Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: in review

Luxury daily accommodations for your ears

Back in September (seen here), we brought you word of the brand-new Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 headphones. If you couldn’t tell from that first article, I was definitely intrigued by what I was seeing in them. Some checking with our friendly contacts, and I’ve been fortunate to be spending time with a pair of the headphones, and using them as my daily drivers. So, now it’s time to talk to you about how they hold up in the real world.

The carrying case

As you would expect, the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 come in a compact, but solid, carrying case. One big zipper goes around the midsection, and then you’re in the case. On the top of the lid, there’s a padded trapezoid that helps hold the ear cups in place. On the lower section, it looks like you’ve got a section just molded in for the head band to go around.

That’s actually the cable storage section. There’s a small magnet that holds things in place, and inside you’ll find two cables. One is a USB-C to USB-C charging cable, and the other is a 3.5mm to USB-C cable. You see, on the headphone side, the only port you have is a USB-C connector. With this cable, though, you can plug into the standard analog audio port of your choice. Thankfully, the included cables also come with velcro bands to help keep things tidy.

Getting things setup

While you charge up the headphones, you’ll also want to get the Bowers & Wilkins app (Apple / Android) on your phone to set things up. Of course, you don’t have to use the app - you can hook up to bluetooth and be on your way. However, with the app you can do things like customize your EQ settings, control which devices the headphones are actively connected to, and the like. You can also utilize their integrations into streaming apps, update the firmware on the headphones, and adjust the noise cancellation settings right from your phone.

Of course, there are controls for some of this right on the headphones as well. The button on the left ear cup allows you to cycle through the noise cancellation (on, pass-through, or off), while the controls on the right ear cup are for volume and playback controls.

Using the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

Once I had the EQ adjusted a bit on my phone, it was time to start putting the headphones through their paces. First up was playing music, of course! I ran through some of my favorites, and the sound reproduction was top notch. Highs - like cymbals - come through crisply, while the bass manages to be punchy and solid at the same time. In other words, an excellent balance.

Now, if you’re using these for work, it’s not just about the quality of the sound for what you’re listening to. Odds are, you’ll be using this to get on calls, so noise cancellation is key. I found call clarity to be quite good on my end. I was curious how much noise came through on the mics, and I had the chance to test that.

One day, I needed to be at the mechanic with my vehicle, and that was definitely not a quiet environment. I asked one person (after a call) if they were hearing a bunch of background noise, and they said they really didn’t. They knew I wasn’t in a quiet office, but it was not a distraction.

There are some other very clever tricks that the headphones have for you. How many times have you scrambled to find the pause button to pull your headphones off when someone comes up to your desk? With the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2, that’s not an issue. As soon as you remove an earcup from your ear (either one), whatever you’re listening to is paused. Put the earcup back into place, and things start right back up.

If you take the headphones off and set them to the side (without powering them off), they will go into a lower-power standby. As soon as you put them back on your head, they power back up and connect to what they had been connected to. In other words, these are headphones built in a way to work well with your day.

Construction and comfort

As you would expect from a pair of headphones in this price range, build quality is top notch. Often, we’re used to headphones being mostly plastic, with perhaps a thin metal band that goes into the head band. Here, you’ve got solid metal posts that go from the earcups into the head band, which also serve as a channel for the cabling that connects the left and right sides.

You’ve got leather on the earcups and the headband, which means it should last a good long time. While I’ve got a larger-than-average head, I was able to fit the headphones comfortably on my head. Even with glasses on, I had no issues wearing these for the duration of a work day. While there’s extra weight in the construction (the metal used is aluminum) as opposed to other brands, the padding they’ve built in helps mitigate that.

Wrapping things up

If you’re tired of having headphones that break down after a year or two, due to their construction, looking to the higher end of the market is going to get you decidedly more robust construction, along with excellent sound reproduction and some extra usability features that just make sense.

While this pair of B&W headphones is my first experience with the brand - and higher-end over-ear headphones - I was pleasantly surprised with just how well they just worked. Whether you’re talking the sound, the noise cancellation, construction, or built-in features: it just works. And works well. I hadn’t realized what I was missing, and frankly, going back to something else is going to be quite noticeable.

The good news is you, too, can have this experience. The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 are available now for $799 in either warm stone or onyx black colorways. You can check them out (and the other headphones in the Px lineup), and order yours, directly at bowerswilkins.com

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Tech Specs

• Technical Features

  • High-performance DSP with dedicated amplifier/DAC

  • True 24-bit audio connection

  • 5-band customisable EQ + TrueSound™ mode

  • Bluetooth 5.3 with aptX™ Lossless technology

  • Multipoint connectivity

  • Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)

  • USB-C charging and audio interface

  • Fast charging support

  • Apple MFi Made For iPhone® support

  • Google Fast Pair

• Wearing Style: Over-Ear Noise-Cancelling

• Bluetooth Codecs

  • aptX Lossless

  • aptX Adaptive

  • aptX HD

  • aptX Classic

  • AAC

  • SBC

• Microphones: 8 mics total - 4 mics per earcup

• Voice Call Quality Algorithm: ADI Pure Voice

• Drive Units: 2 × ø 40mm dynamic full-range carbon driver

• Battery Life & Charging

  • 30 hours playback

  • 15-minute charge for 7 hours playback

• Accessories

  • 1.2m USB-C to 3.5mm stereo jack audio cable

  • 1.2m USB-C to USB-C cable

  • Carry Case

• Weight (Headphone): 0.31 kg

• Dimensions (Carry Case): 177 mm (w) × 60 mm (d) × 234 mm (h)

• Finishes

  • Onyx Black

  • Warm Stone