Ah yes, once again you have my deepest sympathy's and I fully understand
what you're saying.
I've been aching my guts out for nearly a year to get one of these
things and now? well I have one!
Its been just like kids at the sweet shop for over a year, listening to
and just admiring the T7.
On 24/10/2016 4:19 AM, John Gurd wrote:
I've just been checking out the reviews and they are mostly glowing. I didn't even
know B&W did a BT speaker. I'd be tempted if I didn't have two fairly costly
ones already albeit not in this class. I know I might have mentioned it once or
twice... Oh, If only Apple did APTX! Then I wouldn't hesitate (smiles).
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Hamit Campos
Sent: 22 October 2016 18:02
To: 'PC Audio Discussion List'
Subject: RE: Now I have my B&W T7 Speaker
Cool dude. Way too cool.
-----Original Message-----
From: Pc-audio [mailto:pc-audio-boun...@pc-audio.org] On Behalf Of Dane
Trethowan
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2016 7:53 AM
To: PC Audio Discussion List <pc-audio@pc-audio.org>
Subject: Now I have my B&W T7 Speaker
Yep, proudly bought the baby home this morning though I didn't have time to
listen and fully aprreciate what this darling of sound could product, in a
word? stunning!
So first I think it best to mention what you're not going to get from this
speaker.
No, it doesn't have a hands free speaker phone.
No, it does not have overpowering bass as the Bose Soundlink does - not to be
confused with the latest Soundlink Mini. -
No, the speaker cannot be charged from a USB port though the speaker does have
one for servicing and firmware updates, the external power supply that comes
with the speaker has to be used for charging or powering the speaker from a
mains outlet.
No, at $549 Australian the T7 isn't a cheap Bluetooth speaker system.
So with all that in mind we soon realise that the T7 is catering for a
particular person, those who enjoy listening to their music collection on the
go.
All the B&W products I have are detailed even from the point of unpacking
that's obvious, anyone would think that we're talking about a gold bar here when it
comes to the packing of the T7, foam padding as part of the lid and the bottom of
the T7 box for instance.
The T7 looks like no other Bluetooth speaker I've seen thus far, a metal frame
at front and back bulging out from a rubberised frame in the middle.
On the top of this are your control buttons, the bluetooth pairing button,
transport control buttons, volume up/down buttons and so on.
Of course this led to some confusion on my part as I thought the power button
would be on the top with the rest of the controls but no, the power button is a
concave button towards the bottom right hand side of the unit, well out of the
way and not likely to be knocked I thought, when I finally discovered where the
power button actually was.
Turning on the T7 presents the ears with a lovely musical introduction to tell
us that the T7 is ready and yet a further melodious tone is heard to indicate a
connection with a Bluetooth device.
Another distinctive sequence of notes is heard when the Bluetooth pairing
button itself is pressed and further short musical scores sound when the
Bluetooth is disconnected.
So what you say, many Bluetooth speakers sound tones but not short sequences of
notes.
For the tests I used two devices paired to the T7, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the
Apple iPhone 6 so before we go any further - if you're thinking about a B&W T7
and you have an iPhone - even though the iPhone doesn't have AptX - - you wn't be
disappointed, more on that later.
So what do we get when selecting the music player on the Samsung S6, double-tapping the
"Play" button and turning up the volume of the T7 to a comfortable listening
level? A well defined sound from the T7 and when I say well defined that's exactly what I
mean, one could be forgiven for thinking they're listening to a pair of well spaced
bookshelf speakers.
The presence of instruments in a track is well heard on the sound stage.
The bass is there though - as I stated before - if you're looking for something
with overpowering bass then you're going to be disappointed, I call the T7 a
system that produces the bass honestly.
The mid range is excellent and the highs? Well obviously not as good as a
system with dedicated tweeters perhaps but they're certainly there to be heard,
the DSP of the T7 truly shines.
I noticed something else when putting my hand on the desk the T7 was standing
on, no vibrations from the T7 of any sort so the T7 doesn't rely on the surface
its standing on to allow you to hear bass notes, have you ever thought your
house might sustain serious structural damage from all those bass heavy notes
going through your walls and floor? I know with some systems I've used I can
feel the bass coming through the walls and floor a few rooms away from where
the speaker actually is but not with this little beauty, absolutely incredible.
Listening to the speaker paired to the iPhone 6 was also a pleasure, the same
characteristics of the speaker are to be heard though the sound from the iPhone
6 didn't sound quite as airy as that from the Samsung Galaxy S6 with its AptX
encoding though perfectly listenable and perfectly understandable as to the
slight difference in sound so come on Apple, not all your users are deaf to the
sound of good audio, please give your users AptX as part of your Bluetooth
functionality.
The B&W T7 claims to give 18 hours of music from a fully charged battery? We'll
see but - if that is indeed the case - then its one of the best Bluetooth speakers
for battery life.
The battery is an internal Lithium ion type which cannot be replaced by the
user.
