Bowers & Wilkins Px8 Headphones Are a Sweet Upgrade

Given that “overreach” can, according to Merriam-Webster, mean either “to reach above or beyond” or “to defeat (oneself) by seeking to do or gain too much,” it’s clear that context is everything. That its new Px8 wireless over-ear active noise-canceling headphones represent “overreach” on the part of Bowers & Wilkins is not really up for debate. It’s really the context of this overreach that’s a live question.

The acclaim that met the Px7 S2 wireless over-ear active noise-canceling headphones when Bowers & Wilkins launched them back in the summer of 2022 was close to universal. Certainly we found plenty to both like and admire. So in what can only be a move either of supreme confidence or giddy corporate recklessness, Bowers & Wilkins has taken the Px7 S2 concept and attempted to move it upmarket.

At a glance, these new Px8 could quite easily pass for their more affordable Px7 S2 sibling. Look a little closer, though, and some significant differences become apparent. And then consider the asking price: Px8 suddenly becomes a very different proposition.

Though the Px8 shares the same fundamental silhouette with the Px7 S2, upgrades in materials result in a headphone that looks, feels, and—let’s not be timid—smells considerably more expensive. Which is probably just as well, given how much more expensive it actually is. Px8 is available in a couple of different finishes: black leather, or tan and gray leather.

The Nappa leather the company has specified is soft, resilient, and aromatic, and it’s fitted to the memory-foam ear cushions and both the inner and outer portions of the headband flawlessly. The arm structure and headband adjustment are of cast aluminum—the appearance and the tactility of the metal elements of a pair of over-ear headphones has seldom seemed so immoderate. The logo plate on each ear cup has a diamond-cut edge, and the Bowers & Wilkins logo itself varies in appearance as the light on it changes.

They weigh in at a reasonably trim 320 grams, and are comfortable to wear for hours at a time, even for those of us who want to wear spectacles at the same time. It’s a fine line between “sophisticated” and “flash” sometimes, but it’s one Bowers & Wilkins walks confidently. Certainly as far as appearance and all-around covetability are concerned, the Px8 go a very long way toward making their asking price seem fair enough.

Compare these headphones to, say, Mark Levinson’s acclaimed No. 5909 wireless headphones (which sell for $999 / £999) and (at least as far as showroom appeal goes) the Px8 are streets ahead. Given that the active noise-cancellation platform fitted to the Px7 S2 is one of the very best around that doesn’t say “Bose” on it somewhere, Bowers & Wilkins’ decision to carry it over unchanged for the Px8 is understandable.

Some users may hanker after more adjustability than the Px8 provides (you’re restricted to “on,” “off,” or “passthrough”), but it seems very unlikely anyone will hanker after more noise cancellation than these headphones achieve. Certainly the drone of an aircraft, as well as the drone of its passengers, is all but eliminated when ANC is switched on. The reason to banish external sound, of course, is to better appreciate the sound of your headphones, and the Px8 use all-new, full-range, 40-mm Carbon Cone dynamic drive units to do the audio business.

Using the Carbon Dome drivers it developed for its lauded 700 Series loudspeakers as a jumping-off point, Bowers & Wilkins is claiming ultrafast response and super-low distortion from these high-resolution drivers. And the drivers themselves are carefully angled inside the ear cup to ensure consistency of distance from the driver to the ear at every point across its surface. The quest for superior sound is aided by compatibility with Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec—or, at least, it is if you’re not using an iOS device.

Apple always thinks it knows best, of course, and no iPhone supports any of the aptX codecs, which is a pity, because when your headphones are as capable as the Px8, efficiency and resolution of the wireless streaming connection can make a big difference. The Bluetooth 5. 2 wireless streaming experience is improved for Px8, thanks to a fairly major update to the Bowers & Wilkins Music control app.

As well as the usual stuff—a spot of EQ adjustment, selecting from your ANC options, and so on—it’s now possible to integrate your favorite music streaming service (as long as it’s Deezer, Qobuz, or Tidal) and stream from within the Music app. On the plus side, this saves having to have multiple apps open to get at the content you want to hear, and it means users can easily switch between Bowers & Wilkins wireless devices (a Zeppelin , for example, or a part of the Formation range) at home and headphones for mobile listening. On the downside, the app currently requires occasional prompting.

Select an entire album, for example, and you may need to ask the app to “play” more than once if you want to hear the whole thing. It’s not beyond the wit of Bowers & Wilkins to iron out any little wrinkles in the Music app’s performance, of course, and even as it stands it’s about as stable, logical, and simple to use as any app that wasn’t developed by Apple or Sonos. In addition to the app, control is available via your source player’s native voice assistant.

There is a mic per ear cup to handle the interaction, in addition to the two mics per side that deal with ANC. The voice assistant can be summoned using the single control button on the left ear cup (the app allows you to define this as its function or, alternatively, cycle through your ANC options. ) Over on the right ear cup, meanwhile, there’s the classic three-button strip with “volume up” and “volume down” on the outside, and a textured multifunction in the center (it’s in charge of “play/pause,” “skip forward/backward,” and “answer/end/reject call”).

There’s also a “power on/off/Bluetooth pairing” slider, and a USB-C input for charging the battery. It’s good for 30 hours of playback between pit stops, and 15 minutes on the mains is enough to hold you for another seven hours. The USB-C socket can also be used for hardwired listening.

Bowers & Wilkins provides 1. 2-m USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to 3. 5-mm cables in the Px8 carry case.

There’s no facility for passive listening, though. The headphones must be switched on even if you’re listening using a hard connection. In each and every musical circumstance, the Px8 proves a thrillingly adept, informative, and engaging listen without being ostentatious.

No matter the genre of music you like to listen to, no matter the emphasis or attitude of the recording itself, the Bowers & Wilkins reports on it in a fashion that manages to be properly insightful without being dispassionate or academic. “I Against I” by Massive Attack and Mos Def attests to a lot of what the Px8 gets right. Low frequencies here are authentically deep and substantial but at the same time properly controlled, and give the recording the sort of bottom-end propulsion it requires.

Some headphones are quite content to simply hit hard when a recording has a big bass-end element to it, but the Bowers & Wilkins have the finesse and powers of detail retrieval to avoid being that sort of blunt instrument. They journey smoothly into the midrange, giving the inimitable vocal all of the character and expression it requires. And they tie all the rather disparate elements of the recording together convincingly, presenting it as a whole and unified performance.

Switch up to the full-on orchestral assault of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra having at Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor and the Px8 has the dynamic potency to deal with the shifts in intensity and attack, and the ability to describe an organized, expansive soundstage. Switch down to the relatively boneless stylings of Camera Obscura’s Underachievers Please Try Harder and the Px8 is deft enough to convey the light and shade, attentive to even the most minor harmonic variations in a single instrument, and able to give the spaces and silences as much emphasis as they demand.

Rhythmic expression is good, thanks in large part to the command over low-frequency attack and decay the Bowers & Wilkins displays. Tonality is utterly convincing, too. The Px8 has sufficient insight into texture to make every instrument sound lifelike, even if the “instrument” in question never existed outside a laptop and a pair of musician’s headphones.

There’s substance at the top of the frequency range, assertiveness at the bottom, and complete positivity in the midrange. Consequently, the Px8 always sounds confident, assertive, and beautifully balanced. In truth, the sonic gains the Px8 makes over its Px7 S2 siblings are no more pronounced than the aesthetic gains or the gains in tactility.

That the Px8 is better than its more affordable relatives in every respect isn’t a difficult conclusion to reach—but deciding whether it’s worth the premium is a trickier question. Ultimately, you’re the only one who knows whether you can justify the outlay or not. But if you can, be assured you’re buying some of the best wireless headphones around, at any price.

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