Customer Ratings & Reviews

Note: I tested these in conjunction with the matching center channel. I’ve been listening to these floor standing speakers for about 2 weeks now and can honestly say these are amazing speakers. I’ve enjoyed every moment of owning them. Design: The design of these speakers are really beautiful. I love the color of the drivers. The boxes are very sturdy and well-built, but also very heavy. I really liked that the speakers included a pedestal and spikes for sound isolation. Ease of use: the speakers were relatively easy to set up: attach the pedestals using nuts and bolts, add the sound isolation spikes, and wire them like one would wire other speakers. They offer both a traditional connection method or one can use banana clips (my preference). My only complaint is that the covers for the banana clips were not easy to get out. (Tip: use a paper clip and push from the inside of the post.) So, how do they sound? Music: Music sounds great on these. I listened to a number of styles to really put these through the paces. When listening to hip hop, I was very pleasantly surprised with the low end on these. All the notes were coming through clearly and accurately. What was most impressive to me about these speakers was the soundstage it produced. I was listening to a singer-songwriter perform, just him and his guitar, and it truly sounded like this guy was in the room with me. Video: Video also sounds great on these. To test these out, I watched an action movie. The sound effects came through clearly and I really appreciated the depth of sound that the speakers created created. Having a center channel, I thought dialogue sounds great, but I am unsure whether that would be the case if you were just running them in stereo. Overall, i’d say these are amazing speakers.

The Bowers & Wilkins floor speakers sound great with my 9.2 receiver. I used them without doing the speaker setup from my audio receiver and again after setup the auto tuning of my receiver. The sound is amazing. I hear the highs and the lows which is very impressive. I use these with a B&W center speaker and it fills the room with a rich fulfilling sound. I am literally blown away by these speakers. I highly recommend them to give a real home theatre experience. I have used other speakers which do not match this quality of build and sound. I am using these with other speakers, including surround and dolby atmos speakers, adding these the sound comes alive and fills my room with awe inspiring sounds. Two weeks in and I am going to be able to enjoy these for many years to come. Build quality of the cabinets is the best quality. These come with feet for wood floors and short spikes for carpet to keep these in place. The front covers are magnetic they could be a bit stronger but I didn't feel like it should affect the star rating since it is a m=inor annoyance if you put it on and go on your way, you won't have an issue unless you bump the speaker and it comes loose, just press the cover back on. Not a huge deal, but felt like I should mention it in the review.

My home theater has been through several different configurations throughout the years. With the switch to working from home, I've been listening to a lot more music and so I wanted something that would perform well in music and home theater setups. The latest revision of the Bowers and Wilkins 603 is the S2 Anniversary Edition. A few changes have been made that distinguish it from previous models. First, the iconic yellow kevlar driver has been ditched for a internally developed Continuum driver. Second, is a decoupled tweeter. Admittedly, I had to look this up a few times to full understand what was meant by "decoupled" and basically the tweeter is physically isolated from the speaker cabinet in order to keep lower frequencies from impacting tweeter performance. Third, is an updated crossover. The crossover is the internal series of electrical components that determine what frequencies go where - bass, midbass, tweeter, etc. What I love about Bowers and Wilkins is how they allow the technology developed for their higher end speakers to trickle down to the lower ranges. Buyers of the 600 series speakers are getting the same technology and components that are used in speakers costing several times more. After letting the speakers sit indoors for a couple days to acclimate to my house, it was finally time to hook them up. The speakers are packaged extremely well. I was a bit nervous as to how they'd arrive as they are quite heavy and big. I can guarantee they weren't handled as gently as they were once they were in my care, but came out without any damage. B&W includes a heavy wood plinth that can be installed to make for a wider base. I have two dogs who have been known to bump into my audio gear so I opted to install the plinth and rubber feet for my hardwood floors for good measure. B&W also includes nice metal floor spikes for those with carpet instead. I played the speakers at moderate levels for a few days prior to running MCACC on my Pioneer Elite AVR. I'm not sure how much break-in changes speaker performance, but I'm willing to play along. On to listening. I really, really enjoyed listening to the 603s. They felt very natural and balanced to me. Generally, with a metal domed tweeters the higher frequencies can be very harsh and tiring to listen to. I did not get that at all, but instead there was a lot of clarity. What I really liked about the 603 was the midbass performance. This is the first pair of floorstanding speakers I've had after many years of bookshlelfs. With bookshelf speakers, you become reliant on your subwoofer to fill in some of the lower frequencies. For the first time ever, I felt I could turn off my sub while listening to music and not miss anything. Because the 603s can play pretty deep you will want a really good subwoofer for home theater duties. The 603s will play as deep as some smaller subs on the market so be sure to do your homework. Overall, I think you'd have to spend a good deal of money to get a better sound than the 603 S2 Anniversary speakers. I tried to find something about them that I didn't like, but they really are pretty great.

These speakers really look nice. The magnetic covers come off easily to reveal a very clean looking speaker. They look just as good in your living room as they do in a dedicated media room. with or without the cover, these are speakers you'll want to show off. You'll want to show off how they look as much as how they sound. And the sound is excellent. It's everything you'd expect from a Bowers & Wilkins speaker. I replaced my Klipsch speakers with these, and while KIipsch speakers sounded excellent, these are just better. The full range of these speakers, with their dedicated woofers is top quality. The clarity of spoken words is super clear as well as the nuances of fingers running across the frets of a guitar as well as glass breaking in a movie scene are heard as they were meant to be heard. A pair of these, along with the center channel speaker, which I got as well, and a nice sub (I've got a Klipsch 10" and 12) make for an excellent sound system for both enjoying music, and adding a couple of rear surround speakers, for enjoying movies at home with realistic audio quality. I'm running mine in a bi-amp configuration, which I'd recommend for greater audio quality. If you're going to spend this much money on good quality speakers, do yourself a favor and run them with sufficient power. They definitely aren't cheap, but if your considering a set of B&W Speakers, you probably already know that you're going to get what you pay for, so make sure you use good quality, high guage speaker wire and drive them with a good quality amplifier and you'll be happy with them for years to come. The build quality is excellent as well, so these are the kind of equipment you can pass down to your kids some day, if you ever decide to part with them.

. SUMMARY: - Works well either for the audiophile or the movie lover. - Extremely accurate, lively without being base heavy. - Easily fills a large room with sound - Great soundstage - Crisp sound you don’t normally get to hear from lesser speakers. - Great cabin design with magnetically locked screens. - Trickle down technology actually works in this case. - Great tech for the buck. Stands comfortably with its peers. CONS: - Any con would be purely subjective, but if you twist my arm… This is not your youngster’s Bluetooth speaker, takes some effort to set up for best performance. - For a full home theater, you are going to want to get a decent subwoofer. - Do break them in before deciding. High end speakers need to be heard in the environment they are going to be used. BACKGROUND: (skip if you really don’t care to know your reviewer’s bias): I cannot imagine anything more subjective than reviewing speakers (besides pictures of your children), especially upper echelon speakers like these standing with other great company speakers. So anyone saying these are the best for all, or not, are overstating because it is you that counts most. Me personally, I feel privileged to have the Bowers & Wilkins in my home so I will be sharing my impressions, how I will be using them, and why I am keeping them. I installed the Bowers & Wilkins - 603 Anniversary Floor Speakers along with the matching B&W center channel speaker (already reviewed) as an upgrade to my home theater experience. I recently got a 77 inch LG OLED screen and wanted to upgrade my sound. My existing $2K Sonos system (playbar, sub, matching 3’s) was okay, certainly fulfilled on the ‘easy to install’ promise, but sound wise just not doing justice to my new movie experience. But to be fair, sound wise it is hard to beat a good hard-wired system. I’ve been involved with AV since the beginning, 1986 and super VHS. I got the BOSE 10.2 sound everywhere speakers to support my mammoth 32 inch Sony tube and the bass response definitely colored our standards with bad habits. Over the decades TV’s have grown and so has my surround sound systems but somewhere along the line my wife wanted her living room back and I got seduced by the concept of ease of sound in every room sans wires… i.e. wireless, Sonos. And so we entered the world of ‘good enough.’ Which means it’s great (truly hats off to Sonos for this) to wander through our house and hear the same Holiday music while talking to friends and family, but it’s not for discerning listening. And movies were OK. But then we got the 77 inch LG CX OLED and darn it was like watching TV for the very first time. You just don’t know until you have tried a huge OLED. But that’s another review. Point is, we decided to convert the basement to a home theater and return to our roots and match the sound quality with the TV quality. Enter speakers you have to run wires to. Speakers designed not for ease of use, but quality of sound. BUILD QUALITY: Starting with the simplest criteria. These things are built to last and not embarrass. You won’t buy them for the cabinets, they just don’t demand that much attention, but you won’t try to hide them either. Solid, quality. Subjective perhaps, but the picture does them justice. You decide. They come in three variations, matte black, matte white, light wood. I like the classic black, they don’t distract my eyes while watching a movie on the screen, no bouncing reflections. If I was just listening to music, I might go with the light wood ikea look. VALUE: B&W has a well-earned 54-year reputation for delivering high end quality speakers. The 600 series is their entry level. And while many brands have in a grab for market share diluted their worth by cheapening their products and introducing flashy but worthless bells and whistles, B&W has continued to do research, continued to innovate. The 600 series is 25 years old, but the 2nd anniversary series represent new materials, new concepts developed first for their higher end speakers. We all benefit from being the entry level series. Good value. You can’t go wrong having these speakers on your short list. SOUND: I put these speakers through the paces from quiet instrumentals in classical music to loud vocals in heavy metal and everything in between. For my theater tests I tended towards the action-packed Marvel universe because that’s where you want to push the stress on vocals separating from background and the overall soundstage. I was impressed with the clarity, the ability to go loud without breaking, and the way the soundstage filled the room. I listened to music I hadn’t enjoyed in ages just to rediscover the sounds other speakers mask. However, the B&W 603 is NOT for everyone. No speaker is for everyone. I am confident the value is there and it is money well spent, but ONLY if YOU enjoy their neutral and crisp sound, and if you are willing to pay attention to placement. Listening pleasure is 100% subjective, and in these times many of us are used to a lot of heavy spicing to cover up bland meals, and base heavy speakers from the competition add ‘punch’ to cover up other faults. And then it is also true the same speaker will sound different in different rooms and even room placement. Also true, high quality speakers need some time to break in, for me that was about two days and those two days changed my opinion from thinking it was a tad shrill on the high end, to enjoying the high end (bass was always there). Sound is waves of air, and that changes depending on what the waves are reflecting off of and how definitive they are created. Some companies try to address this by computationally acoustically sampling a room and adjusting the frequency response accordingly, and they do a great job of making their systems sound ‘normal’ in almost all environments. That costs money, and the more you put in computer or wireless tech, the less money there is to put in your actual speakers. Great average performance, but not the tuned best. My final recommendation is to be confident the B&W 603 2nd anniversary speakers are excellent value and performers but do go listen to them and make sure the clean crisp sound is for you. And then install it in your home and see if it still works for you. Yep, this means more work, but in the end, it can result in a superior listening experience that you will enjoy for years to come. I would rate these 10 stars if I could

These are some nice speakers. The best I've owned yet and I've had a few since the 70's. I got my first surround setup in the early 80's (with a sony betamax player). The price is for each so you'll likely want at least two. But you'll probably like them so why not get four or more if you can afford it. I got these to replace my front speakers which were Klipsch towers. The Klipsch's were good but not quite as good as I wanted so I decided to give these a try and was not disappointed. Really nice bass though they only have 6.5" woofers so if you want some heavy bass (who doesn't?) you'll likely need a good subwoofer. If you're looking at these you probably know that already. Beautiful mids and highs, you really will hear sounds you haven't heard with cheaper speakers. Great for music and also movies especially with the 600 anniversary series center channel speaker. Movies will blow your doors off (and windows). You will need a decent system to appreciate them. You probably have one or you wouldn't be looking at these. I have them connected to an Emotiva separate preamp power amp 7.2 surround system. The amp is rated (conservatively) at 80w per channel rms and they get plenty loud (just ask my neighbors). They sound great with my Energy towers for surrounds.

I hooked these speakers up to an older-ish Onkyo HT-R680 receiver, along with the B&W 600-series center, and a pair of basic Polk towers for the surrounds (previously my front channels). I'm not really an audiophile, but I really appreciate good sound when I hear it. Once I got these setup (which by the way; the heaviest speakers I've ever had; and require you attach the base, which can be tricky given their weight), and setup Audyessy room correction on the receiver, I instantly noticed the difference. Streaming some music, I started to understand the idea of a speaker sounding "invisible", and the sound just filling the room, without sounding like it's coming from a point source. It was a magical moment. I did expect a bit more of a bass response from these, given the size and inclusion of a bass port, but similar to a pair of B&W noise-cancelling headphones, these speakers seem to lean a little on the "bright" or "clean" side of the sound. So I think that's just the type of sound the B&W engineers design for, which is perfectly fine, since it never sounds sharp or irritating, and instead sounds clear and you can hear the finer details. The "bad" side is, when streaming music, I could much more easily hear if I was getting a lower-bitrate more compressed version of the song. Build wise, these are very solidly built, and the front just gently magnetically attaches, so you don't have to commit to appearance. But annoyingly, if you brush up against it (or a pet does), the cover could come off. The speakers also come with a foam plug for the bass port, in case you find the speakers are generating too much base, which to me seems to be an unlikely scenario, but still a nice inclusion to help fine-tune the sound based on your environment. Obviously paring speakers, receivers, and everything else that can go into perfecting the sound all play a part, but I think it would be hard to go wrong with these. I'd just encourage you to pair them with an appropriate woofer for the fullest sound.

A high quality brand and very good speaker, but not personally right for me. Great highs (treble like symbols, cowbell, violin, tambourine) pop out and with good imaging. First impression was very good because you do hear a lot of impressive separation. With time I went from impressed to finding them fatiguing, especially at high volumes. I bought them at a nice discount on open box special but even with a good deal I wasn't happy with them. Best Buy to the rescue and they kindly allowed a return. We all have unique ears, unique home acoustics and different amp characteristics but for me they just didn't work. I'm not saying they are bad, as other reviews show many people loved them. Simply too bright for my taste. I had to buy different brand to get the warmth I was looking for because even the more expensive B&W had the same traits and maybe to an even higher degree.

Fantastic! I have recommended to my friends! The service members were terrific!

These speakers are GREAT addition to my home theater. I appreciate Scott from the Geek Squad for giving a heads up on these. I have in ceiling speakers from the same brand.

Ok best buy why keep these up for months knowing dam well they will never be back instock. This is one thing i hate about you guys