Description
Bowers & Wilkins 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition Floorstanding Speaker Pair – Vintage Walnut
Celebrating the unique 45-year relationship between Bowers & Wilkins and Abbey Road, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition takes the 801 D4 Signature and reframes it in homage to the home of music making.
Hurry! Only 2 pairs are allocated to Australia.
Directly inspired by the famous studio, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition boasts a carefully crafted Vintage Walnut cabinet, complemented by a bespoke red Leather by Connolly trim.
Over the last 45 years, successive generations of 800 Series loudspeakers have graced Abbey Road’s control rooms and contributed to the endlessly iconic music and film scores recorded there.
Engineered for Excellence
Bowers & Wilkins has been a by-word for high-performance sound since it was founded in Worthing, UK in 1966. From the start, company founder John Bowers had a singular belief when it came to loudspeaker design. This remains at the heart of the company he founded almost 60 years later: a high-fidelity loudspeaker should be to the ear what a flawless pane of glass is to the eye; allowing the clear passage of a sensory image, uncorrupted and faithful in every nuance to the original. Bowers & Wilkins calls this ‘True Sound’.
In 1980, John Bowers visited Abbey Road Studios to demonstrate his new design, the 801 – the first of what he described as “a new generation of loudspeakers designed for both the professional and the exceptionally critical listener.” Designed to be the ultimate loudspeaker for hi-fi enthusiasts, the 801 was also specifically developed to be accurate enough for use in professional studios. The engineers at Abbey Road immediately understood its value, and adopted it as their monitor of choice, becoming the first recording studio in the world to use the 801.
This marked the start of an enduring and incredibly fruitful 45-year relationship. Since 1980, six successive generations of Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series loudspeakers have graced and been embraced by the world-class studio engineering team in Abbey Road’s control rooms.
Introducing the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition
The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition is a celebration of this unique 45-year relationship. It takes the very best loudspeaker Bowers & Wilkins currently makes, the flagship 801 D4 Signature, and reframes it in homage to the world’s most iconic recording studio. The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition boasts a carefully crafted Vintage Walnut cabinet inspired by the studios’ iconic interiors and the countless iconic musical instruments that have enriched recordings at Abbey Road over the decades. Complementing this unique wooden finish is a bespoke red Leather by Connolly trim that references both the aesthetic of the control room in Studio Two, arguably the world’s most famous individual studio space, and the red leather chairs used by generations of performers throughout Abbey Road. The design also includes a unique identifying plate on its rear panel, designed to mark its status as one of just 140 pairs of loudspeakers being produced. Buyers will also receive a unique, specially commissioned book that details the history of the two brands and their collaboration, featuring never-previously published photography.
Only two pairs have been allocated to Australia to order now for $100,000, the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition is the ultimate expression of high-performance engineering, iconic music heritage and timeless craftsmanship. It serves as a fitting celebration of one of the most important and influential collaborations in British recording history.
Specifications:
SIZE & WEIGHT
Dimensions
Height: 1221mm (48.1in)
Width: 451mm (17.8 in)
Depth: 600mm (23.6 in)
Net weight
100.60kg (221.8 lb)
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Technical features
Diamond tweeter
Solid Body Tweeter-on-Top
Continuum™ cone FST™ midrange
Anti-Resonance plug
Biomimetic Suspension
Turbine Head
Matrix™
Aerofoil™ Profile bass cones
Flowport™”
Description
3-way vented-box system
Drive units
1x ø25mm (1in) Diamond Dome high-frequency
1x ø150mm (6in) Continuum™ cone FST™ midrange
2x ø250mm (10in) Aerofoil™ Profile bass
Frequency range
-6dB 13Hz – 35kHz
Harmonic distortion
2nd and 3rd harmonics (90dB, 1m on axis)
<1% 30Hz – 20kHz <0.3% 100Hz – 20kHz Nominal impedance
8Ω (minimum 3.0Ω)
Recommended amplifier power
50W – 1,000W into 8Ω on unclipped programme
Max recommended cable impedance
0.1Ω
Frequency response (+/-3dB from reference axis)
15Hz – 28kHz ±3dB
Sensitivity (on axis at 2.83Vrms at 1m)
90dB
FINISHES
Cabinet finishes
Vintage Walnut
Grille finishes
Black
