B&W 685 Standmount Speakers – Light Oak

Here we have a pair of standmount loudspeakers from British specialists Bowers & Wilkins. Our 685’s are in good fully working condition with some marking and scratching to the rear panels – please see photographs and the speaker grilles are also slightly damaged. They will be supplied in original packaging and so we’ll let you decide what they’re worth.
Bowers & Wilkins Say….
It’s that time again. When B&W unveils the latest edition of its 600 Series. It’s been going on since the mid-1990s. Even on its debut the 600 Series swept up five star reviews and product of the year awards for its affordable, audible brilliance. Every three years or so since then, as new editions have appeared, it’s been the same story. The new 600 Series – the fourth generation – has been a little longer coming, so the heat’s been off the competition. But it’s back. And it’s better, sharing more leading-edge technologies with our top-of-the-range 800 Series. There’s a wider choice of finishes, a fresh new look and a step forward in sound quality that raises the bar to a whole new level. It’s been a wait, but it’s worth it.
There’s no room for dreams in business. That’s what we’re told. B&W is different. Its success stems from the dream of founder John Bowers to create the perfect loudspeaker – one that neither adds to nor takes away from the recorded performance. And, in the laboratories and listening rooms of our dedicated Research Establishment in southern England, that’s been our goal from day one. The design breakthroughs we’ve made and the technologies we’ve developed along the way have helped to create award-winning loudspeakers at every level of the market. By working with respected studios like Abbey Road, we’ve satisfied the world’s most demanding listeners. The dream is our business. And today, through networks such as our newly-founded Society of Sound, we’re finding performers, technicians and customers who share it. We’re getting closer all the time.
Treble. Mobile phones, DVD players, car navigation systems… Sooner or later, most technological advances become accessible. Few, though, will generate as much sheer pleasure as the innovations now found in the 600 Series.
When we develop a breakthrough technology for one of our studio-standard ranges, every other B&W product feels the benefit. What was state-of-the-art in the high-end series becomes state-of-the-art in more affordable ranges. Everything that goes into a B&W speaker has a pedigree. The 600 Series tweeter is a case in point. Its tube loaded design, which spirits away unwanted sonic radiation from behind the dome, first appeared in our convention-busting Nautilus™ speaker. The aluminium dome itself, bonded resolutely to the voice coil, achieves truer-than-ever frequencies well past the upper limit of human hearing.
Neodymium magnets similar to the kind used in the tweeter of the 800 Series replace the ceramic magnets of the previous 600 Series tweeter. More compact, they allow the separation between the centres of the midrange and tweeter to be reduced, which makes for a more focused sound ‘image’. Other refinements, to the magnet pole and the surround material, have lowered distortion and further sharpened the imaging. All of which adds up to a tweeter of such high quality that it requires only a 1st-order filter, whose simplicity helps to preserve the full purity of the signal.
Midrange. Owners of earlier 600 Series speakers will be wondering how we could improve on the clarity and detail of a midrange drive unit that’s already in a class of its own. That’s just the kind of challenge we like.
In all our 600 Series midrange/bass units the distinctive yellow woven Kevlar® cone snuffs out the kind of concentric standing waves that build up in standard, homogeneous cones, while a light, airy ‘open’ chassis cuts down echo from behind the cone. But, to the midrange of the three-way 683 speaker, we’ve been able to add something even more special. We call it a ‘fixed suspension transducer’, or FST™ for short. It sounds complex, but it’s not. It’s simple, and it sounds wonderful, but until now it has only been seen in B&W’s audiophile ranges, such as the 800 Series.
The FST™ is a ring of foam whose mechanical properties exactly match those of the woven Kevlar® cone, which gives it magical properties over the bending waves that travel outwards through the cone, to its edge. With a conventional roll surround, these energies would be reflected back into the cone and smudge the sound. The FST™ soaks them up, like a circular shock absorber around the cone’s edge. What you hear is a cone moving even more freely and responsively: a midrange that’s top of the range.
We don’t believe in spoiling your enjoyment of what you hear by designing speakers that you don’t want to see. Speakers, after all, are furniture. They have a form as well as a function. You’ll find the craftsmanship and quality of finish on B&W 600 speakers reflect the high standard of engineering and innovation inside them. For the new series, we have widened the choice of cabinet finishes and remodelled the speaker facades to echo currents in contemporary furniture design.
Specifications:
Technical Features: Nautilus™ tube-loaded aluminium dome tweeter; Kevlar® brand fibre cone bass/midrange; Flowport™
Description: 2-way vented-box system
Drive Units: 1x ø 25 mm aluminium dome high-frequency; 1x ø 165 mm woven Kevlar® cone bass/midrange
Frequency Range: -6 dB at 42 Hz and 50 kHz
Frequency Response: 49 Hz – 22 kHz ±3 dB on reference axis
Dispersion: Within 2 dB of reference response; Horizontal: over 60° arc; Vertical: over 10° arc
Sensitivity: 88 dB spl (2.83 V, 1 m)
Harmonic Distortion: 2nd and 3rd harmonics (90 dB, 1 m); <1% 110 Hz – 22 kHz; <0.5% 150 Hz – 20 kHz
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ω (minimum 3.7 Ω)
Crossover Frequency: 4 kHz
Recommended Amplifier Power: 30 W – 100 W into 8 Ω on unclipped programme
Max. Recommended Cable Impedance: 0.1 Ω
Dimensions: 340 (H) x 198 (W) x 331 (D) mm
Net weight: 7.0 kg