B&W Formation Duo hands on review What HiFi

B&W has launched its lengthy-awaited wi-fi song system - and it's clean the organization means enterprise. B&W Formation is a completely-formed multi-room wi-fi offering that goals to enchantment to individuals who want the ease of streaming audio with out dropping any of the excellent. And we imply any. 

B&W is promising complete-domestic audio overall performance it's a fit for the sound pleasant you can count on from a couple of stressed out audio system or certainly a separates hi-fi machine. At the forefront of the declare could be the B&W Formation Duo, a fully active pair of wireless audio system and the flagship product in the Formation variety. 

Design

The Formation Duo speakers are instantly recognisable as a pair of B&W speakers thanks to that trademark decoupled tweeter on pinnacle of the cabinet and the now acquainted Continuum cone, which changed the formerly-used Kevlar models. 

Available in black or white, they put a futuristic spin on that traditional layout so that you recognise you are not getting a regular pair of passive audio system. The matt black end was the winner for us, although the white audio system with newly-designed stands looked pretty smart, too. Standing just below 40cm tall and just over 30cm deep, they are no shrinking violets, and at 10.6kg, they are a reassuringly hefty piece of kit. 

Inside is the same 6.5in Continuum motive force found inside the B&W 800 Series and a 1in carbon-domed tweeter, which includes B&W's patented tweeter-on-top generation. B&W claims a frequency response of 25Hz to 33kHz. The audio system are driven with the aid of two, 125-watt digital amplifiers.

Round the back of the speaker, tucked underneath the wireless module at the base of the unit, is the power connection – all you want to get started. There's additionally an Ethernet port if you need to be more certain of the wi-fi network connectivity, and a USB port for carrier updates. And it's your lot in phrases of connections. 

At the bottom of the front of the speaker you may see a Formation connection button, plus volume and play/pause controls. These could are available in reachable whilst moving from room to room, allowing you to pause in one room and select-up the music where you left off in some other room, though evidently you will be doing most of your control from your telephone, tablet or pc.

Features

While they appearance as easy as a couple of speakers can appearance, with nothing however a energy cable required for every to start operating, there is a whole host of wi-fi capability at your disposal.

Firstly, they work with all of the other B&W Formation merchandise, which includes the Formation Bar soundbar, the Formation Bass subwoofer, the Formation Wedge wireless speaker and the Formation Audio wi-fi hub. 

As with all the ones other devices, the Formation Duo audio system support Apple AirPlay 2 and aptX HD Bluetooth. They have Spotify Connect and are Roon Ready, so can be controlled straight from the Roon app. There's also a B&W Formation app. 

Thanks to all that capability it must be viable to play music from quite much any source. Naturally, we are eager to see how it works in fact with a diffusion of apps, consisting of hello-res streaming offerings which includes Tidal and Qobuz, and whether B&W's app measures as much as the ones from the likes of Bluesound, Sonos and Naim. 

Elsewhere, there's additionally Dynamic EQ, as seen on a number of the company's virtual subwoofers, which guarantees to first-rate tune the sound as you pay attention. We look ahead to seeing how that works.

Sound

We were treated to a sneak preview of the new Formation products, such as a listening session with the Duo speakers. As ever, a limited time in a brand new surroundings, with a gadget and songs that are not always acquainted, can only let you know so much. 

That said, B&W became simply assured within the audio system' potential and eager to show what the Duo should do (even if one B&W group member confided that it was a ways from a perfect listening room, being pretty huge and whole with wooden floors).

We had been handled to a huge range of styles, from Neil Young to St Vincent, Chris Stapleton to The Chemical Brothers, allowing positive factors of the overall overall performance to return to the fore. 

The Chemical Brothers' The Golden Path brought bass that went deep, stayed tight and became full of element, riding the song along because it ought to with out dominating the soundstage. There become astounding scale, too, filling a huge room with sound with out losing manage.

Young's guitar strums showed an outstanding stage of fidelity; the level of detail wherein every intonation is plain, helping to supply that sense of a stay overall performance regardless of the reality you are sat in your couch streaming the tune. Incidentally, our demo of the Duo audio system become delivered via Roon which, at the same time as a stable piece of software program in its personal proper, it did strike us as barely odd now not to be the use of the B&W Formation app.

St Vincent's Masseducation offers plenty of uncooked emotion and naked vocals, and it's clear that midrange clarity and stereo imaging need to be sturdy points for these wireless audio system, with voices and gadgets located well and cohesively in front of us. It's easy to hear the anger in Clark's voice, such is the transparency on offer.

We're even handled to a few vinyl, with Gregory Porter's dulcet tones despatched wirelessly to the Duo speakers through the Formation Audio (although you do want a phono degree in there someplace). As a lot as whatever, it indicates the versatility of the B&W Formation machine.

Initial verdict

The B&W Formation Duo audio system are the flagship product within the Formation range, with a fee tag to show it. They without a doubt appearance proper on paper, and within the flesh, and our first impressions are effective. 

B&W desires to delver the final stage of wi-fi performance, both in terms of sound best and functionality. We look forward to finding out if the company has performed that lofty aim very soon.

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//www.whathifi.com/reviews/bandw-formation-duo
2019-04-22 11:00:00Z
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