Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay A8 vs Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air or Zeppelin Z2

[pnewelljr]

Does anyone have experience with using any of the following three as a bedside alarm with your iPhone?

Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay A8
Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air
Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Z2

I just want one that if I set an alarm on my iPhone it will play through the speakers in the morning.

 

[pnewelljr]

No one have these?

 

[ntrigue]

Hi there, I own both the Bowers and Wilkins and can confirm the alarm plays through the speakers when docked.

The Airplay behavior is unpredictable, especially with multiple devices in the home. It mostly has to do with the handshake between devices.

 

[pnewelljr]

Hi there, I own both the Bowers and Wilkins and can confirm the alarm plays through the speakers when docked.

The Airplay behavior is unpredictable, especially with multiple devices in the home. It mostly has to do with the handshake between devices.

Which of the bowers and wilkins do you think sounds better?

 

[ntrigue]

The Air is exceptional in clarity. The Z2 fills a single small room well enough.

 

[pnewelljr]

The Air is exceptional in clarity. The Z2 fills a single small room well enough.

Hey, just got the Zeppelin Air and can't get it to work with my alarm. The dock doesn't seem to be able to wake it from standby or sleep? How did you get it to work?

 

[ntrigue]

Are you on current firmware? It may have been on the shelf for a little while.

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Hey, just got the Zeppelin Air and can't get it to work with my alarm. The dock doesn't seem to be able to wake it from standby or sleep? How did you get it to work?

I naturally update firmware but it just works for me.

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Hey, just got the Zeppelin Air and can't get it to work with my alarm. The dock doesn't seem to be able to wake it from standby or sleep? How did you get it to work?

What color is the light? Make sure it is amber I believe by touching the power a couple times.

 

[pnewelljr]

Are you on current firmware? It may have been on the shelf for a little while.

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I naturally update firmware but it just works for me.

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What color is the light? Make sure it is amber I believe by touching the power a couple times.

According to them, if it isn't used for 30 minutes it auto goes into sleep mode. And is amber AUX mode and not the dock?

 

[bnnentertainmen]

The Air is exceptional in clarity. The Z2 fills a single small room well enough.

is there any other headphone better than the Air, are the sennheiser and beats headphones any good?

 

[ntrigue]

I'd head over to HeadFi.org. There are way better headphones than Beats. Sennheiser can be quiet nice.

 

[ntrigue]

According to them, if it isn't used for 30 minutes it auto goes into sleep mode. And is amber AUX mode and not the dock?

Got a Zeppelin Air? Upgrade its firmware now.
Posted on September 19, 2012 by Daniel Mettler
All in all, after several months of using it, I can strongly recommend the B & W Zeppelin Air. It’s a truly great iPod/iPhone speaker, filling even larger rooms with quite impressive depths and crisp heights. And in contrast to its competitors (e.g. think of the lousy hardware of the otherwise innovative Sonos speakers – what a pity!), you can see, feel and hear its excellent build quality. It’s been engineered by the guys who equip the famous Abbey Road Studios, supply the audio system for Jaguars and invented extravagant speakers like the Nautilus, after all.

The only thing which wasn’t satisfying so far, is the Zeppelin Air’s buggy default (software) implementation of Airplay, i.e. that the Zeppelin Air lost the Wifi connection after a while in stand-by mode. As I finally found out, all that’s needed to fix this is a firmware upgrade to version 2.00.24 [updated 20120930]. At least, my Zeppelin Air hasn’t ever lost its Wifi connection anymore since. So, if you experience Wifi connectivity issues with your Zeppelin Air (likely), don’t hesitate and upgrade the Zeppelin’s firmware now, although it’s somewhat cumbersome (you need a suitable USB cable, e.g. from an external hard drive or printer, as this isn’t included in spite of the Zeppelin’s upmarket price). It’s well worth it!