Bowers & Wilkins Px8
These ANC headphones push price levels but deliver on performance
Headphones | £599 | whf.cm/B_WPx8
Bowers & Wilkins seems particularly bullish about its new range-topping wireless headphones, the Px8. There’s the hefty asking price for starters, which easily shades that of Apple’s older but still ambitious AirPods Max. Then comes the press release that makes claims of reference standards across the board for performance, build and finish. That’s fighting talk – but at least it is backed up with real substance.
Quality finish
For starters, the Px8 certainly look the part. They stick to the company’s trademark classy aesthetic design that superbly manages the difficult balance between showy and luxurious. The high price of these headphones is certainly reflected in the quality of the materials, which have taken a big step up over the otherwise similar-looking (and cheaper) Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 we reviewed a few months ago.
There is lovely soft Nappa leather on the headband, earcups and earpads, which feels really pleasant to the touch. You can have it in two flavours – black or tan – and both look smart. Elsewhere, the cast-aluminium arm structure is beautifully finished and feels precisely engineered in the way it slides and pivots. Unlike some rivals though, all this premium goodness doesn’t add much in the way of weight, with the Px8 coming in at an entirely reasonable 320g. That is around 60g less than its rival from Apple. Add this reasonable weight to the well-shaped headband and nicely-designed earpads, and the result is a pleasing degree of comfort, even over extended use.
The biggest technical difference between these headphones and their cheaper sibling comes down to a change of cone material for the 40mm driver on each side, from bio-cellulose (paper) to carbon fibre. This carbon cone is claimed to be lighter, more rigid and better controlled in its behaviour, so reducing distortion and improving transparency. The rest of the drive unit is relatively unchanged, bar tweaks to the motor system to account for the reduced mass of the new cone.
Beyond the cone material, the spec sheet reads the same as for the Px7 S2, but that’s no bad thing. The Px8 have Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX Adaptive compatibility, four microphones for noise cancelling plus another two for voice pick-up in phone calls and a claimed 30-hour battery life. That stamina is certainly enough to cover long-distance flights and most other use cases we can think of, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that cheaper alternatives such as the new S
