What Is The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air?
The full name of the Zeppelin Air is the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air Wireless AirPlay Speaker Dock. Even though its name may sound like a German air ship, it is not an air ship but an air ship shaped iPod docking speaker system from Bowers & Wilkins. If you are into audio systems you will know that Bowers & Wilkins is one of the leaders in the audiophile grade equipment. As such you would expect a speaker from them to give you a high quality sound and you will not be disappointed with the Zeppelin Air.
The air ship shaped speaker system consists of five-speakers and five-amplifier systems with built-in digital to analog converters (DACs) to give you accurate, ear-pleasing audio from a variety of input sources such as the iPod, iPhone, iPad and also your iTunes enabled computer.
The Sounds
The stylish and well-constructed Zeppelin Air has wireless capabilities. Instead of just docking your iPod to the speaker system, you can also stream your music to it with Apple’s AirPlay technology. When you stream to the system, your music fills your room with a very well-balanced, detailed and superb sound with the 24-bit/96 KHz DAC technology with Class D amplifiers.
The highs are detailed while the mids are warm and full. Surprisingly the bass is rich given the size and design of the system. In fact this system sounds as good as a mid to higher priced range component Hi-Fi system with their full range of floor standing speakers with their separate amps and pre-amps.
The Connections
If you need to physically connect your iPod to the Zeppelin Air, you will find that its iPod connector is one of the best designed in the market today. Even though most people will probably stream their music to it and control it remotely, the designers at Bowers & Wilkins have given a good thought to the design of the connector. They designed the connector with no sides so that you can even slot in your iPad on there. The Zeppelin Air has a metal bar holding it to provide the sturdiness and strength. As far as I know, this is something that is not available with other iPod docking speakers in the market.
The Verdict
If you like listening to music and songs (but not through two small ear buds or huge headphones) where you get clear and crisp sounds as if you are at the actual event itself, then the Zeppelin Air is definitely for you. On top of that you also get bass that will rattle your windows, crisp and well-defined percussions and vocals that sounded like the singer is standing with the microphone in front of you.