British audio company Bowers & Wilkins has created a new hi-fi quality sound system that is aimed at festival venues that can accommodate a thousand music fans.
The idea is that “Sound System” brings the same sound quality you would get at home, on and expensive hi-fi and scales it up to huge venues that cater for noisy crowds. At the moment, it’s not a product that can be bought, it’s a one-off created for the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona.
The “Sound System” is comprised of stacks. These are 3.2m tall each, and have 12 separate speaker enclosures divided up into three frequency response bands. There are a total of 36 drivers in each stack, four low frequency, four low-mid, four mid-high and 16 tweeters, for the high frequency sound.
B&W claims that its system reduces distortion, one of the big problems with any large-scale PA system. The company has achieved this by replacing the horn system you get in most PA speakers with a more hi-fi compatible direct radiating transducer.
As you would hope though, distortion-free music doesn’t mean that the bass has been neglected. The system features four Rohacell bass drivers per stack, these are divided up into two sets of two 380mm drivers. There are also another two 250mm drivers that take care of the higher bass range, and the mid-range.
If you’re going to Primavera, then you’ll be able to hear the “Sound System” between May 29-31 in the Boiler Room stage. We can only hope that more live venues decide to buy in this kind of audiophile speaker system soon though.
Read more: Bowers & Wilkins P7 review
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
