BOWERS & WILKINS 805 Diamond

How the 805 Diamonds improve on the 805 S’s (the predecessor of the Diamonds – editor’s note)? In a few details: their 1st order crossover was redesigned with the help of Mundorf capacitors, speaker’s terminals are of higher quality, the phase compensator that occupies the center of a Kevlar mid-tone driver is not anymore a part of the cone but rather fixed to the motor assembly of the driver. And, of course, the new diamond tweeter with four magnets that has become a signature of the new B&W’s line up.

The diamond tweeter is gelled to the main cabinet to mechanically decouple both units and suppress mutual exchange of vibrations. The tweeter’s teardrop-shaped enclosure supports maximum absorption of energy that is radiated to the rear of speakers – the resonance frequency of the diamond dome is as high as 70kHz, far enough from the upper effective range of speakers that is 28kHz on paper. I like that the 805 Diamonds extend that much and do not have usual 20kHz cut off – human hearing was proven to hear (or at least feel) much farther into kilohertz domain than it was believed before.

Despite the new technologies the 805 Diamond is a typical Bowers & Wilkins, which means precise craftsmanship on one side, a bit sterile design lacking a ‘flair’ on the other side. Unlike with 805 S’s the midbass driver of 805’s is framed by an aluminum ring that, together with pitted surface of the speaker’s reflex port (in B&W they have been using this “Flow Port Technology” for 20 years to fight air turbulences in ports), lends a contemporary feel to the 805’s design.