Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond D5: What's New in the Latest Flagship Speakers

Now celebrating 60 years of loudspeaker design, Bowers & Wilkins has spent the last 5 years of “relentless experimentation and refinement” working to improve upon its flagship 800 Series Diamond range. The fruits of this labor have finally been revealed in the form of the company’s new 800 Series D5 range, which recently made its debut at the Vienna High End audio show. The outgoing 800 Series D4 range from 2021 was already a category leader when Bowers & Wilkins launched the exclusive 800 Series D4 Signature models in 2023. These hot-rodded versions of the 801 D4 and 805 D4 featured upgraded componentry, new structural parts, and luxurious new finishes. Just last year, Chief Audioholic Gene DellaSala was thoroughly impressed by the performance of the 801 D4 Signature when Audioholics hosted a Listening Event at MaximumAV in Tampa, Florida. 

According to Bowers & Wilkins, many of the enhancements that were developed for the D4 Signature speakers have now been incorporated into the whole D5 lineup. 

Perhaps the inclusion of these upgrades helps to account for the notable price increases between the previous generation of the 800 Series and the new range. The 800 Series D5 range includes the flagship 801 D5 tower speaker ($65,000/pair), the somewhat smaller 802 D5 tower ($45,000/pair), the relatively compact 803 D5 tower ($35,000/pair), the more traditional-looking 804 D5 tower ($25,000/pair), and the 2-way 805 D5 standmount ($15,000/pair). For the home theater customer, there are two 3-way center-channel speakers on offer. The larger HTM81 D5 ($15,000 each) pairs with the 801 D5 and 802 D5, while the smaller HTM82 D5 ($12,000 each) pairs with the 803 D5 and 804 D5.

Bowers & Wilkins says that the new 800 Series Diamond D5 range introduces extensive acoustic, mechanical, and electrical improvements, but the first thing you’ll probably notice is the fresh selection of finishes. Stealth Black, Warm White, Light Walnut, and Dark Walnut all look suitably refined and luxurious,  and the look is elevated further by optimized design detailing, including the following: a new top plate, spine, and plinth; newly-designed drive unit pods, tweeter bodies, and trim rings; and finally, a new grille design. The 800 Series speakers are still made by highly-skilled craftspeople in Worthing, England.

Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series D5: What’s New?

Under the hood, several performance-enhancing improvements inherited from the 800 Series Signature loudspeakers reportedly deliver more openness, lower distortion, heightened resolution, and superior dynamics compared to the standard D4 range. The D5 speakers also benefit from new measurement and simulation work carried out by the research team at the world-renowned Southwater Research Establishment (SRE). This work has resulted in new cabinet-based enhancements that further reduce the acoustic impact of the loudspeaker enclosure, according to Bowers & Wilkins. 

In addition to a variety of other aluminum components, the D5 range features all-new Space Frame Bracing to the rear of the cabinet, contributing to what Bowers & Wilkins calls the best-performing and most mechanically-quiet enclosure ever made by the company. The Space Frame Bracing system features parallel aluminum bracing rails that are periodically reinforced longitudinally and transversely. These are bolted directly to the rear of the Matrix inside each D5 cabinet, performing a similar function to the aluminum bracing to the front of the loudspeaker — i.e., stiffening the inside of the enclosure, thus further reducing the impact of unwanted vibration and cabinet resonance. In sonic terms, the end result is reportedly “an even more believable and three-dimensional sound stage.”

The 801 D5, 802 D5, 803 D5, and 804 D5 towers all include newly-designed aluminum plinths featuring both aesthetic upgrades and performance upgrades. The new plinth profiles are designed to better match the proportions of the corresponding speaker cabinet, and to better conceal the hardware underneath. The plinths also use constrained-layer and tuned-mass damping to resist unwanted vibration. Bowers & Wilkins says that the new tuned masses are individually specified to suit the unique properties of each plinth, and that all four plinths now feature stabilizing outriggers engineered to sit inside the plinth itself.

So, that’s the bottom of the speakers sorted, but what about up top? Thanks to the extensive modeling and simulation work that was carried out during the development of the 801 D4 Signature, Bowers & Wilkins has added a “substantially-revised” aluminum plate to brace the top section of each cabinet in the D5 range. 

The new plate design features thicker aluminum ribbing sections for greater stiffness, more mechanical location points to optimize coupling to the top of the enclosure, and revised decoupling mounts to support the Turbine Head or Solid-Body-Tweeter assembly, according to Bowers & Wilkins. The top plates also feature an upgraded, leather-trimmed “collar” that is “critically damped with material derived from the 800 Series D4 Signature loudspeakers, further reducing unwanted output from the aluminum plate it physically connects to,” according to the company. Bowers & Wilkins says that the combined result is improved overall mechanical behavior at the top of each cabinet.

The now-legendary Matrix Bracing system found in the 800 Series Diamond range has been upgraded to “Enhanced” status in the D5 range. The new Enhanced Matrix adds “greatly increased stiffness to the critical area at the front of the cabinet around each individual drive unit,” according to Bowers & Wilkins. 

The Enhanced Matrix incorporates thick, carefully-profiled pieces of aluminum that are used as braces around each drive unit aperture. Stiffened with ribbed sections to the rear, this aluminum structure works together with the Space Frame Bracing and the new aluminum top plate to provide “massive increases in cabinet stiffness and commensurate reductions in unwanted noise,” according to the company.

The 804 D5 also gets a significant upgrade in the form of a new internal aluminum enclosure for its Continuum Cone FST midrange driver assembly. This enclosure both isolates the midrange assembly and provides an incredibly consistent mechanical decoupling point for the drive unit itself, according to Bowers & Wilkins. This reportedly provides many of the benefits of the Turbine Head structure used on the larger floorstanding models in the 800 Series Diamond range. The result is said to be a “more free and open sound” from the Continuum Cone midrange driver. All of the midrange drivers, mid-woofers, and woofers in the D5 range also use lower-distortion motor systems based on Signature-specification components, according to Bowers & Wilkins. The company calls this a significant improvement, resulting in a cleaner, more accurate sounding presentation with better resolution, transient response, and dynamics.

Every little detail can be important when designing a speaker at this level. A perfect example is the tweeter grille mesh used on the Diamond Dome tweeter. For the 800 Series D5 models, Bowers & Wilkins is using the latest generation of tweeter grille mesh, originally developed for the 801 D4 Signature. Bowers & Wilkins says that the new mesh offers the same dome-protecting stiffness as the version used on the standard D4 speakers, but is more acoustically transparent, resulting in increased resolution and notably-improved off-axis performance.

The crossovers in the D5 range have been enhanced across the board via the addition of improved components derived from the Signature models. In addition, all models feature an all-new wiring harness with higher-quality cabling and terminal post links, resulting in greater resolution, according to Bowers & Wilkins. The crossover assemblies for the stereo models are now mounted to an aluminum plate construction that is coupled with the cabinet itself and with the Space Frame Bracing on the back of the cabinet, further increasing the overall stiffness of the cabinet.

Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series D5: Final Thoughts

Given our experience with the D4 Signature models, there is little doubt that the 800 Series D5 speakers will be sensational performers, though the increased prices may be hard for some would-be customers to swallow. At $65,000 per pair, the flagship 801 D5 tower costs nearly $20K more than its predecessor’s current asking price of $46K, and nearly double that speaker’s 2021 launch price of $35,000 per pair. That said, value is relative, and highly subjective. 

The D5 range is only marginally more expensive than the D4 Signature models, and these new speakers include even more performance-enhancing upgrades. Bowers & Wilkins is hardly the only brand to demand ever-increasing prices for its most exclusive technologies — we have seen similar price increases from other high-end manufacturers. In any case, we look forward to seeing what kind of performance Bowers & Wilkins can deliver at this level, especially given the brand’s stellar track-record. How will these impressive-looking speakers compare to other high-end offerings? Share your thoughts in the related forum thread below.

The Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond D5 speakers will be available to buy starting on September 9th, 2026.

More information: Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series D5

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