It might seem hard to believe now, but there was a time, between the two World Wars, that many people were convinced Zeppelins and other lighter-than-air dirigibles were the future – correction, THE FUTURE – of transportation. Alas, it didn’t take very long for such aircraft’s shortcomings (i.e. slow, big, hard to land, hard to store and, oh yeah, flammable as f*ck when filled with hydrogen rather than helium) to rear their ugly heads. As a result, the air transportation industry soon turned its attention to creating larger and longer-range heavier-than-air fixed-wing craft, a.k.a. airplanes.
Having said that, there’s still a certain romance that people seem to attach to this future that wasn’t. Bowers & Wilkins, the premium British audio equipment manufacturer, is doing its part by introducing an updated version of its Zeppelin AirPlay Speaker called the Zeppelin Wireless Speaker. As the name suggests, this home audio gizmo does away with connector cables and device docks and instead relies exclusively on wireless streaming through Bluetooth, AirPlay and Spotify Connect by way of WiFi. That means you can keep your smartphone in your pocket and still be able to enjoy rich, room-filling sound.
Aforementioned sound comes courtesy of the subwoofer, 6.5” driver, FST midrange driver, decoupled double-dome tweeters and an ultra-long voice coil contained within the airship-shaped (think elongated football) body. All this and more can be yours for $699. You can get conceptually similar audio devices for less, yes, but you wouldn’t get B&W’s attention to detail or almost half-century of speaker-making experience. Consider your options…
Source: Bowers & Wilkins
That actually looks really classy… but just a bit too much like a football for my liking. Also, you said it floats into view… for a minute there I thought it actually floated. Aha.