Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin returns in its 4th iteration as a fully wireless, premium speaker while retaining the character of what it historically has been known for. Some of the updates include revised design, upgraded speakers, more powerful amp, Amazon Alexa support, and 24bit/96kHz audio streaming support. After 6+ weeks of trying to resolve an ongoing issue regarding connectivity, B&W support has not responded to me after 3 attempts of contacting them. This is an especially frustrating issue given the only connectivity options of this speaker are wireless. So when problems arise, it’s very useless and frustrating. In the box: - Zeppelin - Power Cable - Quick Start/Warranty Guide Setup: While taking the speaker out of the box you are present with a hefty, premium feeling speaker. The speaker weighs in just under 15lbs and measures 25.5” wide, 8.25” tall, and 7.5” deep. This will require a decent amount of desk, table, stand real-estate but it is designed to be one of the focal points in the room. Once power is supplied to the speaker it will boot up and you can start the pairing process. I would highly recommend using the B&W Music app to get the most out of this speaker. Once you have signed into the app it will find the speaker and allow you to connect it to the Wi-Fi network. This speaker only supports 2.4gHz so make sure this is available. Alternatively, B&W states you can use the USB-C port on the back to connect to Ethernet via an adapter if preferred. Once everything is connected the app allows you to connect several streaming services directly through the B&W app. These include: Deezer, TuneIn, Last.fm, Qobuz, NTS, Soundcloud, Dash, and Tidal. I have heard that Pandora and others are coming shortly. To get the most out of this speaker, I chose to purchase a Tidal HiFi Plus membership to access H-Fi and MQA audio files. NOTE: According to what I have seen, only Qobuz inside the B&W app allows for Hifi (24bit) streaming. This should be expanded to other services in the future. The speaker itself has 5 physical buttons on the upper back, volume up/down, play/pause, Alexa, and multifunction buttons. The bottom of the speaker features an LED that creates a levitating type effect for the speaker. Brightness and toggling it on/off can be controlled via the app. It is important to note there are no analog inputs for this speaker. You have a power and USB-C port on the back and that is it. Like mentioned earlier, B&W states the USB-C port can be used as a wired Ethernet port incase wireless is not available though I do not have an adapter to test this. Sound Quality: I used a couple different devices to stream music via this speaker to help test quality and connectivity. - Pixel 6 via B&W app with Tidal - Desktop Computer via BT 5.2 (Speaker is 5.0) CD MP3 files - Pixel 6 BT AAC (Speaker would not show up as aptX or aptX HD even through developer options) I found the sound quality of this speaker excellent. Because this speaker has the stereo channels so close together stereo separation is fairly weak unless you are directly in front. Despite this the highs, mids, and lows were very distinctive. I did find quite the variation of volume levels through Tidal for certain tracks but the Zeppelin gets LOUD no matter what. Some tracks just got even louder depending on how it was mixed. Since I was unable to connect via aptX or access streaming Hifi quality files due to limitations with connectivity and B&W app, I wasn’t technically streaming the highest quality files but even with the CD quality or so I was able to stream, it sounded great. Bass is not overpowering but the highs can be a little intrusive depending on genre. I dialed back treble about .5-1db and that was enough to take the piercing edge off for my tastes at higher volumes. Overall this speaker has the power to deliver intense sound for 500sq feet with ease. The Zeppelin supports Airplay2 and Spotify Connect. Multi-room support should be coming with a future update to the Zeppelin/app in the coming months to allow multi device connection between the Zeppelin and other Formation devices from B&W. Connectivity Issues: My Pixel 6 is setup with the B&W app. It worked well for the first day or so then I wanted to test the speaker with a direct BT connection via PC. I paired and connected it and it seemed to work fine for the rest of the first day. After the first sleep/power off (Leaving the unit plugged in overnight as it controls power itself) the sound started cutting in and out with playback of the PC BT connection. Over the subsequent few days the speaker would connect to the PC (Audio confirmation and all) but wouldn't play sound despite showing connected. It would need to be deleted in BT and repaired like a new device every time or a full power cycle by unplugging the unit. On top of this, I tried playing music via the B&W app on my Pixel 6 and the speaker would not play audio at all. I got an error at the bottom of the app “Check devices”. The speaker worked fine after a full restart and re-pairing process to the PC. Since this issue began the speaker has had a software update and it still occurs from time to time. Because this speaker is solely wireless, any issues that arise REALLY affect how one can use the speaker. Given the price point and brand, I would not only expect a higher quality product without bugs but also customer service that attempts to correct the issue. I would say neither of which the brand has done for me. This is my first experience with any B&W product and it has been quite disappointing. Overall: I would be very leery of this product given the bugs I have experienced and lack of customer support. Even though the sound quality is excellent the connectivity bugs between using the app and connecting via BT at the same time would prevent me from recommending this speaker to anyone who plans to use this with more than one device with the B&W app. If you only plan to use this with one device and the app, then it might be a fair purchase.

great sound but very complicated to set up.Even after set up I t is extremely difficult bro use. I've had it for 3 weeks and still cannot figure it out. In addition it does not have any paper instructions. You have to rely on the I phoned. I would not recommend it.