As McLaren’s star driver Lando Norris fights to drive a points lead all the way to his first ever F1 title—and McLaren’s first drivers’ championship since 2008—the 2025 constructors’ champs are minting a headphone three-peat with Bowers & Wilkins.
The British institutions previously joined forces for special editions of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earbuds and the first iteration of its top-shelf Px8 headphone. But the recent release of the new-and-improved Px8 S2 calls for yet another McLaren makeover of the upscale audio brand’s “best-sounding headphones” ever. Instead of the Onyx Black and silvery Warm Stone launch colors, the design integrates the signature McLaren Papaya finish with a striking Anthracite Grey, as well as the McLaren Speedmark logo on both the headband and earcups. Those racy elements are paired with diamond-cut bright edges on the elliptical logo plate and memory-foam cushions clad in Nappa leather.
The Px8 builds on the success of the Px7 S3 headphones, featuring redesigned 40mm Carbon Cone drive units and an improved chassis, voice coil, and magnet to achieve what’s been deemed the brand’s best wireless headphone sound. Those drive units are angled and positioned optimally to relay sound directly into the ear with power from a discrete amplifier. Also aboard is support for aptX Adaptive 24/96 and aptX Lossless technologies, which transmit the highest fidelity sounds from streaming services such as Amazon Music, Qobuz, and Tidal.
That audio quality is supplemented by Bowers & Wilkins’ latest noise-canceling technologies, which include eight high-performance microphones—two to measure the output of each drive unit, four positioned at opposite ends of each earcup to monitor ambient noise, and two to provide voice clarity. ADI Pure Voice, the latest generation of voice processing technology, mitigates unwanted noise to ensure clearer phone call quality.
The Px8 S2 is compatible with the Bowers & Wilkins music app, which allows users to adjust the amount of noise canceling, select the wear sensor sensitivity, monitor the 30-hour battery level, tweak the operation of the physical “Quick Action” button to either cycle through three noise-canceling modes or launch their phone’s voice assistant, and, for the first time on the Px8, fine-tune the listening experience via a five-band EQ. Over-the-air updates promise to keep the Px8 S2 from becoming obsolete.
Priced from $899, the Bowers & Wilkins x McLaren Px8 S2 headphones are available to purchase now.
