Bowers & Wilkins is a well established name in the music loving circle, known for its expensive but high quality audio speaker solutions with a wide range of options to choose from. It was only few years back when B&W set foot in the iPod speaker market with its Zeppelin series. Since then, it has released a number of portable high-end iPod speaker docks known for their excellent sound quality. The recent speaker dock to hit the market from B&W is the Zeppelin AirPlay wireless speaker system, which is the first to feature AirPlay enabled portable speaker dock. It’s ability to play audio, from music or video over-the-air wireless from your iOS powered device or a regular Bluetooth enabled computer, and audiophile level audio quality make it one of the top pick for people on the look out for a portable speaker dock, when money is not a limitation.
The beautiful pebble shaped Zeppelin AirPlay is a single-piece 2.1 speaker system measuring 25 X 7.5 X 8 inches (Wide X Height X Deep) in a neat glossy black frame, constructed out of a high quality sturdy plastic material. The 2.1 arrangement of speakers consists of two 25W powered 3 inch mid-range drivers on either sides, 25W powered 1 inch tweeters on either sides and a 50W powered 5 inch woofer, all of which deliver a thumping 150 Watts output power in total. The dock can fit all versions of iPod touch, iPhone and iPod classic models, and supplements as a charger for devices placed on the dock.
The front of the speaker dock has a single status indicator LED light, that can change color to reflect 20 odd different speaker states that could be a little hard for a lot of us to remember what each color indicates. But with time, it can be dealt with as we get to familiarize with the indications with time. At the back of the speaker dock, it has some regular connectivity options like an ethernet port, USB port, a 3.5mm auxiliary input port. The USB port can be used to play music from a computer and lets you do firmware updates. It is also supplied with a cute little pebble shaped remote control, with button conveniently arranged.
Now, all concerns related to a speaker system boils down to what it is meant to do and how it does it, which is the speaker’s sound quality. The Zeppelin AirPlay wireless speaker dock renders sound effortlessly across the frequency spectrum, mid-range sounding crystal clear, without any distortion. Bass getting as deep as it can get through the 5 inch subwoofer, and the 1 inch tweeters producing distortion free high notes.
The speakers produce one of the best sound-stage experience seen in portable speaker docks, of course, one must not compare it to top of the line, independent 2.1 speaker systems, which can do a better job when they are placed apart. The B&W with its Flowport and the advanced DSP technology, which has gone into this little wonder, makes it one of the best sounding portable speaker docks targeted at Apple products.
Via: Bowers-wilkins
