TechAudioHeadphonesBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: The best-sounding headphones of 2022The Series 2 release of Bowers & Wilkins' PX7 headphones sound phenomenal, but is that enough to warrant their asking price?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)T3 VerdictIf the PX7 S2 are going to make it to the top of your shortlist then you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality, and standard of build and finish. Because although this money can buy you more features, more functionality, lighter weight and so on, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance.Reasons to buy+deft, confident and believable sound+impressively built and finished+improved noise-cancellationReasons to avoid-others cancel noise even more effectively-limited control app-no touch-controlsWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
TechAudioHeadphonesBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: The best-sounding headphones of 2022The Series 2 release of Bowers & Wilkins' PX7 headphones sound phenomenal, but is that enough to warrant their asking price?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)T3 VerdictIf the PX7 S2 are going to make it to the top of your shortlist then you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality, and standard of build and finish. Because although this money can buy you more features, more functionality, lighter weight and so on, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance.Reasons to buy+deft, confident and believable sound+impressively built and finished+improved noise-cancellationReasons to avoid-others cancel noise even more effectively-limited control app-no touch-controlsWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
The Series 2 release of Bowers & Wilkins' PX7 headphones sound phenomenal, but is that enough to warrant their asking price?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)T3 VerdictIf the PX7 S2 are going to make it to the top of your shortlist then you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality, and standard of build and finish. Because although this money can buy you more features, more functionality, lighter weight and so on, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance.Reasons to buy+deft, confident and believable sound+impressively built and finished+improved noise-cancellationReasons to avoid-others cancel noise even more effectively-limited control app-no touch-controls
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
T3 VerdictIf the PX7 S2 are going to make it to the top of your shortlist then you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality, and standard of build and finish. Because although this money can buy you more features, more functionality, lighter weight and so on, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance.Reasons to buy+deft, confident and believable sound+impressively built and finished+improved noise-cancellationReasons to avoid-others cancel noise even more effectively-limited control app-no touch-controls
T3 VerdictIf the PX7 S2 are going to make it to the top of your shortlist then you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality, and standard of build and finish. Because although this money can buy you more features, more functionality, lighter weight and so on, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance.
T3 Verdict
If the PX7 S2 are going to make it to the top of your shortlist then you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality, and standard of build and finish. Because although this money can buy you more features, more functionality, lighter weight and so on, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance.
Reasons to buy+deft, confident and believable sound+impressively built and finished+improved noise-cancellationReasons to avoid-others cancel noise even more effectively-limited control app-no touch-controls
Reasons to buy+deft, confident and believable sound+impressively built and finished+improved noise-cancellation
deft, confident and believable sound
impressively built and finished
improved noise-cancellation
Reasons to avoid-others cancel noise even more effectively-limited control app-no touch-controls
others cancel noise even more effectively
limited control app
no touch-controls
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
In the decade or so the storied loudspeaker brand has been involved in the headphones market, it’s established quite a reputation for impressive audio performance, a luxurious aesthetic, and decent value for money. And now its latest wireless headphone offering is here: the ‘Series 2’ version of thePX7 over-ears that launched a couple of years ago.
The headphones market being what it is – whether you’re looking for thebest active noise-cancelling headphonesor thebest wired headphones– it takes a bit more than showing up wearing a dependable brand-name and smelling vaguely (as the PX7 S2 do) of premium materials to be competitive. Bowers & Wilkins understands this, of course, so just how well do the Series 2 PX7 fare?
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: Price and availability
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 are on sale now, and in the UK they’re priced at £379. In America they’ll set you back $399, while in Australia the asking price is AU$599.
I imagine it’s just a happy accident that these prices are precisely the same as those of the all-conqueringSony WH-1000XM5that launched just a month earlier than the Bowers' release.
Either way, it puts the PX7 S2 in direct competition with what are to all intents and purposes universally acknowledged as thebest all-round headphones currently available(as well as an absolute stack of alternatives from the likes ofBoseand Sennheiser that are constantly breathing down the neck of the WH-1000XM5).
Short of calling Tyson Fury’s Mum an unpleasant name, I can’t really think of a more difficult fight Bowers & Wilkins could have picked.
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 dealsBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 dealsBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 dealsBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 deals
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all prices
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all prices
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all prices
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2
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$399$250
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Sony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all prices
Sony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all prices
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Sony WH-1000XM5
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Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: What’s new?
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
The rulebook remains untorn, of course, but that doesn’t mean Bowers & Wilkins hasn’t had a long, hard think about how this S2 version of its PX7 headphones should be specified. Which means there have been quite a few changes, as also detailed in ourPX7 S2 versus PX7 feature.
Bowers & Wilkins has also redesigned the mics embedded into the earcups in a drive to improve noise-cancellation, ambient ‘pass through’ sound performance and call quality. Active noise-cancellation remains a binary ‘on or off’ system here – some my hanker after the fine-tuning options ofSonyor Technics, for example, but it’s my experience that noise-cancellation always ends up at ‘max’ anyway where these systems are concerned. Or, at least, it does if the noise-cancelling is any good.
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: Performance and sound quality
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
I may as well cut to the chase here: the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 sound outstanding, with occasional deviations into ‘excellent’ and even ‘glorious’.
As far as explaining the entirety of the frequency range from top to bottom, while retaining all of the details, keeping tonality even and convincing, and making the soundstage as big and explicit as possible, the PX7 S2 are among the best sub-£/$400 headphones you can buy. And that’s not the limit of their talents.
So yes, tonality is consistent, and from the (deep, textured) low frequencies to the (politely bright, substantial) top-end the Bowers & Wilkins are entirely even-handed. Detail levels are impressive-going-on-startling, and the PX7 S2 lay out a substantial and well-organised soundstage. Every part of a recording gets a comfortable amount of space in which to do its thing, but everything relates smoothly to everything else and nothing sounds estranged.
The changes Bowers & Wilkins has made to its active noise-cancelling circuitry seem successful too. While it’s true that some similarly priced alternatives can deal with even more external sound than the PX7 S2, these headphones are no slouches. And they can handle the bulk of ambient noise without leaving any trace of how hard they’re working, or altering their sonic characteristics in any way.
‘Passthrough’ works well too, external sounds given a judicious boost of volume but not sounding in any way unnatural. And it’s a similarly accomplished story where call quality is concerned.
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: Design and usability
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
Just as is the case where performance is concerned, Bowers & Wilkins understands its strengths and plays to them. Sony can have the eco-credibility and the vanishingly light weight – the PX7 S2 are about carefully specified materials, carefully assembled and an aesthetic that’s just the right side of opulent.
Where they contact the wearer, the PX7 S2 are mostly memory foam-filled leather – and very soft and aromatic it is too. Where they don’t, these headphones are hard-wearing, tactile and flawlessly applied fabric or similarly high-quality plastic. Build quality seems impeccable, and thanks to a reworking of both the headband arrangement and its clamping force, the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 are comfortable to wear even for the equivalent of a long-haul flight. Yes, at 307g they’re almost 60g heavier than Sony’s flyweight WH-1000XM5 – but once they’re in situ they really don’t feel it.
As far as control goes, the PX7 S2 don’t have the wide-ranging options of some rivals, but what they do have is very nicely implemented. Physical controls extend to buttons for volume up/down, play/pause, skip forwards/backwards and power on/off/Bluetooth pairing on the edge of the right earcup, just above the USB-C socket.
There are USB-C/USB-C and USB-C/3.5mm cables in the tidy, nicely finished carry-case, because the USB-C socket can be used for both power and data transfer.
There’s a button on the left earcup, too, which can be defined as either wake voice assistant (that’s your source player’s native assistant, you understand – there’s no built-in voice assistant here) or scroll through noise-cancelling options (which are on, off or passthrough for amplified ambient sound).
Choosing the function of that button is done in the Bowers & Wilkins Music control app (foriOSandAndroid). I like this app – it’s as music-centric as the name implies, it’s clean and stable, and it doesn’t overload you with options. In fact, apart from defining the function of the left-side button and accessing some EQ adjustment, there really aren’t any options. Some will undoubtedly prefer the deity-like control they get with Sony’s Headphones app for its headphones instead, of course.
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 review: Verdict
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
(Image credit: Future / Simon Lucas)
Because for the PX7 S2 to make it to the top of your shortlist you’ll have to share their priorities: sound quality first and foremost, along with the exceptional standard of build and finish. Although this money can buy you more features and functionality elsewhere, I don’t believe it would buy you more convincing audio performance. Because the PX7 S2 sound absolutely stellar.
Also consider
If it’s all-rounders you want, the Sony WH-1000XM5 are the all-roundest of the lot. They give away the last smidgen of audio quality to the Bowers & Wilkins, but they’re ahead when it comes to weight (assuming ‘light’ means ‘best’), noise-cancelling (just a touch), extended functionality and eco-credibility (a fair bit). But if it’s the best-soundingwireless headphones this money can currently buy that you want then, well, go back to the top of the page and start reading again.
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 dealsBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 dealsBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 dealsBowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and Sony WH-1000XM5 deals
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all pricesSony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all prices
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all prices
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2$399$250ViewSee all prices
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2
$399$250View
$399$250
$250
See all prices
Sony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all prices
Sony WH-1000XM5$399.99$279.95ViewSee all prices
Sony WH-1000XM5
Sony WH-1000XM5
$399.99$279.95View
$399.99$279.95
$279.95
See all prices
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
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