Applause Award - StereoNet
Defines New Standards or Performance in Its Class
The Bowers & Wilkins flagship 700-series speaker, the 702 S3, is a state-of-the-art floorstanding speaker that defines new standards for performance in its class.
If you want the best, this is it. Now more impressive than ever in looks and performance, the 702 S3 exudes innovation and elegance. Powerful bass lines come roaring to life, while the speaker's dedicated Continuum™ midrange driver and Carbon Dome tweeter lend an astonishing clarity to vocals and treble effects.
The 702 S3's Carbon Dome tweeter is housed in an all-new Solid Body Tweeter assembly, while with its new downward-firing port configuration and trio of Aerofoil Profile bass cones, it delivers bass that's both profoundly deep and endlessly articulate.
"Makes Life Very Difficult for Other Loudspeaker Manufacturers"
"The technological advancements of the latest S3 version of Bowers & Wilkins' well-respected 702 take this model into a new league, where it offers a good deal of the performance of the company's top-flight 800 Series Diamond at a much more affordable price," reports John Pickford in his review for StereoNet, which honored the 702 S3 an Applause Award. "No matter what you play, it does the music proud."
"The Bowers & Wilkins 702 S3 makes life very difficult for other loudspeaker manufacturers. It delivers extremely high definition with very low coloration at a price that few can begin to compete with," raves Jason Kennedy, hifi+, February 13, 2024. "This is an impressive achievement in a professionally executed package."
"A Full 'Four-Bagger' Home Run Success"
"What should a floorstanding speaker in the AU$10K space offer? It should be neutral, transparent to the signal being fed, provide powerful dynamics and deep low-frequencies (of course, within the boundaries of physics vis à vis its enclosure size and driver complement), it should throw a large soundscape with well-placed images. Tonality should be neutral and detail rendered with mindfulness to the source. Finally, it should be well finished and attractively styled while providing pride of ownership and brand cache/value retention," notes Edgar Kramer, soundstageaustralia.com, August 15, 2023.
"Yes, Bowers & Wilkins' 702 S3's wide scope of talents meets each and every one of those attributes. In fact, they’re smashed out of the park. I can’t help but assert the 702 S3 floorstanders are a full 'four-bagger' home run success. Highly recommended."
"We had justifiably high expectations for the 702 S3, considering that the 702 Signature tower model was the subject of a glowing review and the recipient of a HomeTheaterReview 2022 Editors’ Choice award. To our ears, the 702 S3 did not disappoint," reports Bobby Reed, hometheaterreview.com, May 12, 2023.
Almost Too Many Upgrades to List
This uncompromising three-way floorstander built to fill even the largest rooms with full-blooded, realistic sound. The impressive driver complement consists of a 1" Carbon Dome™ Tweeter, a 6" Continuum™ Cone midrange driver, and three 6.5" Aerofoil™ Profile Cone Woofers.
The 702 S3 draws on design and technology from the Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond, resulting in almost too many upgrades to list. Among the beneficial changes are a narrower cabinet, a curved baffle with protruding drivers, and an anodized solid-body tweeter-on-top with improved decoupling.
The cabinet now boasts a downward-firing port, an improved plinth with 1.2"-long metal legs and M10 stainless steel spikes, and an improved speaker terminal tray. Inside the cabinet are upgraded driver motors, chassis, and crossover, along with the company's breakthrough Biomimetic Suspension.
Biomimetic Suspension
Sometimes, making a big difference takes unconventional thinking. Drawn from the revolutionary Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond speakers, the new Biomimetic Suspension revolutionizes midrange performance by greatly reducing the unwanted air pressure and coloration that a traditional fabric spider can generate. The result? Midrange transparency you wouldn't believe.
Solid Body Tweeter Housing
The 700 S3 Series features the latest generation of Bowers & Wilkins iconic Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top housing. Its new, more elongated form incorporates a longer tube-loading system to produce an even more free and open sound with high frequencies. The carefully decoupled housing is milled from a single solid block of aluminum to better resist resonance.
The solid body tweeters are a high-performance design feature found previously only on the 800 Series Diamond. Designers often argue that a product's functional and aesthetic qualities are closely related. Bowers & Wilkins couldn't agree more. The solid body tweeter is engineered first and foremost for acoustic performance. But in its minimal simplicity, it's also undeniably beautiful. It's a philosophy that runs deep in the DNA of the 700 Series – a speaker range that's music to your ears and very easy on your eyes.
Carbon Dome™ Tweeter
Carbon Dome tweeters are purpose-built for the 700 Series. Delivering a dramatic improvement on the aluminum double dome tweeter, they raise the breakup threshold to 47kHz, for pinpoint imaging accuracy and detail.
Continuum™ Cone Midrange Driver
Every three-way loudspeaker in the new 700 S3 Series has a dedicated midrange cone using four key Bowers & Wilkins technologies: the Continuum cone, FST™, Biomimetic Suspension, and midrange decoupling, the latter ensuring minimal interference from the operation of the loudspeaker's bass drivers.
Thanks to its composite construction, the Continuum™ cone avoids the abrupt transitions in behavior that can impair the performance of a conventional drive unit. The result is a more open, neutral performance that delivers voices and instruments with precision and transparency.
First introduced with the 800 Series Diamond, the Continuum cone represents the biggest upgrade in midrange performance since Kevlar®. Its woven coated material provides highly controlled break-up. The midrange drivers in the floorstanders also feature a decoupled design, adapted from a similar system in the 800 Series Diamond. Decoupling reduces cabinet coloration, and further improves midrange clarity.
The floorstanding loudspeakers in the series employ a new FEA-optimized aluminum chassis for the midrange drivers. This new design is stiffer than the zinc chassis of the CM Series, for improved control and cleaner midrange presentation.
Aerofoil™ Profile Cone Woofer
Developed using advanced computer modelling techniques, the Aerofoil™ Profile bass cone has variable thickness, providing stiffness and rigidity where it's needed most. The result: deep and dynamic bass. The variable thickness design draws from the bass cones in 800 Series Diamond speakers.
700 S3 Series Upgrades
Offering outstanding performance at an attainable price, the Bowers & Wilkins 700 Series gives you exceptional capability for a real-world price-tag with an easy-to-accommodate footprint.
Packaged with advanced technology, the new 700 Series S3 range includes more overt celebrations of the 700 Series' relationship to the Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond. The first and most obvious change is the introduction of a new and longer tweeter-on-top form, inspired by the design introduced in 2021 for the new 800 Series Diamond.
The second notable change is the introduction of curved front sections to each speaker cabinet, with drive units mounted in distinct 'pods', as per 800 Series Diamond. Alongside this curvature, all new models feature slimmer front elevations than before, which reduces the cabinet baffling effect for even better sound than ever before.
The new S3 line also introduces new plinths, new grilles, a new tweeter grille mesh, and a new finish–Mocha Wood. This joins the existing finish mix of Gloss Black and White.
Studio Sound Comes Home
The 700 Series provides a class-leading combination of beautiful design and supreme performance. Featuring a wealth of state-of-the-art technologies, many derived from the 800 Series Diamond range, the 700 Series provides true Bowers & Wilkins performance in a class-leading yet accessible package.
With two center channel speakers and a subwoofer to choose from, the 700 Series also performs brilliantly in any home cinema set-up. It is a particularly strong aspect of the range's appeal. The updated design means that the 700 S3 line looks every bit as good as it sounds. It's the perfect combination of elegance and performance.