Then came a big leap with the 804 Diamond in 2005, which got a new diamond-deposited tweeter dome and sounded all the better for it. The following 804S introduced B&W's upgraded Rohacell bass cones. In 1998 the (then) new Nautilus 804 got a new Nautilus tube-loaded aluminium tweeter, with an FST Kevlar midrange driver and dual paper/Kevlar woofers in a new curvy cabinet. At the time, it seemed futuristic stuff, but compared to the new D4 version, it's practically Paleolithic. The 804 Matrix – the smallest floorstander in that range – featured an aluminium dome tweeter, Kevlar coned midrange driver and a single Cobex coned woofer. It was upgraded in 1987 to Matrix specification, introducing new cabinet bracing. This established the 800 Series, a world-class, high-end loudspeaker, and it duly found its way into serious recording studios, including EMI's Abbey Road. This is all the more the case when you consider its price, which is high but still a long way from the flagship designs.īefore we dig deeper into the 804 D4, let's quickly rewind to the very first B&W 801, launched in 1979. Indeed, this time around, I think the company has hit something of a sweet spot. It's a reasonably compact floorstander that is actually excellent in its own right and needs no excuses made. Yet there's something about the new 804 D4 that I reckon many people will really appreciate. Having heard and/or reviewed many of the models in most previous generations of the B&W 800 Series, I've always been most interested in the 801 and 802.
But as this review will show, I think that in its latest D4 guise, it has a great deal to offer in its own right. It has not quite had the sex appeal of the larger designs with their 'turbine head' midrange sections, appearing closer to an overgrown 805 than an 803 that's shrunk in the wash. In the past, some cynics have said that the 804 was there to make up the numbers. Then comes the 804, which has always been the least expensive floorstander in B&W's flagship range, while the 805 standmounter is the cheapest in the series outright. Traditionally the range-topping models are extraordinary and commensurately expensive. Each model is almost completely different internally to its predecessor but with similar 'continuity' styling and price points – and so it is for the new 800 Series D4. When a new range comes out, you know it's going to be extensively redesigned. With the company's flagship 800 Series, however, that's just not possible. It's true that lower down in B&W's vast hi-fi loudspeaker range, some new models over the years have been gentle reworkings of existing designs – usefully updated, of course, but not dramatically reimagined. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?” No, not quite. Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4 Floorstanding Loudspeakers
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