Bowers & Wilkins A7

Powered speaker system with Apple AirPlay® wireless streaming

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Front
(iPhone not included)
A7 in living room
A7 on a shelf
AirPlay lets you stream to multiple A7s simultaneously.
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Left front view
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Remote
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Wirelessly stream from your computer (laptop not included)
Wirelessly stream from your iPad (iPad not included)
With remote

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Item# 749A7B

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Customer Reviews
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Our take on the Bowers & Wilkins A7

by Ralph Graves

The Bowers & Wilkins A7 wireless speaker system uses Apple AirPlay technology to let you stream music from your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, or computer. And it delivers that music with amazing clarity and accuracy, filling your room with full, natural sound.

Advanced acoustics for extraordinary sound

The system features audiophile-grade electronics and high-performace drivers to reproduce sound far better than what you might expect from such a compact system. A pair of tube-loaded tweeters— an innovation from Bowers & Wilkins' flagship Nautilus™ speaker — ensure the highs remain clean and clear, without sounding strident.

The dimples on the Flowport reduce air turbulance for smoother bass.

The two midrange drivers deliver full, natural detail, while the Kevlar™-reinforced six-inch woofer raccurately eproduces low frequencies. The rear Flowport™ has dimpled holes to reduce air turbulance (much like those on a golf ball), further ensuring that the bass sounds musical, not harsh.

Each of the five drivers is powered by its own amplifier to maximize responsiveness and accuracy. Bowers & Wilkins' propietary Digital Signal Processing circuitry continually analyzes and adjusts the audio signal. This keeps your music balanced, clear and distortion-free at all volume levels — even when you crank it up to maximum volume.

The AirPlay advantage

You can easily play music from you computer wirelessly on the A7 system through iTunes®. You can even stream to multiple A7s (or other AirPlay-compatible systems like the Zeppelin Air) to simultaneously play your music in different locations throughout your home. And you can control the volume levels of each connected player individually or jointly through your computer's iTunes program.

Stream music wirelessly from your computer

With your Apple portable — iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch — you have even more options. Stream music wirelessly directly from your device to the A7. Or use your portable as a remote to control your computer's iTunes library. Through AirPlay you can select songs and playlists, and adjust the volume level of the system as well.

Making the most of other music sources

An Ethernet jack lets you make a wired connection to your home network. Or play music from other portable devices through the system's stereo minijack input. And there's an optical digital inputfor compatible components, such as a CD player. The A7 has a built-in audiophile-quality 24-bit/96kHz upsampling digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that helps this system deliver the best possible performance from wireless and wired digital music sources.

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Highlights:

AirPlay lets you stream music wirelessly from your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, or computer
two 1" tweeters and two 3" midrange woofers
internal 6" subwoofer
25 watts x 2 for tweeters, 25 watts x 2 for midranges, plus 50 watts for subwoofer
frequency response: 40-36,000 Hz
high-performance Class-D amplifiers
minijack auxiliary input accepts both analog and optical digital connections
USB port allows audio playback from your compute and enables firmware upgrades
Ethernet port for connection to your home network
built-in 24-bit/96kHz upsampling DAC handles wireless and wired digital audio sources
remote control
AC power cable
14-3/16"W x 8-11/16"H x 8-1/16"D
weight: 12.5 lbs.
warranty: 2 years
Our 60-day money-back guarantee

Hands-on research from the Crutchfield Labs (what are the Labs?)

What’s in the box? | In-depth notes

Product Research

What's in the box?

Download owner's manual

AirPlay powered speaker
6.5' AC power cord
Remote control (CR2032 3V battery)
A7 Brochure booklet
AirPlay Setup booklet
Safety Instructions/Warranty
Safety Information
Battery removal/remote control diagram

Our Product Research Team

At Crutchfield, you'll get detailed, accurate information that's hard to find elsewhere. That's because we have our own in-house Product Research team — they open the box, verify contents, check the owner's manual, and record dimensions, features and specs. We stay on top of new products and technologies to help people make informed choices.

Features

B&W A7 Wireless Music System: The Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) A7 is a wireless powered speaker system that employs Apple's AirPlay technology. Apple's AirPlay technology offers high-quality wireless audio streaming from your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad; as well as your Windows or Mac computer with iTunes. The A7 uses audiophile-grade Bowers & Wilkins audio technology for a high-fidelity sounding music system that can handle the broadest range of frequencies. The Bowers & Wilkins A7 works great in "out-of-the-way" spaces where it won't be noticed, such as on bookshelves or against walls.

High Quality Audio Design: The Bowers & Wilkins A7 wireless music system is equipped with a Class-D amplifier and digital signal processing (DSP). The Class-D amplifier provides 25W x 4ch (tweeters/mids) + 50 x 1ch (subwoofer). The B&W A7 features two 1" Nautilus tube aluminum tweeters, two 3.0" midrange drivers, and one 6" subwoofer. The wireless music system's enclosure is made from glass-filled ABS and feature's Bowers & Wilkins proprietary Flowport technology. The Bowers & Wilkins Flowport technology dramatically improves the system's overall bass performance. The unit's rear-firing port is dimpled to improve air flow, reducing turbulence. The result is less chuffing noise and less compression at high levels; which means better bass no matter how loud you like your music.

Apple AirPlay Technology: Apple's AirPlay technology allows music, downloaded to iTunes, to be streamed (wired or wirelessly) from your Mac or PC to the B&W A7. You can even bypass the computer entirely, and stream high-quality audio directly from your Apple iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad (all without the need to dock the device). The A7 supports Apple Lossless and MP3 audio file transfer. The B&W A7 and your AirPlay audio source must be connected to the same wireless network via a WiFi (802.11g/n) router or hub.

iTunes Streaming: The B&W A7 is able to wirelessly play audio from your computer's iTunes account either wirelessly (WiFi) or via a wired (Ethernet) connection using AirPlay streaming technology. When connected to the same network as a computer running iTunes, the A7 can appear as an output option in the pop-up menu at the bottom of the iTunes window. You can then browse your iTunes collection on your computer and stream music to the A7. To use the AirPlay feature you need a Mac or Windows-based PC running iTunes (10.2.2 or later) connected to the same wireless (WiFi) network as the A7.
Apple Device Streaming: AirPlay also lets you wirelessly stream your iTunes music and a variety of music apps (such as Pandora, iHeartRadio, etc) stored on your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad to the A7. So there's no need to dock your Apple device. The Bowers & Wilkins A7's AirPlay feature works with iPod touch (2nd/3rd/4th/5th gen), iPhone (3GS/4/4S/5), iPad (1/2/3/4), and iPad mini with iOS 4.4.3 or later; connected to the same wireless network.

Simple Setup: In order to connect your Apple device to the B&W A7 wireless music system, you will need to download the Bowers & Wilkins AirPlay Setup App to your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad (running iOS 4.4.3 or later). The Bowers & Wilkins AirPlay Setup App is also available to download for your Mac computer or Windows PC from the Bowers & Wilkins Support Site, allowing you to set up and manage the wireless music system from your computer.

Auxiliary Input: The rear-panel 3.5mm auxiliary input accepts an analog stereo minijack cable or mini-Toslink digital cable from your external analog or digital audio device. The A7 is able to play stereo digital audio up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution (not compatible with surround-sound encoded 5.1 channel digital audio).

USB Audio Streaming: The A7's USB (type-B) port can be used to stream and playback music that is stored or being streamed on your Mac computer or Windows-based PC. It can also be used for firmware updates.

Remote Control: The supplied wireless IR remote offers Power, Volume Up/Down, and Playback controls. Playback controls include Play/Pause and Previous/Next Track. The remote is powered by a single CR2032 3V lithium battery (pre-installed).

AC Power: The Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) A7 operates off of standard household AC current, using the supplied 6.5' AC power cord. The A7 will automatically enter Sleep mode if left inactive for more than 30 minutes.

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Reviews for the Bowers & Wilkins A7

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5 out of 5

B&W A7

Written By Jose B, Mayaguez, PR on Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

B&W A7 does justice to the legendary audiophile speaker manufacturer. The sound out of the A7 is just awesome when you compare it with others like the Samsung, Bose Airlink, etc. The bass goes a bit heavy and placement is critical in order to get a balanced sound. Corner placement is not recommended, but placement on a speaker stand about a foot off the room's short wall is great. This is a great audiophile product. Highly fecommended.

Pros:

Great presence, beautiful design, loud as it can get....

Cons:

Too much bass and little stereo effect.

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5 out of 5

Great speaker!

Written By STran, Pasadena, MD on Friday, May 31, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

Great sound. Highly recommend the product.

Pros:

Great clarity.

Cons:

Pricey.

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5 out of 5

B&W A7

Written By EliH, Philadelphia on Thursday, May 30, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

Great Sound especially for acoustical and classical music. No surround sound sensation but I guess that is to be expected as it is one box but I may try it in a different location. I wish I has some guidance on adjusting the EQ from iTunes as that changes the sound a lot but that may be a personal preference issue . No connectivity problems. Great Look

Pros:

Sound, simplicity, appearance

Cons:

I like it a lot and would get again - but I was not "blown away" though my wife tells me to turn down the volume so I have not put it to the " final test" yet

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5 out of 5

Fantastically Magical

Written By Bobby W, San Antonio, TX on Sunday, March 24, 2013

I've had this speaker for a little over a month and did an extensive amount of research prior to purchasing. I wanted to free myself of hiding wires and found that Bluetooth, while decent, didn't provide a way of using more than one unit at a time. The A7 is eloquently understated, while sonically very pleasing to the ears. I have purchased two, along with the Z2 and can use them to fill my home with clear, wireless sound. All of the units seem to disappear in the various rooms of my home until I use my iPhone, iPad, or Mac to command them into action. I have received nothing but compliments on their clarity.

Pros:

Beautiful styling

Cons:

Pricey

1 out of 1 people found this helpful

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4 out of 5

Sounds incredible, looks beautiful, works seamlessly

Written By Scott F, Atlanta, GA on Monday, March 11, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

I've owned two different sets of Bowers & Wilkins speakers over the years. We couldn't deal with the wires anymore, so I was excited to find the A7.

I put one A7 in our master bedroom and a second in our main area. It's a gorgeous unit and it sounds incredible. The sound is clean and crisp, easily filling a decent-sized room and with power to spare.

(Side note: I also was pleased to find the Panorama 2, which complements the A7 speakers well and does a great job with surround.)

My only A7 complaint is the use of 2003-era 802.11g Wi-Fi. I live in a loft building, and my neighbors' devices (microwaves, other Wi-Fi networks, etc.) interfere with one of the units, causing sound to drop out frequently. This is a known problem with 802.11g and its use of the 2.4GHz band. It's 2013 and this is an expensive device, so it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect 5GHz 802.11n support.

I "fixed" the problem by buying an Airport Express, setting it to Client Mode, and connecting the unit to it via Ethernet. This effectively converted the device to use 5GHz 802.11n, which is far less interference-prone (and is much faster). It seems to be working, but I shouldn't have had to do it.

I love these units and would buy them again in a heartbeat. However, this review would be five stars, shorter, and sweeter if the Wi-Fi support was better.

Pros:

Beautiful device Incredible sound

Cons:

Use of 802.11g Wi-Fi

4 out of 5 people found this helpful

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5 out of 5

B&W A7

Written By RKY, Middleburg, Fl on Sunday, March 10, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

Nice clean sound & easy to connect (link).

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4 out of 5

You pay a premium for this wonderful sounding device

Written By layline, New Bern, NC on Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

Using the ihpone app, the initial sync was very easy. Bass is a little boomy but can be tweaked with source equalization or stuffing a small sock in the rear reflex port. It's luggable: just unplug, slip your hand in the reflex port, and plug in the power at the new location of your choice. The sound is terrific, but you'll hear the lossage if you have a low-fii source like 128bit MP# or the hackneyed engineering you find on most popular music destined for the car radio. It's great for background music where you'd still like to be delighted by musical colors and nuances. I had little trouble with dropouts when playing sources on my home network. The dropouts I've experienced all occur with internet music sources. But I haven't pushed the range - it works just fine wherever I've wanted to place it within my Wi-Fi network.

Pros:

Wonderful clarity you'll hear every instrument - that's what it's about, right? The music holds together well at higher volumes. The unit is readily luggable and designer handsome.

Cons:

Boomy bass, Airplay lags, the small black remote is readily misplaced and likes to stay hidden. As expected for such a narrow unit, there's no soundstage. A similar great sounding system can be built with an Apple Airport Express and smaller quality monitors for several hundred dollars less. You pay a premium for the designer look and luggability of the A7. There's several seconds of internal buffering so Airplay lags.

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5 out of 5

I was skeptical at first...

Written By Nick, Bayshore, NY on Friday, February 08, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

As I un boxed the unit I asked myself how is this little box going to fill my room with hifi sound. But to my surprise it sounded great! The air play is not so hard to set up as some have stated, just follow the steps and you should be fine. I set my unit up in about 4 minutes . I am truly amazed by the crystal clear audio . If your looking for something with blue tooth this Is not the unit for you. Bluetooth is inferior compared to air play that's why B&W went with air play. You will not find anything at or under $800 that sounds better than the A7.

Pros:

Crystal clear audio, multiple ways to control A7, small foot print, deep bass , long ac cord.

Cons:

None

5 out of 5 people found this helpful

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3 out of 5

horrible app

Written By Rodriguez, Miami, FL on Saturday, February 02, 2013

The sound is really good, but the fustration of the software / app to connect and control the device is beyond believe. I can not understand how you spend this much on a quality wireless speaker, only to have to set it up every other time you use the device. Is one of the worst users experiences i have ever had. I know the sound quality is really good, but the user experience is horrible. Please, B&W, fixed the software!!!!

Pros:

sound quality

Cons:

app not working, device disconnecting all the time

3 out of 3 people found this helpful

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5 out of 5

QUITE AMAZING

Written By ELMO, NYC on Friday, January 25, 2013

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

You must have a working Wi-Fi network and download the B&W app in order to get connected. It took about half an hour of hacking around but I managed to pull it off.

This sound is quite remarkable. It compares favorably with my very expensive living room stereo/hi-fi set up. In fact, I think I will replace my existing speakers with B&W at a later date. It surprised me to find out that I can use the A7 directly from my iPhone/iPad/AppleTV. It really is very handy to keep the iPhone next to my bed and crank up some music before bed and while getting dressed in the morning.

Pros:

wonderful sound; connection to wi-fi

Cons:

a bit tricky to set up

1 out of 2 people found this helpful

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4 out of 5

Written By Carolina, Miami, FL on Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

The A7 is a great buy. If I use airplay from my computer I get complete uninterrupted sound. When I use my iPhone I have gotten some skips in the music but only after gently throwing my phone on the sofa. I like that you can have these speakers throughout the house and stream music to all of them at the same time or choose which speakers to stream to. I use a N wireless router.

1 out of 1 people found this helpful

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4 out of 5

very good but not perfect

Written By tennisfreak, Chicago, IL on Thursday, December 06, 2012

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

setup can be a little finicky with no real documentation describing exactly what the apps are supposed to be doing (i.e., changing the device ip address to be reachable on your local subnet). i finally got the Windows app to work after giving up in frustration with the iOS version, but even then it took 2 or 3 tries (with at least one paper clip hard reset of the A7) before things worked as they should. amplifier is powerful and the sound is quite good in a large bedroom. airplay now takes a couple of seconds to connect but is acceptably reliable.

Pros:

compact and attractive system, very good sound quality

Cons:

setup glitches, occasional airplay dropouts, lack of true stereo separation

2 out of 2 people found this helpful

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5 out of 5

Loving It!

Written By Stormy, Pennsylvania on Thursday, November 29, 2012

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

I really love the B&W A7. It looks great...very stylish and sounds amazing! I've tried it with several genres of music and have no complaints thus far. The only problem I've found is the set up wasn't as easy as I had anticipated and I consider myself technically savvy. B&W could improve on their set up instructions. Other than that, I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking for a nice bookshelf system....though I think it's much more than that.

Pros:

Stylish, amazing sound

Cons:

Set up instructions need more detail.

1 out of 1 people found this helpful

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5 out of 5

Awesome A7

Written By Jerry L, NOVA, VA on Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Crutchfield Customer Review (What's this?)

Thoroughly impressed by the sound quality and clarity. Everything sounds great through the A7 but instrumental music is amazing. Again, the clarity is beyond anything I have heard through any other wireless or powered speaker option. Currently own a Bose also set in the basement and enjoy it but the B&W is in a different league. The wireless option through AirPlay is the ultimate way to use the A7. With multiple phones and iPads in the house the A7 is in near constant use with just a touch of the screen. Really nice !!

Pros:

Sound style functionality. Amazing. Top of the class.

Cons:

Price.

1 out of 1 people found this helpful

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1-20 of 27 >>

For a more in-depth review and enhanced detailed information on the Bowers & Wilkins A7, please visit the Crutchfield website product page (/S-T3EmK7E8rNn/p_749A7B/Bowers-Wilkins-A7.html ).

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Bowers & Wilkins A7
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$799.99

Front
(iPhone not included)
A7 in living room
A7 on a shelf
AirPlay lets you stream to multiple A7s simultaneously.
Back
Back
Front view
Left front view
Other
Other
Port detail
Remote
Top view
Wirelessly stream from your computer (laptop not included)
Wirelessly stream from your iPad (iPad not included)
With remote

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Bowers & Wilkins A7

Powered speaker system with Apple AirPlay® wireless streaming

Item# 749A7B offer details

Review Summary

By buying this product you'll earn up to 800 Rewards points.

Our take on the Bowers & Wilkins A7

by Ralph Graves

Advanced acoustics for extraordinary sound

The AirPlay advantage

Making the most of other music sources

Highlights:

Hands-on research from the Crutchfield Labs (what are the Labs?)

Product Research

Our Product Research Team

Features

Product Reviews

Reviews for the Bowers & Wilkins A7

Average Customer Review:

Review this product:

Crutchfield Video Review Guidelines

Filter by rating:

B&W A7

Great speaker!

B&W A7

Fantastically Magical

Sounds incredible, looks beautiful, works seamlessly

B&W A7

You pay a premium for this wonderful sounding device

I was skeptical at first...

horrible app

QUITE AMAZING