The new Px7 S2 comes in with a sleek design, Active Noise Cancelling, and a $399 price tag. Is it worth it?
Bowers and Wilkins are one of those brands that many admire but few can afford. Known for their incredible hi-fi speakers, they have been a force in the audiophile world for over four decades. The legendary P5 headphone caught the attention of the iPod generation with its incredible sound and retro design; it was the ‘it’ headphone for the creative class and established B&W as a player in the headphone game.
What’s New With These Headphones?
The new 2.0 version of the Px7 has come in hot with a beautiful design, great sound, and impressive battery life. The category has grown more competitive, with headphones like the Sennheiser Momentum 4, Airpods Max, and others vying for that $350-$550 sweet spot. This race to win the higher-end market share has left the consumer with more choices, so is the Px7 S2 worth your consideration?
Most of the headphones at this level are quite good, with minor performance differences, an array of sound signatures, and plenty of design choices. Making a decision on which model to purchase is not easy; it all comes down to small personal preferences.
The Px7 S2 Carrying Case
Design / Build Quality / Comfort
The Px7 S2 has a very clean design with just a dash of elegance, striking the perfect balance for people that don’t want too much flash but still appreciate luxury aesthetics. The build quality feels sturdy but not clunky, with a weight of 307 grams (roughly 10.8 ounces), making it light enough for long-haul listening sessions.
The leatherette earcups with memory foam are comfortable, but like any over-ear headphones with this material, they can get hot quickly, especially on planes. Also, something to note is that for those with more prominent ears, the Px7 S2 might not suit, as the earcups are on the smaller side for an over-ear.
This is important because you can lose some noise canceling and overall sound quality without a good seal on the earcup – sorry big ear crew, this one isn’t for you.
The headphones feature a C-shaped yoke with 180 degrees of rotation, allowing them to swivel easily and fold flat, which is especially handy for the frequent traveler as we all know cargo space is vital when commuting. The headphone case is also very well designed, with a tough hardshell exterior, a slim profile, and a center compartment for cables/adaptors.
Overall the Px7 S2 is quite comfortable, well-designed, and user-friendly, with a medium to low clamping force that should be perfect for most users. The plastic composite they have used feels almost like metal, and the feel/finish screams premium and has that cool-to-the-touch feel like metal.
Inside, the headphones feature new 40mm drivers and a 20mm voice coil, essentially smaller drivers and a more prominent voice coil from the previous model. Due to the new bio-cellulose material, the drivers now have more power and rigidity, resulting in better-sounding headphones at lower volumes.
The left ear cup features a small button that controls the noise canceling settings (on, passthrough, off), or you can use the app to flip the functionality to voice assistant activation (Siri/Alexa). The control is much more suitable for the noise canceling controls as that’s just something we use more often.
You will find most of the controls on the right earcup, including a sliding switch that controls BT pairing initiation and power on/off. Three buttons under the sliding switch control playback, including volume, forward, and reverse. We are huge fans of tactile buttons; they are easier to use and prevent the stupid mishaps often associated with touch controls. Nothing is worse than reaching up to adjust your headphones and accidentally touching a control surface that disrupts playback.
The USB-C slot is at the bottom of the right earcup and can be used to charge the headphones and listen to them as wired with the included USC-C to 3.5mm cable. One thing to note is that these headphones will not work if they are not charged, so you must have them powered up even for wired listening. This lack of passive playback is a bit of a bummer, as it would be nice to be able to listen to these when the power on the cans dies completely.
How Good Is The Noise Canceling?
The Active Noice Cancelling is some of the best we have ever experienced and significantly reduces ambient noise issues like crowds, engines, etc., as long as you are playing some music at medium volume. We tested them in NYC on the subway, walking on the street, in a coworking space, and on an airplane.
The only issue we encountered was on the airplane; the noise canceling seemed to degrade when we turned our head to the left or right, thus letting in more noise when not looking straight ahead.
This was quite a strange experience, so we inquired with Bowers and Wilkins to see if the headphones might have an issue or if others had experienced this. They did comment that in some cases where there is not a good seal around the ear, the user could experience this loss of ANC. We didn’t have this issue in any other environment, so the explanation seems to fit the problem, and it hasn’t been an issue since.
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Sound Quality
The Px7 S2 uses an app to control the bass and treble of the headphones and stream quality, so if you want to tweak your sound, it’s pretty easy, although it would be nice to have a full EQ here.
Per usual, we tested the headphones with a variety of genres of music and left the bass and treble at 0db to hear the standard sound signature.
For our streaming source, we used Apple Music Lossless as it is the most suitable baseline for most listeners.
The Px7 S2s performed well across all the genres we tested, producing vibrant mids and highs and the perfect amount of low-end for most genres. If you lean more towards bass-heavy music like dubstep, drum and bass, hip hop, etc., you will probably want to punch up the bass in the app to +4db or so, which should do it for you.
We love the even and colorful tuning on these headphones; they are some of the best ones in our arsenal at this price point.
Summary: If you are looking for a high-quality pair of wireless headphones that sound fantastic with all genres, are easy to port, and feature some of the best ANC in their class, The Px7 S2s are a great buy. They are comfortable, have 30 hours of battery life and are great for long listening sessions at work or during travel.
Should I Get The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2?
with so many different headphone models on the market, it can be hard to give off a blanket statement of who these specific headphones are built for. Instead, it’s more important to weigh the pros and cons of such a model to find out if they are right for your workload, lifestyle, and comfort levels.
Here are the pros and cons we found after wearing these headphones for a couple of weeks.
Pros:
- A balanced full sound that is great for most genres
- High-quality case and slim silhouette for travelers
- Great Active Noise Cancelation
- Tangible buttons
Cons:
- No passive listening
- Earcups could be too small for some users
- No full EQ on the app
Total Testing Time: 30 Hours / Full Battery Drain
BOWERS & WILKINS PX7 S2 TECH SPECS
Inputs Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C
Bluetooth Codecs SBC, AAC, aptX adaptive, aptX HD
Battery life 30hrs
Charging USB-C
Transparency mode Yes
Built-in mic and controls Yes
Finishes Black, Blue Grey
Weight 307g
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