B&W PM1 Bookshelf speakers

Bowers & Wilkins' PM1 is an ultra-streamlined audiophile layout including DNA from 800 Series models and the brand's high end Nautilus.

Its enclosure is very strong, using the organization 's complex 'Matrix' grid of interlocking internal panels for rigidity and strength.

In the PM1 additional rigidity is offered by its own moulded baffle and curved top plate construction, the cupboard topped with polish and luxuriously finished Mocha wood side panels. There is a matching stand available.

B&W asserts this pushes against the break up frequency to above 40kHz.

The PM1's mid/woofer driver is Kevlar unit using a mushroom-long throws formed EVA polymer center stopper made to lessen cone resonances and give an easy answer, satisfied to the low rolloff speed of the minimal part crossover of the loudspeaker. The curved profile interface, dimpled to cushion airflow, and heavy duty double binding posts in the back (with linking wires provided) are additional evidence of the great focus on design details.

The diminutive PM1 seemed tasteful and smooth, and produced astonishingly weighty bass, although it did seem a bit compressed and 'sat on' in the lower registers.

Imaging was superb, the Holland Baroque Quartet replicated using a solid sense of three dimensionality. Surely it was lucid and simple but it was criticised for being fairly slow and a bit overly simple and stodgy. 'The brass does not sound quite brassy,' remarked one -a trumpet player - when hearing Rimsky Korsakov's Snow Maiden.

Sting's live performance of 'Roxanne' proved especially showing of the limits of the loudspeaker.

B&W PM1 Bookshelf speakers photo