- AirPlay compatibility - Zeppelin Air AirPlay works with, iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod touch, (4th, 3rd and 2nd generations) with iOS 4.2 and iTunes 10.1 (Mac or PC) or later.
- USB connectivity - There's no need to undock your iPod or iPhone if you want to sync it with iTunes or add more playlists - you can do it all through Zeppelin Air. Simply connect the speaker to your computer by USB and your iPod will be linked directly to iTunes. Syncing contacts, apps, bookmarks, calendars and playlists couldn't be easier.
- Connectivity - A USB input allows you to stream music directly from your Mac/PC, as well as allowing you to synchronies with iTunes. A useful Auxiliary socket provides both optical and analogue input with the relevant cable. Lastly a composite video output allows the playing of video on a docked iPod or iPhone to be sent to a TV or computer monitor.Specifications
- Description - Speaker system for iPod / iPhone
- Drive units - 2x 25mm (1.0 in) Nautilus tube aluminum tweeter / 2x 75mm (3.0 in) Midrange / 1x 125mm (5.0 in) Subwoofer
Product Features |
Frequently Bought Together
Product Information
Technical Details
| Brand Name | Bowers & Wilkins |
| Item Weight | 20 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 25.2 x 8.2 x 6.8 inches |
| Item model number | FP30570 |
| Number of Items | 1 |
Additional Information
| ASIN | B004PJC9QU |
| Shipping Weight | 17.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) |
| Date First Available | February 25, 2011 |
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Product Description
Stream music wirelessly from your Mac, iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to your Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air - the ultimate AirPlay wireless audio system. With completely updated drive units and advanced Digital Signal Processing, plus fully integrated AirPlay technology, the Zeppelin Air will make the very most of your music - wirelessly. AirZeppelin Air is the ultimate wireless AirPlay® speaker dock. The best sounding iPod® dock yet, it features Apple's AirPlay technology for high-quality wireless streaming from iTunes® or an iOS device.AudioBowers & Wilkins ZeppelinTM re-wrote the rules for iPod® speaker docks. Now Zeppelin Air provides another seismic shift in audio performance. It retains the original's classic shape, but internally Zeppelin Air has been completely redesigned. The result is the best sounding iPod speaker ever produced. Compared to the original multi-award winning Zeppelin it has improved dynamics, punchier bass, and a more open, lifelike presentation with a highly detailed, room-filling sound.Apple's AirPlay technology allows music to be streamed wirelessly from your Mac or PC to Zeppelin Air. You can even bypass the computer entirely, and stream high-quality audio directly from your iPhone®, iPad® or iPod touch®. All without the need to dock the device. If you have more than one Zeppelin Air, you can use them in an elegant multiroom system.CompatibilityThe iPod interface is an iconic piece of design. Zeppelin Air complements this user interface, allowing
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 61 people found the following review helpful
By Sam
I've had the Zeppelin Air for a little over a week now and, like any speaker, is now starting to open up. Setup was not as difficult as other reviews have described. As long as you follow the included instructions it will only take 10 minutes at the most, and given its price I'm sure most are willing to kill 10 minutes setting it up.
Setup:
You start by connecting the Air to your computer via included ethernet cable. Then you access an offline website to name the Air and log it onto your router. After waiting about 2 minutes for the flashing purple LED to turn solid, you open iTunes and start streaming music.
Streaming:
The streaming process is very good. I've had the sound cut off twice, each time was for less than 1 second. Having connected other speakers through airplay, I can tell you this is normal and just a minor bug in Apple's software.
Build:
The build quality is quite good. B&W built a rubber base into the Air, which allows the system to grip most surfaces very well. There is no handle to hold the Air, which makes moving it from room to room kind of difficult. Overall the build quality seems very solid.
Sound:
Since B&W is known for their audiophile grade equipment, it should come as no surprise that these speakers sound very good. Any serious audiophile most likely would not buy the Air however, since at this price range a bookshelf system would sound better. However, I didn't buy this system only for sound quality but also convenience and portability. The treble is clean and detailed, I would say about equal to the B&W MM-1. Mids are warm and powerful. The Bass is surprisingly good for a speaker this size. While I wouldn't say it has strong punches, it does sound very natural and present. Whenever I hook a new sound system to my iTunes library, I always open up and adjust the equalizer to fine tune each frequency. When I performed this tradition on the Air, I ended up keeping nearly all the frequencies at +/- 0, which in other words means the sound is very well balanced. My only real complaint about the sound quality is that the stereo separation isn't great, but is definitely the best I've heard from an iPod speaker system.
Remote:
The remote as others have mentioned could use improvement. The aesthetics are great, but it can be difficult to determine which end is up. B&W indented the back of the remote to help determine the correct end, but the design could be better. The remote can turn the system on and off, either adjust the iTunes or the speakers volume, skip between songs on your iPod or iTunes, and switch between audio sources.
Overall:
I would say the design of this system is its strongest feature. The sound is very well balanced and detailed, and loudness is extremely impressive given its size. The connectivity is very convenient, with only a few glitches that will certainly be fixed with software updates. The price is high, but you get what you paid for... The nicest looking, most technologically advanced, and best sounding iPod/iTunes speaker on the market.
Setup:
You start by connecting the Air to your computer via included ethernet cable. Then you access an offline website to name the Air and log it onto your router. After waiting about 2 minutes for the flashing purple LED to turn solid, you open iTunes and start streaming music.
Streaming:
The streaming process is very good. I've had the sound cut off twice, each time was for less than 1 second. Having connected other speakers through airplay, I can tell you this is normal and just a minor bug in Apple's software.
Build:
The build quality is quite good. B&W built a rubber base into the Air, which allows the system to grip most surfaces very well. There is no handle to hold the Air, which makes moving it from room to room kind of difficult. Overall the build quality seems very solid.
Sound:
Since B&W is known for their audiophile grade equipment, it should come as no surprise that these speakers sound very good. Any serious audiophile most likely would not buy the Air however, since at this price range a bookshelf system would sound better. However, I didn't buy this system only for sound quality but also convenience and portability. The treble is clean and detailed, I would say about equal to the B&W MM-1. Mids are warm and powerful. The Bass is surprisingly good for a speaker this size. While I wouldn't say it has strong punches, it does sound very natural and present. Whenever I hook a new sound system to my iTunes library, I always open up and adjust the equalizer to fine tune each frequency. When I performed this tradition on the Air, I ended up keeping nearly all the frequencies at +/- 0, which in other words means the sound is very well balanced. My only real complaint about the sound quality is that the stereo separation isn't great, but is definitely the best I've heard from an iPod speaker system.
Remote:
The remote as others have mentioned could use improvement. The aesthetics are great, but it can be difficult to determine which end is up. B&W indented the back of the remote to help determine the correct end, but the design could be better. The remote can turn the system on and off, either adjust the iTunes or the speakers volume, skip between songs on your iPod or iTunes, and switch between audio sources.
Overall:
I would say the design of this system is its strongest feature. The sound is very well balanced and detailed, and loudness is extremely impressive given its size. The connectivity is very convenient, with only a few glitches that will certainly be fixed with software updates. The price is high, but you get what you paid for... The nicest looking, most technologically advanced, and best sounding iPod/iTunes speaker on the market.
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful
By James Copple
Amazon Verified Purchase
Even the packaging is of high quality. The unit is heavy and you're not really sure how to pick it up, and mindful of the expense you carefully lift it to the table. There is a very well written step-by-step instruction guide and I didn't plug the Air in until I read this guide. I followed the directions carefully and in 5-10 mins I was streaming iTunes from my MacBook Pro.
At first there was some disappointment at the quality of the sound. The sound was rather cramped, at higher volume it seemed to struggle. There was a slightly tinny uncomfortable sound, we had to turn the volume down so it was not unpleasant. The wife and I had an argument, she was adamant that the thing was not as good as numerous other ones she had heard. I was in denial, unable to accept that it was as poor as it seemed. We left it on and carried on with household chores for a couple of hours, me feeling a heavy dose of buyer's remorse.
Then it happened. We came back into the room and somebody had stolen the first pretend one and replaced it with the real McCoy. The sound had opened up, filling the room with rich, creamy, glorious music. all the cramped tinniness had gone. At high volume there was pure clarity, no distortion, sheer pleasure to listen to. The spine started tingling. Goose bumps appeared on the skin.
The unit needs to run in for a few hours so give it a while. Once it has warmed up, you will find it compares favorably with all but the poshest HiFi systems. It is an iPod dock, and perhaps I should not compare it with HiFi. The limitation is the proximity of the speakers; there is little stereo separation unless you are close to the unit compared with having separate loud speakers set 10 feet apart. However, there is no other iPod dock that can touch it for sound quality. The looks of it are a personal thing but I love it so much I keep the dust cover on it (unless folks are visiting) and it looks like an old vacuum cleaner bag full of dust on the table. Sounds great though.
At first there was some disappointment at the quality of the sound. The sound was rather cramped, at higher volume it seemed to struggle. There was a slightly tinny uncomfortable sound, we had to turn the volume down so it was not unpleasant. The wife and I had an argument, she was adamant that the thing was not as good as numerous other ones she had heard. I was in denial, unable to accept that it was as poor as it seemed. We left it on and carried on with household chores for a couple of hours, me feeling a heavy dose of buyer's remorse.
Then it happened. We came back into the room and somebody had stolen the first pretend one and replaced it with the real McCoy. The sound had opened up, filling the room with rich, creamy, glorious music. all the cramped tinniness had gone. At high volume there was pure clarity, no distortion, sheer pleasure to listen to. The spine started tingling. Goose bumps appeared on the skin.
The unit needs to run in for a few hours so give it a while. Once it has warmed up, you will find it compares favorably with all but the poshest HiFi systems. It is an iPod dock, and perhaps I should not compare it with HiFi. The limitation is the proximity of the speakers; there is little stereo separation unless you are close to the unit compared with having separate loud speakers set 10 feet apart. However, there is no other iPod dock that can touch it for sound quality. The looks of it are a personal thing but I love it so much I keep the dust cover on it (unless folks are visiting) and it looks like an old vacuum cleaner bag full of dust on the table. Sounds great though.
132 of 163 people found the following review helpful
By Don
Do you have what it takes to own a Zeppelin Air?
What a great idea! Wireless music with great speakers controlled by your iphone! A Super-dock! But for us (and a handful of fellow consumers), a terrible product, because operating a ZA requires that you pass a test, which we did not. Let me describe how we came to this conclusion. We bought the ZA at the local Apple store, and carefully followed the instructions in the box to connect to our wi-fi. It should be plug and play, right? The plug part required hooking up the ZA to a desktop computer with a (rather short) Ethernet cable, and connecting the ZA to local wi-fi. We went through the multi-step set-up sequence as carefully as we could, taking extra care to input the correct wi-fi password, as described. This was an ominous step in the instructions, warning of dire consequences if not done correctly. We were absolutely certain that this was typed in correctly (Network Don & Jess, all alphanumeric password). Once the ZA connects to your network, it will stop flashing purple and become solid purple. The instructions say, hey if this doesn't happen, don't worry, just hit the reset button and start over. Tried resetting many, many times; it didn't stop flashing purple for us - 2 hours, 3 hours of trying, searching the net for troubleshooting tips, still flashing purple. Now the Bowers & Wilkins site has a FAQ section that helpfully says that there is a firmware update, which I did, and a support section with a detailed pdf guide to download, which I did. Along the way I read that the password must be alphanumeric, that the security must be a certain type, but not another type, that the network has to support "g" protocol rather than "n". All OK, but still a flashing purple light, and the reset still did not work. I found several variations on how to do the factory reset; hold for 2 seconds, turn off, wait 60 seconds, hold for 10 seconds, etc. I tried them all, in various sequences, for hours. Still the flashing purple light. Then we returned the ZA and got a 2nd one, brought it home and very carefully tried a connection through our ipad, as this was suggested in a blog, and the downloaded guide had careful directions for this (and much easier than hooking up the Ethernet wire). The short version of story that we got to the same spot and the purple light flashed on and on, and I could not reset. There is no phone support at the ZA website, but you can email support and they will return your query within 3 business days; so I had 6 h invested and Thanksgiving was coming up and we wanted wireless music for the holidays, and ZA gets great reviews, so I wrote an email. Ken from Bowers & Wilkins responded the next day, was nice and helpful, and after a few exchanges gave me the secret to my problem as outlined in one of his emails:
"Have you confirmed that your network name AND password only contains alphanumeric characters? Also that your wireless G-compatible router only uses WPA/WPA 2 Personal, WEP, or No Security. The Zeppelin Air will not support WPA/WPA2 Enterprise security.
In most cases I've see, the no reset issue is usually caused by entering either the wrong network password or no password at all (when there should be a password)."
Did you see it? I admit I missed it in the first email. Note that Ken admits that there is a "no reset issue". Our password is alphanumeric, our security and protocol are OK, but we had an ampersand (&) in our network name! (Don & Jess). And since I typed this in, the ZA will never be able to reset! I've ruined the machine by typing in an ampersand, and you can also apparently ruin the machine by mistyping your password, or by not typing in a password, or by using a password with special characters, which explains the ominous warning in the instructions. I specifically asked Ken from Bowers & Wilkins (note the irony of the ampersand in the company name) if I ruined the machine by having a bad network name, and pointed out to him that this little problem is not in any instructions or guides that I could see - and he did not reply. So my take on this is: if you pass the test of being lucky enough not to have the wrong network name, and you are able to type in your password without making a mistake, you will probably love the ZA. I failed that test and am unworthy. We returned the ZA and will wait for more stable versions, or will find something else.
What a great idea! Wireless music with great speakers controlled by your iphone! A Super-dock! But for us (and a handful of fellow consumers), a terrible product, because operating a ZA requires that you pass a test, which we did not. Let me describe how we came to this conclusion. We bought the ZA at the local Apple store, and carefully followed the instructions in the box to connect to our wi-fi. It should be plug and play, right? The plug part required hooking up the ZA to a desktop computer with a (rather short) Ethernet cable, and connecting the ZA to local wi-fi. We went through the multi-step set-up sequence as carefully as we could, taking extra care to input the correct wi-fi password, as described. This was an ominous step in the instructions, warning of dire consequences if not done correctly. We were absolutely certain that this was typed in correctly (Network Don & Jess, all alphanumeric password). Once the ZA connects to your network, it will stop flashing purple and become solid purple. The instructions say, hey if this doesn't happen, don't worry, just hit the reset button and start over. Tried resetting many, many times; it didn't stop flashing purple for us - 2 hours, 3 hours of trying, searching the net for troubleshooting tips, still flashing purple. Now the Bowers & Wilkins site has a FAQ section that helpfully says that there is a firmware update, which I did, and a support section with a detailed pdf guide to download, which I did. Along the way I read that the password must be alphanumeric, that the security must be a certain type, but not another type, that the network has to support "g" protocol rather than "n". All OK, but still a flashing purple light, and the reset still did not work. I found several variations on how to do the factory reset; hold for 2 seconds, turn off, wait 60 seconds, hold for 10 seconds, etc. I tried them all, in various sequences, for hours. Still the flashing purple light. Then we returned the ZA and got a 2nd one, brought it home and very carefully tried a connection through our ipad, as this was suggested in a blog, and the downloaded guide had careful directions for this (and much easier than hooking up the Ethernet wire). The short version of story that we got to the same spot and the purple light flashed on and on, and I could not reset. There is no phone support at the ZA website, but you can email support and they will return your query within 3 business days; so I had 6 h invested and Thanksgiving was coming up and we wanted wireless music for the holidays, and ZA gets great reviews, so I wrote an email. Ken from Bowers & Wilkins responded the next day, was nice and helpful, and after a few exchanges gave me the secret to my problem as outlined in one of his emails:
"Have you confirmed that your network name AND password only contains alphanumeric characters? Also that your wireless G-compatible router only uses WPA/WPA 2 Personal, WEP, or No Security. The Zeppelin Air will not support WPA/WPA2 Enterprise security.
In most cases I've see, the no reset issue is usually caused by entering either the wrong network password or no password at all (when there should be a password)."
Did you see it? I admit I missed it in the first email. Note that Ken admits that there is a "no reset issue". Our password is alphanumeric, our security and protocol are OK, but we had an ampersand (&) in our network name! (Don & Jess). And since I typed this in, the ZA will never be able to reset! I've ruined the machine by typing in an ampersand, and you can also apparently ruin the machine by mistyping your password, or by not typing in a password, or by using a password with special characters, which explains the ominous warning in the instructions. I specifically asked Ken from Bowers & Wilkins (note the irony of the ampersand in the company name) if I ruined the machine by having a bad network name, and pointed out to him that this little problem is not in any instructions or guides that I could see - and he did not reply. So my take on this is: if you pass the test of being lucky enough not to have the wrong network name, and you are able to type in your password without making a mistake, you will probably love the ZA. I failed that test and am unworthy. We returned the ZA and will wait for more stable versions, or will find something else.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
My worst experience ever
I received it broken, seller only told me i had to contact b&w directly and they told me that i had to pay 150 usd more for repairing it plus shipping costs. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Cristina
2.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful sound - hopelessly frustrating airplay
They look great. They sound great. But if you want to use airplay, forget it. I have two of these, purchased a year apart. Read more
Published 14 days ago by Onthebreeze
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very good sound
I had no trouble linking this to my wireless network. Once I got it linked, I took it for a spin.
It's more than decent sound. Read more
It's more than decent sound. Read more
Published 19 days ago by R. Pena
5.0 out of 5 stars
So far, so good!
I'll spare you the litany of sob stories of underwhelming airplay speakers we've tried. From poor sound to maddeningly frequent dropouts, we've encountered about every problem you... Read more
Published 29 days ago by AndAnotherThing
1.0 out of 5 stars
Are you kidding me?
I wanted so much to like this product and have tried so many times to resolve the problem of it disconnecting in the middle of a song. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Kevin
1.0 out of 5 stars
DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS JUNK!!!!!!
Very expensive paper weight! It was impossible to get this piece of garbage connected to my network and work properly. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Alicia T.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unrivaled sound quality and convenience.
First off, this unit sounds incredible. I spent over a year researching different ipod dock options to play >300kbps music and apple lossless music. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Oscyjack
1.0 out of 5 stars
Beware AirPlay speakers
Although capable of producing excellent sound, AirPlay speakers like the Zeppelin Air are notorious for dropping signal, making listening to music frustrating. Read more
Published 2 months ago by W. McKinney
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Sound and Easy to Use
I bought a Zeppelin Air for my teenage son two years ago as an iPod dock and to stream music from iTunes on his laptop. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Nestornajwa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Zepplin air b&w
Great sound system the air play has some problems with set up and lose of connection but the sound makes up for it I would buy this item again
Published 3 months ago by William guinn
