B &W Bowers & Wilkins

Steyning Research Establishment
At B&W, ears are one of our most important tools. “The advances we’ve made in drive unit design have virtually removed the distortion and colouration that can mask sound detail” says John Dibb, senior development engineer at B&W. “But at the same time, these advances have highlighted the tiny differences in the sound of components within speakers. The only way to find the best components is to listen to them one at a time, over and over again. That’s why the listening process is so important.
John Bowers, founder of B&W Loudspeakers.John Bowers, founder of B&W Loudspeakers.Click to enlarge

Throughout his lifetime, John Bowers, the founder of B&W Loudspeakers, strove relentlessly to get as close as possible to a transparent reproduction of recorded sound. Born in 1923, near Worthing on the south coast of England, John spent the war years as a special operations executive in clandestine radio contact with allied resistance operatives in occupied Europe.

He specialised in electronics and radio-transmission and after the war he opened a retail hi-fi store in Worthing with his business partner Roy Wilkins. One of John’s passions was classical music.

An avid concertgoer, he was disappointed by the sound reproduction that the best equipment of the day offered and set about improving the quality by modifying existing loudspeakers. Eventually, he started building his own designs in the workshop at the back of his hi-fi store.

In his relentless pursuit of perfection, John quickly built a reputation for himself, and his client base started to grow as more and more people seeking better sound reproduction came to his workshop to buy his custom-designed speakers.

One of his greatest fans early on in his career was an elderly lady, a Miss Knight, who was so impressed with his knowledge of classical music and so pleased with the speakers he made for her that she left him £10,000 in her will for him to develop the business and pursue his research.

So, in 1966, John Bowers and his lifelong friend Peter Hayward founded a separate manufacturing company, then called B&W Electronics, transferring to part of the present site at Meadow Road, Worthing in 1972. They agreed from the outset to live modestly and plough any profits back into the business to further research into the quest for the perfect loudspeaker.

The only way to find the best components is to listen to them one at a time, over and over again. That’s why the listening process is so important.|Dr. John Dibb|B&W Senior Development Engineer
Early prototype of the Nautius at B&Ws Steyning Research Establishment.Early prototype of the Nautius at B&Ws Steyning Research Establishment.Click to enlarge

At this time, much of the interaction between loudspeakers and their surroundings was not well understood.

The basic motor principle and electric circuits were common knowledge, but what happens to a cone under dynamic conditions was unknown because the movements were too small and rapid to visualise. These were the days before lasers, with their ability to detect minute vibrations.

John hired extremely talented engineers and invested in the development of diagnostic tools and measurement equipment and in 1976 he opened a dedicated R&D department with a team of specialist acoustic and electronic engineers who had a wealth of modelling, testing and design tools at their disposal.

Throughout his career John enjoyed a close relationship with recording engineers who provided vital feedback on how loudspeakers could be improved.

As a result of this relationship, B&W’s famous 801 was launched in 1979 and soon became the reference speaker in nearly all of the world’s classical recording studios, including EMI Abbey Road, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.

The phenomenal success of this product pushed B&W to the fore of all loudspeaker manufacturers. In typical fashion, John Bowers used this success to fund even more research and development, and in 1982 he created a dedicated research and development facility for his team of engineers in the picturesque village of Steyning in West Sussex.

Dubbed the “University of Sound”, the Steyning Research Establishment now houses some 20 graduate engineers and support staff with expertise in a wide range of disciplines.

The passion for music, so deeply engrained by Bowers remains a core value of the company he founded.
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