Bowers & Wilkins’ $700 PX8 Headphones Want to Take on the AirPods Max

Although not as recognizable as Sony or Apple , Bowers & Wilkins is a brand known for speaker unit and an expertise in sound that it first land to the headphone market five geezerhood ago . Three years after the entry of itsexcellent PX7 wireless headphones , the PX8 are last here , and they be $ 700 .

You have to really go out of your way to recover reputable wireless headphones or earbuds that do n’t include active stochasticity cancellation functionality today , but back in 2019 , it was a characteristic that serve mark premium headphone offerings and excuse their steeper price tag . At the meter , we may have bewail Bowers & Wilkins impress away from materials likeleather and urbane chromefor its PX7 , which usedcarbon character and fabricsinstead , but the cans a lightweight purpose with telling ANC public presentation that helped apologise a $ 400 price tag .

Fast - forward three years through a worldwide pandemic that still is n’t over , and Bowers & Wilkins is lastly ready to introduce a follow - up to its PX7 that land back premium materials like diecast aluminum ( in the arms ) , memory board froth earcups , and a Nappa leather trimming in a black or tan finish .

Image: Bowers & Wilkins

The Modern PX8 wireless earphone in reality use the same active dissonance strike down technology stick in in the company ’s Px7 S2 headphones released earlier this year , but up the ante with raw 40 - mm Carbon Cone drivers featuring a conception borrow from Bowers & Wilkins ’ 700 Series speakers . What that means to the average consumer is “ small distortion throughout the frequency chain of mountains ” and “ the best well-grounded timbre Bowers & Wilkins has ever deliver from a pair of wireless headphone , ” or so the ship’s company claims .

The PX8 include Qualcomm ’s aptXTM Adaptive Bluetooth technology but also supports analogue cable connections through a USB - C port and/or a 3.5 - millimeter earpiece jack adapter . Battery life is promised to be up to 30 hours , although it ’s not particularise if that ’s with or without ANC turned on , and while a full charge take two hour , a sawed-off 15 - minute top off can offer an extra seven hours of listening .

We have n’t had a luck to go pinna - on with the new Bowers & Wilkins PX8 headphones yet , but the big interrogative is how they ’ll compare to the$550 Apple AirPods Max , or the$400 Sony WH-1000XM5 , given the raw PX8 are available today for $ 700 . That ’s $ 300 more than 2019 ’s PX7 , and even the Px7 S2 from originally this yr : a steep cost increase that ca n’t all be assign to pandemic supply range suffering .

Image: Bowers & Wilkins