B&W

B and W 683 deals
B and W 683 deals
Now under Canadian ownership, Bowers & Wilkins (as it now likes to be known) is essentially a British company, with its headquarters and major manufacturing operation in Worthing, plus research and development labs a few miles inland at Steyning. The combination has been conspicuously successful, in creating and sustaining a dominant market position in hi-fi speakers worldwide, aided by numerous ranges of models that fill every possible niche.

Since the dawn of time, various guises of the 600-series have been the most cost-effective conventional speakers in the Bowers & Wilkins line-up, thanks in part to the use of vinyl woodprint surfaces and, in these latest incarnations, Chinese manufacturing. This £899 per pair floorstanding 683 is the largest and most costly of four stereo pairs.

It's a full three-way design, which allows each drive unit to be optimised to its particular role. Crucially, the midrange driver is a version of the 'surroundless' FST (Fixed Suspension Transducer) unit that was pioneered in the more upmarket models. Whereas the midrange driver of most three-ways is the same as the bass driver, a mid-only unit doesn't undergo significant cone excursion. This means that the surround is not actually fixed to the 143mm diameter Kevlar cone, but is expressly optimised to absorb edge-of-cone vibrations.