Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Review: Up in the air
Verdict
The same unique shape but with more of a focus on streaming, the Zeppelin'southward comeback is a worthy one with a terrific sound performance and slick streaming capabilities.
Pros
- Precise sound
- Enough of streaming options
- Striking design
- Dainty app
Cons
- Rather big to accommodate
- No Chromecast
- Stereo ambitions overstated
Availability
- UK RRP: £699
- USA RRP: $799
- Europe RRP: €799
Cardinal Features
- Bluetooth Tin can stream up to aptX-HD
- Smart skills Built-in Alexa voice recognition
- Music app Music app integrates streaming services such every bit Tidal and Qobuz
Introduction
The concluding Zeppelin speaker to emerge from the Bowers & Wilkins factory was in 2017, and the landscape of the wireless speaker market place has shifted plenty in that time.
Present, a premium wireless speaker that launches without a command app is considered a simulated pas. Digital assistants have colonised homes, while the thirst for higher-quality audio has increased.
And and then the Zeppelin returns to embrace the digital age. Alexa comes built in and the speaker is entwined with music services so it tin can be fed a diet of your favourite tracks and playlists.
Design
- Unique looks
- Needs space to operate
- Elegant, premium construction
You could trace the evolution of modern wireless speakers through the diverse iterations of the Zeppelin model. From the Zeppelin iPod speaker Dock to Zeppelin Air, Zeppelin Wireless and at present Zeppelin, information technology's advanced from a speaker with a physical dock to a wholly wireless experience.
Then every bit the iPod docks of sometime were consigned to the history books, the new Zeppelin ditches physical ports altogether – there'south no 3.5mm jack and no Ethernet. Visually, the Zeppelin remains a looker, with contoured curves and premium fabric material merging to create its distinctive silhouette. The housing is an ultra-rigid, FEA-optimised enclosure sculpted to evangelize a broad and spacious sound.
The stand is congenital in, and integrated into the underside of the body is a downwardly-facing LED light. The effulgence can exist adjusted in the app or switched off completely – after a period of inactivity it turns off anyway. At 650mm wide, the Zeppelin isn't a wireless speaker that likes to share infinite. For more placement options in that location'southward a £59 wall bracket.
There's no remote, then on the rear are playback, volume, Alexa Voice Service and Multifunction (MFB) buttons. The MFB can exist used to gear up the speaker, start a Bluetooth connection and it flashes to announce the speaker's condition. Concord the Voice Service button to plow off the microphones, if yous crave privacy.
In the dorsum of the stand you'll find the power outlet, alongside a USB-C service port and reset push. The Zeppelin comes in midnight greyness and pearl greyness finishes, with the latter looking peculiarly lovely.
Features
- Slick and well-featured Music app
- Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect support
- Alexa vocalism help
The Zeppelin is full stream ahead for features – but before I go to that, some details near what'southward inside. For the loftier frequencies there are two 25mm double-dome tweeters, for the mid-range two 90mm FST (Fixed Suspension Transducer) drivers, and the low frequencies are handled by a 6-inch subwoofer.
Driving all this is 240W of amplification, which is comparatively less than the similarly priced Naim Mu-So Qb 2 (300W). At its centre is a DAC capable of 24-chip/192kHz – although, currently, the resolution the Zeppelin accepts is 24-flake/96kHz, which could be raised through updates.
In that location's AirPlay two for iOS devices (which too brings multi-room support) and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth (aptX-Hard disk drive) for Android. Streaming services are served by Spotify Connect, with Deezer, Last.fm, Qobuz, Soundcloud, TuneIn and Tidal available to be linked to in the Bowers & Wilkins app. Spotify Hi-Fi volition be supported when it launches, and with the Zeppelin's upgradeable digital brain, more services can be added in the future.
The Bowers & Wilkins Music command app is more featured than the barebones Germination Home app from a few years back. It looks great on iPad Pro, slick in appearance and frictionless in use. The primary page is organised into a row of recommendations, recently played content, followed by Bowers & Wilkins playlists and linked streaming services. There'due south scope to adjust the speaker's EQ by altering bass and treble from -6dB to 6dB.
Playback in the app extends to play/break, skipping and volume adjustment, with no power to scrub forwards or backwards. While yous tin can command content that's playing in other apps – say, Apple Podcasts – they won't announced in the recently played row, necessitating a jump back to the app to play something else.
Alexa is built in, and when beckoned the recognisable bluish light appears beneath the Bowers & Wilkins logo, the far-field microphones picking up requests from across the room. She can play music from services you've linked to in the Alexa app (Amazon Music and Spotify) – just even if you link Alexa to Apple Podcasts, her achieve won't stretch to unsupported apps.
Initial setup takes a lilliputian longer than expected, and booting up isn't instantaneous, either. Like a academy student who's had a night out, the Zeppelin requires some fourth dimension to wake upward. Nevertheless, the combination of the Zeppelin and Music app is an improvement over the Formation app, which is slowly being integrated into the Music app, and multi-room with Formation is yet on track for early 2022.
If you hanker for DLNA or UPnP, they're not currently supported and for the time existence and then Bowers & Wilkins seems content with the options offered, and so don't expect Chromecast or Google Assistant any time shortly.
Sound Quality
- Big sound
- Deep bass
- Crisp, clear and abrupt performance
The new Zeppelin markets itself every bit more of an all-in-one organisation than earlier, and it delivers a performance that's in-tune with what nosotros've come to await from the series.
It strikes a rather neutral and precise tone – a audio stripped of fat and filtered to deliver a pure signal. Information technology's abrupt and clear at the top end, with a firm and punchy depression-frequency performance, and a mid-range that's crisp and detailed.
It can easily go large and loud, its operation ably filling a medium-sized room; although the Zeppelin's stereo image ambitions are rather overstated. The Zeppelin produces a large sound, for sure, but the bulk of the action happens in the middle, a sense of outright width wasn't peculiarly axiomatic in the music I played.
Vocals are reproduced cleanly, with clarity and fidelity. Obongjayar's fibroid and raspy voice comes out well in Frens, while Faye Webster's quiet, trembling speech/singing comes beyond exactly like that.
You lot could possibly argue that the Zeppelin's more stark approach robs voices of some emotional depth and warmth. Anya Taylor-Joy'south voice in Downtown Downtempo from the Final Dark in Soho soundtrack is stripped make clean and laid blank. However, a counter-statement is that the Zeppelin refuses to add whatsoever color, preserving the subtle details and intonations for a revealing song performance.
Depending on the track, there are occasions where the Zeppelin gets too excitable. Its sense of organization and rhythmic ability slip, with details – specially in the background – a petty lost every bit the speaker gives prominence to vocals.
But it's capable of some fragile subtlety and nuance. The piano in Joe Hisaishi'due south Innocent sparkles with a tremendous sense of clarity and naturalism, as if the pianoforte was right there in front of y'all. The speaker'southward subwoofer outputs tremendous ability: Kendrick Lamar's Pride offers both punch, weight and depth, without ever becoming as well hard or inflexible.
Dynamically, they're insightful with plenty of deviation from repose and loud parts of a track, and they're agile also: Ripples in the Sand from the Dune soundtrack produces an explosive sense of bass that contrasts with the ethereal and otherworldly voice that emerges from the track.
What width there is gives clarity to the separation to instruments in the New Masters/Keyon Harrold encompass of This Is America, and when the song descends into chaos, the Zeppelin maintains command over timing and definition of those instruments, the speaker's sense of rhythm undisturbed. The Zeppelin is a high-quality speaker and it has returned in some style.
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Should you purchase it?
For a clear, crisp and poised performer The Zeppelin delivers terrific sound – and, with the Music app, information technology's easier than ever to play your music with lilliputian delay.
If you desire Chromecast There's currently no support for Google's streaming connection, which may irk Android users who prefer Chromecast over Bluetooth.
Final Thoughts
The Zeppelin lives up to the high standards of the previous entries in the serial, delivering an experience that satisfies both on the audio forepart and in usability terms with the Music app.
Some may pine for physical ports, but the streaming approach makes sense – and with the number of wireless sources and streaming services the Zeppelin plugs into, there's plenty to encompass nigh people's needs. Merely the lack of Chromecast stops this from being a i-stop streaming system.
Regardless, the audio operation is large, loud and offers plenty of allegiance to bring your music streaming library to life. This Zeppelin showcases plenty of élan and an audio performance I'd course as terrific.
How we test
We test every wireless speaker nosotros review thoroughly over an extended catamenia of time. Nosotros use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We'll ever tell you what we discover. Nosotros never, e'er, take money to review a product.
Observe out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
Tested over several weeks
Tested with existent world use
Tested with various streaming services
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FAQs
Does the B&W Zeppelin back up Chromecast?
At this moment in time, the Zeppelin does not back up Chromecast.
What Bluetooth codecs does the Zeppelin support?
SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX-Hard disk drive.
Is there support for Roon, DLNA and UPnP?
At this moment in time, the Zeppelin doesn't support these features.
Full specs
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Great britain RRP
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ASIN
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Jargon buster
Bluetooth 5.0
Bluetooth v.0 is the latest iteration of the standard, and allows data to be sent at twice as much as speed over previous standards, cover 4 times as much in terms of distance and transfer viii times equally much information.
aptX
Qualcomm'south aptX codec tin can support higher quality sound than Bluetooth alone.
AirPlay 2
AirPlay 2 is the second generation of Apple tree's proprietary wireless streaming tech, which is built into all of its hardware products (and supported by many others). It'south designed to pass content from your Apple device - music, video and photos - to a compatible receiver over your Wi-Fi network such as a Telly, wireless speaker, AV receiver etc.
Source: https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/bowers-and-wilkins-zeppelin
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