Best Multi-Room Speakers 2024 - What Hi-Fi?
Wireless High Performance Stereo Speaker System
Bowers & Wilkins Formation Duo is the first wireless, powered speaker pair that lives up to the exacting audiophile standards of Bowers & Wilkins. Each features the company's patented, Carbon Dome tweeter-on-top technology for crystal clear highs and the same innovative Continuum cone driver found in Bowers & Wilkins industry-defining 800 Series Diamond speakers.
When coupled with Bowers & Wilkins exclusive Formation® Wireless Technology that produces an immersive, seamless, high-fidelity soundstage, Formation Duo redefines "wireless audio" true to the company's groundbreaking heritage. Formation Duo is wired fidelity, wirelessly – and why they are what Bowers & Wilkins terms the Highest Form of Sound™.
The Formation Duo has a 1" Carbon Dome Tweeter with the company's famous, innovative tweeter-on-top design, plus a 6.5" Continuum™ cone bass / midrange driver. The built-in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Digital Amplifier provides power delivery of 2 x 125 watts.
"Deadly Precise Speakers with Excellent Clarity and Speed"
"If you want a wireless pair of standmount speakers that sound fantastic and have multi-room powers, you have found them. The Duo are deadly precise speakers with excellent clarity and speed of performance that make you want to dig out tune after tune just to hear what they can do," reports What Hi-Fi?, which honored the Formation Duo by naming it one of the Best Multi-Room Speakers 2024.
"The speakers bristle with raw energy, and the stereo imaging is completely on-point. They deliver a huge amount of power when called for, while serving up a delicate beauty in the quieter passages."
Carbon Dome™ Tweeter in a Solid Body Tweeter Housing
The solid-body tweeter is high-performance design feature found previously only on the 800 Series Diamond. Its acoustically optimized form is milled from a solid block of aluminum, forming a structure that’s exceptionally inert and resistant to resonances.
Carbon Dome tweeters are a brand new technology originally purpose-built for Bowers & Wilkins 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
Voices and instruments are delivered with purity and precision, thanks to the smooth, accurate Continuum™ cone midrange driver. 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, resulting in a more open, neutral midrange.
Overflowing with Capability
Formation Duo will enable you to listen to audio from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Roon, and listen to network stored audio files. You can also listen to audio over Bluetooth from appropriately enabled Bluetooth source devices, to audio from devices such as turntables (via a phono preamp) and CD players that are connected to a Bowers & Wilkins Formation Audio or other Formation devices (optional, sold separately), and to audio from Internet Radio, Apple AirPlay, or Bluetooth compatible services and apps. You can listen to audio playing anywhere in your home on any Formation device connected to your home network.
The Bowers & Wilkins Home app is required to connect your Formation Duo to your home network and also to establish connection with other Formation products in your home.
The New Wireless Revolution
Formation is the name of Bowers and Wilkins' exclusive wireless technology. Formation guarantees a flawless listening experience, no matter how extensive your system. Using a robust, independent network, Bowers & Wilkins' wireless speakers deliver perfect room-to-room synchronization and outstanding sound. Set-up and control is easy, too.
Complete Control is Yours
Control your entire Bowers & Wilkins wireless audio system using the company's Music app for iOS and Android. Organize your speakers into groups, integrate your favorite streaming services, and enjoy an unrivaled combination of high-resolution audio performance and absolute convenience.
The Bowers & Wilkins Home app enables you to select and play any available audio source or stream. In much the same way that conventional audio source playback requires initiation through a play command, Formation streams must be first initiated through their own gateway app: the Spotify app for example, or a music library app such as Roon. Each gateway or library app will list your Formation Duo space as an available playback device using Airplay, Bluetooth or in the case of Spotify, Spotify Connect.
Once audio streams are playing on the Formation network they can be selected via the Bowers & Wilkins Home app or via the Formation Duo front panel Form touch button. Touching the Form button will cycle though the available streams and sources.
