If you’re going to dive head first into an already crowded market like the world of Bluetooth speakers, you better do something to make your product instantly stand out. And it looks like Bowers & Wilkins has done just that with its new T7 compact speaker featuring a stylish honeycomb design that actually helps strengthen its housing to reduce vibrations and improve its sound.
You can actually find the T7’s Micro Matrix honeycomb structure, as Bowers & Wilkins calls it, in the company’s high-end studio reference speakers. So it’s not just an aesthetic design gimmick intended to make the T7 look sleeker than the Jambox and other portable Bluetooth speakers.
A pair of two-inch glass fibre drivers generate most of the mid-range and high-end sound from the T7, but the biggest selling point with compact speakers like this has been their bass performance. And that’s why Bowers & Wilkins has also packed a pair of “force-cancelling high-output bass radiators” inside the speaker to reproduce low-end frequencies without causing the speaker to vibrate or rattle, even with the volume turned all the way up.
On paper it all sounds very impressive, especially as far as compact wireless Bluetooth speakers — which aren’t always known for the best sound — go. But for $US350, which is more expensive than both the regular and Big Jambox, it will hopefully deliver the kind of sound Bowers & Wilkins is known for with its higher-end gear. [Bowers & Wilkins]