B&W 802 Diamond Floorstanding Speakers – Cherry

Here we have a pair of high-end loudspeakers from British specialists Bowers & Wilkins. The 802 Diamond was a member of the well regarded 800 series and here comes in good fully working condition with some minor marks under the grilles – please refer to photographs. They are supplied in original packaging with our usual three month warranty, but please be aware they will have to be delivered on a pallet due to their size and weight.
Bowers & Wilkins Say….
If you’re looking for a speaker with the power, clarity and presence of the mighty 800 Diamond, but your listening area can’t quite accommodate its studio-sized proportions, the 802 Diamond is the answer. Retaining the groundbreaking spherical head design of its bigger brother, it’s the closest you’ll get to true studio sound at home.
The 800 Series Diamond family encompasses speakers of all sizes and applications, from mighty studio monitors to bookshelf speakers that will fit snugly into domestic spaces of any size. But while every speaker is different, they have two key features in common: a tweeter made from pure diamond, and sound quality that will leave you speechless.
Diamond is a distinguishing feature of the entire 800 Series Diamond range – and for good reason. Thanks to its unique balance of lightness and rigidity, no material on Earth is better suited to making tweeter domes. To create the tweeters for the 800 Series Diamond we use a technique that allows diamond to be grown, like a crystal, in laboratory conditions.
Not all the sound generated by tweeter drive units is good sound. To soak up wayward sound energy and reduce resonances to a minimum, every tweeter in the 800 Series Diamond is mounted on top of the cabinet, and
uses the tapering tube design from Bowers & Wilkins’ trailblazing Nautilus speaker. Added to this, our new quad-magnet design improves sensitivity, which reduces compression and brings music to life. So all the sound you hear is good sound.
For the 800 Series Diamond we have redefined the science of magnet motor design. In the tweeter, a unique quad magnet design focuses the magnetic energy right where the voice coil sits, and keeps the driver running cool and smooth.
The teardrop-shaped midrange head is a distinctive feature of both the top-of-the-range 800 Diamond and the 802 Diamond. Moulded from Marlan™, a synthetic, mineral filled resin, this granite-hard enclosure is sprayed with seven coats of lacquer and polished by hand until it’s as smooth as glass.
Kevlar® is known as the wonder fabric in bulletproof vests. But, as Bowers & Wilkins discovered, no material is better suited to disrupt the standing waves that cause distortion and coloration in the midrange. To enhance the properties of Kevlar yet further, we’ve added something very special. The FST™ acts like a circular shock absorber around the cone, almost totally absorbing the sound-smudging bending waves that travel outwards to the cone’s perimeter. A midrange driver never sounded cleaner, or more responsive.
The 800 Series Diamond bass driver is a formidable piece of engineering, designed to preserve the speed and ‘slam’ of the most demanding bass lines. The cone material is Rohacell®: a sophisticated composite of the kind normally used for aircraft and performance cars. The new dual magnet design reduces distortion for more natural and consistent bass character. For unshakable bass, it’s the bottom line.
Bass needs air to breathe. But if turbulence occurs as air moves in and out of a speaker’s reflex port, you’ll hear extraneous noise – and, as you turn the volume up, the bass won’t be as tight or well-timed as it should be. The Flowport™ in the 800 Series Diamond minimises turbulence in the same way as a golf ball. Dimples on the surface generate tiny eddy currents, over which air can flow smoothly and, above all, silently.
The way a speaker’s crossover is constructed speaks volumes about the quality of its mechanical components. What to look for is simplicity. The rule is, the better the design of the drive units, the simpler the design of the
crossover can afford to be. And the quality of the 800 Series Diamond drive units is such that we’ve been able to make the speaker’s first-order crossover one of the simplest – and best – we’ve ever produced.
You won’t find many straight lines in nature – for good reason. Continuous, curving surfaces create stronger structures with the same amount of material. In the 800 Series Diamond, the curving cabinet forms a solid outer shell that shrugs off vibrations and resonance. Add an internal Matrix™ system that braces the structure like the ribs of a ship’s hull, and you have a speaker that’s more than capable of standing firm under pressure.
At our dedicated cabinet-making factory in the UK, state-of-the-art technology is fused with traditional craftsmanship. While a single 35mm thick sheet of ply is pressed into shape for the main cabinet body of the 800 Series Diamond, its final skin of real wood veneer is selected by hand from only the top 10% of veneers available. All of the wood we use is sourced from sustainable forests.
Features:
Free-mounted diamond dome tweeter
Nautilus™ tube tweeter loading
Quad magnet tweeter motor
Kevlar® brand fibre cone FST™ midrange
Sphere/tube midrange enclosure
Rohacell® cone bass
Dual magnet bass driver motor
Matrix™ cabinet
Flowport™
Specifications:
Description: 3-way vented-box system
Drive Units: 1x ø25 mm diamond dome high-frequency; 1x ø150 mm woven Kevlar® cone FST™ midrange; 2x ø200mm Rohacell® cone bass
Frequency Range: – 6 dB at 27 Hz and 33 kHz
Frequency Response: 34 Hz – 28 kHz ± 3 dB on reference axis
Dispersion: Within 2 dB of reference response; Horizontal: over 60º arc; Vertical: over 10º arc
Sensitivity: 90 dB spl (2.83 V, 1 m)
Harmonic Distortion: 2nd and 3rd harmonics (90 dB, 1 m); < 1% 40 Hz – 100 kHz; < 0.5% 70 Hz – 100 kHz
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ω (minimum 3.5 Ω)
Crossover Frequency: 350 Hz, 4 kHz
Recommended Amplifier Power: 50 W – 500 W into 8Ω on unclipped programme
Max. Recommended Cable Impedance: 0.1 Ω
Dimensions: 1135 (H) x 368 (W) x 563 (D) mm
Weight: 72.0 kg