B&W’s compact solution for PC audiophiles?

Bowers & Wilkins staked out its claim as Britain’s highest-profile speaker manufacturer long ago, and it’s now easily the country’s best-selling brand. B&W speakers are favored by audiophiles and grace many of the world’s top recording studios.
I recently wrote about B&W’s terrific new headphone, the P5, which was introduced at the same time as the MM-1 computer speaker.

“They’re both extremely handsome designs, and that’s something we’ve come to expect from B&W.”

The speakers black cloth grilles and brushed metal trim are indeed tasteful; the shiny black and chrome remote is also pretty slick. The remote controls power, volume, play/pause, and next/previous track selection for iTunes. The speakers make a cute little “plop” sound and the left speaker blue LED flashes when you raise or lower the volume. The MM-1 feels right.

The MM-1 is pretty small; it’s 6.7 inches high and 3.9 inches wide and deep; they have a 3-inch woofer and a 1-inch tweeter. The right speaker houses four 18-watt Class D amplifiers, two of which power the left speaker. I noticed the powered speaker’s aluminum top panel runs warm to the touch. The USB connection is fed to an “audiophile” quality digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that incorporates equalization to increase the 3-inch woofers bass output.
We can’t agree with B&W’s “no need to add a subwoofer” claim. Computer speaker systems with high-quality subs, like Altec Lansing’s Expressionist Ultra MX6021 PC speaker-subwoofer system ($199), can produce dramatically more and very high-quality bass. This Altec system is one of the very best I’ve heard, with great dynamic power and overall clarity. Then again, you can’t add a sub to the MM-1, but the wee B&Ws take up a lot less room than the Expressionist Ultra MX6021. As always, size does matter.

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By: Steve Guttenberg 20/04/2010