Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air Speakers

It's been 3 Months and it's been a pleasure to use. No issues and Air Play works so well. I held out on my review to be sure I get past the Honeymoon period and that same feeling of pure satisfaction is still here. Don't hesitate if you're on the fence!

WiFi setup is a pain in the behind. Apparently you are "not allowed" to have any "special characters" like an ampersand, in your wireless name, or password. Why B&W think they can dictate my network settings is beyond me, even my 50 quid IP camera can handle an ampersand. Now you know, but I wasted 2 days finding this out. Hope it helps someone else.

Being an owner of the original zeppelin, I had a hard time believing how much better the zeppelin Air could sound. After purchasing the new Air play version, I immediately put the new one to the test. Right out of the box I would say that the initial sound did not seem to be better considering all the internal upgrades. I have to say I was considering taking it back. The fact that it was brand new I decided to give it a chance to break in.
After three weeks of continuous play, I performed one more side by side comparison with the original zeppelin. I have to say that the Air version really outperforms the original in the following areas:

-Wider sound stage
-Vocals have more body and sounds more palpable
-Even in airplay mode the new zeppelin out performs the original

There was one thing that I found interesting though. the new Air version is considerably lighter than the old version. With all the upgrades I can't imagine why.

I purchased this unit about 9 months ago and have been using it extensively.

The sound is terrific given its limitations with respect to size Certainly, it sounds better than the competition from Bose and Bang & Olufsen. However, as with all smaller speaker systems, on types of music that have a big soundstage or great complexity, it seems to me that the Zeppelin "works" really hard and the music starts to sound a little strained. This is more a limitation of size than a fault with the Zeppelin.

A few caveats: first, the dock for the iPod/iPhone is VERY delicate. It breaks VERY easily and should be treated accordingly. Second, you must follow the directions for Airplay meticulously because if you do not, it may not work properly. This is easily remedied by performing a Reset of the Zeppelin. Remember NOT to plug in the power cable before plugging in the Ethernet cable; Ethernet cable first! Finally, if you are using the device via Airplay, make sure that you disconnect the Airplay connection via iTunes before you try to switch to the iPod dock, otherwise it glitches and won't let you play via the dock.

Okay, I am not a fan of any particular company. I always go with quality regardless of the company behind it.

I have been doing research for a good dock for past six months. Finally, put 4 docks (I don't want to name names as I feel its not appropriate but they are considered to be the best docks in any reviews) in a very tight scrutiny, almost in the war zone in my totally noise proof room. The detail in sound I have never heard before from any other dock.

The best thing about Zeppelin Air is that it sounds best amongst all other docks exist to-date, and above all, its AirPlay feature rocks. Oh my... what a convenience. I only docked my iPhone/iPod once to check, it works ok.

I did not experience any trouble in setting up wireless Airplay. I just can't be happier. I wish if I could buy more for each room. It is that good.

All I would say that it is a great addition in my audio arsenal. Very happy with it. It worth every single penny. I would highly recommend to anyone who REALLY wants the best possible sound from docking speakers.... and its beautiful as well.

Zeppelin Air was my first B&W purchase and I am now looking forward to buy more B&W products, especially their 800 speakers series.

I've had the Zeppelin Air for a week and initially only used it for the playback of music from my I-pod. It worked flawlessly until last night when I attempted to connect it to my network. Despite many attempts it would not establish a wireless connection. A friend who is an IT consultant also helped, but we could not resolve the issue. In addition, the Zeppelin Air would no longer work properly with my I-Pod. After 5 minutes of playing music it would stop and display the flashing red light. Today I decided give it one more try before I returned the unit. I followed exactly the same sequence as before, but this time added a number to my password. The Zeppelin connected to my network instantly and the playback problem with the I-Pod also disappeared. I will test it for the next few days, but so far so good. Four stars because apart from the problem of connection I would agree with the positive reviews about the Zeppelin Air.

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...

Love the sound of this thing but the networking stack they implemented stinks.
The device is constantly dropping off of my wireless network even though the indicator light remains solid purple which means it's connected and in AirPlay mode. Check of wireless clients through Airport Utility shows that sure enough the Zeppelin is not connected to the wireless network. I have had this happen during the middle of playback, like others. But I have also had this happen after pressing the standby button on the unit to wake it up with zero AirPlay connection attempts. The only way to correct this is to power cycle the unit. Really? And yes the firmware is at the latest version. And I'm still waiting to hear back from B&W's tech support.

Honestly I'm ready to just dump this thing and go with an Airport Express and speakers. My sister's family has had zero issues with this setup.

If you are seriously considering dropping this much cash, I would think twice.

This speaker has an amazing sound, the bass is incredible and the the music is balanced even at loud volume, the speaker not only looks great but the performance is also excellent; the airplay function is a little hard to configure but once you got it right the freedom it offers is unparalleled, since you don't have your phone on the dock at all times and goes with you around the house instead.

bottom line one of the best loud speakers, great design and the innovative airplay function.