Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 Headphones: Exceptional Sound w/ The Build To Match

When you think of expensive headphones, I’d imagine many of you would think of the $550 AirPods Max. Now you might think that’s too much for a pair of noise-canceling headphones but think of every time you’ve seen one in the wild. Now drop that price down to $400 and what headphones do you think of? Probably the latest Sony WH-1000XM5s. But you should think of these as well: the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 headphones.

For the uninitiated, Bowers & Wilkins are a British-based audio company w/ over 50 years of experience specializing in speakers (both commercial & consumer use). The company got into the wireless headphone business back in 2017 w/ the original PXs. And since then, they’ve been improving w/ many other cans in-between and to our current offering. These are the Px7 S2. I got the Blue color option w/ gold accents and here’s how our time w/ it has been over the course of 3 weeks.

Now Bowers & Wilkins made sure to check all of the boxes in regards to the overall design of these cans. Simple yet detailed and premium while still being comfortable. The main compartments like the outer cups and inner headband railing are compromised of a good plastic that might feel almost metallic at 1st touch. Outside, you got a woven textile pattern on the outer cups, a leather-like headband, and replaceable memory foam earcups.

Bowers & Wilkins reminds us all that details are important in headphone design.

Now you do have physical buttons instead of designated touch areas
The right cup does most things just like on other headphones w/ controlling play/pause + volume up/down. Meanwhile, the left cup has a single multifunction button that toggles ANC on/off/transparency mode as well as activating a voice assistant. It sounds like a lot to remember but has ideal locations which can become instantly intuitive after a short period of wear – at its 0.67lbs weight.

Bowers & Wilkins made sure to not mess up a good thing in its design – I’m talking to you Sony w/ the XM5s. You can comfortably rest them around your neck w/ the cups facing up or down. The sum of all of these parts feels super comfortable over long periods of time – on the ears, head, and all. However, being outside in the 90+-degree weather will have you sweating in them. And lastly, there isn’t a 3.5mm headphone jack present but you got a USB-C to 3.5mm cable included along w/ a USB-C to USB-C cable.

Bowers & Wilkins made sure to equip these cans w/ their best & brightest. The size of the drivers are the industry standard but B&W puts their special sauce on it. The Px7 S2 headphones are armed w/ their full-range dynamic 40mm drivers capable of pumping out 24-bit high-end audio. Couple this w/ the support of Bluetooth 5.2, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, aptX, AAC, & SBC sound profiles. You even got multipoint Bluetooth for up to 2 devices as well so you won’t be tied to just one device.

I spent a good amount of time using these for various YouTube content, a few podcasts, season 2 of Barry on HBO Max, D’Angelo And The Vanguard, Travis Scott, Pusha T, and some R&B playlists on YouTube Music. This all lead to upper echelon results in both music + video. I’m talking pristine audio output w/ deep bass, superb clarity, wide soundstage, and overall amazing audio reproduction. Real audio sorcery going on here – in a good way of course. The sound can be adjusted via their B&W app as well to monitor battery, and such.

The audio here is superior but Sony bests them in noise-canceling.

And we gotta talk about the mics on these as the sound is such a strong point, we’re entering one of the negative points. You got 6 mics in total w/ 4 for noise-canceling and 2 dedicated for phone calls. The mics can’t combat against background noise as much as we’d like them to. This is in regards to both phone calls and just listening to media. They’re not terrible but talking in comparison to the competition, they’re lacking a bit.

The battery life on these matches the current standard of 30 hours of juice w/ NC on and 40 hours w/ NC off. Although B&W made sure to offer fast charging than the competition here. So a 15-minute charge will grant you 7 hours of juice and will take only 2 hours to fully charge from being dead. While the competition will take about 3 hours to fully charge their cans. Now, who won’t appreciate that?

If you're looking for stellar high-end audio in a well-made & comfortable package, these B&W Px7 S2 are made for you.

With this being our 1st Bowers & Wilkins headphones, I knew the legacy and was still impressed by them. The Px7 S2 live up to the hype w/ ridiculous-good audio quality in anything coming out of them. All while being premium and comfortable while doing it. The only thing keeping these from being perfect or our view of perfection: its the NC + its mics.

Now if these had better NC abilities + mics, these would be the new de facto noise-canceling headphones to buy. But even despite that, these are still the new default cans for audio superiority. And this should now be the 1st thought of a $400 pair of headphones that are completely worth it.