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Bowers & Wilkins has launched its new 700 Series of speakers, which it says is empowered with many of the same technologies found in its flagship 800 Series Diamond range. Featuring eight models, the lineup includes three floorstanders, three standmounts and two dedicated centre channels for home theatre use.

The 700 Series introduces slimmer cabinets featuring a curved front baffle and drive units mounted in external ‘pods’ that form a direct visual and technical link to the 800 Series Diamond range. This revised form is designed with a view to reducing the impact of the baffle on sound quality by minimising the ‘cabinet diffraction’ effect, and as a result, the company says, the new range is better at ‘disappearing’ acoustically, so the listener can just concentrate on the music, rather than the sound of the loudspeaker cabinet.

The new cabinet forms are offered in an all-new Mocha finish, as well as the Gloss Black and Satin White finishes previously offered and a fourth Rosenut finish will also be available exclusively in Asian and Pacific markets.

Bowers & Wilkins uses its Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top technology on the 702 S3 and 703 S3 floorstanders and 705 S3 standmount, noting that it has been: “comprehensively re-engineered” and the “enclosure has been significantly lengthened, reducing distortion and ensuring an even cleaner presentation. This longer form is further enhanced by the introduction of improved two-point decoupling that better isolates the assembly from the loudspeaker cabinet, ensuring a more free and open soundstage.”

The Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm retains the Bowers & Wilkins Carbon Dome tweeter, with its 47kHz first break-up performance, coupled to vented voice coils with new, upgraded magnets. Models that feature tweeters mounted in the baffle – the 707 S3, 706 S3 and 704 S3 – also benefit from these changes, alongside a significantly elongated tube-loading system that, as with the Tweeter-on-Top, works in a bid to reduce distortion and ensure a cleaner sound.

In all three-way loudspeakers in the new range, B&W has introduced its Biomimetic Suspension – first revealed last year in the new 800 Series Diamond range. Replacing the conventional fabric spider, the Biomimetic Suspension is used to reduce unwanted noise from the output of the spider as the midrange cone operates. Used alongside all of the company’s other proprietary midrange cone technologies – including decoupling for the entire midrange assembly, an aluminium drive unit chassis featuring tuned mass dampers for reduced resonance, FSTTM surround-less suspension and the Continuum cone material – the result, the company claims: “is simply astonishing midrange transparency”.

Bass, meanwhile, uses the latest generation of Bowers & Wilkins’ Aerofoil Profile bass cone technology and the range introduces upgraded, 800 Series Diamond-inspired speaker terminals that feature more substantial contact connections and are better laid-out for use with spade-terminated speaker cables. These feed upgraded crossovers that use Mundorf capacitors, enhanced with multiple bypass capacitors and improved heatsinking.

All models in the range feature updated, larger diameter Flowports that offer a more substantial output in an effort to ensure a bigger and more expansive sound. In the 702 S3 floorstander, that approach is taken one stage further with a re-orientation of its port to fire downwards on its integrated plinth.

All the floorstanding models feature upgraded spikes to anchor them to the floor. On the 704 S3 and 703 S3, stainless steel M6 spikes are included with their integrated plinths while on the 702 S3, heavy-duty M10 spikes are provided. The standmount models benefit from similar upgrades.

The range pans out as follows: the 702 S3 floorstander has a 25mm Decoupled Carbon Dome high-frequency Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm, a single 150mm midrange Continuum cone driver, three 165mm bass drivers and quoted sensitivity of 90dB (8ohm). It costs £5,500. The £4,200 703 S3 floorstander is the same as the 702 S3, except it has two rather than three of the 165mm bass drivers. The 704 S3 is the slimmest floorstander and ditches the Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm in favour of a regular 25mm tweeter. Priced at £3,000 it has a claimed sensitivity of 88dB.

The two-way 705 S3 standmount, has the same Tweeter-on-Top driver as the 702 S3 and 703 S3 floorstanders along with a 165mm mid/bass driver. Costing £2,600, it has a claimed sensitivity of 88dB. The 706 S3 swaps out the Tweeter-on-Top diaphragm in favour of a regular 25mm tweeter and partners it with a 165mm mid/bass driver. It costs £1,650 and has the same sensitivity as the 706 S3. The slimmer 707 S3 bookshelf reduces the mid/bass driver size to 130mm and has 84dB claimed sensitivity. It costs £1,300. Finally, the FS-700 S3 is designed for placing all the standmounts on, is available in black or silver and is priced at £800.

Available to buy now, you can find out more about the 700 series here .