- PX8 S2 is ‘the best headphone Bowers & Wilkins has ever made’
- APTX lossless and adaptive; 8 MICs (rather than 6 in PX8)
- Available Today, September 24, Prices $ 799 / £ 629 (About AU $ 1,289)
Well now. When a company like Bowers & Wilkins tells us that it has just created a set of over-ear headphones that puts “a new benchmark for performance and design in the wireless over-ear category” is worth taking notice. Why? Oh, because both Bowers & Wilkins PX8 and newer (even better) Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3, on which these are built, are such fantastic good headphones.
So how has B&W surpassed itself with the PX8 S2 – or to put it in another way, what is their main bid for access to our best buying guide to headphones? Often it is a case of minor adjustments and incremental gains with these things, but there are a few nuggets of information about B&W’s specs this time that make the upgrades between iterations obvious.
First, there is a new Bluetooth chipset in the PX8 S2, built on Bluetooth 5.3 rather than 5.2, to offer “TRUE 24-BIT/96KHz audio connection” over USB plus APTX TABLE-FREE AND ADAPTIV on 24/96 (rather than APTX HD in the older set).
There is also an eight-mic matrix where all microphones are used for telephony and six are used for active noise cancellation (six of the microphones are external; two monitors internal sound), which is quite upgrading from the six-mic array in PX8, with four of the microphones taking care of the ANC and only two help with call handling.
Bowers & Wilkins PX8 S2: What you need to know
Elsewhere, there is a new voice call quality algorithm, and although the same 40mm dynamic cones driver reappear in each ear cup, B&W has upgraded the chassis and engine that turn on to help get more nuance and precision from your music.
The life of the battery is still an alleged 30 hours (which is no improvement in the older model and can prove a light sticking point in view of the 100-hour battery of the sonisk-scoop Cambridge Melomania P100), but you now get a five-band EQ tab to hone the Sound signature to your taste, is available in the older PX8.
Luxurious Nappa leather covers virtually all the classic building, but the aluminum arm mechanism has a new exposed cable detail. Do these metal accents make them heavier? Actually no, the headphones are a small A little smaller and lighter than the original PX8, but B&W has definitely slim down into the case to make them easier to fit into your bag.
But what B&W really wants you to know is that these headphones have a high performance audio treatment setup with dedicated DSP and amplifier/DAC (read: not the digital for analog converter built into the chipset-B&W does not have confidence really Want to make the best -sounding pair of headphones in the world.
Has the British company reached its goal? We are working on a full review – I have a few (see the attached pictures) and we will get that judgment for you as soon as we can. Currently, you need to know that Bowers & Wilkins PX8 S2 launch today (September 24) in your choice of ‘Onyx Black’ or ‘Warm Stone’, priced $ 799 / £ 629 (around AU $ 1,289).
