What Hi-Fi? Awards 2020 Winner
An Ideal Combination of Size and Power
The 606 S2 Anniversary Edition is the seventh generation of Bowers & Wilkins iconic 600 Series bookshelf speaker. With an ideal combination of size and power, it blends the company's advanced Continuum™ midrange cone with an improved crossover for even more insight into your music. 25 years on, it remains the standard for attainable performance loudspeakers. Like its smaller sibling, the 607 S2, the 606 S2 is an ideal speaker for stereo or surround sound use.
Rivaling the range and reach of many floorstanding speakers on the market, the 602 S2 Anniversary Edition takes the award-winning 606 formula and improves upon it, complementing the 6.5" Continuum cone with a Decoupled Double-dome 1" aluminum dome tweeter and beautiful new finishes.
In his CNET.com review for November 7, 2020, Ty Pendlebury calls the 606 S2 "a real sonic upgrade that brings to mind the more expensive 700 series: These speakers bring transparency and slam in equal parts."
"The biggest differences are heard in the bass. The new version is so much more precise and controlled in this region," notes England's What Hi-Fi? magazine, which honored the 606 S2 with Best Speaker Award for 2020. "On an initial listen it would be easy to conclude that the older model has more weight in this area, but given time it becomes clear that the S2s are cleaner, more insightful and have notably more punch."
Layered, Beautiful Details
The new 606 S2 Anniversary Edition adopts a refined and upgraded version of the proven Decoupled Double Dome tweeter, offering 38kHz breakup performance. The result? An accurate and immersive reproduction of your favorite music.
The Double Dome design comprises a 35-micron aluminum diaphragm reinforced with a 50-micron ring profile bonded to the rear surface of the dome. This stiffens the structure in its weakest area and pushes the break-up frequency of the structure up to 38kHz. At the same time, this approach minimizes the amount of mass being added to the assembly.
The tweeter is fully decoupled from the loudspeaker cabinet, achieved by housing the high-frequency assembly so that it effectively floats free of the baffle. This isolates any of the energy generated by the tweeter from the cabinet, therefore reducing any unwanted sound generated by the cabinet itself and also stopping any of the low and mid frequency energy (generated by the larger drive units in the enclosure) from affecting the tweeter's output.
Continuum™ Cone Midwoofer
Voices and instruments are delivered with purity and precision, thanks to the revolutionary Continuum™ cone midwoofer, as found in Bowers & Wilkins flagship 800 Series Diamond. Once reserved for only the company's most revered models, Continuum brings you a cleaner and more accurate performance.
The Continuum cone creates layered midrange sound with a pristine soundscape. The human ear is naturally tuned into sound in this frequency, and Bowers & Wilkins has understood the power of the perfect midrange presentation for over a generation.
Developed over an eight-year period, the Continuum cone was first featured on the company's flagship 800 Series Diamond models, including the 800 D3, used in Abbey Road Studios. It truly makes your music come alive, delivering the crucial sounds fundamental to any great music experience.
For powerful low frequency performance, the 606 S2 Anniversary Edition features two optimized low-frequency cones that combine terrific extension and superlative accuracy to give high levels of controlled bass with your favorite music and movies.
Optimized Crossover and Bi-Wirable Speaker Terminals
In addition to the celebratory cosmetic changes, the 600 Series Anniversary Edition also benefits from a new optimized crossover design featuring carefully selected components, offering greater insight from your music.
The 606 S2 has two linked pairs of speaker terminals on the back. For conventional connection, the terminal links should remain in place as delivered and just one pair of terminals connected to the amplifier. For bi-wire connections or bi-amplification, the terminal links should be removed and each pair of terminals connected to the amplifier or amplifiers independently. Bi-wiring can improve the resolution of low-level detail.
