Dm302 Review

[Kum Verna]

Atthe top of the B&W Loudspeakers product list are some exotic and trail-blazing models: we think immediately of the Matrix 801, chosen as monitors by many professional recording engineers, and the curiously shaped but sonically outstanding Nautilus. Innovations researched and developed for these flagship loud-speakers have a way of gravitating down through the rest of the B&W ranges so that its Matrix technique of reinforcing panel rigidity with a honeycomb structure within the cabinet, for example, can be found enhancing the performance of loudspeakers at quite modest prices.

It seems that the designers were looking at ways to tackle two of the prime problems in box loudspeakers - panel resonances and the build-up of internal standing waves by reflection between the parallel walls. They thought of roughening the inner surface of the back panel and then took this idea to the ultimate by introducing many tapered pyramid shapes which extend into the cabinet, in imitation of the absorbent wedges which traditionally line all the wall surfaces in anechoic test chambers.

Though the wedges used here are of hard plastic rather than soft absorbent material, they will certainly break up incident sound waves radiated from the back of the loudspeaker cone. Making the wedges of different lengths has spread the frequency of maximum effect, and the wave scattering will not Only inhibit standing waves but also increase the number of reflections and dissipate energy faster.

None of this would have been possible without the latest injection moulding techniques which can cast the whole back panel in one piece. In fact the wedges are hollow, as can be seen from the back of the cabinet, which looks like a rectangular honeycomb of 39 square holes of varying depths, plus the larger recess for the output terminals. The structure is further strengthened by six horizontal braces between the front and back panels, and there is a layer or absorbent foam strategically placed to damp the randomized reflections.

The front panel too is a high-quality injection moulding, rounded for smoother edge diffraction, with the two drive units damped to the inner surface. The 26mm soft dome tweeter has a contoured low-diffraction face plate while the 130mm bass/midrange unit has a doped homogeneous fibre cone with nitrile rubber surround mounted in a pressed-steel chassis. The enclosure is bass reflex loaded with a slotted port across the bottom of the front baffle, clear of the removable grille which is again a plastics moulding and curved to fit the baffle. The crossover frequency is set at 3kHz and the network of high quality components, including both P-core and air-core Inductors, is wired to the back of the terminal block. The terminals themselves are multi-purpose and will accept wire, spade connectors or 4mm plugs, although the 4mm sockets are supplied with coloured plastic blanking plugs in accordance with EU safety regulations.

Despite their innovatory Prism technology, the designers of the DM302 have not opted for an overbright or ear-catching overall balance. High frequencies do extend to the upper limits of hearing but without emphasis. Similarly the bass end has been allowed to roll off as we might expect from a loudspeaker of this size. There is no resonant one-note bass effect, which is sometimes heard when designers have tried to introduce a false bass extension. The new cabinet construction and the extra front-to-back braces are obviously succeeding in keeping box-like resonances 10 a minimum.

All the same, I found it helpful to toe the loudspeakers inwards slightly to provide maximum treble, and I removed the grilles for the same reason after ensuring that the soft dome of the tweeter would be in no danger from sharp objects. Applying the highest critical standard, which is probably unfair in a review of a budget loudspeaker, I did identify a certain lack of presence and muddling in the lower midrange area, so important for the natural reproduction or male speech, piano tone, etc.

On the positive side, there was fast attack and the relatively high sensitivity made it easy to produce good clean dynamics in an average-sized room. Going into overdrive is not recommended: I found that sound quality began to glare at about the level where my ears were in any case beginning to object.

When John Bowers founded Bowers & Wilkins back in 1966, he probably didn't dare to dream that his fledgling speaker company would grow to the size it is today, having had the influence it's had over the global hi-fi market. It was perhaps no surprise the company attracted the attention of a Silicon Valley start-up, which acquired the business in 2016.

Nevertheless, B&W still manufactures some of its most popular speakers at its headquarters in Sussex, England, where the company was founded. But that's not to say the company has stood still; as this list testifies. We've rounded-up a selection of our favourite B&W products to have featured in the pages of What Hi-Fi?. Naturally for a speaker company, it's dominated by stereo speakers, but you'll also find headphones, an iPod dock and even a home cinema system. So take a trip down B&W memory lane...

We start with a relatively affordable speaker, the DM110 (110 when we reviewed them in June 1984, so around 300 in today's money). These speakers sported a black chipboard cabinet with a silver baffle, a 32mm soft dome tweeter and a 50mm paper mid/bass driver. We described it as, "a mass produced speaker made in very large quantities for export", which sounded then, strangely, like a criticism, but with B&W now shifting large numbers of speakers all over the world, it was something of a trailblazer. Certainly, "powerful yet easy going" with a "striking, stylish finish", successfully set the tone for test verdicts that would apply to B&W speakers for many years to come.

The Matrix 805V speakers saw a 26mm metal dome tweeter placed on top of the speaker cabinet above a yellow 165mm Kevlar cone, two design features that were soon to become synonymous with B&W. Inside the speakers a honeycomb-style bracing construction aimed to remove all unwanted resonance and reflections; the design giving the speaker range its Matrix name. And it was a design theory B&W revisited with future speakers, including its T7 portable speaker. We said that the Matrix 805V speakers "squeeze a huge sound out of small boxes", which made them a hit with us, despite their relatively high price tag (795, back in 1992).

These 7000 B&W speakers found themselves in our July 1998 Temptation section. And very tempting they were, too. That isolated tweeter is back alongside a hefty Kevlar midrange driver and an aluminium bass cone. The Signature series were limited edition speakers, with pure silver wiring as their pice de rsistance. Driver leads, internal wires, voice coils and crossover wiring were all silver, which B&W engineers had decided were the optimum conductors for top-end speaker drivers. We didn't argue, heralding the Signature 30 speakers as "the ultimate in silver-spun sound with style".

"If the price isn't an issue - nothing", was the sum total of our Nautilus 801 review of January 1999. "Simply awesome." These 801s borrowed technology from the company's flagship Nautilus speakers, which quickly planted themselves at number one on many people's ultimate speaker wish list. You needed to part with 8500 rather than 35,000 for this version, which borrowed the tapered tube enclosure for the midrange and treble drivers that aimed to minimise the diffraction caused by the cabinet. The Kevlar driver (a monster 38cm unit) and Matrix bracing is here, too, as B&W began to focus its technological attentions. The result here is accuracy and pure transparency in great big spades.

The Series 2 version of the B&W DM602 speakers appeared in our July 1999 speaker "shootout" - hence the slightly strange picture - and proved brilliant value for money, not least in terms of sheer cabinet size. That large box means plenty of bass, alongside a transparent and detailed midrange (OK, and a slightly forward treble). The DM602s were consistent performers over the years but it was the Series 2 and Series 3 models that really took them to the next level.

We've opted for Series 3 as our favourite version of the DM601 speakers, though again we could have opted for pretty much any model. These speakers, reviewed in March 2002, were famously described as having "voice coils of the Gods" by one What Hi-Fi? reviewer, such was the impression they made in our test rooms.

The basic ingredients are unchanged here, with the Kevlar-coned mid/bass driver, alloy-dome tweeter and tapered internal tube. Various tweaks and upgrades around the driver and cabinet helped lift these B&Ws to new heights and beat-off opposition at its 249 (March 2003) price tag: "Stunning speakers with a formidable array of strengths."

First reviewed back in November 2004, the B&W PV1 active subwoofer won seven What Hi-Fi? Awards in a row. Need we go on? OK, well firstly, check out how cool it looks. Secondly, understand the smart spherical design is for performance reasons, promising to deliver "the Holy Grail of subwoofer design: deep and clean bass from a near-invisible box". The PV1 uses two 20cm drivers in an opposed, in-phase array powered by a 500-watt Class-D amplifier. The results are sensational: almost zero resonance but stunning speed and power, and a remarkable sub that rocked our world - and our test rooms - for the best part of a decade.

Another classic B&W speaker design, this time as featured in our May 2007 review. The pod-mounted metal dome tweeter, the Kevlar cone, the braced cabinet; the 805S speakers have the full suite of Bowers & Wilkins speaker technologies. They sound even better than they look, with a room-filling soundstage that's balanced and detailed. Even at 1600, they were Award-winning value for every penny.

Making a great-sounding iPod dock wasn't as easy as it might sound (see Apple's three-star iPod Hi-Fi), which made the B&W Zeppelin (pictured here in our review from September 2008) all the more impressive. Another striking B&W design, you needed to clear a fair amount of desk space but were then treated to a detailed, spacious sound from your centrally-mounted iPod. In what would be a sign of things to come, B&W had successfully entered a new product category with another sweet marriage of stylish design and sound quality.

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