AXPONA 2022

When you're a critic, you get paid to quibble, so here's mine: Bowers & Wilkins' iconic 801 D4 speaker ($35,000/pair) is pretty enough in gloss black, but gorgeous in satin walnut. In the company's AXPONA room, I encountered only the black version.

This is the extent of my admittedly not-so-terrible trauma. Get-well cards optional.

The 801 D4s, introduced in late fall 2021, were driven by a couple of Classé Delta monoblocks ($10,995 each) connected to a Classé Delta Pre ($9995). Because it was the final day of the show, mid-afternoon, the atmosphere was maybe a little looser than before, and the B&W team merrily invited visitors to plug their phones into the AudioQuest DragonFly DAC and let 'er rip. So we did. Paquito d'Rivera's "Afro" and Parker Milsap's "You Gotta Move" were wholly convincing, even moving.

Powered by the Classés, the 801s were smoother and less bass-prominent than I remembered from an earlier iteration (the speaker's design goes back to 1979). Now they combined ease and authority, sophistication and raw power, an iron fist and a velvet glove. Various hand percussion, and the sound of a stick hitting the cup of a cymbal, were reproduced with so much snap and speed that you could've closed your eyes and thought you were listening to electrostats.

What distinguishes a good speaker from a great one? Detail, detail, detail. Clearly, none are obscured when the 801 D4s are matched with the right electronics and a halfway decent room.