Bowers & Wilkins - Zeppelin Speaker with Wireless Streaming via iOS and Android Compatible Music App with Built-In Alexa - Midnight Grey

Dont use airplay because it has a lot of connectivity issues. If you have apple music and you are using airplay and the song wont stop than go to the B&W app and pause it through the app. The speaker sounds really well balanced and well rounded. If your looking for high resolution audio than be aware that air play is buggy. If your looking for a good bluetooth speaker that has really good vocals this speaker is amazing in bluetooth mode still. For loseless audio on apple music I woild recomend going with a different speaker because of the air play bugs. Another mention is the spread angle pf the music isn’t as wide as the formation edge and you cant tilt the speaker pointing up or down some because its just a fixed base.

Bowers & Wilkins new wireless Zeppelin speaker is one of the cleanest hearing sounds I have ever heard in my life from a speaker. This device has a richness to the dimensions of sound it covers around the room. I am blown away and shocked they can hit a level of quality from a wireless device. The Zeppelin is elegant and you can just feel that this device was constructed in a way to give you optimal sound. Zeppelin is somewhat heavy meaning you will not be moving this unit from room to room. Taking out the box and placing it where you want is best as this speaker needs to be plugged up and have A/C power to the unit. There isn't much in the box but just enough to get you going as fast as possible. Thankfully B&W gives a quick start guide that gets you going without wasting your time. Design is also modern yet strange; like a big football shape speaker facing you. Nothing wrong with that as it doesn't really take up that much space on my entertainment center. It isn't cumbersome or feels out of place in my home. On the top of the speaker, the buttons include; Vol up, Play/Pause, Multifunction, Alexa / Smart speaker button, and Vol down. There is a light bar indicator to let you know if the speaker is on. The speaker can connect to Spotify Connect, AptX, Bluetooth, Airplay 2, and B&W's own Connect app. This gives you multiple ways to connect your music wirelessly with tons of compatibility. Setup was easy with three simple instructions and you must download the app to set the speaker up. This includes an update to the speaker which I highly recommend doing before you enjoy the speaker. The sound of the Zeppelin was simply the best. It was clean, clear, and powerful. Everything was fleshed out and you can hear every single detail in sound. The football shape speaker just gives you a sound I would call award-winning. The bass is strong but not overpowering. It was an instant smile across my face This was just using Airplay 2 alone how moving the sound was on this speaker. I couldn't believe this much sound was coming out of a speaker of this size. Whatever drivers Bowers & Wilkins are using it's something that you will be extremely satisfied with. The five speakers inside are beyond exceptional and 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution sound is heavenly to listen to. The sound to my ears was magnificent! I was only able to test Tidal/MQA as that's the only platform I use this kinda music on but it delivered. Every tone and note was giving me a surround in my environment. with 24 bit music; there is also Deezer, Qobuz, TuneIn, and more to use to try. The integration with the app/speaker is great. This is a true wireless speaker meaning there are really no ports for you to use an aux cord and if you are looking for that this is not the speaker for you. This is one for those who truly want a wireless speaker to connect to most of the wireless devices quickly. One feature I love inside of the Zeppelin is the ability to connect multiple speakers together with the B&W app or with Airplay 2. Combining this speaker with four other speakers was fun as they sync with each other flawlessly. Alexa worked as intended with no issues with the device hearing my voice. Music. Music is what this device does and does it well beyond my expectations. The sound feels award-winning how clear and clean the music comes out at you. I'm truly blown away by the sound of this B&W Zeppelin model. I will say if you decide to pick one of these up there won't be disappointed at all. and oh boy once you connect this to multiple wireless speaker setups your home will be booming with sound. Clearly, it's one of the best speakers to date I've used. Definitely the most powerful I own.

TLDR; This wireless speaker blows my mind (and ears) on so many levels. The sound quality is superb, capable of outputting 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution stereo sound. The design of the Zeppelin exudes so much style and confidence. It begs to be placed front and center as a conversational piece. It breaks the traditional Bluetooth speaker pairing paradigm with Wifi connectivity and access to hi-res content. It doubles as an Alexa smart speaker when idling from playing music. Sound quality is attributed to its five drive units: 2 tweeters (1”), 2 mids (3.5”) and 1 low (6”), delivering a total output of 240W. The sound is best enjoyed at least 10-15 feet away and as far as 40 degrees from center. It has tremendous amounts of clarity and can get very loud without distortion, easily filling a large room with sound. Sometimes I feel like it can be a bit on the bright side and I end up taking the treble down a couple of decibels to let the midrange come through. The only, only thing that might draw a bit of criticism is the low end thump. No, this is not a subwoofer, yet there is plenty of clean low end bass for what it is trying to accomplish. It just won’t shake the windows or rattle the ground, if that’s what you’re after. I love using Dr. Dre’s 2001 Instrumental to gauge the bass performance of speakers and I’m not disappointed at all as you can actually hear the bassline nice and clear. There are no bass/treble controls on the unit itself; you’ll have to use the BW Music App to access those tuning knobs, and it only offers bass and treble tuning adjustments. I threw almost every genre at this thing and it did not disappoint. From a design standpoint, I think the speaker looks amazing. The front grill is just one large sheet of fabric, with continuity only interrupted by its name plate. The integrated stand is recessed back to give an illusion that the speaker is floating and there is a dimmable cool-white LED that illuminates the gap between the speaker and stand to enhance that illusion. There are no buttons to push from the front side as they are slightly hidden toward the back side where the fabric meets the hard shell. The body is shaped, as you guessed, like a zeppelin. It’s significant because we have all been used to square/rectangle or cylindrical designs, and BW’s iconic design is unique and unchanged since its creation at Steyning Research Establishment (SRE) in West Sussex back in 2006. From a functionality standpoint, its shape dictates where the drivers are placed (more surface area in the center for the large driver, then the smaller drivers as it tapers toward the edges), and they are spaced across the entire face to help promote stereo sound separation. The Zeppelin is wide enough that it could take the place of a soundbar (if your TV supports BT streaming), but I think it’s best suited on a table where it can be admired on its own. I think a majority of consumers looking for a wireless speaker solution immediately think of a “bluetooth” speaker. As a matter of fact, I thought that exact same thing when I was setting this up, only to learn that I have to download an app to make this thing work. Apprehensive at first, I thought BW was cornering themselves with this method of setup and playback, but man was I wrong. The Zeppelin is both a bluetooth speaker AND a smart speaker. It supports aptX Adaptive, AAC and SBC codecs if your device supports it, and connectivity is handled from within the app first and then exposed as a “part of your house” name in the available BT devices to choose from within your phone’s BT setup. Then you can still go about streaming music like you would normally to a BT speaker or headphones. Oh, and it supports Apple Airplay2. But the feature that makes this thing shine is the ability to stream music from services through a Wifi connection. I do have TIDAL and this can be played back from within the app with an available Wifi connection at home. With Wifi set up and app connected, there’s no need to worry about BT codecs or stream connectivity. And when the music stops, the Zeppelin will standby as a smart speaker. And like a smart speaker, you’ll have Alexa at your disposal. Even at louder volumes, Alexa is still able to pick up my voice and answer my requests for music and weather, for instance. I will probably stream music through the app from this point on. Other music services supported are Qobuz, deezer, TuneIn, last.fm, NTS Radio, SoundCloud, and Dash Radio. BW mentions that they will continue to add more streaming services in the future. A few complaints: (1) The Zeppelin can only use Alexa as the voice assistant. That may not be an issue for those who’ve already adopted Amazon’s solution, but for others that have Siri and Google Assistant, it will be an annoyance to have another voice assistant just to tell the Zeppelin to play music. (2) 24-bit Hi-Res tracks can only be had through the Qobuz Music Streaming service, linked into the BW Music App. I pay for TIDAL now for its MQA tracks, but I cannot enjoy them fully through the Music App. I ended up signing up for Qobuz... (3) There is no indication of the actual bit depth or bitrate when streaming any music through the Music App.