iPod Speaker System: Where form meets function

With Zeppelin, you get over 40 years of experience and know-how in speaker design, all in a single package; technologies developed for dedicated high-end speakers and applied to an iPod portable speaker for the first time. You also get a considered and intelligent piece of product design with clever ergonomic thought and beautiful 360º visual appeal that looks great everywhere as you carry it from room to room.

The iPod's interface was quickly recognised as an iconic piece of design. Its touch-sensitive click wheel gives the user the ability to scroll quickly through long lists of information and select artists or tracks with just one hand. With Zeppelin, Bowers & Wilkins has complemented this user interface by designing a docking port that allows the user to still grasp the iPod as if it were in the hand as normal instead of in an iPod speaker dock. It also cleverly accommodates iPods of differing depth through a spring loaded docking port that flexes to accommodate each model without adapters or other manual adjustment.

Zeppelin’s stunning design was created by Native in London. Morten Warren, founder of Native, and his team have worked with Bowers & Wilkins for over 10 years, designing award-winning classics such as the 800 Series and the PV1 subwoofer. Working closely with B&W’s engineering team at the world renowned Steyning Research Establishment, they together developed a vision for a simple, bold and compact form that offers an ideal acoustic engineering envelope. Another classic in the making.

The Zeppelin iPod docking station is very pleasing on the eye, but its design is based on sound acoustic principles. One of the reasons tweeters are so small is that they disperse the tiny high frequency waves over a wider area than larger drivers. But what is less well known is that the size of the enclosure housing the tweeter also affects this dispersion, and that's why Zeppelin's body narrows as the drivers get smaller.

Exactly the same principle is seen on the iconic B&W Nautilus speaker and models like those in the XT Series. So not only does Zeppelin give you clearer sound than simpler designs, but you can also enjoy that clarity over a wider listening area.

Zeppelin’s elegant cabinet is actually a clever composite shell comprising a highly-damped constrained layer in between a stiff polymer inner casing and a heavy stainless steel cover. This ensures the cabinet has the highest possible strength so what you hear is the drive units themselves and not the cabinet that contains them.

B &W Bowers & Wilkins