Let’s compare two middleweight speakers in the affordable price strata of about $2000.

In this corner we have the Atohm Sirocco 1.24 ($2600pr w/ Sanus SF26 metal stands) from France. 7 yr warranty.

In that corner we have the B&W 707 S3 ($2820pr w/stands) from China. 5 yr warranty.

Sirocco 1.24 is a 6” 2-way with soft dome tweeter.

B&W 707 S3 is a 5” 2-way with what they call a Decoupled Carbon Dome tweeter.

Tweeters

My distinct opinion after 50+ years in the business is that I prefer drivers, tweeters in this case, that are built of a single material.

You can make a technical argument for ANY choice of material. But my taste is that any material BONDED or glued to something else, slows response down. It is swimming with your boots on.

There are sales pitches for why you might want to glue this to that, but ultimately for me, drivers comprised of bonded materials are never as lithe or defined as those that aren’t.

B&W makes a big pitch for it’s Decoupled Carbon Dome tweeter. Sounds fancy. Someone likely won a contest in creating that buzz word. I’m sure it’s reliable.

But what… ACTUALLY, is it? It is an ALUMINUM dome tweeter, with some carbon “particles” glued to the aluminum to make it stronger. It is this, glued to that. Then they take this bonded dome, and bond it yet again to a “carbon ring.” What you end up with is a physically strong tweeter with two glue processes to make it tough.

Atohm uses a tweeter made of silk- a soft dome tweeter. The silk tweeter diaphragm is not glued to something else to make it more durable. It is tremendously reliable on its own merits and plays with

planar like resolution- as the diaphragm isn’t slowed by the weight of another material or bonding agent. It isn’t encumbered by swimming with its boots on by a bonding process- much less two of them.

I’m not saying the B&W design isn’t “good.” They have made these composite choices for higher reliability. I AM saying that the Atohm tweeter sounds lighter, faster and more clear. I luv its resolution.

Atohm builds its own tweeters in its own house in France. B&W sources its tweeters, cabinets, crossovers and entire speakers from China.

Atohm has another nice feature- a 3 position (neutral, -2dB or +2dB) switch for treble balance. This can help you get the balance you like, or your room requires.

Woofers

Atohm builds its own 6” proprietary woofer of short paper fibers. It is a contiguous material that is stiff and responsive.

B&W builds its 5” woofer (in China) of woven fabric materials. It isn’t a contiguous diaphragm. It’s a fabric weave to make it thicker and stronger. The sales handle they’ve chosen is Continuum. It’s a fancy name for a Kevlar-like weave- which is perfectly fine. Yet again, it isn’t as light and responsive as what Atohm makes.

Sound

Atohm delivers a lightning fast, clear, SMOOTH sound. Atohm drivers are made within a quarter dB of one another so the pair you get will always be within a tight window of performance. You cannot perceive .25dB variances. Atohm clarity is like wearing glasses with a precise, accurate prescription.

B&W was just reviewed in the May 2026 issue of British hi-fi news. The review reveals some things that aren’t in the product literature. The reviewer offers it has, “a potent punchy bass response and some vivid, well-etched detail further up the audio band that give it a lively flavour and make for a speaker that seems to lap up pop, rock and electronica.”

Measurements

Atohm’s response is flat and smooth. Atohm’s sound is faithful to the human voice- the most unique of all instruments! It is also uncolored with acoustic instruments like the piano, violin, bass etc. Sirocco 1.24 has good range, being down 3dB at 47Hz. Its efficiency is fairly high at 88 dB. The 1.24 has a down firing port. It’s easy to place.

The B&W measured (p77) a 10dB response dip near its crossover. They measured 8.2dB response errors. The response error can be almost cut in half if the speaker is measured from a different HEIGHT. Hence, to get optimal response YOU need to know where the sweet spot is and put your head in a vice. Its dispersion is limited. Its -3dB point in bass response is 84Hz. B&W’s efficiency is 83.8 dB. The B&W port is rear firing which makes placement near the back wall a bad idea. The variance of left to right B&W speaker is .8dB. That’s good- but 3 times less precise than Atohm. A lot of speakers from China measure 4-6dB difference, left to right. I’m not complaining about .8dB except… it’s not comparable to what Atohm achieves.

You have to double your power to achieve 3dB more volume. It takes more than twice as much power to wake up the B&W compared to Atohm.

This “voicing” is no mistake. The boys at B&W are plenty smart. What they have chosen to do is VOICE its speakers so John Q Public will like them- which means skewing heavily to the pop, rock and electronica audience. They’ve chosen to make a speaker with a curve they think will sell to pop / rock fans. It has extra weight in the midbass and highly raised presence/treble region. The reviewer points out that certain music played “with a slightly grainy quality.” For this to even be mentioned means it was quite noticeable. The reviewer points out that the grain can be tamed with the grill cloth applied. They make a speaker that has a sonic picture like a TV with vivid cranked up- but you can soften the bite with less than transparent speaker grills.

For similar money you have two distinct choices.

Atohm offers a family curated design with TLC and cutting edge precision from France.

B&W makes a speaker that is much more hungry. It has a specific frequency tilt that they feel will appeal to a more mass market audience- manufactured in China.