B&w 684

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, b&w 684, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test.

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test. Things begin very well indeed. Ah, the vocals.

B&w 684

The S2 is the smaller of two floorstanders in the new line-up: in that slightly wacky way they have down in Worthing, within each series the larger the number the smaller the speaker. This in turn helps keep resonances at bay. Above these drivers, and mounted in its own gel-filled cavity to decouple it from the main cabinet, is the new 25mm Decoupled Double Dome aluminium tweeter, which uses a cut-away second skin on the dome to improve rigidity without adding too much mass. As they say in the furniture catalogues, some home assembly is required when the s are unpacked, but not much: the plinths have to be attached to the base of the cabinet using bolts, spacers and washers for which an Allen key is provided , and then either rubber feet — for hard floors — or carpet-piercing spikes and locknuts are fitted to the plinth. However, after some use to flex the driver surrounds and get some heat into them, they soon settle down and show just what they can do. If the speaker has been stored in a cold environment, the damping compounds and suspension materials of the drive units will take some time to recover their correct mechanical properties. The drive unit suspensions will also loosen up during the first hours of use. As a guide, allow up to a week for the temperature effects to stabilise and 15 hours of average use for the mechanical parts to attain their intended design characteristics. After an extended period of time, the sound will seem to mellow, but without losing clarity and detail. Nothing really caught them out: they just delivered striking clarity and intelligibility even with very complex recordings, and proved very easy to drive, but at the same time very revealing of the amplification with which they were used. They worked extremely well on the end of my reference Naim Supernait 2 amplifier, sounded huge if occasionally a shade over-exuberant when connected to an Onkyo TX-NR AV receiver, and were sweet and entirely controlled when coupled with the Devialet. However, these should prove very easy speakers to partner with a wide range of source components and amplification, which is just as one would hope for a design clearly aimed at the widest possible appeal. Written by Andrew Everard. The slimness is tempting, but as far as imaging goes can they can do width and height like the sibling?

Both use first-order crossovers, and both companies pride themselves on the proper dispersion characteristics of their speakers.

A fine all-round performer at a very realistic price, this floorstander has an impressively smooth and even tonal balance. It sounds nicely open at modest levels but the top end can become congested when the volume is turned up. Find out more about how we test. The company has a huge selection of models, subdivided in numerous different ranges oriented towards specific market niches. The lower one is just used to reinforce the bass region, while the upper one covers the complete bass and midrange part of the audio spectrum. Both have cast frames, woven Kevlar cones around mm in diameter and fixed central 'bullet' phase compensating plugs. The bass loading arrangements used here are particularly interesting and unusually flexible.

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test. Things begin very well indeed. Ah, the vocals. The S2s can boast an excellent midrange. The treble, meanwhile, sparkles. Even the thrashiest high-hat stops short of sounding harsh. But what about the bass? You need their big brothers, the S2s, for that.

B&w 684

Why you can trust What Hi-Fi? Our expert team reviews products in dedicated test rooms, to help you make the best choice for your budget. Find out more about how we test. This, however, is their first major test since then. Can they retain their favoured status? Visually, they remain quite dramatic — bug-eyed yellow drivers, asymmetrical tweeter arrangement and soft-touch front baffle — but the overall standard of finish is nothing special. They're far from poorly made, you understand, but the square edges and vinyl wrap look and feel a little prosaic compared with some of their peers. In pure audio terms, though, the s are giving little away to these competitors. Pere Ubu's 30 Seconds Over Tokyo sounds urgent and authoritative, delivered on a room-filling scale and organised stringently. The low frequency clout the looks allude to is present in spades, tidily timed and tonally expressive, and the yelping vocal in the midrange is packed with character.

Bandido lyrics

The track I most enjoy is "Please Read the Letter. Also included are two foam plugs that can be used to stop up the ports. All cables were Analysis Plus. When we reviewed the , no plinth was supplied or available, which not only handicapped the aesthetic appearance, but also made the physical stability very marginal. If our calculations are correct, the different permutations and combination of bungs and ports allows for some nine possible variations in bass alignment. The dynamic performance — specifically the limitations thereof — is the other factor that constrains the performance of this speaker. On most speakers this sort of music sounds very bad. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Tech Radar Gaming. Under our room conditions the bottom end worked very well with both ports unobstructed and the speakers sited well clear of walls. Again, the lowest points of each note were subdued, but for the most part, the s nailed the reproduction. For example, if a speaker has to be placed far back in a corner, you may want to plug its rear port to cut down on bass bloat. Evidently, more people are interested in buying affordable audio equipment than are interested in simply reading about it. Just bought a pair of these, and am simply amazed at the realism and beautiful sound that these speakers produce.

.

Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, with our advice sections giving you step-by-step information on how to get even more from your music and movies. Can they retain their favoured status? Our coveted five-star rating and Awards are recognised all over the world as the ultimate seal of approval, so you can buy with absolute confidence. A fine all-round performer at a very realistic price, this floorstander has an impressively smooth and even tonal balance. Both use first-order crossovers, and both companies pride themselves on the proper dispersion characteristics of their speakers. The diaphragm is a rather exposed and vulnerable-looking 25mm aluminium dome, with no separate grille protection, loaded at its rear by an internal tapering tube. Email Required Name Required Website. The has a 1" aluminum-dome tweeter, a 6. They may lack the last shred of fine detail compared with the very best of the competition, but their honeyed midrange and sheer brio more than make up for that. There is a low pass on the bass driver at Hz. Not heard the s, but no complaints in those respects with the s. Ah, the vocals. Some might consider this a potential source of confusion and indecision, but it does at least mean that it should be possible to obtain a good room match. UK Edition. This in turn helps keep resonances at bay.