B&W got a start after the rebuilding efforts of World War II as a radio and electronics shop. As the story goes, after supplying local schools and churches with PA equipment, John started having to repair them in the workshop in the backyard, and founded B&W Loudspeakers, Ltd in 1966.
The 1967 P1 was the first commercial speaker from B&W. The cabinet and filter were B&W's own, but it used drivers from Celestion https://celestion.com/ and the now defunct Electrical and Musical Instruments. Some of you may remember this company- in the late 20th century it was a recorded music published- but in 1966 it was in the business of making loudspeaker transducers, as well as music recording studios...
Electrical and Musical Instruments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMI
itself was formed from the merger of two gramophone companies- Columbia Gramophone Company, and
The Gramophone Company in 1931.
P2
DM1
DM3
DM2
DM6- Kevlar 1976 - Computer: PDP11/35
DM7- The tweeter on top
801 - 1979- isolated speakers in separate housings
801 Matrix: Matrix loaded cabinets
Mass loaded lines
Reference:
801 history, according to B&W corporate website
Unfortunately John Bowers died in 1987.
A young Lawrence Dickie was brought it to design amplifiers. Robert Trunz a gent from Luzern, Switzerland, at the time was Head of Marketing and Business at B&W and responsible for the much of the growth and export business, directed Lawrence Dickie and the team at Steyning Research Establishment to take over the project John's 800 project.
Here's an early prototype:
It was around this time that a young Simon Ghahary was dumpster diving through the rubbish bin at the SRE
My name is Simon Ghahary. 1991 was the year that I found a source of free speaker components: the Bowers & Wilkins Loudspeakers Ltd. (B&W) research and development skip in Steyning, West Sussex.
Simon, living the (DIY-ers) dream!
It was a police officer that forced the "chance meeting" between Lawrence Dickie and Simon Ghahary...
"It was one fine sunny day at SRE (B&W Steyning Research Establishment) when I heard the front doorbell go, not something which happened all that often. To my surprise and slight consternation, it was an officer of the law, but there was no going back; the door was glazed and he'd seen me already so I could only slide the door open and hope for the best! "I've had reason to search the premises of Steyning Video Hire and have reason to believe I might have found a quantity of property stolen from these premises," he announced. "The occupant," he continued," claims the material all came from the skip and was free for the taking. I don't believe him for one moment, so I'd be very grateful if someone could accompany me to the shop and verify his story".
“Well, now I was getting interested because we did use to throw away all sorts of good stuff, which pained me, and it was interesting to think someone was doing useful things with it, so I set off behind him and walked the 200m to the shop,” remembers Dic.
We were met by a young dark-haired chap who did seem a bit nervous but not unduly so. The policeman guided me to a back room where he proudly waved his hand at a pile of very familiar-looking objects. "There," he said proudly, "you can't tell me that's all rubbish; there's good stuff there." But as I looked more closely, I recognized bits and bobs that I fashioned with my own hands and, regretfully, had to consign to waste under pressure from the boss.
"Oh, Wow! You picked that up" I said, pointing to a cabinet experiment I remembered from way back. "Oh, and this! Well, that was an experiment in driver design, but there was only one, so you have a job making a stereo pair". Very soon, the two of us were deep in conversation while the officer looked on in mounting disbelief until eventually he had to interject. "So can I take it that all of this is, in fact, junk and none of it stolen?" "Absolutely!" I replied. "And it's great to see someone has put it all to good use!" and at this the policeman turned and strode out of the shop, disgruntled at the loss of a possible arrest.
“So the general chat about turning junk into gold carried on for a while until we reached a natural break in the conversation. Suddenly Simon turned to me and said ‘actually, there's something I'd like your opinion on’ and disappeared for a few seconds before reappearing with a portfolio. ‘These are some ideas I've been working on,’ he said, unfolding the cover to reveal some immediately intriguing graphics drawn in a heavy 6B pencil. The shapes before me had essences of Buddha, were totally curvaceous and just an amazing design for a speaker - because that was exactly what they were.”
“We talked around the subject for a while but, with very little modification, I agreed that these shapes would totally work. "So," asked Simon, "If I make a couple of cabs to this design will you fit the drivers and sort out the crossover?". I happily agreed, but in my mind, I doubted anything would happen and had almost forgotten our meeting when three months later, who should turn up at the R&D lab but Simon, bearing the completed fiberglass shells. A bit speechless, I accepted the cabinets and agreed that I had to keep my half of the deal and would have to sort out the drivers and crossover."
This shaped the HousePod speakers (1991):
and of course B&W's release of Nautilus, 4-way active speaker in 1993:
It is said that Robert Trunz had health issues and sold at the end of 1996, sold his shares and left B&W.
Laurence Dickie left B&W a few years after completing the Nautilus.
A fellow called John Dibb , stayed from 1986 to 2013, and was perhaps responsible for their interest in different materials for their cones/domes and cabinets.
Unfortunately for B&W it all slowly went downhill B&W's market failure with their Formation active speaker and headphones, which went over budget and well over time.
A series of different CFO and CEOs screwed it couldn't help it, in my opinion. In most companies when original founders/visionaries leave you're left with CEO's and CFOs trying to hold the fort of an honored brand.
https://www.whathifi.com/news/bowers-and-wilkins-ceo-resigns-restructuring-expert-appointed
They almost went bust, only to be bought by DEI Holdings, a made-up Holding company that swallows other companies, founded by fellow who made his money selling car alarms to automobile manufacturers. In 2022, Masimo, the American company founded Joe Kiani, the engineer who invented the sensor to measure oxygen-levels-in-your-blood. Yes, the one powers the fingertip Oxygen Saturation monitor that's found in hospital emergency department, hospital wards and doctor clinics around the world.
In 2024 Joe resigns after shareholders voted to remove him from the company's board. The following year Masimo sells Sound United to Harman.
https://news.harman.com/releases/masimo-to-sell-consumer-audio-business-to-harman-international
Today, active 3 (or 4 way) speakers are the norm rather than the exception at Harman/Kardon eg.
The vision of Laurence Dickie lives on as Vivid Audio, Made in South Africa and sold to export markets.
4-way binding posts for outboard active crossover and multi-amplifiters exist as options, although these buyers typically like to mix and match amps and sources and ground-lift levitators.
B&W continues to enjoy a good reputation for their speakers as they are on-show at every new iteration at Abbey Road Studios, made famous by The Beatles.
But wasn't this studio EMI Recording Studios ?
Ah yes...
(missing pictures and broken links to be corrected
The 1967 P1 was the first commercial speaker from B&W. The cabinet and filter were B&W's own, but it used drivers from Celestion https://celestion.com/ and the now defunct Electrical and Musical Instruments. Some of you may remember this company- in the late 20th century it was a recorded music published- but in 1966 it was in the business of making loudspeaker transducers, as well as music recording studios...
Electrical and Musical Instruments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMI
itself was formed from the merger of two gramophone companies- Columbia Gramophone Company, and
The Gramophone Company in 1931.
P2
DM1
DM3
DM2
DM6- Kevlar 1976 - Computer: PDP11/35
DM7- The tweeter on top
801 - 1979- isolated speakers in separate housings
801 Matrix: Matrix loaded cabinets
Mass loaded lines
Reference:
801 history, according to B&W corporate website
Unfortunately John Bowers died in 1987.
A young Lawrence Dickie was brought it to design amplifiers. Robert Trunz a gent from Luzern, Switzerland, at the time was Head of Marketing and Business at B&W and responsible for the much of the growth and export business, directed Lawrence Dickie and the team at Steyning Research Establishment to take over the project John's 800 project.
Here's an early prototype:
It was around this time that a young Simon Ghahary was dumpster diving through the rubbish bin at the SRE
My name is Simon Ghahary. 1991 was the year that I found a source of free speaker components: the Bowers & Wilkins Loudspeakers Ltd. (B&W) research and development skip in Steyning, West Sussex.
Simon, living the (DIY-ers) dream!
It was a police officer that forced the "chance meeting" between Lawrence Dickie and Simon Ghahary...
"It was one fine sunny day at SRE (B&W Steyning Research Establishment) when I heard the front doorbell go, not something which happened all that often. To my surprise and slight consternation, it was an officer of the law, but there was no going back; the door was glazed and he'd seen me already so I could only slide the door open and hope for the best! "I've had reason to search the premises of Steyning Video Hire and have reason to believe I might have found a quantity of property stolen from these premises," he announced. "The occupant," he continued," claims the material all came from the skip and was free for the taking. I don't believe him for one moment, so I'd be very grateful if someone could accompany me to the shop and verify his story".
“Well, now I was getting interested because we did use to throw away all sorts of good stuff, which pained me, and it was interesting to think someone was doing useful things with it, so I set off behind him and walked the 200m to the shop,” remembers Dic.
We were met by a young dark-haired chap who did seem a bit nervous but not unduly so. The policeman guided me to a back room where he proudly waved his hand at a pile of very familiar-looking objects. "There," he said proudly, "you can't tell me that's all rubbish; there's good stuff there." But as I looked more closely, I recognized bits and bobs that I fashioned with my own hands and, regretfully, had to consign to waste under pressure from the boss.
"Oh, Wow! You picked that up" I said, pointing to a cabinet experiment I remembered from way back. "Oh, and this! Well, that was an experiment in driver design, but there was only one, so you have a job making a stereo pair". Very soon, the two of us were deep in conversation while the officer looked on in mounting disbelief until eventually he had to interject. "So can I take it that all of this is, in fact, junk and none of it stolen?" "Absolutely!" I replied. "And it's great to see someone has put it all to good use!" and at this the policeman turned and strode out of the shop, disgruntled at the loss of a possible arrest.
“So the general chat about turning junk into gold carried on for a while until we reached a natural break in the conversation. Suddenly Simon turned to me and said ‘actually, there's something I'd like your opinion on’ and disappeared for a few seconds before reappearing with a portfolio. ‘These are some ideas I've been working on,’ he said, unfolding the cover to reveal some immediately intriguing graphics drawn in a heavy 6B pencil. The shapes before me had essences of Buddha, were totally curvaceous and just an amazing design for a speaker - because that was exactly what they were.”
“We talked around the subject for a while but, with very little modification, I agreed that these shapes would totally work. "So," asked Simon, "If I make a couple of cabs to this design will you fit the drivers and sort out the crossover?". I happily agreed, but in my mind, I doubted anything would happen and had almost forgotten our meeting when three months later, who should turn up at the R&D lab but Simon, bearing the completed fiberglass shells. A bit speechless, I accepted the cabinets and agreed that I had to keep my half of the deal and would have to sort out the drivers and crossover."
This shaped the HousePod speakers (1991):
and of course B&W's release of Nautilus, 4-way active speaker in 1993:
It is said that Robert Trunz had health issues and sold at the end of 1996, sold his shares and left B&W.
Laurence Dickie left B&W a few years after completing the Nautilus.
A fellow called John Dibb , stayed from 1986 to 2013, and was perhaps responsible for their interest in different materials for their cones/domes and cabinets.
Unfortunately for B&W it all slowly went downhill B&W's market failure with their Formation active speaker and headphones, which went over budget and well over time.
A series of different CFO and CEOs screwed it couldn't help it, in my opinion. In most companies when original founders/visionaries leave you're left with CEO's and CFOs trying to hold the fort of an honored brand.
https://www.whathifi.com/news/bowers-and-wilkins-ceo-resigns-restructuring-expert-appointed
They almost went bust, only to be bought by DEI Holdings, a made-up Holding company that swallows other companies, founded by fellow who made his money selling car alarms to automobile manufacturers. In 2022, Masimo, the American company founded Joe Kiani, the engineer who invented the sensor to measure oxygen-levels-in-your-blood. Yes, the one powers the fingertip Oxygen Saturation monitor that's found in hospital emergency department, hospital wards and doctor clinics around the world.
In 2024 Joe resigns after shareholders voted to remove him from the company's board. The following year Masimo sells Sound United to Harman.
https://news.harman.com/releases/masimo-to-sell-consumer-audio-business-to-harman-international
Today, active 3 (or 4 way) speakers are the norm rather than the exception at Harman/Kardon eg.
The vision of Laurence Dickie lives on as Vivid Audio, Made in South Africa and sold to export markets.
4-way binding posts for outboard active crossover and multi-amplifiters exist as options, although these buyers typically like to mix and match amps and sources and ground-lift levitators.
B&W continues to enjoy a good reputation for their speakers as they are on-show at every new iteration at Abbey Road Studios, made famous by The Beatles.
But wasn't this studio EMI Recording Studios ?
Ah yes...
(missing pictures and broken links to be corrected
