Striking in every way, the Bowers & Wilkins 805 D4 is a masterpiece. It's the sort of product only an industry leader with deep roots in the art and knowledge of their craft, and experience to back it up, can pull off. It's a speaker that takes what was already highly refined—the 805 D3—and pushes performance to another level, achieving the exquisite.
When reading the specifications of this superb speaker, you could be forgiven for mistaking it for a tower. The anechoic response of 42 Hz to 20 kHz (+/- 3dB) combines with a perfectly reasonable sensitivity of 88 dB. Featuring an 8-ohm nominal impedance that drops to an amplifier-friendly minimum of 4.6 ohms, these are not even difficult speakers to drive, and the recommended power is between 50 W and 120 W.
While the 805 D4 is certainly a superb choice for a two-channel system, this is Home Theater Review, so one of the criteria for selection is that the speaker is part of a larger line that accommodates surround sound. The Bowers and Wilkins 800 Series Diamond gives you that flexibility, with three tower models and two center-channel models, in addition to the 805 D4. But within the line, the 805 D4 is the only bookshelf model, and it is a spectacular specimen.
Coming soon, HTR will feature a full review of the 805 D4.
