Bowers & Wilkins PX8 S2 Review: Headphone Extravagance

There is a fine line between being comfortable and being difficult. When you’re talking about $799 headphones, that line starts to blur. Bowers & Wilkins have been on a good run of form over the last few years, consistently offering the best sound quality you’ll find in any pair of headphones. It doesn’t load its models down with features – sometimes it could use a few more things – but it always combines very well, sound performance and active noise cancellation (ANC) making it a well-rounded product.

And then there’s the PX8 S2. At $799, it’s $100 more expensive than the predecessor (the PX8) launched, which puts them ahead of the pack. Bowers & Wilkins has changed its basic design a bit, and there is a big improvement in audio performance, adding higher quality music over USB-C and improved call quality. There is no doubt that the PX8 S2 is more than premium, but did the company go too far?

What’s new in the PX8 S2?

After several generations of PX7 and PX8 that had the same design, bowers & wilkins changed things up a bit with the PX8 S2. There’s no complete overhaul here, but the slimmer ear cup and exposed cabsing on the headband okes a significant advantage to the overall look. Also, the company has chosen a mix of soft leather and inclined aluminum, both of which give the PX8 s2 an aesthetic finish with a killer finish.

Inside, the new standard 40mm Carbon Cone dynamic drivers are updated with a new chassis and motor. Those things are powered by a 24-bit DSP (digital signal processing) with a dedicated amplifier and digital-to-analog converter (DAC). There’s also an impressive EQ with five eqs with true bypass, allowing you to disable any equalization tweaks for a quick return to bowers & wilkins’ stock tun. The company has added support for APTX Adaptive APTX on top of the existing APTX adaptive, and you can get lossy “24-bit / 96khz – sound quality over USB-C.

Compared to the previous model, the PX8 S2 has two more microphones, bringing the total to 8. Six of those are used for external ANC monitoring while two keep tabs on the sound inside the headphones. All eight are used during calls, in addition to the improved clean algorithm “to improve performance there. You can also feel better in the transparency mode, which is very encouraging for calls.

What’s so bad about the PX8 S2?

Bowers & Wilkins excels at creating warm, inviting and focused sound profiles in all of its headphones now. That’s still the case with the PX8 S2 as the sound quality is rich and detailed, with a wide audio stage that covers your ears. While I don’t think the bass arrangement is well-suited for hand types, there’s a lot to like here. On albums like Jason Isbell’s Foxes in the snow, For example, the amount of texture and mental clarity where the only instruments are the singer’s voice and one amazing acoustic guitar.

Reliable battery life has been a strong point of the company in the past, and that is still the case with the PX8 S2. The battery count of 30 hours (ANC) is the same as the previous model, and I was able to easily achieve that long time during my tests. With a mix of active noise cancellation, high-end tunes and a call-recovery mode for work calls, the headphones easily kept Bowers & Wilkins’ promised numbers.

What’s so bad about the PX8 S2?

The biggest knock against the PX8 S2 is the price. These headphones are more expensive than most companies charge for their top of the line models, around $500 these days. Of course, $ 799 is only $ 50 more than the estimated price of the PX8 (which was $ 699) at the beginning, and there are several reviews here, but that price will be too expensive for many, thus making the s2 difficult to recommend despite their potential.

Even with the improved sound, I feel like Bores & Wilkins could have gone too far with the bass setup. There is a perfect full tone on display here, especially bass-heavy genres like rock, metal, edm and hip-hop. With the perfect soul of the spirit “perfect, as one example, the Kick Drum stands very close to drowning the lead guitar and bass. A little more blocking here would have given you enough shump and infinite depth far from listening. At times, the enhanced bass is good, but for others, like Ruston Kelly’s Pale, through the window, It can be very much about the musical style.

On its latest headset, bowers & wilkins moved the body controls from sitting on the edge of their ear cups to the ridge outside. In this process, the company also makes the buttons very small. As I mentioned when I reviewed the PX7 S3, this makes the controls harder to find with your thumbs, and you also have to be more precise with your movements. That’s especially true of the three buttons on the right side that act as volume change and playback controls.

As with its previous models, bowers & wilkins is not packing the PX8 s2 sheet with advanced features. You get a few basics – Bluetooth music and Bluetooth detection / automatic wear – but things like speech recognition, hands-free assistants or automatic sound profiles are missing. This is the place where the likes of Sony, BOSE and SENNHEISER ASSPS BOSERS & WILKINS, Although products like the PX8 S2 generally offer high sound quality.

Finish it

So how do Bowers and Wilkins fit into that one between comfort and cohesion? I would say the PX8 S2 is a luxury set of headphones at a ludicrous price. I fully understand that bowers & wilkins is high end audio and that their products often demand a premium over the competition. But as I said, the price puts these excellent headphones out of reach. When you look at the price tag alongside the lack of advanced features, the PX8 s2 becomes hard to recommend. But for those who can afford it, the popularity is about the sound.