Sound United set to Acquire Bowers & Wilkins

Bowers & Wilkins Speakers in Abbey Road Studios, London

Sound United, the company that owns Marantz, Definitive Technology, Polk, Denon, Classe, and Boston Acoustics is in talks to acquire British formed speaker and headphone firm, Bowers and Wilkins. More known for speakers; bass heads love them, but they have developed a good reputation for headphones too.

Based in Worthing, UK, where I’ve lived myself, their factory and original shop are still present in the seaside south coast town. The shop is no longer owned by B&W I understand, but still uses the original logo/branding and unsurprisingly stocks B&W speakers.

B&W have produced adventurous speaker designs like the Nautilus, but are more well known for premium speakers like the 803 D3, as well as more conservatively priced 600 and 800 model speakers. Typically B&W are known for producing larger speakers of room filling credentials, like Definitive Technology, and for consumer perspectives too, this tie is welcome news. Times have been tough on the audio industry during the COVID-19 crisis and strength in numbers is welcome. In the UK, at least, major chain HiFi shops are announcing stores will reopen again this coming Monday – 15th June.

Kevin Duffy, CEO at Sound United, has commented in a statement:

Over the course of five decades Bowers & Wilkins built one of the most prestigious brands in the global speaker market with industry-leading acoustical engineering, iconic design and marketing, B&W is a transformative brand and we look forward to the opportunity to finalize the transaction. This reflects Sound United’s unwavering focus to achieve its mission of bringing joy to the world through sound.

With the huge liking of B&W in the US, one hopes a great move for the brand and in bringing economies of scale, a huge benefit to punters too!