Bowers & Wilkins CM1 S2 review: Sound good, look great

When it comes to successfully reinventing your high-end brand in order to appeal to a more budget-conscious audience, few speaker manufacturers have done it as well as Bowers & Wilkins. With its comparatively young lines of headphones and speaker docks , the company has managed to offer better priced gear while also keeping its cachet. (Alas, part of this reinvention was possible with a move of its manufacturing from the UK to China.)

7.8

Bowers & Wilkins CM1 S2

The Good

The Bowers & Wilkins CM1 S2 are gorgeous-looking speakers with great build quality. The sound is mostly even with good mid-range detail and a surprising amount of bass. They're compact and suitable for smaller rooms. The revised tweeter and tweeter guard are welcome innovations.

The Bad

The speakers can be prone to sibilance with the "wrong" music because of its pronounced treble response. They feel a tad too expensive, especially in light of their more affordable siblings, the B&W 685 S2s.

The Bottom Line

The Bowers & Wilkins CM1 S2 speakers look great and sound terrific, but they aren't the best choice for rockers.

Now, like a good drug pusher, Bowers and Wilkins is hoping those affordable tastes will get its new customers to graduate to more premium products, such as its new $1,100 (£750, AU$1,299) CM1 S2. (That price is for the pair of stereo speakers.) While this pair of China-built speakers is far from being Bowers & Wilkins' flagship -- the shell-shaped Nautilus is a mortgage-worthy $60,000 (£55,000, AU$95,000) -- the CM1 S2 is probably at the high end of what most people would pay for a pair of stereo speakers.

What you get for your money is a beautifully-built pair of speakers with some nifty improvements over the previous generation--that grille-covered dome tweeter is a much-needed addition--and a detailed sound that doesn't sacrifice bass response in the process. There's only a trace of sibilance in not-so-pristine recordings that could spoil things. Keep in mind that if you're not bothered by a more-utilitarian cabinet and yet want to keep most of the sound quality intact the cheaper 685 S2 offers a very good alternative.

Design and features

With their 5-inch Kevlar drivers the CM1s almost qualify as mini monitors, but with a price that's half that of equivalent American-made speakers and a finish that surpasses most of them.

What also sets the speakers apart is that 25mm tweeter: it's based on B&W's existing Nautilus tube technology but now includes improvements that debuted with the original CM10. This is a dual-layer tweeter which is made of a thin aluminum dome surrounded by a thicker aluminum ring for greater stiffness and it reportedly features a higher sensitivity over 20kHz.

If you've ever been to Best Buy's Magnolia and seen the plastic "finger guard" on B&W tweeters you'll guess how susceptible these aluminum drivers are to damage. The new tweeter grille is non-removable and will no doubt prevent a lot of future heartache. As an owner of the older DM602.5's with the impression of a drunken friend's inquisitive fingertip in the middle of the aluminum dome this innovation is unfortunately 10 years too late for me.

Though the version we received didn't have them, B&W assures us that the speakers ship with magnetic cloth grilles for added protection, but most owners would probably prefer the look (and sound) with them removed anyway.

Drivers aside, much of what you're paying for is the cabinetry: the cabinets are gorgeous with a seamless piano finish. This isn't cheap plastic, this is an old-school polished surface. Meanwhile the cabinets themselves are smaller than many with dimensions: 11 in/280mm (H), 6.5 in/165mm (W) and 10 in/255mm (D). Though you presumably won't be carrying them around very often they are also unusually heavy at 14.7 pounds (6.7kg).

These are a rear-ported set of speakers and the frequency response is quite respectable for their smaller size with a rating of 50Hz - 28kHz (±3dB).

If you're looking to include these as part of a set, the CM1 S2 is the baby of the new CM S2 series. As a result the well-heeled may use these as rear speakers combined with the larger CM5 S2 or ($1,600) CM6 S2 ($2,000), the floor-standing CM8 S2 ($2,400), or the "with-the-lot" CM9 S2 ($3,200) and CM10 S2 ($4,000). There is also a matching 10-inch sub in the ASW10CM S2: $1,500 and various center speakers as well.

Performance

One thing I noticed is that these speakers are quite excitable in the higher frequencies and you might need to partner them carefully if you're to avoid any excess sibilance. For example I used the Marantz SR5005 with the Arcam irDAC -- both fairly restrained components -- which already gel very well with my existing B&W 685s. In addition I also trialled them with our favorite mid-range receiver of the moment the Sony STR-DN1050, but I'd avoid a more "home theater"-centric sound, such as that from Denon or Onkyo.

The CM 1 sounded best with the foam bungs removed -- otherwise they robbed the speakers of bottom end, and sounded too crystalline -- and the cabinets toed in towards the listening position. Give them at least 5 feet of breathing space from walls too.

As this is a stereo set these are likely to be used for music listening first, so this is where I started. Iron and Wine frontman Sam Beam's voice was seductive and intimate on "Sixteen, Maybe Less" but not at the exclusion of the rest of the instruments. His vocals were backed with a strong underpinning bass and you could clearly hear the ethereal slide guitar weaving in and out. There's a lot going on in this mix but the B&Ws were able to integrate the individual parts with both subtlety and emotion.

While the CM1s had a detailed presentation, the B&W 685s by contrast were much mellower with a warmer lower end. As evidence of this Okkervil River's "Lido Pier Suicide Car" strummed guitars and organ swirls leapt from the CM1s whereas the B&W 685 kept them in the background. That said the bottom end was still there, and both sets of speakers timed very well with rock.

On to more challenging material and Oklahoma's former official state song -- The Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize" -- was almost unbearable through the CM1. There is a breathy vocal that doubles the "do you realize" call, and while it sounded integrated and subtle on the 685s it became a sharp, pointy weapon on the CM1.

With home theater they were a little less fussy and action scenes and dialogue-heavy naval gazing were treated equally well. There opening scene of "Watchmen" rendered vocals intelligibly -- even Rorschach's stream-of-self-consciousness mumbling -- and you could almost feel the fleshy thwump of the punches that the Comedian took.

Switching to "Spider-Man 3," I found there was little difference between the 685s and the CM1s when it came to tracking the broken-glass-laden chase sequence between the Green Goblin and Spidey: though neither could manage the bowel-wrenching whomp of the jets as they approach the screen. If you use these in a home cinema environment invest in a quality subwoofer.

Conclusion

The CM1 S2s are very enjoyable speakers, and combined with their attractive appearance they could be the centerpiece of any stereo or small home theater setup. They have a surprising amount of bass for such a small cabinet, and their mid-range detail makes them best suited for intimate jazz recordings and folk music. While they can rock out if pushed, some recordings can sound too sibilant, even with mellow sounding electronics. For this reason I'd suggest testing them at home if you can with your own gear, or at least buying them with a decent return policy.

If you're looking for a better deal, the cheaper B&W 685 S2s look to be winners, especially based on their previous incarnation. While I'm yet to formally hear them I hope to review a set soon.