Back in 2014, we took a hands-on look at the Bowers & Wilkins T7 and walked away impressed. The sound is always the most important part of a speaker, but the T7’s sleek exterior happened to be a bonus. Now Bowers & Wilkins has teamed up with a name you might not expect to give the speaker a makeover.
The company has partnered up with English luxury brand Burberry in order to launch an exclusive new Gold Edition of the T7. As the name suggests, gold features heavily in the speaker’s exterior, with a choice of either black or tan for the base color.
Burberry isn’t simply lending its name to the speaker — the company has also designed cases to match it, with black leather and tan suede options. The Burberry name is also embossed in gold on the outside of the case, while the inside is lined with soft suede in order to help keep the speaker protected. Both cases are hand-finished in Italy, in case they didn’t sound fancy enough for you already.
Looking at the actual specs, the speaker still offers the same feature set and sound as the original T7, but fortunately that isn’t a bad thing. Connectivity comes via Bluetooth with aptX, while the battery offers a claimed playback time of up to 18 hours. Despite the luxurious new look, the body of the speaker is as tough as ever, and employs the company’s Micro Matrix honeycomb design to cut down on vibrations.
If all this gold and leather sounds expensive, you’re right: the T7 Gold Edition retails for $1,000, quite a bit more than the $350 the “plain” T7 sells for. Bowers & Wilkins has made 200 T7 Gold Edition speakers and cases available in select Burberry stores for now, with wider availability coming in August. For more details, see the company’s website.
