Passion for sound

Music is important. You know it, we know it. At Bowers & Wilkins, the quest to develop the perfect speaker has lasted over 40 years. Just what do we mean by perfect? We mean a speaker that portrays a musical performance exactly as it was recorded, with zero colouration. Like you, we don’t just want to hear music; we want to experience it, feel it and be a part of it, and that’s the case whether we are listening to a high-end hi-fi or an Apple iPod®. Founder John Bowers instilled a passion in the company to pursue his dream of the ultimate speaker. You wouldn’t believe how close we’ve come. And you wouldn’t believe the kind of lengths we’ll go to get even closer.

The Zeppelin iPod docking station is very pleasing on the eye, but its design is based on sound acoustic principles. One of the reasons tweeters are so small is that they disperse the tiny high frequency waves over a wider area than larger drivers. But what is less well known is that the size of the enclosure housing the tweeter also affects this dispersion, and that's why Zeppelin's body narrows as the drivers get smaller.

Exactly the same principle is seen on the iconic B&W Nautilus speaker and models like those in the XT Series. So not only does Zeppelin give you clearer sound than simpler designs, but you can also enjoy that clarity over a wider listening area.

B&W developed its iPod docking station with the same exacting standards as the speakers that sit in Abbey Road Studios or Skywalker Sound. Drive units are the engine room of any speaker and Zeppelin's midrange and tweeter derive directly from those in our award-winning M-1, regarded by the world's specialist audio press as a class-leading compact speaker.

Added to these is an internal subwoofer driver, centrally located in the deepest part of Zeppelin's sleek enclosure, where it handles deep bass with power and authority.
Powering these drive units are three high-quality amplifiers (one for left, one for right, and one for bass). Most iPod speakers make do without that third one, but Zeppelin was conceived to offer the sort of sound you’d expect from a component stereo system rather than normal iPod speakers.

Handling high frequencies is a pair of aluminium dome tweeters that feature an adapted version of B&W's trademark Nautilus™ tweeter tube. Featured in B&W’s reference 800 Series, Nautilus™ acts like an acoustic black hole, swallowing superfluous sound from behind the dome. Sweeter tweeters you’ll never hear.

The twin midrange drive units that supply the bulk of Zeppelin’s amazing sound rely on glass fibre cones, optimised using laser interferometry techniques pioneered by Bowers & Wilkins. Using lasers to optimise drive units dramatically reduces the effects of unwanted standing waves in the drive unit cone leaving music sounding cleaner, clearer and true to life.

Zeppelin’s central bass unit is massively engineered. An oversized magnet and 4-layer voice coil drive the Kevlar®-reinforced 5" cone. This helps to ensure Zeppelin can produce real bass extension of the sort you would normally associate with much larger speaker systems.

Zeppelin’s elegant cabinet is actually a clever composite shell comprising a highly-damped constrained layer in between a stiff polymer inner casing and a heavy stainless steel cover. This ensures the cabinet has the highest possible strength so what you hear is the drive units themselves and not the cabinet that contains them.

The Zeppelin’s three amplifiers use Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to both optimise the response of the five drive units and actively adjust the sound balance in relation to the volume level selected by the listener. This ensures Zeppelin delivers its warmly detailed sound in small and large environments at all listening levels.

The less physical material there is around tweeters and midranges, the better they sound. That’s one of reasons why B&W speakers are such distinctive shapes. Zeppelin’s rounded, tapering ends aren’t there just for show. By minimizing the baffle area around the drive units, the cabinet reduces diffraction effects, making for ultra-wide sound dispersion and a much smoother response. In other words, it sounds as good as it looks.

The Zeppelin has several settings built into it by Bowers & Wilkins which allow a user to tailor its sound for different locations and rooms. This function is simply and quickly assessed via the iPod thumbwheel which, when docked with a Zeppelin, produces a new menu item called Speakers.

B &W Bowers & Wilkins