Bowers & Wilkins CM10 Floorstanding Loudspeaker Preview

It's not often that we see a company put out a major upgrade to an existing line of speakers. They may add new speaker types to an existing line to flesh it out (like rear, center, and surround speakers to a popular line of floorstanding/bookshelf speakers), but they don't often just up and say, "You know what? We could totally out flagship our flagship speaker."

Bowers & Wilkins has done just that.

There CM line of speakers looks fairly normal for the popular speaker manufacturer - rectangular cabinets with tweeters on top (still in the main cabinet), midranges under, and woofers at the bottom. Sure, the top of the line 800 Series Diamond from B&W have curved cabinets and top mounted tweeters (not to mention a flagship speaker that looks like it was designed by Neptune and, when the right note was played, would release the KRAKEN!!!), but not the CM line. The CMs are for people that like the B&W sound but don't like all those newfangled shapes and designs. They like their edges straight and their corners sharp, thank you very much (that, of they would rather not part with a giant pile of cash in exchange for B&Ws top of the line speakers.).

Well, B&W couldn't leave well enough alone. While the old flagship of the CM line, the CM9, retails for $3k, the new CM10 will run you $4k a pair. B&W hasn't gone too overboard with the design. The big change is that they've offloaded the tweeter onto the top of the speaker reminiscent of their other, much more expensive, offerings. B&W promises the CM10 tweeter will have better imaging and dispersion for a more natural, spacious sound. The tweeter itself hasn't just been isolated, it has been improved and upgraded. It is a 1", dual-domed aluminum driver. The dual-domed design prevents the voice coil from distorting at higher frequencies staying stable up to 38kHz.

B&W CM10 

The fun thing is that B&W has kept the height of the CM10 cabinet exactly the same as the CM9 giving extra room for an additional woofer (though the CM10 is 1.6" deeper). The CM10 features a 6" woven Kevlar cone FST midrange and three 6.5" paper/Kevlar cone bass drivers (up from two in the CM9). This takes the -3dB point on the CM10 down to 45Hz with the CM9 falling off 11Hz higher. Another upgrade is that the 6" Kevlar FST midrange is completely decoupled from the rest of the speaker by a drawbar mechanism, like what is found in the 800 Series Diamond speakers. 

The CM10 speakers have an 8ohm nominal impedance with a 3.1ohm minimum. They have a 90dB sensitivity which suggests that they should play well with most amplifiers - even those in mid-line receivers. But you aren't pairing your new CM10s with a receiver are you? I'm pretty sure they'll revoke your audiophile card for that. The CM10 speakers come in Rosenut and Wengé real wood veneers or high gloss black or satin white paint. The white model has a grey grille while the rest have black.

Conclusion

B&W could have easily released the CM10 speaker at $5000 a pair. They've upgraded the tweeter and the midrange, offloaded the tweeter to the top of the cabinet, decoupled the midrange, and added a woofer. You're getting more than a 10Hz increase in extension on the bass end and the new tweeter design promises even less distortion and more dispersion than the CM9. All that easily adds up to more than a $1000 price increase over the CM9 in our book. With the $5k speaker category being a very popular one for budding audioholics, the $4K price tag of the CM10 speakers from B&W are sure to attract a lot of attention. We predict a very popular launch when these speakers start shipping in August.

For more information, please visit www.bowers-wilkins.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.