Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin - A Ridiculously Nice Speaker BUT BROKEN!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ต.ค. 2022
- Here we have the nicest speaker I have ever handled. The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin. It weighs like it has been filled with Osmium! A thing of beauty, but it doesn't work. It has a flashing red light which indicates a system fault. Can it be fixed? And more importantly can a person that has never attempted to fix one of these before fix it? Let's find out.
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Remember that this is just for entertainment, and I am not an expert in these repairs. The processes in the video may not be the best way, the correct way or the safest way to fix these things. I do love fault finding and trying to fix broken things, so I hope that comes across in this 'Trying to FIX' series. Many thanks, Vince. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
![Bowers & Wilkins B&W Zeppelin Speaker - Expensive but Faulty - [REPAIR]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/69fX32XTdfM/mqdefault.jpg)
Spoiler Saver & Riddle
What relation would your Father's Sister's Sister in Law be to you?
Na noo na noo
my mother
Mom!
Depends whether or not my father has another sibling and that sibling is also married to a woman. It's either my mother or my aunt.
My father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate?
I have one these. When they came out, the company I worked for gave everyone in the firm (120+) a Christmas present. One year everyone had one of these sitting on their desk ! Caused a fair few issues with people taking these home. I had to bring in a trolley in with me to get it home. Had the red light after a year or 2 but B&W were very helpful, sent a box in the post and then a courier the next day to pick it up. Got fixed and returned within a week for no cost at all ! Still works to this day.
A very nice Christmas present back then 👍👍👍
You did not need a trolley to get it home.
@@JESUSCHRYSLER5512 I have two of them, different generations. I wouldn't want to carry either of them very far, and they wouldn't fit on my bike. If I had to move them from A to B and didn't want to take a taxi, why not a trolley?
Thank you so much for uploading this ! I'd been using a Zeppelin for 12 years until I had the same flashing red light issue a few weeks ago. I've just done the same as in your video and it's working perfectly again.
Would love to see you putting the Echo Dot in the second one. That would be a real treat!
Thanks Philip 👍👍👍
Definitely do the dot idea. It’s the first thing that came to my mind.
Defintly
Do it!
I have done this and it works fantastically. Currently have 2 more for repair and retrofit 😊
Wonderful repair Vince! That item looks like quality, at least with the speakers in it. I can't help but chuckle a bit over the shape. It does resemble a zeppelin style lighter-than-air ship. However, when I look at it I see Prof. Farnsworth from Futurama holding up a similar shaped pill saying "good news everyone it's a suppository". 🤣
Hahaha, I won't be able to look at it in the same way now!
@@Mymatevince 🤣
@@Mymatevince You could replace the defective fabric with the fabric of your wife's black women's nylon pantyhose. This should look good and not affect the sound.
It's so warming to see how excited you are at getting electronic "junk" in working order again. This video has made me reconsider buying active speakers for my home theater/stereo setup. They've made leaps and bounds improvements but they're inherently limited. Where as at my parents house my dad is still using his B&O RL45's as rear channels from 1994! Passive lasts. Meanwhile he has been through 4 broken A/V receivers in that time.
Nicely fixed, I had the same fault on mine a few years ago and ended up replacing all the caps. I also didn't bother re-attaching the ipod dock as I hadn't used that in years and it makes the design look a lot cleaner :)
A nice set of speakers there and a nice and easy fix i do appreciate all the hard work and dedication Vince keep up the good work.
Nice fix Vince. Proving yet again that cheap parts failing often see expensive products consigned to e-waste when they're perfectly fixable. I would love to see the Alexa Zepplin!
Nice one Jon, thank you 👍👌
yeah, the echo Dot Mod would be a nice idea! I'd love to see you modify and repair the other one like this!
Great job again!
I had the same from ebay till it got broken a year ago. Using it as TV sound bar. It has an awesome DAC inside so it is better to connect it via digital. Great job and it is funny how I was looking for that kind of manual everywhere and few poppped up in one month.
I know someone in the comment has suggested this but on the 2nd one, seeing it has the ribbon still for the Ipod connector you could see which lines are ground, 5v and data on that and mount the google mini or dot on the arm. amazing video as always
The coils you see are called crossovers. They send the frequencies to the correct drivers (speakers).
It’s times like that you know what you are doing is so worth while! Congratulations 🎉
Most Xellent my friend. Superb descriptive and visual work. Many Thanx.
I love B&W speakers. They are some of the best I've ever had. I use 686 S2s and they sound AMAZING.
FYI Vince - My birthday was yesterday and based on my reaction to your yellow mat and my wifes ability to please me, I have officially rolled out my own yellow mat that I got yesterday! She originally bought me the blue one because of you. Now I have one of each. The yellow mat came with a nice and complete small device (phone) tool kit as a bonus. At least one of your fans now has both and it's all because of your wonderful presentations.
Hahaha, yessss another yellow mat lives! Happy belated birthday and congrats on your new present. Thank your wife from me, she'll now have to buy you sunglasses for an early Christmas present 😂👍
Bought three of these recently, a mk1, an air and an air lightning, all for not much money, they sound accurate, melodic when needed and kick hard when the song asks for it.
I also had 2 of these given to me by a client 8 years ago, they were one of the head honchos at B&W. They are fantastic, they also come with a stand and as you said a remote. Shame the front connecter has gone out of fashion but I also use mine on the aux now. Would love to see what you do with the next one.
I got a little spray bottle/atomiser for my isopropyl. Works well. Keep up the great work, Vince.
Loved the video it's awesome to see you so excited to fix something thanks for the great content and yes do the echo dot I would love to see that done keep up the great work. 😀
Thanks for posting this video. I picked up yesterday from the curb a different version of the Zeppelin (also 30 pin but looks different inside and the metal part on the back of yours is made of plastic on mine - probably an older model ?). Initially I thought it had a firmware issue and spent like an hour trying different things. After seeing your video I got some courage to open it up. Sure enough there were 3 bulged capacitors on the power board. Replaced them and it's working again !
Great fix, Vince! I've had one of these speakers since 2009-ish, but I haven't put sound through it in probably six or seven years. I agree with you though, the mid-range of these is a bit muddy, so the sound is fairly dull to my ears. But I still have it on display because it's so cool looking!
Always fancied one of these Vince
Enjoyable video from start to end 👍
Just wanted to say I stumbled on your videos the other night and you've given me the confidence to fiddle with more gadgets and gizmos. Turns out when you're not afraid of voiding a warranty or making it look awful, most things can be fixed. You asked briefly if B&W were as good as Bang and Olufsen, and depending on how serious Bowers and Wilkins gets with their engineering, the answer is absolutely yes. Their biggest claim to fame is that their speakers have been used as monitors at Abbey Road studios for decades, and they have a huge semi-concept speaker that looks like a snail shell and sells for sports car money.
Got to love it when something like that is such an easy fix 🙌🏻
Excellent repair- what got me was “ keep it somewhere safe” *breaks glass in the background 😂
What a fix! An absolute bargain you have there. I remember seeing these at 400 and were fairly hardly regarded then. Amazing one cap can totally disable it.
Thanks Paul, yes the video I seen was £400 or €600 back in the 2008. Well worth the £25 for a faulty one 👍
Great video Vince!
I have a Zeppelin too of which there is an issue with the WiFi module. I am sure that everything else is fine. Because I have another B&W with the same WiFi module. And if I swap the WiFi unit to the Zeppelin it works perfect.
ANOTHER fine repair you've done!
Great repair video , I got a zepplin very very cheap because it was faulty. Power supply was good but the inputs were fault, it was cosmetically challenged but cleaned up nice and works perfect now .
Hello, could you maybe explain how to check if the imputs are faulty?
@@budthewhite9723 I only use the 3.5mm aux input on the back , that was faulty also , causing right channel drop out , had to open the zeppelin up and resoilder the contacts , I've never managed to pair anything wirelessly.
I too would like to see the Echo Dot added to the other one - would also be interesting to see if you could find some grille material to recover the front of the speaker covers - would be fantastic to "mod" (modify / customize) the second Zeppelin cosmetically and make a super smart speaker - possibly 3d print a new base that looks like the dirigible's gondola. I don't know how acoustic it would be the grille material could resemble the skin of an airship - just a though Vince - great video!
Just don't have flames shoot out of it and a nearby (Lego?) figure scream "Oh the humanity."
Grill cloth is widely available and not particularly expensive. I count over 300 listings on Amazon and almost as many on eBay tonight; Vince might also want to check large local fabric stores and audio repair outlets.
You do need to use proper grill cloth, and not just anything at the fabric store; the proper stuff is acoustically transparent.
A set of Mrs Vince`s tights would do the trick, just not the fishnets 😆
Remember reviewing these when they came out. Such a great looking, great sounding and wonderfully simple device. Shame they inherently had a time limit on their usefulness. Even the later Bluetooth version lacked a certain something compared to the original with the iPod dock.
Yes I would like to see the Echo dot video, this finished up very well thank you Vince
The two units up top are crossover for the speaker’s frequency for woofer,midrange,tweeters and so on nice simple repair 😊
Great finish to a stressful week, thank you.
Great video Vince, I've been thinking about getting one of these to show off my iPod collection. Now I might get a broken one
Thanks Peter, fingers crossed you'll find one with the same issue 👍👍👍
AMAZING video Vince..... Would LOVE to see the EcoDot build! Thanks for everything you do.
Thanks Daniel 👌
I have one of these for sale at the moment. I have just had it repaired… but i have to say it, it is probably one of the best Apple speakers I have ever used or heard. The sound of these are phenomenal and I paid a lot less for mine brand new than the current ones.
The repair they did to mine was a capacitor issue as well. I didn’t have a flashing red light, but a very slow pulsing lavender colour light.
Yes, put an echo dot in, it’s the sort of thing I would do, great video, Vince.
Gotta Love when problems are obvious to detect and fix. I kinda think the speaker looks nicer with the cloth covers off and the drivers exposed.
I had one of these come in a few years ago. The power supply was different, more complex and fried so I bought a suitable replacement from RS-Components for about £25. Space was tight but it did fit. Job done.
Great fix! I have one of these, it has a beautiful sound and I do like the design as well. Should it ever break, I'll now know how to fix it, cheers!
I can’t believe it!😂 Literally less than 24 hours after posting my comment, I received a faulty Zeppelin😅
You can’t say B&O in the same breath as Bowers & Wilkins . B&W is far superior 😮
Reminds me of a CD player I had back in the day. Audio Innovations Alto. Would love to see one of those on the channel. And yes get rid of the dock on the other one. Be nice to see a bit of modding as well as repair.
Never seen one of these speakers in my life. Just glimpsed one sitting proudly in my neighbours lounge and am now convinced you live on my street 😂😂😂 love your videos 👌🏻👏🏻
😂😂👍
Great video and nice fix. I'd love to see you converting the second one to an echo dot or something. I think it would look better without that outdated iPod holder anyway.
Keep in mind you can always use capacitors rated for higher voltages.
Since these are 16V you can use 25V no issue.
I remember doing the original "works with iPhone" cert for these things. It was very hard for them to get through the cellular reception requirements since the entire thing was metal. At the end, that is why you have the black plastic bits on the docking arm. Otherwise, it simply was impossible to get the WWI approval from Apple.
Absolute, without a doubt the best built unit at the time. They spared no expense.
I have one of these. it has moved with me across the world around 4-5 times. I have long since abandoned the old Ipod. Iphone dock, and use the optical S/PDIF socket, on the back from a raspberry pi, with a hifi-berry board. The sound is awesome, better than the original dock.
Yes, turning the second one into a massive echo dot would be a great project. With regards to bluetooth modding the first one - you can get bluetooth receivers that sit on the 30pin port and work very well, so that's a much easier mod.
I have an original iPod, with the non-replaceable (Wink wink) battery...wonder if I CAN fix it?
@@NatureOkie Look at Ifixit
Yeah kinda dame as what you would do to mod an old car stereo to B T
The crashing sound at 16:30 absolutely made my day😂😂
Well done. Vince, when replacing capacitors in power supplies there is another parameter (apart from capacitance and ESR) that you need to consider: maximum ripple current. If you go back to RS Components and look at that Panasonic capacitor you showed on screen, and download its datasheet, and scroll down to the table on page 112 (actually page 2 of the pdf) you'll see that each cap has a specified max ripple current. Ideally the max ripple current of your replacement cap should be at least as high as that of the failed component. However, it may be hard to discover what that was! The actual ripple current in the cap may be about the same as the current draw from that supply line.
Ah the famous B&W Zeppelin !
It all brings me back to 2008 when I got a 2nd gen iPod Touch as a gift.
The mirror finish on the back of the Zeppelin reminds me of this very iPod (That unfortunately ended up destroyed in a house fire along many other stuff). After that I got an iPhone, then other smartphones as time goes by, you know like everyone does nowadays...
And I remember seeing the Zeppelin at the stores, even trying it with my iPod Touch.
Back in its time it was clearly presented and thought of as "the poshest" iPod/iPhone speaker you could get, in fact it was THE most expensive one at the stores I got to.
Nice job there!! Wonderful little piece of history. I would definitely get rid of the iPod dock for the other as you won't be using it anyway, the shape is nice even without that... maybe even more :) Congrats!
So, it's a zeppelin, and it's heavy. Now you know exactly what you're supposed to play on it. Here's a hint... it's lead.
Haha, it has already played Stairway to Heaven, it was one of the first songs played on it. Must have been a subconscious thing 😂
Awful patter…… fair enough though
@@AcornElectron C'mon, that was *GREAT* banter. A-ha!
Led
I would like to see you putting the Echo Dot in the second one. It's probably easy to find a 5v rail inside, since it already charges the ipod
The sound quality is very amazing 👏 👌
Nice fix. Sounds nice coming through my Bose sound bar.
Nice fix, faulty part was proven faulty with testers, even it also looked bad, and only the falty part was replaced, and it fixed the device. I like that :)
Thanks JSV, I love it when the testers confirm a fault rather than guessing and assuming 👍👍👍
i love these vids vince mate keep em coming :)
Thanks George 👍👍👍
Long live the blue mat! Nice video Vince.
Back 20+ years ago I bought a tool that would check most capacitors in circuit, did not work 100% of the time (because of other components) but on those I would take 1 leg out and re test. Saved me tons of time
Try LCR-T7 tester, which beside testing LCR, also tests Diodes, Zeners, Transistors, MOSFETs, JFETS, ESR. and thanks to Chinese it is cheap, like less than $30. i can’t speak to in-circuit testing, though. Like your previous experience, it should occasionally work.
I have a peak ESR meter and it’s spot on all the time
Great video Vince. One capacitor..great!
Well done for saving this tech from the scrap heap. Remember seeing these in John Lewis for around £500. Loved the design and sound quality, but was way out of my price range.
I would say yes to the Echo Dot. Great video Vince
remember seeing these for sale in the HMV shop in Canary Wharf, they had it against the wall playing…. Was a party piece in itself,,, and thumping bass a plenty,,, know it was mega expensive, way out of my wage bracket, you’re a clever lucky fella Vince….what a result !!!!!!!
Thanks Russ, pricey back then but very reasonable now even for a working one👍👍👍
Hi Vince, was just watching the second season of Clarkson`s Farm, and one of these was in the background of one of the scenes.
A popular hack that people do is just get rid of the front bracket like you mentioned. Especially the Zeppelin Air, which I am a proud owner of, really benefits on the looks department without that bracket for the iPhone connector.
Hey up vince ,just seen this , those circuit boards with coils on , are driver boards for speakers ,I believe ..
I had some nice stand alone speakers , and they have similar ,driver boards
Makes sense too , seen as all the wadding ,to dampen , vibration , even on wire, harnesses !!
Looks well quality made !!
Wow even as a speaker alone it's amazing, and with your knowledge it's an astounding bargain.
Absolutely amazing my mate Vince you did a great job fixing it mate 👍 I would love to see you fix the other one with the echo dot device it would be incredible hoesnty you did a fantastic job
Thank you Ryan 👍👍👍
Great video - I had this device and it went faulty, B&W replaced it out of warranty for the newer version (not for free, but at a decent discount) for the newer version that didn't have the dock. That also went faulty, and I was given a discount for their Formation Wedge. They are lovely speakers, good sound, but quite unreliable. Interesting to see the fault may have been a few dollar capacitor. The Wedge that I now still use has been performing reliably since I got it. Let's see if reliability has increased over the years :-)
Merci beaucoup, vous avez donné une 2ème vie a mon haut parleur 😊
😂 5:44-5:47 the smiling bracket opens his mouth in an expression of complete surprise as he is removed from the main body!!!😮😂😂😂
It's always fun spilling the alcohol container ... Happens to me all the time ...
Nice repair Vince 👍
😂👌
Brilliant video,and after watching I bid for one on eBay. B&W make some excellent stuff.
Now when I got it out of box all worked fine, then the RED flashing led,so as you deduced probably a capacitor. So thanks to you’re handy work I’ll follow in you footsteps and fix it👍
I’m going to do some tests to,as although there’s probably not enough doom inside,I did repair a JBL Xtrene speaker for a client which used a 7.3v 5000Ah battery inside, my thinking is to fit a port on back for DC to turn it into a portable speaker. Perhaps you might try that to ??
Keep up the good work,always interesting,and knowledgeable
👍👍👍
Great video. Putting the echo in the second would be cool. I’d personally remove the form from the first one also as it’s just not needed unless you really wanna use an old
iPod for nostalgia sake. Which is also fair. I’ve got a few iPods I enjoy playing with everyone now and again lol.
You can get a 30 pin Bluetooth adapter that just plugs into the port and makes it a Bluetooth speaker. I use one on old Bose speaker. Just clips in!
Excellent work Vince
Thank you Number Six 👌👍👍👍
@@Mymatevince 👋🤚 Be seeing you
This was an awesome repair. I bought a small bluetooth receiver for my iPod Hi-Fi that connects to the 30-pin dock. I can stream music directly from my iPhone without having to worry about cables. It's called a "Andoer Bluetooth A2DP Music Audio 30 Pin Receiver" and was £7.99 on amazon.
Good job mate 👍
Sorry I'm late to the party on this, but first of all... Well done! What a bargain for a quick and easy repair. Second, I would love to see you design the other one with an echo dot attached and get rid of the redundant iPod dock. I thought I had hit subscribe, but turns out I didn't so wondered why I wasn't getting updates lol. Looking forward to more videos.
Yes echo dot it please ..would love to see an update conversation to it 👍 really enjoyed this one too
Hello Vince. Nice job. I would love to see your upgrade on second speaker. PS. Very good speakers in my opinion. Cheers.
I've just picked one myself! You can buy bluetooth adaptors that will fit on the 30pin dock connector, for like 10 pounds on ebay - will let you use it like a modern BT speaker!
Zeppelin Air is an absolute Beast of a speaker. My unit also just stopped working some day. Hopefully i can fix it that way
Love the design i have seen these on the internet
long time ago i have this one...insane sound for this small thing
Listening to this via my B&W 607 speakers. Low end B&W but better than PC speakers :)
Always wanted one of these👍
Dude you literally read my mind, you gotta do echo dot built in, soo sic!!
B&W had a factory in Worthing, might still do. Me and a mate used get on our bikes from Shoreham-by-Sea to go and raid their skips for speakers and speaker wire. Actually made some decent speakers from what they discarded. This was back in early 90s.
Great Job Vince! I could see the bulging cap around the 12 min mark! It's a common failure on switch mode power supplies especially in TV's. Great repair, and well executed as always :)
Thank you. I've mentioned you in a couple of upcoming videos. Once in a really rare Omega watch video and another in a (you guessed it)...A Dyson fan 😂👌
@@Mymatevince Oh brilliant! Really appreciate that. I just had a good boost of subscribers as my video on reverse engineering the solar inverter password got published on a site called hackaday. You may find it interesting if you haven't seen it. I Really appreciate that Vince. You are a true gentleman! If there's anything I can do for you in the future let me know!
@@BuyitFixit No worries, I just released the Omega watch to my Patrons so it will be on TH-cam next weekend. The Dyson fan will probably be live in a few weeks. I haven't seen the solar video yet, I tend to binge watch ever few weeks so I will be sure to catch up with it then. Sorry I never caught your name so apologies just calling you Buy it Fix it 👍👍
@@Mymatevince No problem Vince. It's Mick :)
@@BuyitFixit Cheers Mick 👍👍
Great video! Very helpful. I also have this dreaded blinking red LED problem after a power outage. Probably the power surge fried one of those capacitors. I wonder if I could just leave the 30pin holder band off after replacing the LED. It's useless and the unit looks even better without the band. I saw people on Reddit said it can be left off and the speaker will just work fine as a wifi device.
nice! I revived an old Bose Ipod/Iphone dock speaker by installing a cheap bluetooth module (plugs right into the "30pin" connector)
I’ve went to school for four years to be an electrician and I’ve done many small appliance repairs, watching your videos makes me confident I can get into small electronics repairs a bit. I’m curious as to what brand your soldering equipment is?
I now have a nice Hakko FX-951 soldering iron and a QUICK 861DE hot Air station BUT before that I used a cheap generic Chinese 3 in 1 solder station for a few years 👍👍
I'm assuming it's the Mrs that walks in while Vince is recording. She does not care what Vince is up to, she needs something and by God she's gonna get it filming or no! There's almost a passive/aggressive away she goes about it. Comes in, roots around, finds it (whatever it is) and leaves with a nice big door slam! I can hear dishes being done ALL the time as well. She's got things to do, Vince is just havin a laugh and she's busy! Lovely.
😂👍
What a big speaker. Straight forward fix.
Well done Vince ! 😊
Cheers Mike 👍👍👍