Sound United
The 20th anniversary of the iPod is upon us, and one of the most iconic iPod speakers — the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin — has now been rebuilt with streaming in mind.
The biggest change over the most recent Zeppelin is that the speaker now has Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant on board, meaning it can act as part of a smart home. The new wireless Zeppelin is still a stereo speaker, though, and includes two Decoupled Double-Dome tweeters from the 600 Anniversary Series, two midrange drivers and a central 150mm bass driver.
The Zeppelin offers a number of connection options, including Wi-Fi (AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and Amazon Multi-Room Music coming in 2022) and aptX Bluetooth. It’s compatible with the existing Formation series and uses the Bowers & Wilkins Music App for streaming services such as Qobuz, SoundCloud, Tidal and TuneIn. If you’re a Roon user, sadly, the company says the speaker will not be made Roon Ready, but the B&W can still connect via AirPlay.
Sound United
The Zeppelin is available in two finishes, midnight gray and pearl gray, and it includes a switchable lighting effect on its metal pedestal stand. The speaker is also wall-mountable.
At $799 the Zeppelin is more expensive than most Bluetooth speakers, but as a fan of previous versions I expect it will likely sound very good for the money. It’s just a shame there’s no analog input for connecting a turntable or other device.