bowers and wilkins is one of the most world-renowned speaker companies
on the planet you'll find their speakers in recording studios
and mixing facilities around the world the bbc
abbey road and skywalker ranch are just a few of the places that rely on their
truthful sound b&w also spends more on r and d than any
speaker company we know of with a huge facility in stenning england
home to a big team of engineers and all kinds of exotic speaker measuring
equipment the real beauty of b&w for the vast
majority of music lovers comes from their trickle-down technology
from their 30 thousand dollar plus speakers now let's get started with
today's review of bowers and wilkins brand new 600
series anniversary edition
the 600 series from b&w has actually been around in one form or another
for decades we've always felt this series was one heck of a great value
offering honest true sound for a modest price
this new and improved anniversary series celebrates 25 years
of the 600 series line this new 600 series anniversary edition
offers two bookshelf speakers a tower speaker
and a matching center channel all of these employ technology
in the speaker components that just a few years ago could only be found in
their $6000 and up pair of speakers similar to the new
700 s2 series with the new 600 anniversary series
edition b&w has added even more trickle-down tech
from their top of the line 800 series with the most serious improvements
to the crossovers you can now get even more of the similar technology from the
800 series speakers starting at $700 a pair almost one-tenth
the price of where the 800 series starts while you
don't get the beautiful matching wood veneer
curved cabinets of the 800 series that take almost
100 hours to create you do get superb sound quality for a great price which is
where the 600 series is squarely positioned first
let's talk about some of the great speaker technologies all of the new 600
series anniversary edition models share b&w had used kevlar for decades in its
mid-range speaker drivers in the 800 series their engineering team
was given the task of inventing a better material
that would offer significant improvements over their kevlar drivers
it took over eight years but they came up with a new material called continuum
continuum was totally developed by b&w and is
only found in their speakers when i first heard it in the new 800 series
i was super impressed the improvement in mid-range transparency was stunning
continuum when used in a mid-range driver does not need the typical
surround you see in most mid-range speakers
which contributes a lot to this new level of openness
another factor is a great reduction in distortion
if you ever get a chance to visit their r d facility in stenning england
you'll see all kinds of lasers used to analyze speaker cone distortion
they use this high tech in the development of continuum which is now
part of the 600 series many years ago b&w
invented a tapered tube that sits behind the tweeter
in the original 800 models it sits proudly on top of the speaker
as years have passed this design has been refined
and in the 600 anniversary edition it shows up as their decoupled
double dome if you were to take the tweeter apart
you would see this is a very accurate description of the tweeter
the combination of the decoupled dome and the tapered tweeter tube
for the rear wave of the tweeter result in a tweeter that can extend out far
beyond most tweeters on the market before any
distortion or breakup occurs the range actually goes out to 38
kilohertz which is twice as high as anyone can even hear
the sonic improvement is a more open top end that is very smooth
and sweet with never a hint of harshness okay so i want to break out here for a
second and just show you a couple of cool things about the speaker itself
so first they've got great hidden magnetic
grill covers here so you literally don't see anything attaching it
which gives you the ability to obviously have a really nice you know look with
the grille on take the grille off my own prefer
preference here is this one um a couple other little things about it
they really worked hard to make inert cabinets here so if you go over to
stenning england they spend a lot of time with laser measurements and
everything else trying to figure out how do we make a
really dead box so if you wrap on this thing
it is incredibly solid for the money this is about a half inch composite
material that they use with a sort of matte finish on it
and you'll see actually if you look really really closely
it actually says anniversary edition on the bezel going around the tweeter
here so i want to show you a couple other
small little things i'm going to spin this around here
and let's look at the back for a second two things i want to talk about here one
is in terms of bass if you're getting too much bass out of
them these speakers actually come with two different pieces of foam for each
speaker you can literally if you've got a little bit too much bass
coming out in the room put in the first ring version
if it's still too much they have another insert that can go in there as well to
fully cover that up the other thing you get with this is two
different sets of binding posts which is really cool because what it means is
that you can actually bi-wire these suckers and you can take
these binding posts off bi-wire them or leave the binding posts
on and have them single wired which is pretty great as
well in the new 600 series anniversary
speakers the crossover boards have been upgraded to a multi-layer much
higher quality circuit board from the previous version
the capacitors have also been changed from stock models
to a special bevendi metallized polypropylene film capacitor
much much better the crossover is somewhat like the conductor of an
orchestra as it decides which frequencies go where
and how loud they play it is an invisible part of any speaker but
super super critical the upgrades to the new 600 series filter down directly from
the crossovers developed for the 700 s2 signature series b&w recently
released another technology found in all the new
600s is b&w's flowport system the way the air escapes the speaker
cabinet can have a pretty big impact on the sound and how you must position the
speaker for best performance b&w has been addressing this for years
by analyzing designs to come up with the type of port
that gives you the best performance the port used in the 600 series
uses their patented flow port system which just like continuum
was originally designed for their 800 series
the 600 series anniversary edition offers three beautiful cabinet finishes
you get black the matte white i've got here which
comes with a gray grill and oak which also comes with a gray grill
b&w has stepped up the quality of the cabinet finish on the new
anniversary series versus the prior 600s the oak finish is especially stunning
if you have a contemporary home the matte white you see here will look
fantastic in that environment now i want to walk
you through the difference in the speakers in the lineup
the 607 s2 anniversary edition is the smallest model in the new series
here we have the continuum driver material used for a combination
mid-range bass driver that is five inch in diameter
the 607 is about 12 inches tall by six and a half
wide and about eight inches deep amazingly the six db
down point for the base is 40 hertz which is astounding for a speaker this
size the port is on the rear but if you put
them on a typical 12-inch deep bookcase you will be okay with the distance the
port is off the back wall for better performance i recommend using
the stav24 stands this is a very solid stand from b&w that
will put them in an ideal height and sells for about 150
bucks a pair their efficiency rating is 84 db which
is a tad low a good amp like a rotel or cambridge
will do very nicely to bring them to life
if you're not sure if your amp has enough power for these go to
audioadvice.com and chat or call us or stop by one of our showrooms
the 607 has a very extended yet smooth top end
bass is stunning for the size and if you position them properly
they will throw out a huge image it's really interesting how you can hear
every nuance of the treble with never a sense of harshness
you'll be able to pick out bass lines very easily too
as these never blur things together my only complaint is in the area of
dynamics while the sound is beautiful it does not come to
life on big dynamic swings like the next step up the 606.
so i've actually got the 606s here with me now as you can see
i was actually doing some listening tests on them with a mark levinson stack
and i've got to tell you um these are some of the best bookshelf
speakers in this price point i've ever heard in my life i mean they are
really quite amazing i actually listened to them with the b&w
signature playlist on qobuz so if you're looking for a cool playlist
to test your music or just hear great music on go over to qobuz
listen to the b&w signature series playlist but i will tell you just
listening and tests if you've got a decent amp
on them these 606s really rock like the 607 the 606 is a two-way design
but steps up to a six-inch continuum mid-range
bass driver the cabinet is slightly larger at 13 and a half inches high
seven and a half wide and almost 12 inches deep
just like the 607s they will sound best on b&w's stav24 stands
and pulled out a little bit from the wall and toed in a little bit
efficiency is greatly increased on the 606 compared to the 607
i still like to see a good amp driving them as they will really come to life
when you supply them with great power the sound is very similar to the 607 in
terms of tonal quality with an extended lower end what you get
though in dynamic improvement is not subtle the
sound explodes into the room on big passages drawing
you further into the music the combination of the extended bass and
improved dynamics in my opinion makes them well worth the
extra 200 for the pair having the extra low end
also makes them sound even smoother and sweeter across the
musical spectrum and just like the 607 if you spend some
time positioning them you'll get a big three dimensional image
the 603 s2 anniversary edition is the floor standing speaker in the new 600
series while two thousand dollars is not a
small amount of money we think the new 603 betters all of the
speakers b&w has made in the past in the previous cm and older 700 series
some of them costing four thousand dollars a pair or more the new materials
used in this series really shines in the 603 the continuum
driver is used in the mid range just as it is in the top of the line 800
series with it not having to produce any bass
the jump up and sound quality is substantial the top end is handled
with the same tweeter used in the other two models
b&w adds two dual six and a half inch woofers for outstanding deep bass
we love the plinth included with the 603 this is a large base you attach to the
bottom of the speaker that greatly increases its stability on
the plinth they stand about 41.5 inches tall
but are about the same width and depth as the 606
at audio advice we love to test things to the limit
so if you put these on a great amp like the mcintosh
ma5300 integrated amp they will shine they are capable of revealing everything
about the incoming signal and will get better and better as you
improve the front end however you can run them very well on a
modest home theater receiver as they're fairly efficient at 88.5 db
when you sit down and listen to the 603s on a good setup
they will totally disappear and present a big full sound that simply draws you
in the mid-range on these is by far the best of the new 600 series
with an effortless sound that reminds me of the $17,000 b&w 802 d3s dynamics are fantastic and these two dual woofers deliver tight
fast bass i actually think b&w made these
too good as they are really close to the much more expensive
703 s2 although the new 700 series does have a sweeter tweeter
but there is no question this is one of the best
tower speakers you can get for two thousand dollars a pair besting
many more expensive speakers the htm6 is the matching center channel speaker
for the new 600 series in home theater by far and away the most
important speaker is the center channel if you cannot understand the dialogue of
a movie the enjoyment is just not there i love the way b&w used
perfectly matched speaker drivers for the htm6
it has the same tweeters used in all the models
and two of the five inch continuum mid-range bass drivers
at only 10 inch deep it should fit easily into most systems
although it is pretty wide at 18 inches to hold that great driver compliment
when listening to movie soundtracks that pan from left
to center to right it is perfectly matched up with the other 600 speakers
which is exactly what a center channel should do but the big win comes in the
continuum driver used for the mid-range if you set this up right you will hear
all kinds of subtle nuances in the dialogue track
a movie really draws you in when you can sense the emotion in the performers
voices and the htm6 shines in this regard
the new continuum drivers do a remarkable job on the human voice
it also has the ability to handle those center channel explosions
without showing signs of straining the htm6 anniversary edition
is the best under $1200 center speaker ever from b&w
if you are getting these for home theater be sure to jump over
to the videos and review section at audioadvice.com
where we've got a great article on setting up your center channel
correctly for maximum performance along with hundreds of other buyer's guides
setup videos and reviews or if you're designing your theater
you can go to our home theater section and see where you would put
each speaker in the audio advice interactive
3d home theater design tool that will show you
the exact location of every speaker for best acoustic performance
if you want more information on the new 600 series anniversary edition
click on the link in the description to see our written review
which also includes good better and best home theater setups with this series
if you have any questions about the new 600 series or whether they are right
for your situation give us a call or chat with us at audioadvice.com
or stop by our raleigh or charlotte showrooms
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we'll see you next time