B&W 685 Bookshelf Speakers

For hi-fi or home cinema in small to medium-sized rooms, you need a loudspeaker that doesn’t take up floor area, but whose sound can still command the space. You’ll find the 685, which can sit on a shelf, table, stand or wall-mount, an inspired choice.

Its 165mm diameter Kevlar® cone bass/midrange is based on a tried-and-trusted B&W design, but its new fixed centre bullet helps to smooth the response in upper frequencies. Also, by setting the bass/midrange closer to the tweeter than in equivalent earlier speakers, we have improved the integration and vertical dispersion of sound from the two units. The Nautilus™ tube-loaded, aluminium dome tweeter, featuring a new surround material to improve spaciousness and imaging, adds needle-sharp top end all the way to 50kHz and beyond.

The improvements to the drive units in the new 600 Series make it possible, for the first time, to introduce a minimalist crossover to the range. The use of components that are fewer in number but higher in quality – hand-picked in exhaustive listening tests – reduces the degradation of the signal significantly. So, whether you’re enjoying hi-fi or home cinema, what you hear is that much closer to what was recorded.

Visually, a refreshed, contemporary design language and a widened choice of wood finishes allows the 685 to fit in effortlessly with any interior. $899 rrp pair Matching Stands $499 rrp pair

  685 Specifications:

Woven Kevlar
Crossover Tuning
Nautilus Tapering Tube
Flowport
Mushrooms
FST
Tweeter on Top
Matrix
Rohacell
Diamond Tweeters
Sphere / Tube Enclosure
De-Coupling
Nautilus
Technical features	Nautilus™ tube loaded aluminium dome tweeter
	Kevlar® brand fibre cone bass/midrange
	Flowport™
Description	2-way vented-box system
Drive units	1x ø25mm (1 in) aluminium dome high-frequency
	1x ø165mm (6.5 in) woven Kevlar® cone bass / midrange
Frequency range	-6dB at 42Hz and 50kHz
Frequency response	49Hz - 22kHz ±3dB on reference axis
Dispersion	Within 2dB of reference response
	Horizontal: over 60º arc
	Vertical: over 10º arc
Sensitivity	88dB spl (2.83V, 1m)
Harmonic distortion	2nd and 3rd harmonics (90dB, 1m)
	<1% 100Hz - 22kHz
	<0.5% 150Hz - 20kHz
Nominal impedance	8Ω (minimum 3.7Ω)
Crossover frequency	4kHz
Crossover filters	1st Order – tweeter
	1st Order – bass/midrange
Recommended amplifier power	25W - 100W into 8Ω on unclipped programme
Max. recommended cable impedance	0.1Ω
Dimensions	Height: 340mm (13.4 in)
	Width: 198mm (7.8 in)
	Depth: 331mm (12.3 in)
Net weight	7.0kg (15.4 lb)
Finishes	Black Ash Vinyl
	Light Oak Vinyl
	Red Cherry Vinyl
	Wengé Vinyl