or student digs.

Key differentiating features include an updated docking arm. On the original this innovative solution worked incredibly well, allowing hassle-free mounting of any iPod, and easy access to Apple’s user-friendly interface. These qualities remain, but the addition of USB connectivity allows Zeppelin Mini to bypass the analogue output stage of any iPod, providing access to the very best digital sound an iPod has to offer.

From this beneficial acoustic starting point Bowers & Wilkins’ decades of experience producing the very best speakers for demanding customers such as Abbey Road Studios, and advanced Digital Signal Processing combine to create a sonic experience that belies the compact stature of Zeppelin Mini.

The recent work Bowers & Wilkins has undertaken in the area of DSP-intensive projects such as the in-car system for the new Jaguar XJ have provided knowledge and advances found in Zeppelin Mini, in the same way the legendary Nautilus^TM informs all Bowers & Wilkins current speakers. For example, a key Bowers & Wilkins technology such as Flowport^TM combines with digital advances such as Digital EQ to provide a clean, room filling sound, with base levels that have to be heard to be believed.

But Zeppelin is about more than amazing sound - it has been hailed by many as a design classic - and the iconic design of the original is reflected in the Zeppelin Mini’s subtle curves. Add to this the attention to detail in terms of materials and construction that Bowers & Wilkins is justifiably famous for and it’s a worthy addition to the Zeppelin family.

There are major design advances, too, including an updated version of the docking arm. On Zeppelin Mini it rotates 90 degrees, allowing you even easier access to your music through the Cover Flow menu system. You can also watch videos and enhanced podcasts in this manner.

The Zeppelin Mini also adds the ability to stream music direct from your PC or Mac via a dedicated USB socket. This allows you even more flexibility in terms of how you play your music, and any computer system will benefit from the improved sound quality and digital processing that Zeppelin Mini’s advanced Digital Signal Processing and drive unit technology offer. This USB connection also has the advantage of letting you synchronise your iPod or iPhone with your computer.

As Bowers & Wilkins has proved with Zeppelin, constant attention to iPod developments and customer demands through the medium of freely available firmware upgrades allows Zeppelin users to keep pace with new technology. This level of support will again be key to the continued success of Zeppelin Mini.

Zeppelin Mini boasts all the quality of the original Zeppelin, but in a more compact package perfect for smaller spaces.

You can watch the introductory video below

The Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association’s annual expo is always an important date in the calendar for Bowers & Wilkins and this year is no exception. With over 25,000 visitors, CEDIA Expo is the largest trade show in the custom electronics industry so it is no surprise that we should choose this exhibition to preview exciting new developments in our custom installation product line up.

Our first range of custom installation speakers using integral enclosures, CI 700 Series, will be on show along with a brand new CI 600 Series which offers value, style and ease of installation. Both ranges have been developed after listening to feedback from installers all over the world and incorporate latest technologies to enhance installation time and performance.  The CI 600 Series can be installed in super fast time without the need for tools and offers considerable sound quality with a host of performance enhancements introduced throughout the range. Based on the acclaimed CT 700 range, the CI 700 Series boasts exceptional sonic performance as well as a unique retro-fitable baffle and enclosure system that prevents any potential loss in audio quality. Equally at home in a home theatre or hi-fi set up, CI 700 Series speakers can be mixed and matched with CT 700 components in order to make the best use of available space.

Our Custom Theatre range will also be enhanced by the introduction of CT SW15, an awesome new subwoofer that provides the last word in deep and powerful bass.  The CT SW15 handles the most explosive sound tracks with ease yet, as you would expect from Bowers & Wilkins, it remains musically tuneful and exceptionally low in colouration.

We have chosen CEDIA Expo to preview some new special-edition models from Rotel, the RCD-06SE CD Player and RA-05SE integrated amplifier. The RCD-06SE replaces the very popular RCD-06. Externally the components maintain the same sleek styling and remarkable build quality of the original. However, internally the RCD-06SE has undergone major changes, many of which are a direct result of the developments made during the creation of the flagship Rotel 15 Series.  The outgoing RA-05 has similarly benefitted from developments to the 15 Series. Extensive time spent tuning, upgrading and switching components in this model has resulted in the RA-05SE, a product that shares the original slim-line good looks and build quality but takes its audio performance to the next level.

Classé has also got new products on show at the CEDIA Expo, namely the new CT Series. Designed with the equipment rack in mind the CT Series of power amps provides the perfect partnership to Bowers & Wilkins’ CT 800 Theatre System. Including new circuits, new power supplies and a high-tech cooling system these amps provide the optimum in performance for any high end theatre set up.

These products are due for release over the coming months so look out for more information on our website.

What Hi-fi? Sound & Vision has produced a video review of the new MT-25 Home Theatre surround sound speaker package. The system partners the famous M-1 satellite speakers with the new and incredibly compact ASW 608 subwoofer.  The result, as What Hi-fi confirm, is an incredibly capable system at a very reasonable price.

MT-25

The video can be watched on the What Hi-Fi? Sound and Video web site. The MT-25 is currently only available in the UK, but will be available elsewhere soon.

People often ask about the origins of the Fixed Suspension Transducer (FST), the Bowers & Wilkins drive unit technology that features on many of our best-regarded loudspeakers. The truth is, it was half inspiration, half insulation.

Bowers & Wilikins FST drive unit

Loudspeaker engineers have long cursed the drive unit’s roll surround’s behaviour. To allow enough compliance to work at low frequencies it needs to be floppy but this means that it doesn’t support its own mass at high frequencies, so you get a resonance. So it would be great to somehow remove it.
Gary Geaves, now head of research at Bowers & Wilkins, was playing around with some Finite Element models, which hinted that it might be possible to remove the surround, and instead just curve the edge of the cone and attach it directly to the chassis. We prototyped this ’surroundless’ cone and, in all honesty, it was hopeless. There was a massive mechanical reflection - a standing wave - at the edge of the cone. But it got us thinking.

In organ pipes you get a different but related set of standing wave reflections formed if the end of the tube is open or closed. In the surroundless driver we noticed that the reflection at the fixed edge of the cone bore a similar relation to the reflection at the free edge of a normal cone, so we postulated that there would be an edge stiffness condition somewhere between fixed and free that would give us minimal reflection. The hunt was on for the perfect compliance.

We experimented with all sorts of things. This started with tiny rubber half-rolls but these always had there own resonance so perhaps the next big leap forward was that we tried ’solid’ materials under the edge of the cone instead. This began with O-rings of different hardness, then silicon rubber, foamed rubber, getting softer and softer. Next up was foamed gasket material; we started to see some interesting behaviour but there was still too much stiffness and a lack of damping, so we tried draught excluder.

The very first grade we tried was promising so it was off to the home insulation section of Steyning’s hardware store to get every brand and type we could lay our hands on. Luckily, we found something that worked really, really well, the frequency response was almost totally devoid of ripples, sensitivity was up and the distortion had dropped to hitherto unknown levels.

It turned out our favourite grade of draught excluder was from a rogue batch, getting a similar grade in production quantities was a rather more painful challenge but if you own a pair of our speakers with an FSP driver, you’re fortunate to hear that we got there in the end!
To read more about FST and other Bowers & Wilkins’ technologies click here.

The anticipation of a rather exciting, but currently secret, announcement to be made by Jaguar on July 9th had has thinking about driving recently. In particular, it got us thinking about our favourite driving tunes; the music we love to listen to when cruising along Highway One in the US, or the stress relief of an old favourite when stuck in traffic in central London.

Here’s the Society of Sound five driving tracks to get you started, but we’d love to hear your suggestions. And we’ll give three months full membership to Society of Sound to the non-member who comes up with the best ones, and we’ll add six months onto the subscription for the best selection from some one that’s already a full member.

Peter Gabriel – Sledgehammer
Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
Heaven 17 – Temptation
Eurhythmics – Here Comes The Rain Again
The Beatles – Ticket to Ride

After Bowers & Wilkins worked to a tight schedule to complete the elephant subwoofer on time,
it was ready to be shipped to Nairobi courtesy of Kenya Airways. Dr Graeme Shannon arrived
in Nairobi two days prior to the loudspeaker to get set up and collect the fieldwork vehicle, which would be used both to transport the Loudspeaker to Amboseli National Park, and to conduct the playback experiments to elephants.

Continuing in the tradition of tight deadlines, the speaker was finally cleared through customs and made available shortly before the end of working hours on Friday 29 May. On Saturday morning all the equipment was loaded into the back of the Landrover and Graeme headed south out of Nairobi towards the border town of Namanga. At this point the tar road ended, and the remainder of the journey (60 miles) was completed on a dirt road. Despite the dust and bumpy road, the journey was made in good time and the elephant research camp reached by early afternoon. The tented camp is located in the heart of the park and enjoys excellent views of Mount Kilimanjaro as well as being frequented by an abundance of wildlife, including elephant, buffalo, lion, zebra and wildebeest.

Once all the equipment was unpacked and the speaker removed from the back of the Landrover it was time to see how it had fared during the 4,500-mile journey from the Bower & Wilkins offices in Steyning, West Sussex to Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The battery terminals were connected and the power was switched on, a low satisfying pop emitted from the speaker confirmed that the amplifiers were in full working order. Once the solid-state recorder (which stores the elephant calls as digital audio files) was connected, it was time to play the first elephant rumble through the speaker. The volume was maintained at a low-level in order to prevent damage to the drivers and provide a cautious start to the testing phase.

Sure enough, a very realistic and high quality rumble was produced and both of the main drivers located on the side of the speaker could be seen moving as they generated the low frequencies that are the hall-mark of the contact call of an adult elephant. The power required by the system was such that the copper wires coming from the battery had to be doubled in size in order to provide sufficient current to the amplifiers. However, once this was completed the Loudspeaker was able to produce elephant calls in excess of 115 db, well above the 105 db that were needed by the researchers for their playback experiments.  And they sounded sensational!

Once these tests on the elephant calls were complete, there was just one more thing to try. How did the loudspeaker sound when playing music? Graeme connected his ipod and tried out a few tunes on the resident buffalo that were feeding just outside the camp. While most of the songs fell on deaf ears, Nickelback elicited a definite response with the buffalo stopping to listening for the entire length of one track. Bowers & Wilkins loudspeakers will rarely have had such an unusual quality control test!

The Sussex University researchers are currently consulting with Stephen Entwistle at Bowers & Wilkins so that they can tweak the system to reach the volumes necessary for playbacks of lion roars. One part of their research project involves examining how adept elephant matriarchs of different ages are at discerning more dangerous from less dangerous predators.  More on this later…

Posted by Dr Karen McComb.
Graeme Shannon and I had the privilege of being at B&W while the final touches were put to our newly designed subwoofer, and it was tested and made ready for shipping to Kenya.  It was fantastic to be there seeing it all take shape, watching it being put through tests in the B&W anechoic chamber and tweaked to obtain a flat response on those all important low frequencies, and finally hearing it broadcasting an elephant rumble.  It sounded fantastic - and well qualified for its name “the Ngurumo”, which in swahili means “the sound of thunder”. The whole team at B&W joined forces to allow us to meet our deadline, with Stephen Entwistle staying admirably cool and focused at the centre of operations.  Graeme managed to get the loudspeaker to Heathrow for shipping with minutes to spare.  He is now in Nairobi awaiting its arrival.  We feel sure the elephants will be impressed - and will be able to report back on this shortly!