Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air

Makes your music on your iPhone sound great but you have to use decent music. "But my music sounds muddy on it"... yes your lime wire, free 40kbps will sound bad almost every speaker. I use a aux cord from my mac and some 96000kHz/24bit music. There is not a time I use this speaker and am not impressed. Plus if you don't like it, take it back and get your cash back. You have 30 days. Or if in the rare case you get a bad egg. Take it back and get a new one. No questions asked. The bass is not as punchy as the Bose of the same price. The quality of sound, however, is far better. So if you want to hear details in your music you never known where there. Go B&W. If you just want a speaker to play loud, thumping music for parties. Go Bose. Or, if you can, just go listen to them both.

both of the systems are almost equally good having their own positives.
its been more than a year since i have my sounddock 10 n recently i purchased zepplin air. now here is my description of both the systems
bose sound dock 10: overall sound quality is really good i tried playing it outdoors too and no doubt it covers more area than zeppelin and bass is at least 2 times more powerful than zeppelin air. overall volume(loudness) of bose is approximately 25% more than zeppelin air. this system has been roughly used through out the summer it was sitting in my car trunk for like months i used it for the basement parties, beaches , backyard and it pretty much satisfied everyone involved.
Zeppelin air: the design of this system doesn't make it much portable and it has been designed in a way that you get a feeling that this system is not meant for keeping it in a car trunk. i use this system for my bedroom for soft music. the sound quality is so pleasing that your ears wont get tired after continuous listening. the vocals are so soft and it has a more natural sound unlike bose which has some sort of fake crispiness due to those twiddlers i guess. the wifi option in the sound system works flawlessly.
overall if your a party animal who hosts basement parties and beach parties every weekend and likes to listen to loud music with roof shaking bass then go with the bose. however, if you are more of a sophisticated listener and want some back ground music while having a dinner than choose zeppelin air.

I was aware of this product but had decided it was more than a non-audiophile needed. I was leaning toward Bose ($300 cheaper). I went to PF Changs for lunch yesterday - had 4 Vodkas and bam - I dropped by the Apple store after lunch and acquired a TOP NOTCH I Touch speaker system. I am totally happy - though I will note that the set-up guide displayed screen shots did not AT ALL match my Airplay set-up. However - EVERYTHING connected and I am playing songs from my Mac Book Pro I Tunes and my I Touch. I am more than pleased. If you have some free bucks (or get drunk at lunch) buy this product!!

First of all the sound on this device is really great. I consider myself a bit of an audiophile, and this is by far the most balanced compact stereo I have ever heard. Unlike most systems where you have to sacrifice thumping base in pop songs for a clean and balanced reproduction of more classical music, the Zeppelin Air pleases my ears across the whole spectrum. Everything from Lady Gaga to Yo-Yo Ma sounds great. There were some seriously annoying issues with this machine when I first bought it. The air-play set up was arduous and overly complicated, and wireless playback was unreliable. Since the release of a new iphone app that completes the set up for you, these problems have been completely resolved.

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!

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.

This speaker/docking system is the best on the market for it's intended use. It does not replace a larger system for large rooms, but for home or small room use - you simply cannot purchase a better unit. I would recommend multiple units to effectively fill larger rooms, which B&W supports with their software enhancements to sync multiple units together.

The outages that other people complain about has nothing to do with the B&W unit, but rather their WiFi systems. People using multi-channel WiFi will not experience sound interference. Alternatively, one can dock their unit onto the unit, which by=passes the WiFi airplay, and plays directly to the system.

Sound is clear and bass is smooth and punchy.

I have the speaker for about 2 months now and really love it. The setup was not as hard as I imagined, and the airplay works great. Also got a digital cable to connect TV to the speaker. The sound is really truely amzing!!! I love it.

I love this speaker. As others have mentioned, figuring out how to set it up via the wireless method was a small challenge. I actually used my iPod touch to connect it to my network. The first few attempts using my MacBook Air were unsuccessful. Setting it up using my Touch was a breeze; there is a section on setting it up using the iPod in the manual. I consider myself to be an audiophile as I have own many high-end systems in the past. This little speaker blew away my current system, and sound on par with systems costing twice or even three times as much. The ability to buy more than one to create a whole house system is unbelievable. I will take this speaker system over the Sonos any day.

The store may not be the optimal testing environment, so I suggest taking it home and truly demoing it. Don't know what Apple's return policy is, but Best Buy will let you return it if you are not happy with it up to 30 days. Chances are you will keep it and rid yourself of all the wires associated with 5.1 systems. For surround sound check out B&W Panaroma; just got one of those too; awesome surround sound.........