The elegantly curved cabinet of the top-of-the-line 800D stands on a heavy cast aluminum plinth that also houses the substantial crossover.

At the heart of the 800D loudspeaker is its diamond tweeter, representing the “D” in the model name. Producing pure uncolored and distortion-free tweeters has long been one of the biggest challenges in speaker design. With what started as a research project aimed at a better understanding of tweeter behavior, the B&W Diamond tweeter was born. When looking for an infinitely rigid substrate, diamond made perfect sense. It's light and incredibly rigid, and is a great heat conductor and absorber. With the first break-up of its diamond dome at 70kHz, it ensures pure piston-like motion up to and beyond the limits of human hearing. As impressive as this technology is, perhaps it's the tweeter enclosure that best defines B&W's high-frequency performance. The theory behind this enclosure was to create a mathematical cavity that soaked up sound energy from the rear of the speaker driver. This assures colorless high-frequency performance in the 800 Series speakers.

 The geometry of the Marlan midrange 'head' enclosure and the separate tweeter on top, the 800D can project an uncannily realistic and three-dimensional image that is more stable with changes in listener position than more conventionally shaped speakers.

The design of the bass drivers is no less impressive. Twin 10 inch woofers made from a sandwich-construction of carbon fiber and a core of Rohacell, known for being extremely lightweight, normally used for aircraft, rockets and performance car bodies,have a radiating area equivalent to a single 15 inch woofer and can deliver prodigious amounts of bass when called upon to do so, even in large listening rooms. Bass output is reinforced by a down-firing Flowport and is configured to have a taut characteristic, enabling the 800D to work optimally in a wide range of ‘real world’ rooms and acoustics

Bowers & Wilkins, The pursuit of the perfect loudspeaker.  Stop by and give them a listen along with the other fine loudspeaker from B&W on display at The Stereo shop.