Bowers & Wilkins CM8

Bowers and Wilkins CM8 review

Bowers and Wilkins currently has four main ranges of hi-fi speakers: the budget-priced 600 series; the super-slim, metal-jacket XTs, the upmarket 800 Diamonds and the CM-series, one of which (the sensibly priced CM8) is exclusive to Hi-Fi Choice this month. You may recall that we reviewed the Bowers and Wilkins CM9, the larger of the floorstanders, and while it is is clearly good material value for money – significantly bigger in both cabinet size and driver area – it was also arguably rather too large for our 4.3x2.6x5.5m room, delivering a bit too much bass output when the effects of room gain were added to the substantial bass output of a stereo pair. The good news is, however, that the CM-series has evolved significantly down the years. As a world leader in hi-fi loudspeakers, Bowers and Wilkins is definitely a pacesetter in driving the market forward and it has a clever ability to find and create niches within the overall loudspeaker scheme of things and build appropriate models to suit. New models are continually replacing earlier ones in order to introduce engineering and styling improvements.