Customer Ratings & Reviews

Ill keep this short and say that within a year the arms snapped. it’s a known problem, but not one that B&W are willing to own….. not just in my case, but in the hundreds of cases that have cropped up over the years. Google/Reddit “ Bowers And Wilkins., PX, snapped arms”… not only will you find numerous forum posts of helpless music lovers suddenly out $800 but you’ll find full videos and websites dedicated to this specific problem created by disappointed B&W devotes who were left out in the cold. It’s really disheartening because I’ve bought B&W for years but have since sold roughly $10,000 of their equipment… everything I had… over this one issue because it was just such a glaring unethical thing to have happen at this price point.

I bought Formation Duo + Bass on April 13th, 2020 from Best Buy. They were delivered on April 16th. At the time of writing this review on April 20, I have listened to them for 4 days. I have to say that the product is totally UNUSABLE for a “wireless” speaker. Please be noted that I have altogether 6 different Airplay and Bluetooth speakers (including one B&W Zeppelin) at home before I purchased Formation series. All my 6 current wireless speakers work perfectly and smoothly with Airplay and Bluetooth. None of my current 6 wireless/Bluetooth speakers have ever demonstrated any problems that were found on Formation Duo. I use the same Tidal App on the same iPhone via the same router at home for Airplay/Bluetooth on all wireless speakers. So, the comparison of Formation Duo with other speakers should be a fair comparison in terms of connectivity issues. The problems with Formation Duo are (based on the usage of 4 days with about 4 hours listening everyday): 1. Airplay is completely unusable. This problem demonstrates itself in several aspects. a. iPhone 11 Pro cannot connect to Formation Duo. iPhone is always showing the “connecting” window when selecting Formation Duo from the “SPEAKERS&Tvs” list. Have to reset Formation Duo for this issue. b. When connected to Airplay, music mutes on Formation Duo for no reason. By “mute”, I mean music on Tidal still plays but Formation Duo just does not make any sound. I don’t mean “mute occasionally like once within several hours”. Music mutes for 3-5 seconds at every 15-20 seconds interval. I cannot listen to music via Airplay at all. Such a problem never appears on any of my other wireless speakers (including the old Zeppelin) when using Airplay streaming from Tidal on the same iPhone 11 Pro via the same home network router. c. Each time after music resumes on Formation Duo after the unexpected mute, the Formation bass will get disconnected, i.e., music only plays on Formation duo, not simultaneously on Formation Bass anymore. In other words, the mesh network now only has the Formation duo instead of Formation Duo + Bass. The only way to connect Formation Bass again is to wait for the Formation Duo to go to sleep then play music again. 2. Bluetooth problems a. During the 4 days of listening, music mutes on Bluetooth three times for about 3-5 seconds. It is usable as a wireless speaker when using Bluetooth. However, this is extremely disappointing given that my other speakers have never had any Bluetooth connectivity issues albeit they have much older generations of Bluetooth technology. Again, I am using the same Tidal App playing the same playlist (downloaded into my phone) from the same iPhone on all my wireless speakers. b. After the unexpected mute when using Bluetooth, Formation Duo will automatically continue to make sound again. However, Formation Bass will also get disconnected. The only way to get Formation Bass back to the mesh network is to disconnect Formation Duo in iPhone Bluetooth menu and reconnect again.

Great sound however poor battery quality that doesn’t last for more then 2hrs

It’s possible the speaker would sound great, if only you could get anything to play through them. Airplay dosnt work 99 % of the time, the app alternates between saying there are no speakers and there are. There’s an update avaible, and then well no, they’re already updated. No way to control the volume or adjust the sound once they were set up. Can’t get them to play through Roon. I have the Formation audio and connected the tv through the optical, and just sounds like a hug amount of reverb has been added, so sounds horrible, but at least I could get sound to come out. Read about airplay complaints from the initial unveiling of the product, you’d think they’d have that fixed by now, and apparently how bad it is varies by person. This was meant for people who wanted easy to set up and use, they’ve missed the mark. Too bad I will have to be returning these. Useless as speakers until they fix all the connection and software problems.

Horrible, spending 5K on a piece of xxx. every time that I need to use the spackers need to (restart) unplug and plug back the speakers so I can use them, my network sees it but it just doesn't play.

would not maintain reliable connection for more than 5 minutes. sometimes would not connect at all.

The earbud is slick and comfortable, and I like the noise cancellation but it's flaky and keeps disconnecting from my iPhone on either side

Have had these about 60 days, tbe right ear will no longer charge. Bestbuy wibt exchange them and BW is guving me tve run around with a warranty claim. Just save your self 400$

Chronic Problems with the duos: 1). Sudden stop while playing. 2) skipping to the next song without being prompted to do so. 3). ‘Cannot connect to airplay’ The B&W application often cannot see the duos. Or it may take more than 5 minutes to see the duos. Sometimes I’d just give up and walk away. 4). Airplay appears to be connected but no sound comes out as if a blank tape is being played. The same downloaded material played fine previously. I’ve used restart, factory reset, unplugging electrical cords, pressing the button located in front of the duos,....And I’m tired of doing so. My duos have been a huge disappointment. Either I have bought a Lemmon or the duos are not ready for the market, yet. More research and testing need to be done! I would not recommend the formation duos.

I bought these on sale ($650.00 vs reg $800.00). I put them on charge after opening the package. Going through the setup I paired them to my Fold 7 and saw that they had only charged to 68%. I then tried to pair them to my brand new Samsung 85" 8K TV. I thought it would be no different than pairing WiFi speakers, needless to say they wouldn't pair. After trying to get them to charge to 100%, I contacted B&W and they said to return them. I wasn't about to get caught up with tariffs and paperwork shipping them back to the UK so I took them to my local Best Buy and got my money back. I won't be getting another set.

Unusable! I regret I didn't read the reviews here before I ordered. I tried the formation duo speakers on 4 different WIFI networks and it never worked stable. The first one was the best, the second worked not at all, on all others the system is totally unstable. My 5G signal from my current router can't even be detected! A so called B&W service expert came and tried for 3 hours, nothing better. The Audio box he could never set up to stream even a single bit of music to the speakers. The next trial is to use another router. If this also doesn't work I'll ask them to take everything back. The App is incredible poor, how can anyone be satisfied with this crap? Theoretically the sound is good, practically the products are unusable.

Im gonna keep this short and sweet. My main headphones I use at my desktop are Hifiman HE1000SE’s with a Benchmark HPA4 amp and Chord Qutest DAC. I wanted a high quality pair of earbuds for travel since Im used to high quality sound at home. Let me just say how sad I was when I got these Bowers after glowing reviews. These have some of the peakiest treble ive heard from a pair of headphones and ive heard a lot. I tried all the different tips and none made a difference. I couldnt even play a single metal or edm song without the piercing treble taking over. 100% returning and sticking with my Airpods Pro. I should have known better based on Bowers speakers but these really take it to another level of piercing treble quality. Also it cant be EQ’d without destroying the rest of the sound signature.