AudioChainsDB

Bowers & Wilkins606 S3

speaker

New retail price (MSRP)

$1,200

Used market: $865*

Check price at ThomannManufacturer datasheet

Specifications

5 of 8 values have a recorded source
System type
Passive Bookshelf·
Inputs
Binding posts✓
Minimum impedance dip
3.7✓
Nominal impedance
8✓
Recommended power
30–120 W✓
Sensitivity at 2.83 V
88✓
Release year
2023·
Indexable Locales
en·

Expert Audio Engineering Commentary

Headroom notes

88 dB quoted on axis at 2.83 Vrms / 1 m into an 8-ohm nominal load, so the figure is a genuine one-watt sensitivity. Note the "on axis" qualifier: 606 S3 is one of the few datasheets in this batch that says where the microphone was.

Amplification Warning

8 ohms nominal, 3.7 ohms minimum, and B&W qualifies the power rating itself: 30-120 W into 8 ohms "on unclipped programme". That last phrase is the real specification. A 40 W amplifier driven into clipping delivers more destructive energy to the tweeter than a clean 120 W one, and B&W is telling you the upper number assumes you never get there.

Setups using this gear

B&W 606 S3 on an Onkyo TX-NR6100: 100 watts do not cancel a 3.7-ohm dip

* Estimated with the depreciation fallback (~72% retained value).