Bowers & Wilkins Formation Wedge: Beautiful And Pricey

Much has changed since Bowers & Wilkins released the iconic Zeppelin Wireless speaker in 2015—most notably, the company has come under new ownership. With its new Formation line of wireless speakers, B&W is still on top of its game. At $899.99, the Formation Wedge is even more expensive than the $700 Zeppelin was at launch. But like the Zeppelin, it pushes boundaries in the style department while putting out powerful, room-filling audio with some serious bass presence and excellent high-frequency clarity. Whether it’s worth the sky-high price, however, depends on how much you’re willing to pay for innovative design.

- Tim Gideon

DESIGN Measuring 10.0 by 11.1 by 10.2 inches (HWD) and available in gray with a white backing or black with a wood veneer backing, the Formation Wedge has a 120-degree curve to its front panel. The cloth grille covering this panel is especially striking thanks to the fabric’s sheen and faceted pattern. There’s no arguing that the Formation Wedge is a lovely design piece, perhaps even better-looking than the Zeppelin models that came before it.

The back panel is smooth and somewhat rounded, with a slotted port for air dispersal from the speaker driver’s movement. The bottom panel has rubberized footing and a recessed area where the included power cable connects to the speaker. This panel also houses an Ethernet connection, a USB-C port for service, and a reset button. There are threaded screw holes on the bottom panel for mounting on a stand.

Up top, the touch-sensitive control panel is subtly emblazoned with the Bowers & Wilkins logo, and when nothing’s happening, that’s all you see. Tapping the panel reveals light-up controls—a plus and minus control for volume, a central play/pause button, and a button with the Formation logo, which cycles through your available streams and sound sources.

It took a minute or so for the Bowers & Wilkins Home app (for Android and iOS) to recognize the Wedge in testing, but once it did, setting it up on a Wi-Fi network was a simple step-by-step process. In addition to helping with setup, the app is home to a simple EQ— only two bands, bass and treble—that can be used to tweak the sound signature. Beyond that, if you have multiple B&W Formation speakers, you can use the app to control them all in a multi-room array. The app is functional, though I would like to see more granular levels of control.