Bowers & Wilkins 805 Maserati Edition Preview

If you are into high end audio, you've heard of Bowers & Wilkins. If you're into cars (or pay any attention to the cars the rich drive in movies), you've heard of Maserati. B&W has been putting their speakers in Maseratis for a while now. To celebrate the continued partnership, B&W has released a limited edition 805 speaker with Maserati styling cues.

If you can't afford the car (if you have to ask), you might (a big MIGHT) be able to afford the speaker. While pricing hasn't been announced yet, the standard 805 speakers run $5k a pair with the optional stands (they look to be non-optional with the Maserati edition 805s) costing an extra $700.

Like we said - Might. The limited edition is surely going to cost more.

So, what do you get with the Limited Edition B&W 805 Maserati speakers? To start with, the 805 speakers seem to be unchanged internally. There is no mention of any upgrades to the components. That's not to say that they really need all that much upgrading. The B&W 805 Maserati speakers will have the vaunted 1" diamond dome tweeter and 6.5" Kevlar midrange driver in a 2-way, front ported enclosure. B&W promises a frequency response down to 49Hz -3dB and 42Hz -6dB. The speakers are rated 8 ohm nominal and 4.7 ohm minimum impedance, suggesting that they should play nice with most receivers.

But let's be honest - you didn't spend this kind of cash to hook these up to your entry-level receiver.

The 805 Maserati Edition speakers have an 88dB sensitivity suggesting that the monoblocks you hooked them up to were probably needed. The real upgrades come on the outside.

First, most of the surfaces (including the sides of the stand) are wrapped in bird's eye maple veneer. Of course, it is real wood. The front and top of the speaker has black Maserati leather. On the base of the stand is the Maserati name and iconic logo. 

And that's about it. We'd guess all that wood and leather is going to run you at least another $1k. Still, it's cheaper than one of their cars. If that is still too pricy for you, you can wait until the end of the year when B&W releases a Limited Edition P5 Headphone. Until then, enjoy a few more pictures of this admittedly gorgeous speaker.

For more information, please visit www.bowers-wilkins.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.