Best Buys Audio & AV 2019-269
model. Actually, B&W call it
a ‘Decoupled Double Dome’,
which is a design that the
company has been using in its
various ranges for some years.
This one is recently upgraded.
It comes with an extended tube
behind the tweeter body, a
concept drawn from the Nautilus
which is intended to gracefully
dissipate rear energy from the
driver. ‘Decoupled’ meansseparate level controls for the two. In
addition to the regular controls, there’s also
a three-position switch for bass extension
(the best -6dB point is specified at 18Hz)
and a two-position switch for EQ, to allow
some tuning for location. It comes with
both screw-on feet and spikes. The grille
is removable and the finish is black or
white, with a black or grey grille. That’s the
colour scheme across the range.
All the full-range speakers share the
same tweeter. It’s an aluminium-dome
Driver tech: B&W’s
highly-developed
driver technology
includes decoupled
double-dome
tweeters, Continuum
cones for midrange
and paper cones
for bass.that it has some mechanical isolation from the exertions
of the larger drivers. Over the front of the dome is a
sturdy wire mesh to protect it.
The 603 floorstanding speakers are three-way
models. Underneath the tweeter is a 150mm FST
Continuum cone midrange. This uses a Kevlar-like
weave, but the finish is silvery rather than yellow,
and B&W has yet to reveal exactly what it is made of,
likely for fear of copying, as happened with its classic
yellow Kevlar. And beneath that are two 165mm bass
drivers. Crossovers of 400Hz and 4000Hz are used,
so the midrange covers the most sensitive frequencies
without interruption.
These speakers come with a good-sized plinth to
extend the speaker’s footprint, providing greater stability.
The tweeter height is just a hair under a metre from the
floor with the plinth and spikes installed. As with all the
speakers, they are bass-reflex loaded with rear ports, and
they permit bi-wiring.
The 607 standmount speakers have the tweeter plus
a 130mm Continuum cone for bass/midrange, covering
down to 52 hertz. They have a rather low sensitivity of
just 84dB.
The centre-channel HTM6 has the tweeter and two
of the 130mm drivers. Its bass response is fairly limited
— 72 hertz — but it is more sensitive than the 607
speakers at 87dB.PERFORMANCE
We installed this speaker system with each unit in the
usual position, creating a 5.1-channel surround sound
system. We have ceiling speakers installed and our
AV receiver (a Denon
AVR-X3500H) supports
overhead channels from
Atmos and the like, but
we left them switched off
since they weren’t part
of this system.
The Denon receiver
was happy to auto-install
the speakers. It set all the
speakers to a ‘Small’ size
with the bass crossover
at 60 hertz. We fiddled
with trying out the front
left and right speakers
at 40 hertz, but in the
end returned to the 60
hertz setting. It provided
a more balanced sound
on wide-ranging content.
We switched off the
default EQ and left the
speakers with their native
sound, processed only by
the receiver diverting that
sub-60Hz bass to the
subwoofer.