Passion for sound

Music is important. You know it, we know it. At Bowers & Wilkins, the quest to develop the perfect speaker has lasted over 40 years. Just what do we mean by perfect? We mean a speaker that portrays a musical performance exactly as it was recorded, with zero colouration. Like you, we don’t just want to hear music; we want to experience it, feel it and be a part of it, and that’s the case whether we are listening to a high-end hi-fi or an Apple iPod®. Founder John Bowers instilled a passion in the company to pursue his dream of the ultimate speaker. You wouldn’t believe how close we’ve come. And you wouldn’t believe the kind of lengths we’ll go to get even closer.

B&W developed its iPod docking station with the same exacting standards as the speakers that sit in Abbey Road Studios or Skywalker Sound. Drive units are the engine room of any speaker and Zeppelin's midrange and tweeter derive directly from those in our award-winning M-1, regarded by the world's specialist audio press as a class-leading compact speaker.

Added to these is an internal subwoofer driver, centrally located in the deepest part of Zeppelin's sleek enclosure, where it handles deep bass with power and authority.
Powering these drive units are three high-quality amplifiers (one for left, one for right, and one for bass). Most iPod speakers make do without that third one, but Zeppelin was conceived to offer the sort of sound you’d expect from a component stereo system rather than normal iPod speakers.

Handling high frequencies is a pair of aluminium dome tweeters featuring an adapted version of B&W's trademark Nautilus™ tweeter tube.

The twin midrange drive units that supply the bulk of Zeppelin’s amazing sound rely on highly-optimised glass fibre cones.

Zeppelin’s central bass unit features an oversized magnet and 4-layer voice coil drive the Kevlar®-reinforced 5" cone. This helps to ensure Zeppelin can produce real bass extension of the sort you would normally associate with much larger speaker systems.

The less physical material there is around tweeters and midranges, the better they sound. That’s one of reasons why B&W speakers are such distinctive shapes. Zeppelin’s rounded, tapering ends aren’t there just for show. By minimizing the baffle area around the drive units, the cabinet reduces diffraction effects, making for ultra-wide sound dispersion and a much smoother response. In other words, it sounds as good as it looks.

The Zeppelin has several settings built into it by Bowers & Wilkins which allow a user to tailor its sound for different locations and rooms. This function is simply and quickly assessed via the iPod thumbwheel which, when docked with a Zeppelin, produces a new menu item called Speakers.

B &W Bowers & Wilkins