A Modern Classic

The loudspeaker landscape is dotted with so-called classics. Legends like the Klipschorn, the Quad ESL, and the JBL L100 have remained in production for decades or enjoyed successful reboots not just because they appeal to our nostalgia, but because they remain bonafide audiophile-grade products.

- By Rob Sabin

If these speakers represent the enduring legacy of the old guard, I'd argue that the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin has earned its place as perhaps a modern classic of the digital age. It wasn't the first iPod dock when it appeared in 2007, but it was the right speaker at the right time. Its launch conveniently coincided with Apple's sixth-gen iPod, offering a then-whopping 160 gigabytes of memory-more than enough to forgo low-res MP3s in favor of high-quality rips that begged for a premium, self-powered speaker. The first Zepp was blessed with high-end drivers, class-D amps bolstered by cutting-edge digital-signal processing (DSP), museum-worthy cosmetics from industrial designer Morten Warren, and a breathtaking price of $600. It was the first “audiophile lifestyle speaker-a genre that acknowledged there were other ways to get great sound than hulking towers and a rack of gear.

Here we are 15 years later, and the unmistakable Zeppelin has been reborn for its fourth generation. I reviewed the second-gen Zeppelin Air for Sound & Vision back in 2011. The audition proved memorable in ways I'll describe, but outwardly, today's Zeppelin is unchanged but for its higher $799 price and the welcome lack of a gangly iPod docking arm. The dimensions of the blimp-like cabinet are about the same at 24.6 X 8.3 x 7.6 inches (WxHxD), and it remains hefty at 14.3 pounds.