In case you're wondering, this is how B&W Formation Wedge would look like if it was a UFO. Thank me later fellas.
The Bowers & Wilkins Formation Wedge is a wireless, multi-room speaker that utilizes Bowers & Wilkins' proprietary Formation wireless technology to connect to other Formation speakers and create a high-fidelity, seamless audio experience throughout your home.
The Wedge features a unique, triangular shape and incorporates advanced audio technologies, such as a Continuum cone mid-range driver and a double dome tweeter, to deliver rich, detailed sound.
Additionally, the Wedge can be controlled via the Bowers & Wilkins Home app and supports streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon Music. It also supports Bluetooth connection.
In short, B&W Formation Wedge is a solid speaker with stunning sound quality. It's also very long lasting (which, in my opinion, is the second most important thing to look for in a speaker), just like all Bowers & Wilkins speakers. It can also particularly fit tech savvy users as it supports some premium audio formats.
It however might not be ideal if you're planning to move the speaker a lot (it's heavy and large) or to use Apple Music with it (not supported - more on this later). It doesn't support voice assistants like Alexa or Google assistant either.
It does come with a staggering price tag. That's because you're not only getting yourself a premium speaker but also a super sleek home decoration item.
Now let's get to its bolts and nuts.
Bowers & Wilkins Formation Wedge Review: Sound quality
Let me tell you something right off the bat.
The sound quality performance you'll end up getting from a speaker will always depend on your room acoustics - particularly room dimensions and speaker positions.
The impact of the combination of these two is actually so strong that in most cases, it doesn't even make sense to utter a single word on sound quality without speaking of them.
This is also why it's not unusual to see completely different reviews of the same speaker.
In one case the speaker might be placed in a sweet spot inside the room and hence the user might be satisfied. In other cases the same speaker might be ill placed and hence user might even have returned it.
The point most people miss here is that it mostly isn't even about the engineering behind the speaker itself. It's about where you place the speaker inside which room.
So, in order to solve this problem, I've partnered with Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD Andrea Cicero from AC Acustica and created Soundton - a simple, 2D, browser accessible online speaker placement calculator.
With Soundton, now there's a way to figure the sound quality of most speakers before you buy them.
Read more about its working principles at soundton.com/documentation/.
The end colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) acoustics.