Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond

Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond review

First sight of the new B&W 800-Series Diamond models immediately called to mind that much quoted comment from a nineteenth century French journalist: "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose". It's easy to track this new and imposing £11,500 three-way 802 Diamond model right back to the Nautilus 802 in 1998. The two models look superficially almost identical and you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart from across the room. Indeed the only visual differences apparent in these latest series-Diamond variations seem to be a little extra bright trim around the drivers, a shiny phase plug in the centre of the midrange driver, smaller dustcovers for the bass units and revised signal input terminals. However, if the outline and basic cabinetwork looks very familiar, much of the internal engineering has now undergone two distinct stages of improvement. In 2005, we tested the 802D, a successor to the original Nautilus 802 and this speaker's immediate predecessor. Seven years had given the people working away in Bowers and Wilkins' Research Labs – idyllically located in Steyning, a few miles inland from the main Worthing factory – plenty of time to work on upgrades.