Let me remind you what we are talking about: Bowers & Wilkins was one of the first to make a luxury iPhone audio system, it was a cult Zeppelin, but the company did not have a full-fledged multi-room. I do not take into account experiments with systems with the first AirPlay. Not so long ago, B&W was bought by a startup Eva Automation (very strange so far), including the development of an ideal multi-room for a generation of people who are used to streaming everything and everything, but do not want to lose high sound quality. Then there were rumors about Formation, then the announcement, the official page of the product opened, I wanted to unpack and try it as soon as possible. I’ll start with Formation Bar, later I’ll tell you about other products of the system.

Yes, be sure to watch the video on our channel – we have Formation together with Flex and Bass at our studio, we watch movies and football, it’s very good:

Design

In the world of soundbars, design is just as complicated as it is in the world of smartphones. Initially, soundbars are just some long plastic things that are not conspicuous, black and inconspicuous. Later, manufacturers began a great era of experimentation: Bose began to use a glass panel on the top, Dali created a soundbar that looked like an ice cream stick (this is my personal association), many played with colors.

Well, the entire Formation line continues the ideas embodied in Zeppelin – it seems that there is nothing like that, but it looks original, strict, bourgeois. All elements of the system are similar in finish, type of fabric, color of elements, all sorts of details, such as button illumination. At my house, of course, everything is not as beautiful as in the official photos, but you can understand how cleverly the fabric collects dust.

There is a wall mount in the kit, we did just that in the office, at home I have so far had to put the Bar on a box from IKEA, there is no point in replacing the furniture yet: we are waiting with my wife for the keys to the apartment, and there we will already have to think where to hang or put the soundbar . Of course, it is hardly worth putting acoustics on some boxes, but the soundbar is an unpretentious thing, and I hope you will forgive me.

Connecting the system is elementary: you will need an optical cable, in my case it is AudioQuest, a power outlet – we put the Formation application on the smartphone and follow the instructions. I have an AirPort Extreme at home, there were no connection problems – you need to specify which room the soundbar is in, you can immediately add a branded subwoofer and rear speakers, adjust the volume, and train the remote control. Alas, since there is only optics from the connections, it will not be possible to immediately control the volume from the TV remote control. You need an IR remote, the instructions are clear, I was able to quickly train such an accessory from a Sony TV.

There are volume control buttons on the soundbar, but in two months of use I never touched them – I used either the adjustment through the application or a trained remote control. If suddenly you don’t have a single IR remote control at home, some universal option will be your salvation.

Nine Bowers & Wilkins-designed drivers hide inside the sleek chassis. There is a lot of talk about a dedicated central channel both in press materials and on the official website – judging by the assurances of the developers, it should help to ideally transmit voices while watching movies.

A caveat is also needed here: in soundbars and other Bose multimedia systems a hundred years ago there was a mode of increased speech intelligibility, aka night mode. What does this mean and how did it work? For example, you watch Saving Private Ryan at night in the living room, you don’t want to disturb anyone, but you don’t want to put on headphones either. We turn on a special mode, all loud sounds are muffled, the voice, on the contrary, sounds clearer.

In a universe where everything is perfect, everything should work like this. In life, each Bose product had its own characteristics: some were very good, others were strange – the main thing is that you really could watch movies without headphones and not disturb your family. What’s Bowers & Wilkins?

Formation doesn’t have such a regimen, and so I try on Friday evenings, drink wine with two hands, eat cheese, watch the movie “Outpost” – and what does the wife from the next room say to me? MAKE IT MUCH PLEASE! Okay, of course. But then the dialogues disappear, and they say a lot there. I make it a little louder. The wife again asks me to do something with the sound. So some time passes, I take AirPods and calmly watch a movie.

Alas, the night mode is not enough here.

Of course, if no one is at home or if it’s not night, then there are no questions for Formation – great sound, no desire to constantly pull the volume, because you can’t hear the dialogue behind the effects or music. This is a problem with many soundbars. With Formation Bar, I rewatched Joker for the tenth time, which is a tough movie for any audio system, rewatched Tenet, which is even harder. I listen to the soundtrack along with Formation Bar and get great pleasure, it’s just unreal. However, let’s talk about the sound a little later.

Yes, a few words about the connection. Sonos had such a product, Sonos Boost – if you have a lot of Sonos products at home, then it was Boost that connected to the network and then raised its grid for audio components. This reduced the load on the home network, making the system immune to interference. The Formation has a similar story, only it doesn’t need an additional product – for example, the Bar connects to a router using a 2.4 GHz network and then raises its mesh using the 5 GHz band, all data between audio systems and components is transferred there. This means that you can transfer more data, you can transfer it faster and without delay. Cool? Yes.

But in life, we noticed one problem at the studio: the system is demanding on the quality of the network. In our office, the Formation system (soundbar, subwoofer and rear) is located quite far from the router, if the connection to the network was lost or the signal weakened, there could be problems. Once I had to reset the system and set it up again – the subwoofer did not connect. The issue was resolved very simply: one of the Flex was connected using an Ethernet cable, and instantly everything became perfect. That is, the quality of the connection for the correct operation of the Formation is extremely important.

Otherwise, there are no questions, the Bar is very quick and easy to connect, it’s easy to add rear and subwoofers, there is a wall mount in the kit, it’s great. While the system is available in one color: black fabric and bronze lining on the side, maybe a white option will appear later (this is just my speculation). In any case, the black version is practical, even if the child decides to touch his father’s technique with his hand in jam, it’s not scary.

Peculiarities

I’ll try to answer some popular questions about the Formation Bar. If you’re thinking about buying this system for home theater, keep in mind that the Formation bookshelves can be used with the Bar – not as rear or front speakers, but simply in an overall multi-room system. How Bar, Flex and Sub work at home theater, we talked about such a system in a video on the channel .

Accordingly, at home you can put the Formation Duo in your office, sit there with a glass of cognac and listen to techno loudly, put a Formation Wedge corner in the kitchen, hang a few Flex in the nursery, in the bathroom and other rooms, and all this will play in unison – the components between they raise a patented grid, where they easily drive through the air as much as 96 kHz / 24 bits.

But if you decide to build Formation houses, you liked the sound, then I would advise Bar as a foundation. Firstly, everyone has a TV, we all watch movies, series, YouTube, and the Bar is perfect for a TV. Secondly, among other soundbars, the Formation Bar works amazingly with music. Thirdly, the Bar has support for AirPlay 2, Bluetooth with aptX, here you can add your Spotify account, Roon ready system. The thing is packed with features – but, as you understand, every word on the box means additional costs, and something had to be sacrificed.

And I’ll tell you exactly what. As you have already noticed, there is no HDMI connection, no ARC or eARC support. There are no words about Dolby Atmos. To be honest, I myself thought that all this was nonsense. But let’s move on to the next chapter, and there I will dwell on the nonsense in more detail.

Together with Xbox Series X

I have already said in other articles that I now have Xbox Series X at home, I play Valhalla and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Cyberpunk will be on PC, PS5 is still in the box – I just don’t know what play on it. As you know, the Xbox Series X and Sony PS5 have very strong acoustic capabilities, sound around and whatnot. In modern games, too, with sound, everything is fine. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 supports Dolby Atmos, but with reservations: only Xbox or PC, and you also need to pay a little money for it in the Dolby application (as I understand it). More details at the link .

Accordingly, you need not only to unlock the application, but also to have a device with Dolby Atmos support – for some reason many people think that this is a software setting. No, devices with Atmos also have physical differences – a couple (or more) drivers look at the ceiling so that reflections are created and pink gnomes bring volume and beauty to you. Well, about the differences in the connection method, here is an excellent plate, I took it fromthe Audiomania website :

And here I am playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with Formation Bar and Xbox Series X. The soundbar is connected to the TV optics. Everything is great, nooooo I understand that if the system was very good with films, then there is clearly room for improvement with games. I don’t understand where the enemy is running from, the shots don’t make you press your head into your shoulders – yes, the sound is very good, but I want more. By the way, I tried to play not only at home, but also at work, where we have Flex and Bar. Everything is cool, but I want more!

I will not dwell on my searches and tests here – everything will be in a separate article about the Sonos Arc. But here Arc, especially together with branded subwoofers and rears, is an ideal set for modern consoles at the moment. And in many respects this is achieved thanks to the support of Dolby Atmos and the presence of eARC. I hope to have time to write a review of Arc with accessories before the end of the year, but for PS5 or Xbox Series X I advise you to pay attention to this system.

Well, if you are looking for a soundbar and a system as a whole primarily for movies or games, then I advise Bowers & Wilkins Formation.

Movies and music

The very complex “Tenet” was worked out with a bang, the soundtrack is breathtaking – well, not like in a movie theater, but there were goosebumps, and this is the main thing. And everything is just right in the vein, and the TV is large, and somehow the Bar stood up successfully – and not high, and not low, fine. I turned on music every day using AirPlay 2, I go in for sports with a coach, I can’t do without energetic albums – well, just sitting around with a selection of new ones from Apple Music is very good. I tried to transfer music from Tidal and Vox via AirPlay 2 – honestly, I did not notice a dramatic difference on the same tracks, everything is fine.

It is precisely this intelligence in working with music and cinema that the Sonos Arc lacks – it sometimes gives too much volume, and this is not always necessary.

Verdict

In our time, it is very difficult to choose a multimedia system, and even sellers do not always let you listen properly – and all these stories about “this is Bowers, like buzzing” should be ignored. It’s not about how good the system is – it’s about what you need.

Say, if you have a PS or Xbox, then think twice whether it is worth building home “music” based on Formation: the receiver will not save you and Dolby Atmos with the help of additives will not appear. If games do not matter and you often watch movies, TV shows with the help of a soundbar, plan to listen to music on the components of this system, then feel free to start with Formation Bar. I see only one obvious minus: okay, there is no Dolby Atmos here, but ARC was definitely worth adding and not saving on it.

You can learn more about the system at the link .

Friends, we invite you to sum up the year together with Bowers & Wilkins, composer Alexander Kutikov, Hi-Fi guru Mikhail Borzenkov and Evgeny Yakovlev, representative of Bowers & Wilkins. Speakers will be happy to answer questions, there will be surprises and other interesting things. Everything will be online, registration is required, follow the link .