Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have B&W speakers and over the ear headphones. Bought these for travel and they are great.

Good quality product to use. Good sound and highly recommended for audiophiles

I’ve come to know Bowers and Wilkins for their home audio speakers having a 5.1 system as my home entertainment system. Since I loved my speakers I was really anxious to get my hands on the Pi8 earbuds. I work in an open concept office for an engineering company and it really gets noisy, especially in the morning when we have our calls with our counterparts in India. The adjacent calls can be very distracting so I’m always looking for a pair of earbuds with active noise cancelling to help silence the noise. The Pi8 earbuds did not disappoint. Out of the box the medium tips that were already installed fit my ears perfectly. They do include 3 other pairs of tips so you can fine tune the fit to your ears. Also included is a charging case, a USB-C to USB-C charging cable and something you don’t usually see with other earbuds… a USB-C to 3.5mm jack audio cable (cool feature later). The charging case supports wireless charging so no need to plug in if you have a desktop wireless charger. The other feature of the case has to do with the included audio cable. This was a jaw dropper for me… the charging case can act as an audio transmitter if using the included USB-C to 3.5mm jack cable. So if you have a vintage audio player that doesn’t have Bluetooth you can use the tethered case as the interface. MIND BLOWN!!!! I have a stash of old iPods (yes, the old ones with wheel and audio jack) and now I can use them with the Pi8!!! Heck, I might even dig out my old Walkman cassette player!!! The Bowers and Wilkins Music app does a great job of linking 3rd party services such as Pandora and Tidal but I just use my Apple Music app or other streaming apps to push my music to the Pi8’s. With the app you can customize the touch controls, use the advanced equalizer to adjust the tone to your liking or I just leave it on True Sound which gets you a balanced output. You can also switch between pass through (which offers a bit of noise cancelling), noise cancelling or no noise cancelling. The app will also provide any firmware updates if any should be required. Finally the app also shows you the battery level for both the earbuds and the charging case. The sound quality is amazing. Switching between my rock, progressive rock, and audio books I find the True Sound audio output perfect without having to tweak the equalizer. I tend to wear my earbuds throughout the day due to the high noise level so I get in the habit of keeping my charging case’s battery at least 50% level and when I take a break away from my desk, I will toss the earbuds into the case. I get between 6 or 7 hours of full run time but since I do put them in the charger when I’m away from my desk I can usually go the whole day (11 hours) without having to worry about battery life. They are extremely comfortable, so I have no problem wearing them the entire day. The only ding I can give the Pi8’s is the price. At $399 it may be tough to justify for some but if you need a good pair of noise cancelling earbuds these are hard to beat.

Like the sound quality, build quality, and noise cancellation.

These speaker are incredible. Deep, rich bass and sparkling highs. They support AirPlay2 and are home kit compatible.

Amazing oroduct snd is truly amazkng. Would recommend

Amazing effects on sound, better noise canceling device.

Good sound system, but lacks integration choices with no inputs available like fiber optical cable or RCA.

I had high hopes but quickly disappointed! I truly feel my pair were defective because the sound and noise cancelling were nowhere close to my Bose Ultra Quiet headphones I recently purchased. I had to increase the equalizer settings to their max to get any fidelity. I also tested the two pair with my TV sound in the background. With the Bose I could not hear any sound with the Bowers I was able to hear the voices, muffled, but still intelligible. I may try another pair in the future, but for now I’m sticking with Bose.

It’s a good sounding speaker, but definitely not audiophile grade.

Stellar quality. Of note are the genuine leather headband and earcups. The rest of the headphone appears to be brushed aluminum and very minimal plastic.

Very heavy ear cuffs. After prolonged wear it can affect your neck and shoulders. Also heavy on the VOC chemical smell, much like fresh paint.

Everything is awesome... cool...Satisfaction... Mindbolling...

Amazing headphones, I have tried many established brands but after using this, I was very impressed.

Love the PI8's. Best buy delivers as promised as always!!

[Employee of bestbuy] My expectations were high considering the existing reviews. I went with the mcclaren edition because of the color way, but these headphones have no reason to be $700-$800. They are built nice with metal, but man the audio quality is ok at best. Sony XM5 while plastic are atleast light weight and sound the same if not better with far superior noise cancellation.

I bought Formation Duo + Bass on April 13th, 2020 from Best Buy. They were delivered on April 16th. At the time of writing this review on April 20, I have listened to them for 4 days. I have to say that the product is totally UNUSABLE for a “wireless” speaker. Please be noted that I have altogether 6 different Airplay and Bluetooth speakers (including one B&W Zeppelin) at home before I purchased Formation series. All my 6 current wireless speakers work perfectly and smoothly with Airplay and Bluetooth. None of my current 6 wireless/Bluetooth speakers have ever demonstrated any problems that were found on Formation Duo. I use the same Tidal App on the same iPhone via the same router at home for Airplay/Bluetooth on all wireless speakers. So, the comparison of Formation Duo with other speakers should be a fair comparison in terms of connectivity issues. The problems with Formation Duo are (based on the usage of 4 days with about 4 hours listening everyday): 1. Airplay is completely unusable. This problem demonstrates itself in several aspects. a. iPhone 11 Pro cannot connect to Formation Duo. iPhone is always showing the “connecting” window when selecting Formation Duo from the “SPEAKERS&Tvs” list. Have to reset Formation Duo for this issue. b. When connected to Airplay, music mutes on Formation Duo for no reason. By “mute”, I mean music on Tidal still plays but Formation Duo just does not make any sound. I don’t mean “mute occasionally like once within several hours”. Music mutes for 3-5 seconds at every 15-20 seconds interval. I cannot listen to music via Airplay at all. Such a problem never appears on any of my other wireless speakers (including the old Zeppelin) when using Airplay streaming from Tidal on the same iPhone 11 Pro via the same home network router. c. Each time after music resumes on Formation Duo after the unexpected mute, the Formation bass will get disconnected, i.e., music only plays on Formation duo, not simultaneously on Formation Bass anymore. In other words, the mesh network now only has the Formation duo instead of Formation Duo + Bass. The only way to connect Formation Bass again is to wait for the Formation Duo to go to sleep then play music again. 2. Bluetooth problems a. During the 4 days of listening, music mutes on Bluetooth three times for about 3-5 seconds. It is usable as a wireless speaker when using Bluetooth. However, this is extremely disappointing given that my other speakers have never had any Bluetooth connectivity issues albeit they have much older generations of Bluetooth technology. Again, I am using the same Tidal App playing the same playlist (downloaded into my phone) from the same iPhone on all my wireless speakers. b. After the unexpected mute when using Bluetooth, Formation Duo will automatically continue to make sound again. However, Formation Bass will also get disconnected. The only way to get Formation Bass back to the mesh network is to disconnect Formation Duo in iPhone Bluetooth menu and reconnect again.

Excellent headphone. I have two headphones from Bose, this one’s performance make it worth to have.

I've heard great thinks about Bowers & Wilkins over the years and decided to give their new Pi8 Wireless earbuds a try. Clearly, they are quite expensive as compared to the competition and I have higher expectations based on that. First off, you need to download the Music/B&W app to get them set up and fine tuned. Unpacking and set up was easy and I was up and running quickly. The box came with the charging case, the earbuds, various sizes of silicone ear tips, a USB C charging cable and a USB C to 3.5mm audio cable. From here, Im going to break out the positive from the negative things in separate sections below. The good stuff -Build quality and internal tech. The Pi8s are made of metal and seem very sturdy. Their weight is nice and I didn't have any issue wearing them over extended periods of time. They slide into the ear easily as well. Inside, they utilize a 12mm carbon cone driver which provides extended frequency response, particularly in the higher ranges. They have a high-end 32-bit DSP inside which was very tantalizing. That's good stuff for any system, let alone a pair of earbuds. The outer surface offers limited touch controls that can be set up via the app. which I will discuss later. They are IP54 rated which isn't the best but should provide some decent splash protection...not sure they are sweat proof. They offer Bluetooth 5.4 which should be good for a very stable connection along with extended range. They support AptX Lossless, AptX Adaptive, AptX Classic, AAC and SBC codecs which is fantastic. They have auto-adaptive ANC that is monitored by 3 microphones per earbuds. It can be turned off and on along with a transparency function via touch control or through the app. -Battery life is quite good at 6.5 hours per charge and an additional 13.5 hours provided by the charging case. The charging case can be charged via USB C or wirelessly on Qi charging pads, which I have been using. - Smart Streaming Case: The charging case acts as a retransmitter for various premium streaming services (Qobuz, Tidal, deezer, etc.) which can be linked in the app. I am not exactly sure how this works but apparently it's an industry first. I linked one of my accounts and can use it via the B&W app directly. Hopefully they will explain more about this feature in the near future. -Sound quality: The carbon driver may actually make a noticeable difference. I listened to several genres of music and the higher frequency sounds are less harsh or tinny. The bass is not too strong or overbearing like some other manufacturers. The B&W app has a custom equalizer function where you can fine tune the sound to your particular liking. Now the not so good stuff: -The provided silicone ear tips. They are very ineffective at sound isolation and luckily I had some premium foam ear tips that fit. The sound difference was night and day. I would think that at this price point, B&W would have already made that decision to add premium foam tips. -No spatial audio. B&W hasn't developed their own version of spatial audio as of yet, and it's unfortunate. Spatial audio does make a huge difference in the listening experience and I have it on a couple of other sets of earbuds I already own. I also assumed it or something like it would be included at this price point. -Touch controls are VERY limited. You can't control the ANC functions and the volume control at the same time. The app only allows you select EITHER controls for ANC or volume control. That is a very poor decision on B&W's behalf. ALL of my existing earbuds offer both of these functions to co-exist on the earbuds at the same time. I need to have both available as I use them both when Im walking or riding my bike. Not sure if a future firmware will address this but it seriously needs to be changed. -Auto-Adaptive ANC. It's just not that powerful compared to others on the market. Its not awful but it certainly could be better, again at this price point. B&W also needs to create an anti-wind option for times like walking or riding outdoors. A couple of my existing earbuds do offer that ANC function and it makes a huge difference. I used these Pi8s on a few bike rides and it wasn't the best experience. - Multi-point connection. I had a very difficult time getting 2 devices (phone an watch) to be set up and control the earbuds properly. It was a shot in the dark as to which one was running the show..one moment the phone accessed the earbud controls, ,then a moment later, it was the watch. Not fun. Hopefully this can be addressed in an app update of some sort. -Sound quality: As I mentioned above these do sound good, but again at this price point I expected more and they could sound better. They lack separation and depth like another pair of earbuds I already have and maybe Im just spoiled now from them. Music sounds a touch muddy as the separation is lacking. The highs are nice but I wish the bass had more depth. Overall they sound too flat even with the app's custom equalizer set up. Im sorry say it B&W, but they're a little disappointing. Overall these are some very finely made, high quality earbuds that just don't match some of the other competitors out there that cost less money. Im hoping B&W tweaks some things via app and firmware updates to refine them to be their best.

Great over the ear headphones But lacks on sound quality on high volume