Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 review: an unlikely successor

Bowers and Wilkins is a name well-known to audiophiles across several decades now, but they’re not exactly a household name when it comes to headphones (unless you live in the UK). Following up its flagship active noise canceling headphones, the Px8, we’re looking at the brand new Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2. Are they a worthy successor? Let’s take a look.

What’s it like to use the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2?

The Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 is a set of high-end ANC headphones aimed at the deep-pocketed traveler looking for do-it-all headphones. These cans aren’t meant to replace a keyboard warrior’s open-back headphones, but rather to keep someone traveling comfortable. Everything from the aesthetics to the connection options to the build of the headphones screams: “high-end.” Just don’t take these headphones for a workout, or in the rain, as there’s no ingress protection rating.

To meet its users, the tilted earcups with angled drivers are a good match for most ear shapes, and the friction rod design means that there aren’t any clicky bits or hinges for hair to get caught in. The exposed cabling in the headband might be a bit of a concern, but the braided exterior prevents anything from dislodging the protected wires.

I will say that it’s a little difficult to get a comfortable fit if you don’t have a lot of hair, or are sensitive to pressure on your skull. At 310 grams, the headphones are a little on the clunky side, and the somewhat rigid band and padding has a tendency to dig into my scalp after a couple hours.

Jetsetters will appreciate the travel case of the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2, which allows you to stow the headphones in a bag-friendly profile, and hide your cables behind a magnetic door. The case itself is a somewhat rounded rectangle covered in fabric, and no ostentatious logos. Instead of a latch to close it, a zipper keeps all of the contents from spilling out.

For those of you who aren’t huge fans of touch gestures, the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 relies on a more traditional button layout, with volume buttons, a multifunction button, and power slider. Though it can be a bit annoying to mash a single button a certain amount of times to get the control you want, touch gestures really are that divisive — and some really do prefer the physical controls.

Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 control key:

What are the best features of the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2?

The Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2, like many other ANC headphones aimed at more wealthy consumers, have a feature set that should satisfy most. For example, when paired with the Bowers & Wilkins Music app, has a number of advanced controls available to users like Find my device, a 5-band EQ, user-selectable transparency settings, adjusting the wear sensor, and managing paired devices. However, there really isn’t much beyond that — so if you’re hoping to adjust the level of ANC or other settings, you may be out of luck.

The app remains the primary vehicle for firmware updates, though historically speaking many of these have been centered around minor bugfixes and not major upgrades. Still, anything’s possible, and it’s worth keeping the app installed for this purpose.

How does the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 connect?

The Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2, like the Px8 before it, offers a very solid array of connection options that should meet your needs — whatever they may be. Using a combination of analog/digital cables terminating in 3.5mm TRS or USB-C, the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 offers wired listening for those who want it. Using the USB-C cable also allows you to bypass the source device’s decoding of the audio, and gives the onboard DAC the ability to parse your files.

Most users, however are going to be using the Bluetooth 5.3 connection, over SBC, AAC, or the aptX Adaptive family of codecs. For those who like aptX HD, the headphones support this, as well as aptX Lossless via Snapdragon Sound. If your phone does not support Snapdragon Sound, you’ll be relegated to an older codec. iPhone users will also be limited to AAC.

How long do the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2’s battery last?

As far as other battery life issues go, be aware that because the power switch is a physical slider, you may forget to turn them off on occasion; draining the battery. You can leave the auto-shutoff on by default, but if you run into trouble with the ear-detection, you may wind up turning this feature off. We recommend against that, for the aforementioned reasons.

Charge times will depend greatly on the power of whatever charging brick you use, but just remember that headphone batteries are quite small in comparison to smartphone batteries. Consequently, the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 shouldn’t take too long to charge. If you’re at an airport terminal and need a quick top-up, you should be able to squeeze a couple hours’ listening time from a few minutes of charge.

How well do the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 cancel noise?

As far as noise cancelation goes, the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 does a fairly decent job of killing outside noise — though it’s definitely not going to make you forget about competitors like the Sony WH-1000XM6 or AirPods Max. Specifically, the range between 400Hz and 2kHz is a little on the weak side, but because the attenuation profile is pretty consistent, the experience shouldn’t be objectionable. Even if it isn’t perfect, the results are, by their own merit: pretty good.

While the ANC unit isn’t world-beating, the headphones are really easy to achieve a good fit with, so the isolation is quite respectable. Just remember that if you wear glasses, have a ton of hair, or anything else can interrupt the seak between the ear pads and your head: your results will vary.

How do the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 sound?

While the sound of Bowers and Wilkins headphones have been quite odd in the past, the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 comes a little closer to what more people might be expecting high-end headphones should sound. That doesn’t mean you’ll like it personally, however; especially if you’re used to older B&W headphones.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics assesses the sound of the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2. The sound quality is rated on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good).

Can you use the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 for phone calls?

The Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 is a headset that can hang with the best of the ANC crowd when it comes to features, so it should be no surprise that it comes with a microphone array for you to take phone calls or voice chats with. Below are samples collected in controlled conditions, meant to simulate real-world situations. Just remember that your client and network may affect your call quality through no fault of your headphones — these samples are a reasonable ballpark for a performance ceiling.

Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2?

Unless you have $799 absolutely burning a hole through your pocket, I’d say that you may want to shop around before dumping that kind of dough. Sure, the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 is a looker, and sure, the headphones offer about what you can expect for a company’s answer to the top end of the ANC market. However, the reasons you’d buy these cans over, say, the Focal Bathys or the Sennheiser HDB 630 are largely relegated to taste. Which is totally fine — but you should head into any large purchase with your eyes wide open, especially when you’re hoping that your headphones will be a serviceable travel ally and office companion.

What should you get instead of the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2?

The main competitors to the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 are always going to be the Sony WH-1000XM6 ($448 at Amazon), Apple AirPods Max ($499 at Amazon), Sennheiser HDB 630 ($499.95 at Amazon), Bowers and Wilkins PX7 S3 ($449 at Amazon), and Focal Bathys ($699 at Amazon). Though each of these models has something to offer over the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2, none of them cover the full constellation of needs of the higher-end consumer. To a large extent, what someone looking to blow almost a grand on headphones is going to depend greatly on personal taste.

If you need maximum ANC, Android users will want the Sony WH-1000XM6, while iOS users will want the Apple AirPods Max. Those that are looking for EQ flexibility and sound quality without too much tinkering needed will likely prefer the Sennheiser HDB 630. Finally, those that like the Bowers and Wilkins aesthetic but want to keep the cost down will absolutely want to go for the PX7 S3.

The Focal Bathys are another set of ANC headphones that could compete well with the Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2, but the excessive weight, poorer ANC, and somewhat outdated hardware might be enough to give you pause. That said, these are hardly a poor option, and the sales you should be able to find this holiday season on this model should be significant.

Bowers and Wilkins Px8 S2 review: FAQs