Bowers & Wilkins Announces New Research Facility

[gene]

Bowers & Wilkins, the famous British audio brand, is announcing the relocation of its world-famous research and development center to a new and larger facility with cutting-edge equipment and tools. The move represents a significant investment to expand the team and accelerate the company’s ability to develop new capabilities that will drive innovation across its suite of luxury home speakers, headphones and performance car audio. We got a chance to talk to B&W about their new facility and ask some in-depth questions every Audioholic wants to know.

Read: Bowers & Wilkins New Research & Development Facility

 

[mtrycrafts]

If that picture is a representation of a testing room of the past at B&W, I wonder h=what the new ones will look like?
Marble and granite front walls?

Oh, almost missed the lack of a curtain to hide the speaker.

 

[Swerd]

Gene – In the article, the 2nd and 3rd questions and answers are repeats of each other. Might they be a cut & paste error?

AH: Will the new SRE facility be used for product development alone or will B&W be using it to pursue any less commercial and more scientific research? If so, what lines of research does B&W want to explore?

RC: The primary function of the facility is to work on furthering innovations in the performance audio space. We will always look to push the boundaries of what is possible. We have exciting plans for the future of the brand and look forward to sharing that with everyone.

AH: Will the new SRE facility be used for product development alone or will B&W be using it to pursue any less commercial and more scientific research? If so, what lines of research does B&W want to explore?

RC: The primary function of the facility is to work on furthering innovations in the performance audio space. We will always look to push the boundaries of what is possible. We have exciting plans for the future of the brand and look forward to sharing that with everyone.

 

[gene]

Gene – In the article, the 2nd and 3rd questions and answers are repeats of each other. Might they be a cut & paste error?

thanks I fixed it.

 

[BriReeves629]

If that picture is a representation of a testing room of the past at B&W, I wonder h=what the new ones will look like?
Marble and granite front walls?

Oh, almost missed the lack of a curtain to hide the speaker.

The new facility plants will have leaves that dampen the acoustics of the room...


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[BriReeves629]

Bowers & Wilkins, the famous British audio brand, is announcing the relocation of its world-famous research and development center to a new and larger facility with cutting-edge equipment and tools. The move represents a significant investment to expand the team and accelerate the company’s ability to develop new capabilities that will drive innovation across its suite of luxury home speakers, headphones and performance car audio. We got a chance to talk to B&W about their new facility and ask some in-depth questions every Audioholic wants to know.

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Read: Bowers & Wilkins New Research & Development Facility

Great article! Can’t wait to hear some of the new B&W products. He mentioned car audio. I wonder if some of their products will be available after-market (I haven’t purchased my Maserati yet...)!


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[TheWarrior]

Why would they dodge the question about their anechoic chamber? I don't understand the reason to have the chambers performance metrics kept a secret, especially when you're touting a new research facility.

Was this a marketing department idea that went too far before someone realized what goes in to the design, or did they just find out how much a trampoline floor costs?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Why would they dodge the question about their anechoic chamber?

AH: Can you tell me a bit more about the anechoic chambers? How large are they and how low in frequency are they able to measure?

B&W: We do not disclose this information to the public.

Sounds like they're not very proud of their anechoic chambers.

Can't even disclose the size of their anechoic chambers?

Very lame!

Makes me wonder if they are really going to be doing any real research. I bet everything will be kept secret and they will continue to "not disclose this information to the public".

 

[BriReeves629]

AH: Can you tell me a bit more about the anechoic chambers? How large are they and how low in frequency are they able to measure?

B&W: We do not disclose this information to the public.

Sounds like they're not very proud of their anechoic chambers.

Can't even disclose the size of their anechoic chambers?

Very lame!

Makes me wonder if they are really going to be doing any real research. I bet everything will be kept secret and they will continue to "not disclose this information to the public".

Sounds like this question was just above his pay grade... or this guy didn’t know the answer. It sounds like there are some new products/technology in the works. Sometimes it’s easier to ask employees to say nothing vs picking and choosing what they can or can’t disclose, especially if they are working on something BIG!


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[Swerd]

Makes me wonder if they are really going to be doing any real research. I bet everything will be kept secret and they will continue to "not disclose this information to the public".

Sounds like this question was just above his pay grade... or this guy didn’t know the answer. It sounds like there are some new products/technology in the works. Sometimes it’s easier to ask employees to say nothing vs picking and choosing what they can or can’t disclose, especially if they are working on something BIG!

In the past, B&W has always kept their designs, methods, and parts trade secrets. We may not like it very much here, but it didn't seem to hurt their sales.

I hope to see two things with B&W and it's new management:

1. That they attract people of similar caliber to Floyd Toole or Sean Olive to work at their new facility. They both understood that scientific developments are no good if they are kept secret. At the same time, they also understood that they had to develop new products that their employer could sell at a profit.
   
   
2. That the new B&W diminishes the power their marketing department seemed to have over their design & engineering department. It always seemed to me that the 800, 700, and 600 series of B&W speakers were made by completely different companies. The 800 series were mostly excellent but very expensive. It seemed to me that the speaker designers wishes prevailed no matter how costly. The two lower lines were somewhat less expensive, but had noticeable sound quality flaws that I found unacceptable. I always wondered if these flaws were compromises the marketing people insisted upon for the 700 and 600 lines, over the objections of the speaker designers.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

In the past, B&W has always kept their designs, methods, and parts trade secrets.

I don't think AH was asking about any designs, methods, or parts trade.

 

[Verdinut]

If they indeed put more money into research as they announced, the consumer will end up paying for it and higher prices for their future products.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

If they indeed put more money into research as they announced, the consumer will end up paying for it and higher prices for their future products.

Yeah no kidding. When I bought my 802D2 a few years ago brand new from a local dealer, I paid $12,000 in Cash and the MSRP was $15K.

Now it's $22K MSRP, which puts it in the same price class as the Revel Salon2.

 

[TheWarrior]

In the past, B&W has always kept their designs, methods, and parts trade secrets. We may not like it very much here, but it didn't seem to hurt their sales.

I hope to see two things with B&W and it's new management:

1. That they attract people of similar caliber to Floyd Toole or Sean Olive to work at their new facility. They both understood that scientific developments are no good if they are kept secret. At the same time, they also understood that they had to develop new products that their employer could sell at a profit.
   
   
2. That the new B&W diminishes the power their marketing department seemed to have over their design & engineering department. It always seemed to me that the 800, 700, and 600 series of B&W speakers were made by completely different companies. The 800 series were mostly excellent but very expensive. It seemed to me that the speaker designers wishes prevailed no matter how costly. The two lower lines were somewhat less expensive, but had noticeable sound quality flaws that I found unacceptable. I always wondered if these flaws were compromises the marketing people insisted upon for the 700 and 600 lines, over the objections of the speaker designers.

There's only so many things you can do with cones and domes and still remain honest to the consumer. Sure, they can get smart and make their speakers active (which also saves money) - but as you pointed out - they need to get away from marketing led decisions.

Just the 'style' of their speakers with a baffle-less tweeter and midrange brings a huge compromise to their performance. I know there's been a lot of praise of these D3 models, but everything I've heard prior sounded different in each seat of a couch= jagged directivity index.

It's like somebody realized they could save $5 in L + C parts for a BSC circuit, so they just took the baffle off completely. But, wow, it sure does look neat, doesn't it!?

 

[TheWarrior]

AH: Can you tell me a bit more about the anechoic chambers? How large are they and how low in frequency are they able to measure?

B&W: We do not disclose this information to the public.

Sounds like they're not very proud of their anechoic chambers.

Can't even disclose the size of their anechoic chambers?

Very lame!

Makes me wonder if they are really going to be doing any real research. I bet everything will be kept secret and they will continue to "not disclose this information to the public".

"Wait, anechoic chambers have standing waves that need to be compensated for!?!"

"Can't we just use 2" rigid fiberglass?"

It's baffling (ha!) that somewhere they found the extraordinary sum, AND JUSTIFIED IT, to new ownership, that they should just build a chamber, rather than rent one.

I wonder if the decision to 'claim' there will be new research and a chamber built was also a 'marketing led decision'. Because, unless they also build a speaker shuffler and train listeners, they will not be able to correlate their objective measurements to listener's subjective preference. They might as well measure outdoors in a field....

 

[BriReeves629]

We are talking about Bowers and Wilkins correct? Based on the tone of some of the responses in here I thought I had stumbled across a Bose thread!


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[TheWarrior]

We are talking about Bowers and Wilkins correct? Based on the tone of some of the responses in here I thought I had stumbled across a Bose thread!


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Like with Bose, not everyone believes B&W is always worth it's asking price!

Either way, it's not very good PR to attempt to tout new research, and then decline to answer very basic questions about it.

 

[BriReeves629]

Like with Bose, not everyone believes B&W is always worth it's asking price!

Either way, it's not very good PR to attempt to tout new research, and then decline to answer very basic questions about it.

Agree with your 2nd point. As to your first, I think most speakers are over-priced, but if the demand is there...


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[Art Vandelay]

Why would they dodge the question about their anechoic chamber? I don't understand the reason to have the chambers performance metrics kept a secret, especially when you're touting a new research facility.

Was this a marketing department idea that went too far before someone realized what goes in to the design, or did they just find out how much a trampoline floor costs?

Corporate-in-confidence. The high end market is difficult and competitive so It would be unusual if they did divulge specific information.

 

[TheWarrior]

Corporate-in-confidence. The high end market is difficult and competitive so It would be unusual if they did divulge specific information.

I agree it would be unusual, given how few manufacturers get published with the AES, for example.

Unfortunately, I think we are only going to read about this new "research" in brochures.