Bowers & Wilkins 705 S3 - LOUDSPEAKER

Over a lifetime of involvement in audio, I have had stand-mount speakers-bookshelf speakers, as they were called back then-only twice.

- KALMAN RUBINSON

My very first loudspeaker was a vinyl-wrapped fiberboard bookshelf box with no name. It lasted barely a year and was replaced with a two-way system I built with a 12" RCA woofer in a floorstanding bass-reflex cabinet. My second bookshelf system was a Weathers "Book" speaker lashed up to a University dual-voice-coil woofer. I was determined to try that new thing, stereo.

Since then, I've had only floorstanders, home-made and manufactured, and I never seriously considered owning small speakers again except, perhaps, as part of a surround sound system. With that bias, why am I reviewing the B&W 705 S3?

One reason is that I have, on many occasions, heard such speakers at showrooms and audio shows and found their competence and balance surprisingly enjoyable. Another reason is that I have lived with and loved several B&W 800-series speakers in years past. Many of the 800-series features trickled down to the 700 series. The 705 is one of three third-generation 700-series models (the other two being the 702 and 703 floorstanders) endowed with the 800's signature solid-body tweeter-on-top technology. The tweeter in both series has a carbon diaphragm; the one in the 800 series is just a different kind of carbon: diamond. How much of the thrill my 800-series speakers had evoked could the diminutive 705 rekindle?

Arrival and assembly