Bowers & Wilkins A7

The Bowers & Wilkins A7 is bigger, bulkier, and packs more of a wallop, but it also delivers a better audio experience than the Bowers & Wilkins A5.

The black speaker grille cloth matched with brushed metallic accents is identical, as is the minimal use of buttons along the central metallic band.

The right side of the band houses the Volume controls.

The left side of the band houses the Power/Source button, although it's less of a button a more just an area on the band on which you can tap.

The rear panel houses the bass port through which excess air created by speaker driver movement travels—this helps improve driver performance and overall bass response. Just beneath the port, there's a connection for the included power adapter, a 3.5mm Aux input, a Reset pinhole button, a USB connection (for connected playback from Macs and PCs), and an Ethernet port for direct connection to a router.

Bowers & Wilkins includes the same oval-shaped remote control that has accompanied all of its speaker systems from the outset. Visually, it matches up with the minimalist cool of the A7 quite well, but the remote can be awkward to operate because of its shape.