Stellar audio and respectable noise cancellation can’t fully offset minor flaws and a high price

I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

Although Bowers & Wilkins' Px8 headphones offer high-quality audio and occasionally impressive noise cancellation, they don't quite justify their sky-high price.

At $699, Bowers & Wilkins' flagship Px8 noise-cancelling headphones cost more than many competitors in the segment, approaching the realm of wired, audiophile-friendly models. In their favor, the headphones are exceedingly comfortable, offer hi-res audio playback on some Android devices, and even support wired playback via a USB-C port. We also experienced some improvement in noise cancellation over the $399 Px7 S2. But for $699, there's simply not enough here to compete with the likes Sony's top-tier $399.99 WH-1000XM5 headphones, which offer laudable audio quality and noise cancellation for nearly half the price.

The Px8 headphones are available in black with metallic gray details or in white with tan-and-silver details. No matter the color, they have a circumaural (over-ear) design with a heavily cushioned headband and earpads that both feature Napa leather. The fit is ridiculously comfortable, even over long listening sessions. The earpads hug the ears and the earcups attach to die-cast aluminum arms, swiveling flat to fit inside the included case.

Internally, the earcups house Bowers & Wilkins’ new 40mm carbon cone drivers, which the company claims provide “exceptionally low distortion” and “ultra-fast response.” B&W dosn’t provide frequency range details.

The Bluetooth 5.2-compatible headphones support the AptX Adaptive, AptX HD, AptX, AAC, and SBC codecs. Audiophiles are likely to prefer the 24-bit/48KHz-capable AptX HD, which locks in its high bitrate and stays there. Adaptive AptX, for comparison, uses a constantly changing bitrate that prioritizes either lower latency or high overall quality. The high-fidelity experience is mainly going to be available to some, but not all, Android users. Android device support for AptX, let alone AptX HD, is uneven, but at least Google Fast Pair is on board. iPhone users get quality playback via AAC, but nothing that ventures into hi-res territory.

The left earcup houses a single, customizable Quick Action button. By default, it cycles through ANC On, Pass Through (what B&W calls its ambient monitoring mode), and Off. You can switch this button to instead summon your device’s voice assistant, but that’s it. The right earcup houses the power/pairing switch, as well as a three-button array of controls. The central button handles playback and track navigation (one tap for play/pause, two for track forward, three for track backward), as well as call management. There are two dedicated volume buttons on either side of the central button. Generally speaking, it’s easy to operate the controls, but getting the right pressure to perform double or triple taps on the central button is sometimes tricky. 

The headphones ship with a flat zip-up hard shell travel case that's easy to pack. Inside, there’s a covered compartment for the two included cables—one for wired listening (USB-C-to-3.5mm) and one for charging (USB-C-to-USB-C). Notably, you can't use the headphones in passive mode with the audio cable. At this price, a USB-A adapter and a quarter-inch headphone adapter would be welcome additions.

Bowers & Wilkins estimates that the headphones can last roughly 30 hours with active noise cancellation (ANC) on. Your results will vary based on your volume levels and use of noise cancellation. The company claims the battery takes two hours to fully charge from empty and that you can get about seven hours of playback from a 15-minute charge.

The Bowers & Wilkins Music app (available for Android and iOS) has a visually simple, easy-to-navigate design.

After you pair the headphones, a graphic appears at the top of the screen with a battery life percentage estimate below it. Farther down, there are four sub-sections: All Your Music in One Place, Tone Controls, Support, and Quick Start Guide. The All Your Music section is an in-app portal to streaming services like Deezer, Quboz, and Tidal. If you have accounts with these services, you can access them directly through the B&W app. It's unclear why this is an advantage when there's little reason to use the app after the initial pairing process, but some users might appreciate the convenience.

On the Tone Controls screen, the Environment Control section includes Noise Cancellation, Pass Through, and Off modes. You can only switch between the three modes, not adjust them. Below, a simple two-band EQ with sliders for treble and bass (-6dB to +6dB) allows for some minor adjustments to the audio, but that won't appease anyone hoping for a full five-band EQ.

The Connections section allows you to manage the priority of the devices you pair with the headphones. You can choose to automatically connect to the last device you paired, for instance, or prioritize specific devices. Below this, you can configure the Quick Action button to handle either Environmental Control (ANC/Ambient modes) or Voice Assistant settings. The Device Management section allows you to toggle Auto Standby mode (which kicks in after 15 minutes by default) or the Wear Sensor (off by default). You can choose between Low, Normal, or High sensitivity options for the latter. Beyond this, you can rename the headphones and perform a factory reset.

The Support Screen offers shortcuts to the Quick Start Guide, FAQs, and manual. The settings menu lets you install firmware updates, control app notifications, and contact support.

As far as apps go, this is a minimal set of features and controls. Plenty of people are likely to prefer this approach to one with additional bloatware, but we would still prefer better noise cancellation controls and a more customizable EQ.

The headphones deliver solid noise cancellation performance. This isn't surprising because they use the same noise cancellation circuitry and mics of the less expensive Px7 S2 model.

In testing, the Px8 headphones dialed back powerful low-frequency rumble like you hear on a train to a much lower level. They also successfully cut back the lows and mids from a recording of a busy restaurant with clattering dishes and chattering conversation, though some of the more complex highs made it through to our ears.

Ultimately, they just aren't as effective against the lows or mids as the Bose QuietComfort 45. Like B&W, Sony employs an adaptive approach to noise cancellation with its WH-1000XM5 headphones, but often to a more impressive degree. And much like with like the Apple AirPods Max, you can sometimes feel the Px8 headphones creating a new noise cancellation profile in real time.

B&W's headphones use a six-mic array to perform noise cancellation tasks. Two of the mics specifically ensure the active noise cancellation process doesn’t affect audio performance, but this doesn't play out in practice, as the headphones sound different when you enable ANC (namely, the bass is richer). They don't sound bad in either scenario, but the Bose and Sony models don't suffer from this issue.

Ambient mode is clear and useful. It successfully allows you to hear your surroundings even when music is playing, but it can't focus on voices like the Sony headphones.

Oddly, it’s possible to trigger the mics in a weird way that creates a strange sound. If you accidentally cover the top portion of the perforated grille area on each ear cup, it creates a noise almost like a DJ scratching vinyl. This is true of the Px7 S2, as well. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but it's a quirk most other headphones this expensive manage to avoid.

The mic offers solid intelligibility. The signal is clear and doesn't suffer from any obvious Bluetooth audio artifacts, though it is a bit quiet.

The headphones deliver a lovely take on a flat response. What you hear mostly sounds accurate, but there’s some additional richness in the lows. Meanwhile, the high-mids and highs have excellent clarity and presence without sounding overly sculpted. Activating noise cancellation or Pass Through mode, however, is the equivalent of toggling a bass boost button. The ANC delivers a richer sound signature that raising the bass fader in the app doesn't necessarily achieve.

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the headphones push relatively accurate low-frequency response with noise cancellation off. They do a great job preserving dynamics and keeping bass levels consistent across various volume ranges (that’s what thoughtfully implemented digital signal processing should do). Switching on ANC here adds a little more bass presence to the mix, but it isn't dramatic.

Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of their sound signature. With ANC off, the drums on this track sound full and natural; there’s a little thump to them, but not too much. If you boost the bass in the app, they get a slightly fuller sound, as do Callahan’s baritone vocals.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild” with ANC off, the kick drum loop receives enough high-mid presence for its attack to retain its punch, and we hear the background vinyl crackle ever so slightly. The loop also gets a small amount of additional bass thump, but nothing like subwoofer-in-your-skull audio. The sub-bass synth hits on this track come across with some deep presence, but we've heard deeper. Boosting the bass in the app beefs up the drum loop considerably, but only strengthens the sub-bass to a degree. The vocals on this track sound clear. Consonants are crisp and precise, and sibilants aren’t overdone. Turn on noise cancellation, though, and suddenly the sub-bass synth hits have a little more presence and the drum loop gets more thump.

Orchestral tracks like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound full, rich, and bright with ANC off. The lower-register instrumentation has a natural tonality—it never really sounds boosted nor lacking in lows. The higher-register brass, strings, and vocals have a bright quality already, and the headphones don’t oversculpt them into a tinny mess; instead, we get a lovely, realistic sound signature. Add in ANC, and things start to sound a bit less natural. The lows get more obvious presence in the mix, but it's still a balanced, full delivery. 

Most listeners are likely to prefer the bass-forward sound signature with ANC on. Both are great, but we maintain that the ANC on such an expensive pair of headphones shouldn't affect the sound quality.

We have no complaints about the audio performance of Bowers & Wilkins' Px8 headphones. But although their noise cancellation sometimes impressed us, it never performed better than competing models that cost nearly half the price. So despite excellent sound and solid ANC, the price tag here is simply too much for what Bowers & Wilkins delivers. For these reasons we recommend the Bose QuietComfort 45 and the Sony WH-1000XM5 more highly.

Although Bowers & Wilkins' Px8 headphones offer high-quality audio and occasionally impressive noise cancellation, they don't quite justify their sky-high price.

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I've been a contributing editor for PCMag since 2011. Before that, I was PCMag's lead audio analyst from 2006 to 2011. Even though I'm a freelancer now, PCMag has been my home for well over a decade, and audio gear reviews are still my primary focus. Prior to my career in reviewing tech, I worked as an audio engineer—my love of recording audio eventually led me to writing about audio gear.

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