Customer Ratings & Reviews

In a single sentence, This is as good as it gets at home to the movie theater experience. Starting off with the build quality. They are very solidly built and you can not only see it, but feel it with the heft of each of these. I have always liked the look of silver/ grey mixed with black electronics and these mix those together beautifully. Bowers didnt skimp at all here with the design of these and it shows. Installation and set up was very easy and if you have set up speakers before you should have no problems with these. Once set up it was onto what Bowers is known for.. Amazing sound. Just to clarify I also have the 2-way center speakers as well. Of course them combined is where you get the best sound. But even if you are only using the bookshelf speakers you are in for a treat. Ive never considered myself an audiophile but I do have an ear for what sounds good and what doesnt. When I was younger all my friends had me tune their car set ups, and give recommendations because they all loved how my cars sounded. And for me what sounds good is clear, accurate, tight sound. I went through a short phase of BOOOM sound. But that got old quick and from then on I have always preferred and set up my sound systems for clarity and not loudness. And these Bowers have that and so much more. You really cant put it into words, hearing is believing. And Bowers has made me a believer that not all speaker companies know what truly great sound is. Overall I would say this is easily the best sounding system I have ever had. Combined with the center speakers you are as close as you can get to a movie theater experience. And with them all being closed this makes this even better. Stay home and binge watch the shows you have been putting off, or watch some of the movies that are now being released directly to streaming. Highly recommended!

Pros: * Amazing sound and clarity. * Solid build quality. * Unassuming design fits anywhere. Cons: * Magnetic speaker grill is not very secure or fancy. * Provided simple rubber feet are not what one would expect for such a high-end speaker. Summary: I am not an audiophile and won’t get into frequency response, ability to tune the speaker to a room or any of the technical details that other reviewers will probably be much more competent to talk about. I have them connected to a Denon AVR-X5300H home theater receiver and what I will say is that these speakers sound fantastic for everything that I threw at them; Jazz, EDM, Podcasts, Dolby Atoms movies and even just plain old TV with my home theater… all sounded great! As you can see from the main product photos, these are basically black wooden boxes with a cloth speaker griller that magnetically attaches to the front. The speaker grilles do their job; they stay put unless bumped and are sonically transparent. These speakers are not a statement in visual design - they mostly just blend into the background and make great sounds. What more could you want? One of the few things that surprised me is that the box came with tiny clear rubber sticker feet if you want to use them. At this price and performance level, I might expect something a bit more robust or impressive, but they worked. You can put them anywhere on any side that fits the desired placement in your home so that was nice. Some speakers are also a visual design statement and these are not that. But if you want great audio for just about any source or genre, these speakers sound awesome.

I paired my 600 series bookshelf speakers with the center channel 600 series anniversary edition and a 10" sub and have a configuration that is balanced for enjoying both music, television and movies. My setup includes a Sony STR-DN1080 receiver, B&W 600 Anniversary center and bookshelf, Sonance 10" sub and Sony Atmos speakers in a 16x20 fairly open floorplan. I often listen to compressed, streaming sources via Chromecast or bluetooth, but still throw a CD in the DVD player when I want to listen to some of my favorite albums or live concerts. We stream via YouTubeTV, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. Why clarify all of this? Because there is ZERO way to ensure "sound" from this many different audio sources can be tuned to a consistent, equal level. But, with the upgrade to B&W speakers I *don't* need to constant tweak the volume, the EQ, the bass or worse--the surround balance--as I switch between platforms. Music (mostly grunge, classic rock, modern alt, old skool rap, and hip hop for me) regardless of source is tight on high and mid tones with vocals crisp and clear. My subwoofer picks up the slack that bookshelf speakers may to miss, however, B&W's 6.5" woofers both punch rock and roll and meet the balanced requirements of classical music, jazz and other genre that focus on vocals and instruments--with bass as "complementary" to the listening experience. But enough trying to sound snobby about the music experience, let's about the TV/movie experience... With the B&W center channel engaged, the movie experience is gorgeous. Prior to owning these speakers (and upgrading my receiver) I struggled from movie to movie--or even tv show to tv show--to find volume and clarity balance between sources or channels. It was frustrating. After connecting my B&W speakers I spent one day tweaking my setup. I have not touched it since. Again, when vocals need to pop, they do. Crisp and clear. When action needs to roar it does--without simply being "loud." What about every day TV watching from sports to sitcoms to dramas? Just turn on your TV and enjoy. If you have the B&W 600 center channel just let the magic of "audio science" work because these speakers know how to react. And did I mention they complement any room nicely? The black finish looks great anywhere. Pull the magnetic grills off and you see a beautiful slivery woofer. I'll leave it to you to research the specs. Thanks to the internet, that part is easy. It is always a bit harder to figure out if your investment will leave you happy. If you are comfortable with this price point, you cannot go wrong with these speakers--but do yourself a HUGE favor and add the center channel and a subwoofer if you will use these while watching TV.

My music of choice is classic rock, not head banging stuff, more mellow, so I have always tended to lean toward the classic companies such as JBL and Infinity. When I find something I like, I tend to stay with it, but by doing so, I sometimes miss out on improvements brought about by innovations from other brands. The Best Buy Tech Insider network offered me a chance to review the B&W 600 series 2 anniversary edition bookshelf speakers so I was excited to see how well my old Infinity floor standing speakers stacked up. I have never felt like my old speakers were missing anything, I was pretty happy with them, but I had not ventured out to other brands, so I really didn't know what I might be missing. Turns out I was missing quite a bit. The difference was obvious and in some ways significant. Even though the 600 series is considered an entry level series from Bowers and Wilkins, the 600 series 2 offered a really nice clean soundstage. I listen at moderately high volume, and I was a little concerned that the bookshelf size speaker would not be able to meet my requirements. After all, my old Infinity speakers were fairly large floor standing speakers. The B&W speaker, it turns out, is a true upgrade from what I have been using. They handled higher volumes with ease, The highs were very clean and the mid range and even some of the lower frequencies sounded extremely clean. Not bad at all for an "entry" model. I used these speakers with and without a sub and the whole system sounded very good either way, but I do like to feel the base, so I do prefer a dedicated sub, even with larger speakers. B&W literature lists upgrades to the series 2 anniversary edition that I hear make noticeable improvements from the original series I can't speak to that because I haven't sat and listened to both series to compare, but I will say, these are very nice bookshelf size speakers. Just for a reference, I am matching these speakers with a B&W 600 series 2 center channel in a room that is 22x11 set up as an audio/video room. The whole system is powered by a Yamaha Aventage receiver and I am using a martin Logan sub to handle low frequency. I also allowed time for these speakers to loosen up. The sound will improve for several days as the speakers break in. I still like my Infinity setup, but they will now take second stage to the B&W in this particular room. If you have a small to medium size room (maybe even a larger room), I think you should be happy with the 600 series 2 anniversary edition speaker along with the center channel and surround speakers that match up with it.

Skip these speakers and look for something else, especially in this price range. I suppose B&W sells these due to name,

I'm blown away by these compact speakers. I've always been a big tower speaker kind of listener. The clarity and crispness of these are pretty amazing! I have grown to the minimalist look and ordered stands for these to permanently replace my big towers. I have yet to try them without the sub but I can tell they definitely do not have the punch of big towers. I like the look of the speaker and run them without the grilles. They look great!

The B&W 606 S2 Anniversary Edition speakers sound great. They play with many of the characteristics of speakers several times their price. Midrange and highs are crystal clear and sound extremely detailed without sounding artificial or harsh. They are very revealing, sound fantastic with great source material and reveal the shortcomings in not-so-great source material. The soundstage is reproduced with much greater width than other similar speakers I have tried. Soundstage depth is not as spectacular but still better than others. I have mine sitting on 28 inch tall stands, about 3 feet from the back wall, and with the ports open, which sounded subtly better than plugging the ports with the included foam plug. Bass is decent for a small box with a 6.5" bass driver but keep your expectations realistic. I eventually teamed up my 606s with an inexpensive 12" powered subwoofer and after playing with the combo to get the best blend the sound is now something that must be heard to be believed. Using the subwoofer to fill out the bottom end makes a huge difference and creates a system that I don't think anyone could complain about. The 606s also look nice for a plain black box. The Continuum cone of the bass driver is much shinier and much more silver-looking than the photos suggest. The tweeter surround and covering look expensive. Sitting on the stands they look very upscale. Overall, if these speakers are in your price range you absolutely need to audition them. Highly recommended.

The speaker sounds good, just don’t use in a big room.

These replaced and aging JBL L-1 Set of speakers and man what a difference. These B&W's are far more dynamic. I thought it was new purchase illusion so I set them up side by side and the B&W were clearly superior in sound and dynamics. I have these as my PC Speakers attached to a Carver TFM 15 (100 Watts @ 8 ohms) and the Video games and movies have a new life..

The sound clarity from these speakers is phenomenal. Bowers & Wilkins is a step above the others.