Three decades ago, audio specialists Bowers & Wilkins released its most definitive high-end speaker with the Nautilus. Pairs of these speakers are a rare sighting, but when they’re spotted, it’s usually in some celebrity home or high-end recording studio, serving absolute sonic quality with a very wide, rich soundstage.
Now to celebrate 30 years, Bowers & Wilkins has re-released the Nautilus speaker with a new pearlescent colourway. And I wouldn’t usually be one to get all excited about what is essentially just a paint job, but this new colourway for the innovative loudspeaker couldn’t be more perfect for the speaker.
The Nautilus’s unique design was inspired by the internal shell of marine molluscs and this “Pearl” hue brings the aesthetic much closer to the real thing. The exterior swirling pattern mimics the natural look of seashells now, presenting a loudspeaker that will absolutely stand out in any space, presenting as an objet d’art as much as anything else.
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These expensive, big-name tech brands always love re-releasing their signature products in new colourways. Bang & Olufsen is famous for it and Bowers & Wilkins does it quite often. The British audio label only recently rejigged its excellent Pi5 S2 earbuds in a head-turning sage green so a revision of the Nautilus was expected at some point this year.
I just didn’t expect it to look so… perfect.
Internals for the Bowers & Wilkins “Pearl” Nautilus speaker haven’t changed from the original, nor has the very specific and highly functional design. The upper half of the speaker still boasts four audio mechanisms of differing sizes, all connected to protruding pillars that shoot out horizontally so sound is pushed out in a very specific pattern.
The 30th-anniversary edition of the Nautilus is now available with a price tag of £90,000 GBP (AU$168,000).
