Bowers & Wilkins - PX Wireless Noise Cancelling Over-the-Ear Headphones - Soft Gold

Bowers & Wilkins hits the market with its latest headphone design in the form of the PX. This is the first set up ever from this manufacture that offers bluetooth active noise cancellation(ANC) with an added "Smart Feature" that is able to detect when your headphones are removed in order to pause audio playback. So lets dive in hopefully this review can be helpful in deciding rather or not this set up is going to be the right fit for you. First off lets talk a little bit about B&W and what you can expect to receive out of the box. If you have never heard of B&W (Bowers & Wilkins) its probably because they are a British made company that is very well established and popular over seas. They take a lot of pride in the products they make and it definitely shows in the PX wireless. Out of the box your going to receive the headphones, instruction booklet, USB-C charging cable, 3.5mm cable and a carry case. The first thing i noticed right off the bat was how elegant the carry case looked. I felt almost as if i had been given a Louis Vuitton bag, the quality was that nice. Your going to get about 22 hours of claimed battery life. So far i've managed to get about 20 hours of life with my settings set at a modest level. Full charge can be received in about an hour all via the USB C cable. One thing i want to mention is this is the first headset i have ever come across that utilizes a USB C cable and i have a love hate relationship with this fact. The main reason being that almost every cable in my house uses a micro usb cable. What this means is i can leave my cables throughout my house and basically all my devices share the same cable so there is no need to go searching for cables when my power gets low. With this headset set up i now have to carry the USB C cable with me where ever i go, now making him the odd man out. Now if your not too familiar with this cable set up the USB C cable is found in alot of laptop and google products. With out being too technical it basically allows for more added features with one of them being quicker recharge times. Its basically going to be the new design of the future so i guess im just going to have to get used to it. B&W also provides an app that allows you some key features such as noise cancellation control and firmware updates. While i cant speak for apple users i can say that pairing the headphones to the app and my android phone is done very quickly and all within a matter of seconds. Now in most situations i really don't feel a need to have an app for an audio device however with this device i feel its kind of necessary. Lets talk about the app for a minute. The app allows you to manage and control your ANC volume. You are also equipped with three different noise cancellation features. They are office, city, and flight. Office is modest and allows more noise to enter the headphones where as flight mode is pushed to the extreme offering maximum noise cancellation. The headphones also come equipped with sensors that detect when your headphones are removed and will stop playback until you put your headphones back on. The app allows for you to also be able to control the sensitivity level of these sensors. Through the app your also given the ability to update the headphones firmware and this right here may be the single most important reason for the app. Right out of the box the headphones needed a firmware update and were two versions behind. The updates took about 30mins so just be prepared to wait. The layout of the headphones are done very nicely as well. The right headphone houses everything including 3.5mm jack, charging port, power button, ANC button, volume up and down button and action button. The action button allows you to pause and skip tracks and also answer phone calls. It is real easy to find because what B&W did was protrude that button slightly to stick out more making it easier to find so that you do not get it confused with your volume up/down buttons. If your don't feel like messing with your noise cancellation features there is a button you can press that will automatically turn on and off noise cancellation. A really interesting design that i found was that the cushion ear covers are held on magnetically and can be replaced with ease if they were to ever rip or get worn down. I have not been able to find a price yet as to what they may cost however i have provided a picture to show what they look like when they are removed. Lets talk audio quality and features. First off i wanna say the audio quality is awesome if not some of the best sounding headsets out there. Which is good because the noise canceling feature side of this is very weak. I own quite a few different audio devices that provide ANC and this headset is by far the weakest. Its not to say that it doesn't block out outside noise its just to say that certain noises still gets through. If you are thinking of buying this headset primarily for the ANC feature i would say to pass because there a lot of other audio devices out there at this price point that do a way better job. However if your looking for a good audio headset with ANC being a side feature then i would definitely say step right on in. This audio is so crisp and clean it gives you a feeling of actually being in a studio or concert hall. All the sounds are so crisp and clean and can be heard clearly without delay or lag. One thing to keep in mind is when quality is this good you are going to start to notice how good or bad audio tracks were produced. Meaning as i listened to Disturbed's "innocence" I could hear the vocals so clean there was no need to figure out what the lyrics were. The cymbals and drum bass came out so clean that i felt almost as if i was listening to them live at a concert. Now as i listened to Swizz Beats "Top Down" i noticed a big difference in audio quality. I know these are two different genres of music but the audio quality seemed more withheld, it was as if i was trying to make out if that was a bass drum in the background or a snare. Also it seemed as if the bass was just lacking all together. Just know that audio tracks are gonna sound different at this level of quality depending on the artist and their set up. Also another thing to note for all you big bass lovers out there is this audio is not very big on the bass. Its not to say you don't hear it or feel it but it just means that if your looking for something to punch through and rattle your bones then you may want to pass on this. Understand there will also be some audio quality draw back too if you decide to turn on the ANC feature as well. Now the feature that really got me hooked was the pause/play feature that is enabled whenever you take off your headphones. This feature is the first design i have personally ever seen that is able to detect when you are actively listening to the music or not. So lets say that you are listening to your favorite song and you lift just one ear bud up to listening to what someone is saying. The headphones will pick up on that and pause your music. Once you pull the earbud back down it will resume play from where the song was paused. Now how about if someones at the door and you take your headphones off and set them down? Well as soon as you take them off or set them around your neck they stop playing immediately. If you don't put them back on after about a minute they will go in to a power down rest mode preserving battery life. Now the cool thing is after you put your headphones back on there is no need to power them back up. They power themselves back up and you can hear that through the headphones. Once they power back up they will resume playback from the exact same spot you last heard on your audio track. Now as far as comfort goes this headset is ok. After about 3 hours of straight use the top of my head started to feel the pressure points. I think alot of this is due to the rigid aluminum design with minimal cushion support for the top of your head. If they had added more cushion then i think this may not of been an issue. Not a major drawback but just something to note. Another feature i wish they would of implemented would of been a fold away design for this headset. The headphones do not fold inward so when it comes time to store them in your carrying case they need to be retracted and folded flat. Here are my final thoughts. The audio quality can not be denied and the smart technology that detects when you have the headset on is a really cool feature that almost makes this a must have. With 22 hours of battery life and a 3.5mm jack and usb c cable this makes it a good competitor right out of the box. However if you tend to do a lot of traveling and are looking for something to block out as much noise as possible then i would have to recommend that you pass on this headset. While the audio quality is superb in every single way the ANC feature is average at best. This headset is designed around getting true in studio sound just the way the artist intended it to be heard and that is why i gave it five stars. Though noise cancellation may be lacking the audio quality does more then make up for it. When buying this headset understand one thing. There is a burn in time or break in period. Most headphones have to go through a few hours of playtime before the true quality is felt. Pros: -Good battery life -Fast charge time -Superb audio quality -Built in recognition for pause/playback -Ability to update firmware Cons: -Lack of a fold away design -Weak ANC

This is a interesting pair of headphones. I never heard of the company Bowers and Wilkins before these headphones. My understanding this is the companies first set of Active Noise Cancelling Headphones and they are a joy to use when I want to seriously listen to music as well as get that slightly different industrial look. They aren't your stand looking cans. Setup of the headphones was fairly straight forward and they have an App for Android and iOS. There App is basic, allowing you to adjust the ANC, the sensistivity for auto pause (I'll get to this feature in a second), adjust the voice pass through or update the firmware. No issues as I said getting the app going and getting the headphones recognized, but I at least still had to pair the headphones with the bluetooth on my phone too to use it as an audio source. Idid have a tiny hiccup with the headphones, the next morning I could not get the headphones to turn themselves back on using the power button. Luckily they had included a reset button in the right ear. At first I wondered how to get to the button with a paper clip but reading the online manual I found that the padding around the ears are magnetically attached (I wouldn't have guessed) and was able to take off the padding to reach it. Once I pressed the button it woke right up and I haven't had a problem in the last three days of constant use. Now these headphones have a wear sensor, it actually detects when you lift them off an ear or take them off and sleeps the headphones until you place them back on your ears. Its a very cool feature, but I did have to use the app to adjust the sensitity for my liking, but since doing that, its great, I take them off Music pauses. I put them back on they wake up and restart the music where it left off. Its actually a great feature and I highly enjoy it, since they sleep the headphones I don't have to turn them off. The battery life has been good, I've been using them for over the course of two days (at least 8 or so hours) and still at 60% power. With full active noise cancelling and walking a distance from my audio source. So great battery. Wear: These headphones are some of my heavyiest headphones I own and while they do fit my ears, my ears seem almost too big. I think thats due to the thick padding since, well if you looked at the picture you can see how the insides of the cans look a bit different then most phones. Its not uncomfortable except for making sure my ears get in, once they are in I can wear these headphones for hours with no issue. The ANC isn't bad. Its not as good as my Bose or Sony pairs. At least to my ears in my office. Those pairs seemed to block more of the white noise out, but the difference is only noticable when your headphones aren't playing music. Once you get music going they are about the same. However what I do notice is when I listen to music I seem to get more of the music through these headphones. I mean really get more of the music making out different instruments, at least in the music I've tried compared to my otherphones. When I want to listen to music these are my goto pairs. Additionally I recommend registering your headphones on there website, they give you access to their society of sound. They have a number of different albums you can download for free at 24bit lossless, so that was a nice bonus. The headphones come with a stylish pouch, with pockets to hold the USB-C cable (yeah, no more worrying is this cable the right way) and headphone cable if you can't/don't want to go bluetooth. Its a softside pouch and while these are very solid headphones, I wish it was a hardsided pouch that I could feel better leaving in my bad to be bumped around. However the sound on these headphones make me just carry them because its worth for the sound. Overall I love these headphones. It has great sound, decent ANC some novel features and looks. I would definitely recommend you give these a try as they seem to be my favorite pair.

I found it amusing when reading some of the early promotional material for the Bowers & Wilkins PX headphones, when B&W pretty much stated that they didn't have the best noise-cancelling software but they would deliver on the audio front. Having owned other Bowers and Wilkins headphones, I knew I would be getting a beautifully engineered piece of audio equipment that would sound phenomenal. I kind of expected them to try to boast that they were better than the current champs in this market (Bose and Sony), but by setting my expectations lower for the noise cancelling I think they were banking on the surprise factor because I definitely was surprised. Jaw-droppingly so. Pulling the PX headphones out of the box was a really nice experience and even though I had been thinking that I should have gotten the black version, I have changed my mind and really dig the soft gold and blue. They are incredibly sharp and the quilted storage bag with magnetic clasp and integrated cable storage just ices the cake. This is a quality piece of hardware and absolutely screams class. I wondered if the noise-cancelling software would screw with the sound quality that I knew and loved from my previous B&W headphones, but I think they were smart to do a bit lighter of a touch on the software and to boost the passive noise cancelling in its place. Not only does the music not sound 'processed' but I'm also not getting the pressure on my eardrum the way I do with Bose headphones which makes them unusable for me for any length of time over 30 minutes. It is interesting but as far as I can tell, the NC software is only on, you just have a choice of whether you have the 'Environmental Filter' on or off. These filters are set through the rather nice and simple app that B&W has and the different settings of Office, City, and Flight all give differing levels of sound through. I like total silence so I have it on flight but you can set it to anywhere within a range via a slider, the three choices are just presets to use. When I had these on last night and was testing them with my wife watching TV next to me on the couch and me trying to read, I could not hear anything past my music. I had my wife talk to me and I actually had to pull up an ear cup just to make sure she wasn't playing with me and mouthing like she was talking but she really was. Now with the music off, I could faintly hear her and the TV but listening to the headphones at a normal level put me in isolated bliss. The key would seem to be to earpads on the PX. Not only are they covered with a very nice leather material, but the padding is perfectly balanced between comfortable to wear but stiff enough to create a seal. Looking at the earpads I was afraid that the openings would be too small for my ears but they fit perfectly over (not on) my ears and place the tilted drivers right in the sweet spot. I have perhaps slightly larger than normal ears since I have kind of an elongated head and proportionate ears. Speaking of elongated head, it also comes to a bit of a point and so I am sensitive to the padding placed on the headbands of various headphones and so far, the PX have been nothing but comfortable. My longest stint with them so far has been about two hours and neither my ears nor my head has had any complaint. I will say that if you wear glasses (I don't) you probably will not get as good of a passive noise seal and the pressure from the pads may press a bit on the arms of your glasses. As for the controls on the Bowers & Wilkins PX, they have decided to forgo the touch controls that are all the rage now and stick with tried and true buttons. I think that this is a perfectly valid choice and considering that other manufacturers are still working the kinks out of their touch controls, it was probably a pretty smart move on the part of B&W. As for the sound quality of the PX headphones, I have zero complaints. They have a pretty neutral sound to them and don't seem to accentuate any particular range. The bass is there enough to make rock sound good and the midrange and treble are nice enough to make pop and jazz sound great. I only have one complaint for these headphones. I was kind of surprised that the armatures for the earpads aren't completely round and sealed. They are in fact, concave channels that the audio cable runs down. While they are still very solid and the cable well protected, when I first saw these, I thought that those were solid metal. Not particularly sure if there is some engineering reason for this or if it were to cut back on weight since these are not delicate flowers but I just thought it strange. As for its actual performance, I got no problems with the PX and I see a long and beautiful relationship in our future which will fortunately help me keep a long and beautiful relationship with my wife! Bowers and Wilkins has a winner in the PX and they really should not sell themselves short in any facet of their performance. They are worth every penny and can stand toe to toe with the others at the top of the heap.

First this is a written copy of my video review, which can be found on youtube under the title "Bowers & Wilkins PX - The Wireless Headphones to Beat in 2018" If you would like to watch that rather than read, then head to youtube and copy and paste that title into the search engine. And as always thank you for the support. Below is my written review. Hello Ladies & Gentlemen, Devon from Dcon here and these are Bowers & Wilkins PX wireless headphones. They are noise-cancelling headphones and they weigh 335 grams. Bluetooth 4.1 is built-in and these headphones are APTx HD compliant.The battery life ranges between 22-29 hours and USB Type-C is implemented for recharging. These headphones and are very low key and modern. I have the space grey version, which allows it to be even more minimalistic, but there is also a blue and gold variant that is a bit more exuberant if that’s your thing. Each cup rotates 135 degrees giving the headphones a foldable design making it easy to pack away into the carrying pouch. The outer cups and headband are covered in this checkered fabric, while the inner earcups and headband is constructed of memory foam and are enclosed in a soft leather material. The memory foam and leather are really nice and allow the headphones to be extremely comfortable. The circumference of the earpads is a bit on the small side. They’re fine for my ears, but I could see this being a problem for others as it may cause some discomfort. The headband is adjustable and can be extended by simply pulling each side downward. The speaker wire is nicely covered in a nylon-braided cover and runs along each adjustable rod. While in design this looks great, in practicality it is a poor design-choice as they will likely get damaged if you get caught in the rain. Back to the ear cups for a second, this plastic piece here is more than just a branding opportunity; it also covers the rear part of the speaker. This allows the headphones to be a closed-back headphone opposed to an open-back headphone. So you may be thinking Devon why do I care if my headphones are closed-back? Well one reason is they help limit noise from leaking out of the headphone as well as preventing noise from coming in. This is nice for when you are in a crowded area such as a coffee shop and you don’t want to disturb or be disturbed by anyone around you. Closed-back headphones also provide you with a more confined soundstage which allows for a more intimate listening experience, whereas open-back headphones allow for a much more expansive soundstage. Think of this as seeing a concert at a much smaller venue such as Lincoln Hall versus a much larger venue such as the Red Rocks. The main reason why these are close-backed though is to implement the noise-cancelling feature, which I’ll talk about further in a minute. Along the right earcup is where all the functionality lies. The power button doubles as the Bluetooth pairing button. Holding the button down for a few seconds sends the headphones into pairing mode, where up to 8 devices can be remembered. To turn the headphones off, you slide the power button to the left. Interestingly enough, B&W does not recommend turning the headphones off, they recommend letting the headphones go into standby mode. After a few minutes of no activity the headphones will go to sleep. This actually works quite well as the battery holds a fantastic charge while in standby and is just one less thing you have to worry about when taking them off. Just above the power button is the “environmental mode” button. This activates the noise-cancelling feature. There is three sensitivity options for noise-cancellation, all of which are accessible via B&W’s phone application. Airline is the most aggressive of the three, as it attempts to cancel out any external engine noise. The noise-cancellation works well, but is nowhere near as aggressive or effective as Bose’s quiet-comfort series, which virtually cut out all sound around you. This can be a good or bad thing depending on your preference, I personally prefer the less aggressive approach of these headphones. The included three modes are a nice touch, but I honestly couldn’t tell a major difference between them. The noise-cancellation is great when in a noisier environment, but I recommended leaving it off when you are in a quiet environment as the sound is degraded some and your battery will discharge at a slightly faster rate with it activated. The remaining buttons are your standard volume up, volume down and play/pause in between. The play button also doubles as a track selector. Pressing it twice will move to the next track, while pressing it three times will select the previous track. With the headphones on, there is a slight learning curve with all of the buttons. The play button is slightly raised to differentiate it from the volume up and down, but I don’t think it’s enough to minimize mistakes. After extended use, you’ll get used to it, but I just personally think it could have been better designed. Spacing the buttons apart and texturizing the play/pause button would have been ideal. Since these headphones are Bluetooth, they’re capable of receiving calls. To answer a call, you simply press the play button. To reject a call you simply hold the play button down. In terms of call quality it was slightly awkard hearing the person I was talking to. The connection and quality was fine, but their voice was really muffled. The included microphone does a nice job however and everyone I talked to reported positive feedback on call quality. Located toward the bottom is the 3.5mm headphone port and the USB type-c port. Both are capable of listening to music via a wired connection. The USB type-c cable allows you to listen to music and charge at the same time. These are convenient options if you wanted to use a device that is not APTx HD compliant and you wanted to listen to lossless music, otherwise they kind of defeat the purpose of wireless headphones. Before I talk about the sound quality, I wanted to quickly mention the battery. It is a 850mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery and it is fantastic. B&W is touting 22 hours of battery life when using noise-cancellation and 29 hours when only using the headphones wirelessly. During my testing I was able to get around 20 hours with noise cancellation and 26 hours without it. All while allowing the cans to go into standby mode in between. Alright now on to what really matters: the sound. These headphones are APTx HD compliant and in short APTx HD means these wireless headphones can receive lossless audio from any compatible device. This is insane, because lossless audio was only available via a wired connection due to their large file size and now with the APTx HD codec, lossless audio is available via wireless connections. For anyone unfamiliar with lossless audio, essentially this is audio without any compression. Audio printed on CD’s for example is completely lossless. While music streamed from Pandora, spotify or purchased from iTunes is all compressed. Compressed audio is bad because you end up losing a lot of the fidelity that makes music so amazing. Alright now I will actually talk about the quality of sound these headphones produce. These headphones sound really, really good. They hit low enough to make bass feel substantial without bottoming out or sounding boomy. The midrange is nice and accurate, while the treble is a little on the bright side and can cause some minor ear fatigue after long listening sessions. The soundstage presented is a bit constrained and that is a limitation of the closed-back design, but the actual separation of instruments is really nice. By this I mean there is nice clarity among different instruments on a track when they are all playing at once. For example, you’re able to differentiate a guitar from a bass guitar all while hearing a tambourine off in the distance when listening to “New Slang” by The Shins. Instruments don’t necessarily sound as true to life as you’ll find on more expensive headphones and that’s only due to the limitations of the drivers implemented, which is honestly expected for any headphone under $500 dollars. Overall the sound is very impressive and in my opinion is the best sounding wireless headphone available in 2018. If you’re like me and you want a minimalistic wireless headphone without compromising on compressed audio, then this is absolutely the headphone for you. Not only is lossless audio possible with these, but the battery life is incredible and they are very comfortable for extended periods of time. The noise-cancellation is implemented nicely, although it is not as aggressive as Bose’s quiet-comfort series. So if noise-cancellation is your main priority for flights, work or studying and you don’t care about lossless audio capabilities, then go with the quietcomforts. But if you care about sound quality first and foremost, these are your guys!

As someone who travels a lot for work I'm always on the look out for new noise cancelling headphones and I'm also a huge fan of Bowers and Wilkins. When I first discovered Bowers and Wilkins speakers it was the audio equivalent of going from black and white TV to color. The sound was incredible. I even use Bowers and Wilkins shelf speakers and a subwoofer for my desktop PC in my home office. As you can imagine then, I was very excited to see that Bowers and Wilkins had developed the PX, noise cancelling Bluetooth headphones. As you would expect from Bowers and Wilkins, the quality of these headphones is apparent before you even hear them. They are a little heavier than other noise canceling headphones and this is not a negative thing in my mind. They feel incredible as you remove them from the box. Charging them is easy with the supplied USB-C cable and Bowers and Wilkins also provides an audio cable for when you're not able to use Bluetooth. Once charged the Bowers and Wilkins PX will provide 22 hours of use. One feature I really liked was the fact that if you take the headphones off for a moment the headphones will pause playback and resume playback as soon as you put the headphones back on. I'm honestly amazed that no one else has thought of that before, as far as I know that is. The PX comes with a stylish fabric case which would be great for headphones that I would use at home although for taking on the road I would have preferred it if Bowers and Wilkins had provided a hardened case that could protect the headphones. Overall though, if you're looking for exceptional quality in some noise canceling headphones I would definitely recommend the PX.

I love these Bowers & Wilkins headphones! The quality is just amazing, real leather not the fake pleather! They are a beautiful and well made. The sound is truly wonderful, very crisp, clear sounding headphones, you can hear every instrument. I enjoy listening to all types of music with Jazz being one of my favorites. I gave this 4 stars because they are a little tight but I understand they will loosen after breaking them in. These headphones sound better to me than the Bose quiet comfort and the Sony 1000. If you are looking for headphones give these a try, you won’t be sorry! The price is a little steep but you will get a great sounding not to mention beautiful quality pair of headphones.

Two completely different sounds on bluetooth and wire. Two of the Noise canceling models make the bass crack . Any $40 headphones have better sound. I'm not sure what happened with B&W Very well build and that is it. Ps: For anyone with good review. Please try V-moda

I was hyped about the M2, but when I arrived at the store I thought it would be a good idea to listen to them before getting them. I’m glad I did. I narrowed the field down to the M2, and the B&W PX. The fidelity was better with the M2 hands down. However, it lacked many features that the PX has. The build, IMO, is on par. The NC was, too. What the M2 didn’t have was a lift-off-the-ear pause feature, and a 22 hour battery. I am not sure if the M2 has app support. I DL the B&W can app from the App Store, and was able to register the PX, update the firmware, and settings. It will automatically let you know when there are updates to be DL. Amazing support for $110 less. I was weary of going with mainstream Sony, or Bose again, albeit, I was served well with Bose QCxx wired set, but after sometime the “leather” started to pill, and shed black dots that exposed the foam underneath it. I just recently sold them, but had about 10 years of trips with them. They served me well. These PX sound better, has better build quality, and features than the mainstream, but couldn’t see spending over a hundo more for a just better fidelity. I know the fidelity is much better than the mainstream offerings. It was more important to me to have a set of cans that were well rounded. Amazing how far cans have come in that timeframe. Overall, I couldn’t honestly give the PX 5 stars since they don’t sound like the M2, but would have rated them higher than the M2 since they lack the versatility. Now, I have a pair of Beats X to carry with me for work—got those for free from Apple for a service mishap, and the PX for my trips. Happy listening.