Bowers & Wilkins 607 S2 Anniversary Edition Review

[Witterings]

Conclusions
Video marketing material only talks about improvements in drivers. That, seems to be there. Alas, decades of research into what makes a good sounding speaker was ignored with poor integration of drivers, multiple resonances and poor directivity which result in "proper showroom" sound but nothing you would want to live with. I don't mind throwing a filter or two at a speaker to make it sound good. But this design needs way more than that. You have to become a speaker designer, doing the work that the company was supposed to do. And that ain't right.

I can see how some subjectivist reviewer would fall in love with the clean and low distortion highs and call it an audiophile experience with micro detail, imagine and usual buzzwords. But that is not a good diet for an audiophile. You want a speaker that gets out of the way and reproduces what is in your source faithfully.

Just to make sure I was not in a "bad audio mood," I swapped the 607 S2 for a Revel M105. Wow, what an improvement in overall tonality, feel of the speaker and quality all around. Yes, it costs twice as much. But it shows you what proper sound is like. It does justice to your music whereas the 607 S2 doesn't. It latter spits on your music and says, I am going to tell you how it should sound.

Is the 607 S2 the worse speaker I have heard? No. There is some good engineering in the driver. I hope some of that rubs off to whoever did the system design of the speaker.

The marketing material said they have sold one or two million 600 series speakers since inception. So I suspect the management if it sees this review is going to be flippant and continue to ship subpar speakers to their customers. It is a bit depressing that what sells is dominant factor in speaker business and design.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the B&W 607 S2 Anniversary Edition. There are plenty of speakers at low prices that do better.

Edit: video review posted: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...07-s2-anniversary-edition-review-video.21608/

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I saw this a while ago when thinking about buying a pair of 607's

You seem to compare them to the Revel M105's ... I googled them and if you take the best case scenario in your favour I believe the 607's were £499 when released and the best price I could find the Revels for was £1595 .... 3 x's the cost

The 607's are now £349 and a cost I found for the Revels is £1758 which is 5 x's the cost difference.

How on earth can you even begin to compare one to the other ... the 2nd scenario they're more than 5 x's the cost ... there is a level that if you're comparing a bungalow to the Burj Khailfa the credibilty gets a bit dissolved?

Shouldn't you at least be comparing products of similar value rather than slating something that's currently 1/5 of the cost?

Revel Performa 3 M105 2-Way Bookshelf Monitor Loudspeaker

Transducers feature motor-system distortion-reduction mechanisms that stabilize the flux field during operation Ribbed aluminum cones achieve piston like behavior eliminating major sources of resonance New waveguides provide consistent sound over a wide listening area Enclosures created by...

www.nottinghamhifi.co.uk

 

[Steve Dallas]

I saw this a while ago when thinking about buying a pair of 607's

You seem to compare them to the Revel M105's ... I googled them and if you take the best case scenario in your favour I believe the 607's were £499 when released and the best price I could find the Revels for was £1595 .... 3 x's the cost

The 607's are now £349 and a cost I found for the Revels is £1758 which is 5 x's the cost difference.

How on earth can you even begin to compare one to the other ... the 2nd scenario they're more than 5 x's the cost ... there is a level that if you're comparing a bungalow to the Burj Khailfa the credibilty gets a bit dissolved?

Shouldn't you at least be comparing products of similar value rather than slating something that's currently 1/5 of the cost?

Revel Performa 3 M105 2-Way Bookshelf Monitor Loudspeaker

Transducers feature motor-system distortion-reduction mechanisms that stabilize the flux field during operation Ribbed aluminum cones achieve piston like behavior eliminating major sources of resonance New waveguides provide consistent sound over a wide listening area Enclosures created by...

www.nottinghamhifi.co.uk

The prices are much closer in the US. B&W 607s cost $800 /pr and Revel M105 cost ~$1200 /pr after dealer discount.

His point is that the 607 is objectively so bad, it is essentially a broken design, despite having good drivers. I had a pair at my house for 1 month, and I agree with his assessment.

The M105 is the opposite of that. The drivers are fairly pedestrian, but the implementation is good enough to overcome and produce a great speaker for not much more money in the US.

The M105 is so good, he keeps it on hand as his reference speaker against which many others are compared.

 

[VintageFlanker]

How on earth can you even begin to compare one to the other ...

Because...

1) Cost is barely a performance indicator in Audio...
2) Cost varies so much from one country to the other, that it starts to become meaningless at some point, anyway. I could buy four pair of Aria 906s (really: six when best deals) for one pair of Revel M106s in France... While in US, both are sold at about the same price. How's price setting the performance in that case?
3) That's called a reference. When you test whatever thing, subjectively or objectively, you need references, at whatever price.

 

[AudioSceptic]

The prices are much closer in the US. B&W 607s cost $800 /pr and Revel M105 cost ~$1200 /pr after dealer discount.

His point is that the 607 is objectively so bad, it is essentially a broken design, despite having good drivers. I had a pair at my house for 1 month, and I agree with his assessment.

The M105 is the opposite of that. The drivers are fairly pedestrian, but the implementation is good enough to overcome and produce a great speaker for not much more money in the US.

The M105 is so good, he keeps it on hand as his reference speaker against which many others are compared.

Even so, that's a big difference (+50%). No one who's thinking of buying one would also consider the other. Comparisons only make sense if the prices are much closer, +/- 20% at most.

 

[Mart68]

Even so, that's a big difference (+50%). No one who's thinking of buying one would also consider the other. Comparisons only make sense if the prices are much closer, +/- 20% at most.

There's comparison to a reference and there's comparison to a similarly priced product, both are useful.

 

[AudioSceptic]

There's comparison to a reference and there's comparison to a similarly priced product, both are useful.

I take your point, but shouldn't there be multiple references, one for each price band?

 

[Mart68]

I take your point, but shouldn't there be multiple references, one for each price band?

Ideally I suppose but it would mean keeping an awful lot of reference speakers sat about if you wanted to cover every price bracket. Especially if you make the brackets small -are a $500 and a $700 speaker in the same price bracket? They won't be for someone whose budget is tight.

 

[sarumbear]

Even so, that's a big difference (+50%). No one who's thinking of buying one would also consider the other. Comparisons only make sense if the prices are much closer, +/- 20% at most.

Disagree. Price is not a major point in Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi is not normal retail.

 

[YSC]

I take your point, but shouldn't there be multiple references, one for each price band?

I do think due to the nature of HiFi being so fluctuating in price from time to time with insane price boost or drop in a short period of time, it's next to impossible to do so. And in the recommendation list here I think there is appropiate price bracket comparison anyway.

Thing is even not compared to the Revel, say the cheaper Elac DBR 62 is a lot better, a shame on the B&W nice look and great drivers

 

[hifinutt]

i continue to use 2 pairs of 607s2 anniversary . i ahve used various amps with them . they are brilliant for the money . the arcam a85 sound very powerful with them and currently a very modest denon pma 600 sounds excellent . its great we can have good sound at a great price still .

 

[Witterings]

Disagree. Price is not a major point in Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi is not normal retail.

Disagree with this .... some are audiophiles that would sell a kidney for the best gear .... the vast majority aren't, they want the best their $ will buy them within their price band and what they can afford.

I think your comment takes into account maybe 3% of the HiFi market.

 

[sarumbear]

I think your comment takes into account maybe 3% of the HiFi market.

Neither of us have any data to support our argument. I suggest instead of throwing around numbers that have no basis we agree to disagree.

 

[Witterings]

Neither of us have any data to support our argument. I suggest instead of throwing around numbers that have no basis we agree to disagree.

Semme like I may have massively exaggerated with my 3%

The other 1 percent: Audiophiles

Most people listen to music in their cars, portable players, or $10 computer speakers. Audiophiles are the 1 percent still listening at home over a hi-fi.

www.cnet.com

 

[sarumbear]

Semme like I may have massively exaggerated with my 3%

The other 1 percent: Audiophiles

Most people listen to music in their cars, portable players, or $10 computer speakers. Audiophiles are the 1 percent still listening at home over a hi-fi.

www.cnet.com

That’s not data, just a view of a person.

 

[Witterings]

That’s not data, just a view of a person.

Much the same as you then

Although I suspect possibly more informed than yourself and as such a slightly larger following

Steve Guttenberg: the Audiophiliac, Part One – PS Audio

www.psaudio.com

Steve Guttenberg: the Audiophiliac, Part Two – PS Audio

www.psaudio.com

 

[Christoph-ASR]

I have a pair of the larger floorstanders B&W 603 which has also in the measurements of the testers a gap in 2...3KHz and a second gap in the 6kHz region. I cannot reproduce any gap in my listening room with REW and my measurement microphone. How could this be?

 

[gasolin75]

SoundStageNetwork.com | SoundStage.com - NRC Measurements: Bowers & Wilkins 603 Loudspeakers

www.soundstagenetwork.com

 

[Christoph-ASR]

Thanks for your reply --> Exactly these two gaps which are shown in the measurement review are not visible at my listening position (approx. 4m away from the speakers).

 

[Steve Dallas]

Thanks for your reply --> Exactly these two gaps which are shown in the measurement review are not visible at my listening position (approx. 4m away from the speakers).

Please post your graphs.

 

[Christoph-ASR]