I checked out both versions of Bowers & Wilkins’ Zeppelin McLaren Edition – but which is my favourite?

I recently had the opportunity to check out not one but two special versions of Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin wireless speaker. And we’ve got plenty of pics of them for you to swoon over below!

These are special editions developed in cahoots with McLaren Automotive, timed to celebrate McLaren’s 60^th anniversary. The two are distinct because of their colour schemes, but both have a finish that’s pretty unmistakable with the McLaren Speedmark logo. While they might be different in design, they’re the same speaker inside.

One is in the interestingly-named ‘galvanic grey’ which really looks the part, with papaya details including the buttons on top – as you can see these stand-out controls look incredible. Widely available, you can pick one up for $899/£799.

The other model is wholly in McLaren’s papaya orange – but good luck getting hold of one of these as it’s much more limited to a mere 60 units (a real shame in our book). As you can see they have special 60th anniversary detailing which looks fantastic. Only available from McLaren dealerships, they are bound to be very sought after in the future.

This is undoubtedly my favourite of the two, even if I can’t quite imagine looking at its extremely orange exterior all the time. Mind you, my Apple Watch Ultra 2 strap is bright orange – or ‘international orange’.

The sound quality of both are simply terrific (after all, they’re the same inside) and completely room-filling in most situations – we gave the standard version of the Zeppelin a full five stars in our Stuff review. The Zeppelin boasts left and right speakers around a powerful 240W central subwoofer.

The Zeppelin has come a long way since its debut as a super-powered iPod dock back in 2007 (yes, it was that long ago). It’s now a superb wireless speaker that – thanks to an update – boasts full multiroom capabilities.

It can be set up alongside other wireless speakers from Bowers & Wilkins in the Formation range as well as the Panorama 3 soundbar. Everything is controlled from Bowers & Wilkins’ Music app which has had a bunch of updates in the recent past. You can also use it with Amazon Alexa, too for full smart home control.

The Zepplin re-work certainly isn’t the first time the two brands have joined together – Bowers & Wilkins has been working with McLaren since 2015 when it first collaborated on in-car audio.

And more recently it produced a special McLaren-themed version of it’s top-end PX8 headphones, too. The Bowers & Wilkins team have a lot of involvement in the development of new vehicles and work with McLaren’s engineers to fine-tune the in-car audio – latterly on the epic McLaren 750S coupe.