Bowers & Wilkins 683 Speakers

The B&W 683 is a true 3-way speaker. & trust me, 3-WAY is 3 WAY! Period.
2.5 way designs will always be good when well made, but the vocal clarity of a 3-way speaker has yet to be beaten by a 2-way or so called '2.5 way' design.

As usual, these are merely my opinions & experiences, no one is paying me to write these out.

With its imposing look comprising 2 aluminium dome woofers, it may appear that the selling point is the low end. Youre right to some extent, but thats not the real kicker.

The real gem in the 683 is the FST midrange driver. This FST speaker is worth every extra dollar you pay for the 683 over any other speaker in the 6 series line-up.. ever!
The FST is what makes the 683 everything it is, without the FST, you would buy a 684.

The FST creates the most brilliant sound stage in the entry level B&W lineup. It has brilliant imaging. A note here, I find that despite the 683 manual suggesting placing speakers 1.5-2metres apart, I place mine 3 metres apart & feel the results are better, again this could be a personal thing.

Also, tilting these speakers slightly toward the listener centre point is absolutely crucial. You will not get the same sound stage if you keep them flat. The manual suggests rotation toward the listener if using for hifi audio & keeping them straight if home theatre movie use, but I just keep min tilted all the time because music is my main use.

The FST driver produces the most beautiful clean & crisp vocals without that annoying brightness that some other speakers have. The voice is warm, mellow yet beautifully detailed. Thats what makes the 683 special.

I heard the 683s side by side to the Paradigm's which are highly applauded for crisp clear flat treble & to me they sounded tatty as hell. It just felt like someone disconnected the squaker out of them!

Im driving my 683 using a Marantz SR6004 receiver & the sound is just brilliant. They say the 683 is very hungry for power, in my experience thats complete rubbish. I get smooth bass to pretty loud spl levels, & there is ample power available out of my 110W per channel Marantz receiver to take care of them even wit 7.1 channel surround sound content.

An observation though is that the frequency reponse in the 1-2Khz mark increases exponentially when spl levels are pushed very high, ie, the vocals suddenly seem to overpower the midbass in a different proportion to what you listen when playing at adequate spl at medium volumes. Now this is could be due to the rooms layout, floors, walls, fixtures etc, but its something I noted back in the dealers audition room as well which should be free of those concerns.

If there is 1 thing I dont like, its that the speakers are inherently a tad dull in the 2Khz mark when played at your average volume levels in a medium to small room. I think this is a design decision, & is purely personal, some people might love that.
I would like them to be a little more open in the 2Khz mark, & thats probably why some people who end up buying the twice as expensive CM9 will tell you the 683 sounded a tad muddy to them.

Another observation is that the sound actually does get better, again in that 2Khz mark if you take the grills off. I would love to take the grille off & show it off, but I know its going to get dirty or some kid is going to dent the speaker. So I leave on & just deal with it using EQ. I suspect its because of the amount of plastic re-inforcement they have on the floorstander grills. But again, its very mild & wont be a show stopper.

The woofers are very very fast. The bass is so clean that if I told you its servo controlled, you'll buy it. The downside to this clean bass is that in some cases, it gives a perception that the roll-off isnt as smooth. I have noticed this when you have sub 50Hz material playing at low spl while mid bass in the 120Hz mark is kicking, & the speaker almost forgets that the bass drum has still got to end.

Dont get me wrong, these speakers go down to 37Hz, so low that you can pretty much get away with not buying a sub. They will shake the floor in a medium sized room happily.

I dont believe much in the concept of a run-in period from a technical standpoint. Yes, by running in, if youre referring to the buyer's ears tuning to their new speakers, then yes thats very common, but a run-in period is often exaggerated by many other magazine reviews & audiophiles, no offence to them.

Saying that, I do feel that the low end in my speakers really came to life after about 50 hrs of use. Of course, we must note that for that time, my ears were getting tuned to my new speakers too!

I personally feel the 683 is best suited to Jazz, classical, some pop, & alternative or classic rock genres. I have not been too impressed listening to hard rock or metal or even techno/house on it. & that makes sense, because these british designs are mainly catered for those mainstreams genres & thats the type of sound most of those listeners will like.

Overall, a great speaker for the NZ $3000 mark. If youre not too sure & want a speaker that wont let you down & will really only grow in you, get the 683, it will not disappoint. If on a budget, buy used from TradeMe or Sella or eBay or whatever you use, these speakers last for donkeys of years. They hold their value really really well.