Since opening its doors in 1931, Abbey Road Studios has been instrumental in shaping the landscape of popular music. Its unique spaces have inspired generations of artists and composers to create era-defining work, while its skilled engineering team have reinvented the way music is created and heard, from the ground-breaking invention of stereo and Artificial Double Tracking (ADT), to countless technical innovations which have helped define modern music recording.
Bowers & Wilkins was founded in Worthing, U.K. in 1966 and, from the start, company founder John Bowers had a singular belief when it came to loudspeaker design. This remains at the heart of the company he founded almost 60 years later: a high-fidelity loudspeaker should be to the ear what a flawless pane of glass is to the eye; allowing the clear passage of a sensory image, uncorrupted and faithful in every nuance to the original.
In 1980, John Bowers visited Abbey Road Studios to demonstrate his new design, the 801 — the first of what he described as “a new generation of loudspeakers designed for both the professional and the exceptionally critical listener.” Designed to be the ultimate loudspeaker for hi-fi enthusiasts, the 801 was also specifically developed to be accurate enough for use in professional studios. The engineers at Abbey Road immediately understood its value, and adopted it as their monitor of choice, becoming the first recording studio in the world to use the 801 full time.
This marked the start of an enduring and incredibly fruitful 45-year relationship. Since 1980, six successive generations of Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series loudspeakers have graced and been embraced by the world-class studio engineering team in Abbey Road’s control rooms.
Introducing the 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition
The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition is a celebration of this unique 45-year relationship. It takes the best loudspeaker Bowers & Wilkins currently makes, the flagship 801 D4 Signature, and reframes it in homage to the world’s most iconic recording studio.
The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition boasts a carefully crafted Vintage Walnut cabinet inspired by the studios’ iconic interiors and the countless iconic musical instruments that have enriched recordings at Abbey Road over the decades. Complementing this unique wooden finish is a bespoke red Leather by Connolly trim that references both the aesthetic of the control room in Studio Two, arguably the world’s most famous individual studio space, and the red leather chairs used by generations of performers throughout Abbey Road. The design also includes a unique identifying plate on its rear panel, designed to mark its status as one of just 140 pairs of loudspeakers being produced. Buyers will also receive a unique, specially commissioned book that details the history of the two brands and their collaboration, featuring never-previously published photography.
The 801 Abbey Road Limited Edition is available to order now for $70,000 | £55,000 | €60,000.
For more information, visit www.bowerswilkins.com.
