High-end British audio brand Bowers & Wilkins has upgraded its flagship Px8 wireless headphones with new colors, a slight diet, and better noise canceling. But most crucially, the Px8 S2 is billed as the “best-sounding headphone the brand has ever created,” which should perk the ears of anyone who’s familiar with the already excellent outgoing Px8.
Both the headphones and the carrying case have been slimmed down slightly, encouraging users to toss the over-the-ear headphones in a book bag, satchel or carry-on. Luxurious Nappa leather cladding and a color-matched aluminum construction return, but exposed carbon detailing has been added for extra stiffness and, well, because carbon fiber looks cool. At launch, the headphones are available in Onyx Black and a silvery Warm Stone.
Building on the success of the Px7 S3 headphones, Bowers & Wilkins has redesigned 40mm Carbon Cone drive units while improving the 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 a 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. For instance, spatial audio listening support is coming later this year, with Bluetooth LE Audio—a more efficient and higher quality iteration of Bluetooth—is coming later this year.
Priced at $799, the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 is available now on the company’s website and third-party retailers.
