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.
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