Bowers & Wilkins Formation Bar (Black) is rated
out of
5 by
4.
Bowers & Wilkins Formation Bar (Black)
Soundbar
£579
Package Price
£649
SAVE£70
Get £100 OFF this soundbar when bought with any TV, using voucher code SBAR100. Offer available from our stores, from our telesales team, or online, while stocks last. Offer excludes Clearance, Refurbished and Open Box products. Not in conjunction with any other offer.
With its true 3-channel output, the Bowers & Wilkins Formation Bar delivers crystal-clear sound from all your favourite movies and music. Make the most of your Soundbar. View our hottest deals on optical cables, interconnects and HDMI cables.
The perfect speaker for music and movies
Featuring nine, optimised drive units, the Formation Bar delivers spacious and powerful sound. Whether it’s your favourite music or movies soundtrack, Bowers & Wilkins famous speakers produce a depth of sound that most soundbars simply can’t touch. With three dome tweeters and six woven glass fibre cones, clarity and detail is exceptional.
Crystal-clear dialogue from dedicated centre channel
The Formation Bar is a 3-channel speaker, meaning it uses a separate speaker array for the centre channel. This not only firmly locates dialogue to the image on the screen but also helps you decipher muddy-sounding vocals.
Go further with optional Formation Bass and Flex
Impressive as a stand-alone soundbar and wireless speaker, the Bar can be taken to a completely new level with optional Bass and Flex speakers. Add the Formation Bass and the system goes from 3.0 to 3.1. ‘Point One’ may not sound much, but the dedicated subwoofer takes the depth and scale of sound to previously unplumbed depths. Play your favourite action movie and the intensity of sound will have you on the edge of your seat. Add two Formation Flex speakers behind you and, hey presto, you now have full 5.1 home cinema sound – without all the speaker cables. Immersive, cinema sound has rarely been so easy.
Formation sound all around your home
The Bowers & Wilkins Formation system offers high-end sound quality with effortless, multi-room versatility. It uses a patented, robust mesh network for perfect speaker synchronisation all around your home. Set-up is quick and easy and Formation is compatible with all popular streaming systems, including Bluetooth, AirPlay, Roon and Spotify. For the best possible sound, Formation is also compatible with 24 bit/96kHz Hi-Res music files.
High-resolution sound
With the ability to stream up to 24 bit/96kHz, the Formation is capable of streaming at twice the fidelity of its leading competitor. This gives the sound purer harmonics for a more life-like sound. It also means you get to hear your Hi-Res music files to their full potential.
Robust, Formation Wireless Technology
Developed to run independently from your home wi-fi, Formation Wireless Technology delivers an unbeatably stable connection. The more Formation units you add, the stronger the mesh becomes, meaning you can stretch to the furthest parts or your home where wi-fi may be patchy. The mesh also helps deliver perfect synchronisation between all the Formation speakers in your home.
Easy to set up
Simply download the Bowers & Wilkins Home app from the Apple or Google stores and you’re ready to go. Set-up is fast and intuitive, with each additional speaker clearly identified on the app.
Wide-ranging compatibility
Whichever way you choose to stream your music, the Formation is likely to be compatible. With built-in wi-fi and Bluetooth, you can stream from a huge range of sources. Formation is also compatible with the most popular streaming systems and services, including Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect (Premium account required) and the multi-room system, Roon.
Get a better class of soundbar, with the Bowers & Wilkins Formation Bar.
Overview
Learning TV volume
Yes
Smart Features
Apple AirPlay
Yes
Smartphone control
Yes
Connectivity
Bluetooth
Yes
Optical Inputs
1
USB
Yes (Service Only)
Wi-Fi Built In
Yes
General
Manufacturer's Warranty
2 years
Audio
Frequency Response (Hz)
40 - 28,000
High Resolution Audio
Yes
Features
Internet Radio Services
Yes
Soundbar
Yes
Soundbar or Soundbase
Soundbar
Dimensions
Dimensions WxHxD (mm)
1240 x 109 x 107
Weight
Weight (KG)
5.5
Accessories
Included Cables
Optical Cable
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Haigh from
B&W Formation bar
The best sound bar i have heard easy to use and looks good
Date published: 2022-01-14
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Hossman1155 from
I expect the sound is very good,
If only the bar would work consistently enough for me to find out. I paired the formation Bar with the subwoofer, bought especially to go with my neew LG TV. The Bowers & Wilkins app is frankly awful. The set up part was fine and went without a hitch there after all you can do with it is adjust the volume, bass treble and gain. The bar works when it feels like it, the sub when the bar works is even more random as to whether it feels like joining in. The other day the whole thing unexpectedly burst into life at full volume surprising everyone. Quite honestly the money I spent on this was not inconsiderable, but based on by one and only experience with B&W, I am going to junk this system and go for my original choice Sennheiser Ambeo
Date published: 2020-12-14
Rated 4 out of
5
by
MarkRP from
B&W formation - 5.1 set up bar, sub and flex
Lovely sound from the bar, sub and speaker. Sub is excellent and easy to set up - a joy with no crossover to sort. However, connectivity is a nightmare and the sound balance varies with input. The system has very few controls through the B&W app so you set it up and get the balance for 5.1 uhd films fed from an optical link. Great sound and lovely feel. The sound to the rears is perfectly controlled to provided good all round feel. However, if you switch to HD, the balance totally changes, then if you switch to SD input, you get deafened from the rear speakers as the outputs are equal to the bar and the flex rears - remember in the past switching to mono. If you then switch to music, again, the output to the rears is too high and you have to readjust. Then if you go back to a movie, you have to reset it all yet again. The app allows you to adjust the forward back balance, but if you do this for music, then it is wrong for films or SD.
Also, if your going to have the speakers auto wake up, then if you lose connection (which happens too frequently), it’s impossible to wake the bar up without pulling out the mains plug.
Great sounds - but please sort out the connections and find a way of keeping the forward bar to real flex balance for all inputs - if you’re going to make this an auto system, please do it right.
Date published: 2019-12-29
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Serugg from
What a great set of kit!
We have just bought and set up the Bowers & Wilkins Formation speaker set and they work like magic, very easy to set up via the tv and for music - considering they are wireless they are the best I have heard so far! The sound quality is like no other wireless kit .. very happy with our purchase and Richer Sounds tell you everything that you need to know!
Date published: 2019-12-29
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