Bowers & Wilkins A5 AirPlay Wireless Music System

Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins A5 AirPlay Wireless Music System

Customer Reviews and Ratings

3.5 out of 5 stars

Based on 25 reviews

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    does not perform as advertised

    • Written by from Newberg

    For Christmas '12 bought an A7 and an A5. The A7 works well, the A5 cannot hold a connection to the wireless. I have the latest Airport station. Add to frustration is sending an email to B&W and not getting any results from them. In order to send one email you have to enter so much information....various serial numbers, model numbers for the airport, what type of computer, software, etc. It is a bit maddening. There seems to be an acute issue with the software. I suggest you avoid this model, I am returning mine.

    0 of 1 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    A5 Speakers

    • Written by from Findon

    The B&W sounded amazing in the store, I bought 2 at £400 each. It has been so frustrating as they will not join my brand new IMac. (Feb 2013.) I could only get one at a time initially to link up with airplay but now neither will link and I am left with no sound but the IMac internal speakers. I have been told to buy cables for another £100.00.
    Left feeling very disappointed.

    1 of 4 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Ultimate Disappointment - junk from a great company

    • Written by from DALLAS

    As a happy owner of several other B&O products it was very disappointing to realize just how poorly designed the A5 speaker turned out to be.

    The sound quality is C- compared to other B&O offerings, but the real shortfall is in the streaming software/firmware. The A5 randomly selects audio output levels for the various sources (Mac, iPhone, iPad) a user might select. The output level for my macbook Air turns out to be turned all the way up. That just doesn't go over well when I'm trying to be relatively quiet and respectful of my sleeping 5 year old son upstairs.

    I have a one strike and your out rule when it comes to products being poorly designed and lacking a thorough thought process. B&O management - you need to get it together and implement firmware updates to solve this type of problem. There are many others who have complained here and elsewhere.

    2 of 22 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    How very disappointing

    • Written by from Sidney

    I am so very disappointed in this product. I previously owned a Bose sound dock but, after hearing a friends B&W Zeplin Air I decided to purchase a B&W unit and bought the A7. Setup was difficult due to lack of detailed instructions. I eventually accomplished the setup and settled in to listen to the crystal clear sound from the speaker system. No disappointment here at all! It's a spectacular unit. However, after a day of working almost seamlessly, it now quits within ten minutes of starting. I have rebooted the speakers and checked the router without finding any problem. Both my iPhone and my wife's iPad experience the same problem and both of these devices are within 10 feet of the speaker system. I have scoured the internet for a solution and nothing comes up. The person who recently wrote that all these complaints are likely "user caused" has prompted me to submit this saga. It is one more example of the problem and is definitely NOT my fault. A perfect example of great speakers but poor wireless technology. I will be returning this speaker next week.

    10 of 20 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    I gave up...

    • Written by from Fort Lee

    great when you can connect to it via wi-fi. Worked may be 2 hours out of the past 20 days. Luckily apple took it back.

    17 of 24 people found this useful

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  • 1.0 out of 5 stars

    Setup failed

    • Written by from Zürich

    Setting up with with Mountain Lion on my MacBook Pro 13'' Retina failed. Easy setup turned out to be anything else than easy. The B&W setup App did not discover the device and any possible solutions provided by the step-by-step problem solving did not work either. There is no help line to call. Leaves me in a frustrated state, having spent a lot of money.

    21 of 28 people found this useful

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