Bowers & Wilkins 704 S3 Cherry Floorstanding Speaker

Bowers & Wilkins 704 S3 Floorstanding Speaker – Slim Towers, Full Three-Way Sound

The 704 S3 is the slimmest floorstanding loudspeaker in Bowers & Wilkins’ 700 Series S3, and the one designed for real rooms rather than dedicated listening halls. It is a passive three-way design: a 25 mm decoupled Carbon Dome tweeter, a dedicated 130 mm Continuum FST midrange driver and twin 130 mm Aerofoil Profile bass drivers in a narrow vented cabinet. That driver layout – the same three-way architecture as its larger 703 S3 and 702 S3 siblings – gives it the midrange clarity and bass control that two-way towers of this size rarely achieve.

This listing is in the Cherry finish. Bowers & Wilkins documents its wood finishes under its own regional names, so confirm the exact cabinet finish on the supplied pair before installation.

Key features

• Three-way design with dedicated midrange – not a two-way compromise
• 25 mm Carbon Dome tweeter, decoupled from the cabinet to cut vibration colouration
• 130 mm Continuum cone FST midrange for open, detailed voices and instruments
• Twin 130 mm Aerofoil Profile bass drivers for tight, extended low frequencies
• Slim cabinet footprint suits apartments and medium-sized rooms
• Flowport vented design for clean, low-turbulence bass
• Nominal 8 ohm impedance; amplifiers of 30-150 W recommended
• Bi-wireable terminals for flexible system wiring

Technology shared with far costlier speakers

The 700 Series S3 exists to carry technology down from the flagship 800 Series Diamond. The Continuum cone – a coated woven material developed to replace Kevlar – controls breakup so effectively that midrange stays transparent at the top of its range, where voices and strings live. The Carbon Dome tweeter raises the breakup threshold far above the smaller aluminium domes of older generations, which is heard as smoother, more extended treble without glare. Aerofoil bass cones vary their thickness across the profile, putting stiffness where the cone needs it and keeping pistonic movement clean, so basslines stay defined instead of blurring into the midrange.

Decoupled tweeter, honest placement

Unlike the 702 S3 and 703 S3, which carry their tweeter in a separate housing on top, the 704 S3 mounts its Carbon Dome unit inside the cabinet, decoupled on a compliant mount so cabinet vibration does not reach it. The narrower cabinet also images precisely and disappears visually in smaller spaces. Position the pair clear of rear walls, roughly equidistant from the listening seat, toe them in gradually, and the soundstage snaps into focus.

Building the system around them

As passive loudspeakers, the 704 S3 pair needs an amplifier – a good integrated amplifier or AV receiver within the 30-150 W guidance, chosen for its ability to drive a load that dips to 3.1 ohms. In a home cinema they serve as front left and right channels alongside 700 Series centre and surround models; in stereo they reward quality sources, because the midrange transparency shows exactly what the electronics are doing.

For listeners who want genuine three-way, flagship-derived engineering in a tower that fits an everyday room, the 704 S3 is the sweet spot of the 700 Series.