B&W PV1 review
B&W says balls to subwoofers. Literally – no, look, it’s a spherical sub. See? And you thought… how rude.
This compact silver sphere is as visually arresting as you’d imagine a subwoofer could ever be. And the styling isn’t simply for show: while you might not believe it, this stunning spherical design was actually created for technical, not aesthetic reasons.
Banishing distortion
The problem for subwoofers is resonance – distortions of the cabinet’s structure under the air-pressure load generated by the driver’s movement.
The solution? Ports; sealed-box enclosures; heavy, braced designs: each approach generates its own problems. Hence B&W’s new ‘Pressure Vessel’ concept – like a diving vessel or a soap bubble, the PV1’s curved shell is a light, immensely stiff structure that both supports and reinforces itself. This approach virtually eliminates cabinet resonance and so sounds ‘cleaner’ than a conventional subwoofer, because the drive units devote their energy to driving air, not the cabinet.
Results are sensational. Even operating at full power you’ll struggle to feel any resonance coming through the cabinet, and it sounds stunning.
Stuff Says…
StuffTV
