Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air Speakers

I have just invested the money and WOW!!! it blew my head off, how such an amazing sound can come out of such a small casing is mind baffleing

The WIFI worked well for me and easy....do not understand all the negative chat about it.
but there is a sound quility improvment when docked direct to the zeppelin.

Smashing product and worth all five stars no probs!

Enjoy it

all in all, the sound quality is good; but good sound quality does not necessarily mean boosting the bass. that thumping in your ears, when you turn the sound a bit higher could have been engineered better. the surround quality of it takes you into the atmosphere of whatever you are watching. nice shape and cool design.

Once you listen to the Zeppelin Air, the other systems in your house sound a little hollow. Excellent sound, Only problem is occasionally the air play set up has to be configured again. Totally Recommended.

I bought this on the basis of the reviews here. I was more concerned about the quality of sound than the set up issues I read about but on both counts I am impressed. The sound is far better than the Bose soundock I have had for the past few years (but for those wanting to spend less on a Bose won't be disappointed because for the price I think they are excellent also). Nice depth of sound, even at low volumes, and at high volumes I can get my walls to shake! I live in an apartment and this is more than sufficient to fill my open plan living area with clear, warm sound and I can easily hear it in the bedrooms.

As for the set up, I downloaded the iPhone app and set up worked easily. Within about 5 minutes of unpacking the Zeppelin from its box I was playing music through my iMac no troubles. I mostly play directly from my iPod but haven't had any dropping out issues with the Air Play function so far.

An added bonus is that the Zeppelin looks sleek, minimalistic and modern - a nice addition to my apartment's decor!

The Result is the speaker is able to communicate tremendous depth and precision. Music will have much more warmth compared to systems of Bose and Bang and Olfusen. The speaker has four 25 watt class d amplifiers (google what class d amplifiers are) and one 50 watt amplifier for the sub. So the speaker has dedicated amps for each of the 4 speakers and sub.
A firmware update will fix any airplay problems mentioned.

Let's get something out of the way

If following the instructions correctly, you can install the AirPlay function in less than 10 minutes. The only impediment for some is the (required) USB A to B cable which I happened to have, but does not come in the box.

The speakers' sound quality is outstanding. I've read some complaints about overpowering bass in some reviews - this is not an issue with the dock but rather the final editing of the tracks. Examples of music like certain mainstream rap/hip-hop songs are produced to be available to the average consumer and not for fine-tuned hardware, hence why they sound so distorted and the bass overpowers the rest of the song on a capable hi-fi system such as this one.

70% of my library is composed of house music, 20% classical and the rest is a mixture. All, especially house music sound impeccable. The treble is well balanced and the bass is profound and overall, the Zeppelin effectively projects music in my entire generously-sized room with no problem. Classical music is well executed with no loose ends and high pitched notes comfortably play at a satisfying frequency.

Is the price-tag worth it? Well it depends. If you're prepared to spend significantly more for a high quality dock, don't think twice about it.

Firstly, this thing is built like a tank and weighs a lot more than its size would suggest.
It sounds as good as it looks and if you had to do a blindfold test you'd never believe that such a big sound could come from such a relatively small package. Sound stage is not great which is understandable with the speakers so close together but I don't think it was intended to replace your living room hifi. It's meant to fill a small room with big sound and it does that brilliantly.

It's not all good news though, updating the firmware and setting up Airplay is a real pain. There is an app from B&W in the AppStore but simply connecting to the unit's wifi hotspot and going to its IP seems to be much easier. That being said, make sure your wifi router's security settings are set up properly else the Zeppelin will not be able to connect, even if it accepts your WiFi password.

Also, the unit doesn't control it's own volume, even though it's got vol up/down buttons, what happens is that it controls your iPhone/iPod/Mac/etc's volume. This means that when you dock your phone the first time it could start playing music at full blast!! I found this out the hard way and I feel it's a serious design flaw that should be looked at and fixed ASAP. You could seriously injure your ears.

Other than those 2 issues which cost it a star, it's a superb device and I'd highly recommend it, just remember you've been warned - don't blow your ears...

We have the big Harman Kardon in the lounge, Yamaha upstairs and the Bose sound dock in the kitchen. The Zeppelin is noticeable the best sound and connection. Everybody in the family says so. The WIFI air play is a touch cumbersome to instal. But doable. The process has a strong PC touch to it. Once it works it is stronger and better than the Airport Express that I connected to both the Harman and the Yamaha. I use the Airport extreme 2.4 and 5 GHz as the main network maker and the two Expresses as "slaves". The new lightning connector does not bother me. There are ample convertors to charge the phone should need be.

Stopped working after a couple of weeks, power failure apparently quite common.
Still waiting to hear from Bowers & Wilkins having submitted a request 3 weeks ago on their website. Got in touch with the Sydney distributer who replaced the unit. I now have a flashing red light, which according to B&W means the unit has gone into protect mode and requires servicing!! As I said in the title a great looking system but rather an expensive ornament!
Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air - FAIL

Like many I did not have a good start with my unit. It just would not do wifi. Scouring through the net I found out that the unit only works in wireless G mode and my modem was set to only transmit wireless N. So I changed the setting on my modem to run both N and G and viola...I have experienced the occassional drop out but not often enough to be a pain. All I can say is that it is an unbelievably great sounding unit with great mid, highs and lows emitting from all the B&W high tech speakers. No problem connecting my old IPod, iPad or just straight from to the unit. My only gripe is the absence of Bluetooth, which would be heaven sent especially if you do not want friends to log on to your wifi just to play music from their phones.