Had these 684s for about a year and love them! They are dynamic, Fun, detailed, and for those who question their bass, they have plenty! Listen to Fantasia 2000 on these and you’ll be so hooked! Listen to a piano on them and you’ll fall in love with the pure elegance these beautiful midsize speakers have to offer. Of course there are bigger better louder and much more expensive speakers out there. That’s not what we’re after here, these are for reasonable people who want all the details and know they don’t need to drop 10k to get almost all of it! For my self, I like the best! And what that means to me is: build quality, materials, construction, product support, sound and price! these have a good culmination of all these things. Just to elaborate on the “support” B&W offers a good warranty but in addition to that, they have a website where you can order almost any part for you B&W speaker going back to the 90s! You blow out a midrange because your amp is crap and it decides to audio-clip on you, or your child just couldn’t resist pushing the dome of your tweeters in, just hop on their site and order a new one! Just like you would for your car! Who else offers that??? B&W really builds a quality product that will last for decades. And R.E. their quality trust me I’ve taken these 684s apart, they are even more impressive to me after seeing their extremely careful and thoughtfully assembled interior. After a certain point, your paying crazy amounts of coin for relatively small gains in performance. Find your self a pair of these private party for around $500-$600 and really enjoy them! They can be bi-amped (btw bi-wire means nothing, will your vacuum run better with two power cords??) use a decent gauge wire(10-12 for a short run is plenty), nothing fancy or expensive. Put all the money you saved into a nice amp/receiver. Marantz is what I have and I’m happy with it. the DAC is what your paying for in a receiver so spend the money here. You could have the greatest speakers in the world and they won’t sound right if they aren’t getting all the details and power they need!! Power and quality are what count on your amp/receiver. Spend $600-$1200 and you’ll be ok. Anyway you’ll absolutely love these speakers, ignore the retards that gave a 1 star, They are the same idiots using a hammer and monkey wrench.

Hate the rubberized coating on the front, Europeans are obsessed with using this crap on EVERYTHING! It becomes tacky over time if the wrong cleaners are used, or if stored in direct sunlight or if pet were to urinate on them SMH. Trick to fixing this is to use rubbing alcohol on the tacky areas; good as new. Just bore fussy than It needs to be...

I had to pipe in after reading the one star review from the self proclaimed audiophile...lol...too bright?... that means you're doing something wrong guy....they need more power, a better configuration, bi-wire and bi-amp them and put a good sub inbetween them and your amp...and give them their own amp too...and stop hooking shit up wrong I guess if you're going to call yourself an audiophile...I mean to each their own but 1 star for 684's?....Nope...definitely not too bright....that means two things. That applies to the other yahoos that gave 1 and 2 stars too...who also chose to get angry instead of educated...I think one said his Sony cd player was far superior to the Marantz 7001...I'm pretty sure he didn't buy the Marantz or he would have been really mad.

They're not fireproof.

Amazon all around sound and clarity. For those who reviewed these speakers as subpar or anything less than crisp and full, maybe they should have the speakers set up by a professional along with the proper accessories and components.

None. Best value in home audio.

Bi-wired using Audioquest cables, connected to a Pioneer Elite SC-65 (plenty of DC-3 power) and amazed at the reviews of those who say they have no bass. We enjoy tremendous base response from the woofer, as well as what we hear from our sub-woofer. Perhaps your a/v receiver is not calibrated properly to deliver the best sound response. I think sometimes those who submit reviews are so hyper critical of anything, that they tell you to skip a certain model. I sold B & W speakers for years, and a big majority of time the 684 sounded so much more fuller in the mid-range over the 683 due to the fact it has 2 Kevlar mid range drivers vs the 683 single Kevlar midrange. Sound is always subjective, and to my ears both the Pioneer Elite and the 684 speakers totally satisfy my needs and that is all I have to say. If it sounds good to your ears, buy it!

Mettalic sound. Almost nearly ausence of bass. Ear fatigue, lots of. Harsh. But looks great. BUT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SOUND. Save your money, time and energy and use the bucks for a long decades trusted danish loudspeaker builder that dont fool you with expensive aesthetics "cool colour" materials and a cheap sound.

I bought my B & W 684 in 2008, after having had a set of Dali 7A for 17 years. B & W 684 requires long play intro time. Approximately 1000 hours! Initially, I used an amplifier from Thule PA100 / PR100 but swapped it out with a Lyngdorf. This made the speakers were much better and more distinct in the treble and midrange. Also I thought that was missing deep bass from 40Hz and down, so I bought a B & W subwoofer and stuffed foam plugs into basreflexportene front and rear.
Product Manager Scandinavia Mr. Ole Vidar A. has said that Bowers & Wilkins has spent far more money on the crossover at 684 than at 683!
I am very happy with my set of B & W 684, they require a powerful amplifier, responsive to improvements in quality and need a subwoofer at 40Hz-20Hz.

I have bought these 684 speakers after listening to the 684 and the 683. The 684 has a more detailed midrange and the bass does not obstruct the midrange like the 683.
I have these babies bi wired with a powerful amp, the pioneer elite ax5ais and the result is exceptional. These babies require power. At first, I had the foam plugs in the front holes, but after removing these,the speakers bass was more powerful and beautiful. I listen to different genres of music, especially were a lot of vocals are involved and it seems that the singer is just right in front of you. Just to try these beauties, check the album from Eros Ramazzotti - dove ce musica.........You will be amazed by the quality of the babies......Dont listen to the guys that give bad reviews and tell you that the 683s are better. The recipe for good music is a powerful and good amp, high end wires and the B&W 684s.....

Sometimes I use these speakers for movies as fronts. They deliver in this area too

Ok i Got the B&W's 684 speakers replacing my tannoy R2 spaekers And immediatately i could tell these speakers were bright. Theses speakers were not going as low as the Tannoy R2s in home cinema setting.
Really disappionted with theses speakers & doin away with them.

The 684's are a great speaker. They have incredible attention to detail and no matter what voume i play them at, they perform with exceptional qulaity. If you want real bass ........ bring in a sub woofer. I'm big fan of the B&W systems although maybe easily pleased having upgraded from Bose!

That being said everyones taste is different and you cant beat the experience of auditioning to find what it is you are looking for.

weak bass, crapy mids.the b&w 684 deliver poor bass and weak midrange. too bright.
my rotel ra-1070 dont like the b&w 684.
now with my new b&w 683 all the sound much much greater.