Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin

Iconic speaker takes to the air once more

- Simon Lucas

£699 FROM Bowers & Wilkins, bowerswilkins.co.uk FEATURES 240W amplifier, 2x 25mm double-dome tweeters, 2x 90mm mid-range drivers, 1x 150mm subwoofer, 35Hz-24kHz frequency response, AirPlay 2, Bluetooth 5.0 (aptX), 1x USB-C port (service only), 210x650x194mm, 6.5kg

Not before time, Bowers & Wilkins has revived its iconic wireless speaker. The Zeppelin comes with aptX Bluetooth, Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect built in – plus you get access to pretty much all the rest of the planet’s stock of music via its responsive Music control app. There’s support for Amazon Alexa, too. And the unit is as good-looking and well made as ever.

Only now it sounds better than ever. While it isn’t a substitute for an actual pair of stereo speakers, the Zeppelin serves up a wide, well-defined and endlessly engaging sound, no matter the genre of music. And although £699 is plenty to pay for a wireless speaker, in this case it seems justified.

When the original Zeppelin launched 15 years ago as an iPod speaker dock it was, not surprisingly, Zeppelin-shaped. Each new version added functionality (or deleted it, in the case of the iPod dock), but retained what became an iconic silhouette. So what does the Zeppelin 2021 look like? You’ve guessed it…