Customer Ratings & Reviews

These earbuds have amazing quality sound that makes them unique.

Sound quality is great. But, there is a distortion in the right ear. I had to return them and am waiting on the new pair. It sounded like if you turn your radio up too loud. I tried uninstalling the app, repairing them and putting them in and out of the case. Nothing worked.

For an audiophile, the pi8 Bowers and Wilkins earbuds can't be beat. I have had tbe contender Sony WF-1000XM5 earbuds, but had to trade them in after multiple times, the individuals I call, or those who call me can't hear me through the Sony earbuds. The complaints were that I sound muffled or something else like I soud as if I'm under water.

Easily the best earbuds on the market today. Sound quality is amazing.

I have had many different brands of ear buds and these, by far, have the best sound quality. If you are strictly looking for sound quality, then I would definitely reccomend Pi8. But, the battery life is short. I wear these at work. 4 hours MAX.

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.

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.

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

If you don’t mess around with it’s natural sound it might just sound great but if like extra bass these might not be for you

If you use these for Music only then these are beyond superb but the real downside is connectivity and phone calls. When taking a phone call you sound far and muffled besides being disconnected.

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.

I’ve enjoyed several pairs of top quality earbuds in recent years, but these Pi8’s are in a league of their own. From the moment I popped them effortlessly into my ears & selected my favorite “testing music”, I was stunned. I’m amazed that 2 little earbuds are able to put out the high sound quality that you would only expect from full over-the-ear superior headphones. Out of the box, I topped them off with a 30 minute charge. I downloaded the Bowers & Wilkins Music App. It requires that you create an account using your email (Most Apps don’t require this, so it’s an extra burden to add yet another code to my password manager). Pairing was fast & easy with my Android phone and I’ve had no connectivity issues. - Comfortable fit. The out-of-the-box eartips were the perfect size, but 3 additional sizes (L, S, XS) are included if those are not a good fit. They look very sleek, sit almost flush with the ear & barely stick out. The new design of the Pi8’s is a major improvement over the Pi7’s. They’re very comfortable & I never have to adjust them or push them in like some of my others. I also don’t have to twist or screw them in to get a better fit. - Sound quality is off the charts rich, full, balanced & clean! I feel fully immersed in the music with these buds unlike any other. I can hear strings with clarity that I’m never able to detect on my other high-end buds. And finally, these Pi8’s put out the warm full bass that I’ve been looking for, for years. - B&W App - Although the App is not mandatory, I would definitely recommend downloading & creating an account to use it. It’s not full of features, but it gives you the needed basics to truly enjoy your buds like: Battery charge %, Noise Cancellation options, touch control customization & most importantly…the equalizer. Overall, I would definitely recommend these Pi8’s for true music enjoyment. They offer the best sound quality of any buds I’ve ever owned.

Bowers & Wilkins has really stepped it up with the new Pi8 earbuds. The design of the earbuds is extremely attractive. They are now smaller than the previous generation and are much more comfortable to wear. The Pi8’s have longer battery life and the sound quality is fantastic. The earbuds come well packaged and include the earbuds, case, 3.5mm headphone cable, charging cable and additional ear tips as well as a manual. I had no problem connecting them Bluetooth to my Android phone, BT turntable, laptop or TV. You can pair multiple devices which is a very convenient feature. I already had the B&W app as I also have the over the ear headphones from Bowers & Wilkins. The app allows you to EQ the earbuds, however there are no sound presets. You can also adjust active noise cancellation and adjust the touch controls. Once I adjusted the EQ to my liking, I found the sound of the earbuds amazing. The sound is smooth and not harsh or overly bright. There is a good amount of bass. The soundstage is very open, and music sounds fantastic. I have several name brand earbuds and headphones, and these are the best I have so far. They are hard to tell the difference between the B&W headphones as far as sound quality and performance. They fall a little short on the ANC front compared to the headphones, but I expected that. Bowers & Wilkins have priced these earbuds according to their performance and have done a fantastic job with them. If you are looking for a top tier earbud you really need to experience these new Pi8’s.

Loud but the noise canceling leave a lot to be desired

So I got the previous version of the Pi7 earbuds, and I thought those were great. However, these Pi8 earbuds take it to another level. First I'm start with build quality. The body of these are different from the older models, and they feel more modern. Less weight, and have a different touch when handling them. The materials used are simply better, and I think that if you have both versions you'll understand more of what I speak of. Next is the controls. Since these are built more like today's traditional earbuds, there's more room for the touch controls. While I'm not a fan of touch controls, these are easy to use in many situations. The application. Get nice upgrade from what it was before, and this makes it easy to setup your earbuds when first get them out of the box. Simply open the lid on the earbuds, and follow the instructions. You'll be setup in minutes. Fun and useful feature is the ability to use them with wireless transmitter functions. If you are wanting to use them with a 3.5mm headphone jack, just plug them in with the included cable. Boom, all set. Lastly is the sound quality! Wow oh wow, I mean sooo much better with the new carbon cups inside, that's all I can say. Strong bass, great minds, and very solid highs. These are a win! Only con is price, they are up there. But you get high end quality with that higher price.

Great sound however poor battery quality that doesn’t last for more then 2hrs

For music lovers and audiophiles, sound quality is often at the forefront of our purchasing decisions; in most instances, budgets will be a bit higher than what most would want to spend. Nevertheless, audio quality, specifically lossless quality support, should be an absolute priority regardless of the device. However, we must recognize that quality will undoubtedly mean something different from person to person. For me personally, over the last decade I have dedicated myself to the joys of extensively collecting physical music and analyzing the technical intricacies of lossless audio; quality for me is controlling the listening experience at every possible variable from the source file, the main device, and the end speaker. Naturally, for some this may sound like quite an undertaking, but life would be incomplete without hearing music as it was intended. Thus, I was extremely excited to test the latest high end wireless headphones from Bowers and Wilkins: the reference Pi8! For most people, the Pi8 setup should be very familiar as it is essentially the same with every other wireless earbuds. As typical of every manufacturer, the first step would be to download their specific application; unfortunately an account is required to use the application, a seemingly recent trend that I am not fond of at all. On the one hand, the good news is that at least they will still work and pair without the application. However, once you get your device paired with the Pi8’s, and you are signed in, you will then be able to access the various settings such as the tap behavior, noise cancelling, and the 5 band EQ setting (there are no sound presets). In addition, you can also see the battery levels of the case and the earbuds. For accessories, the Pi8 comes with a USB Type C charging cable and also a USB Type C to 3.5mm cable so you can connect another device via the 3.5mm to the charging case and transmit audio wirelessly to the earbuds. In addition, the other USB Type C cable will also let you transmit audio to the charging case for wireless transmission. On my Xperia 5 III, both the 3.5mm and USB connection worked flawlessly, but obviously Bluetooth should be disabled first. I was quite pleased with this feature as you don’t usually see that on wireless earbuds. Lastly, the Pi8s come with a set of ear tips; medium sized ones are pre-installed. I would also like to recommend you take a look at the full manual found on the website, as it goes into more detail with respect to the color LED statuses found on the charging case as well as paring information. Before I discuss the sound quality, I first would like to mention the noise cancelling as I was honestly surprised at the implementation. With noisy environments, the Pi8s did a fabulous job in sealing in the sound. In my living room with the TV volume set 25, I could not hear anything coming from the TV. With my music paused, I was quite surprised at how good of a seal these provided; perhaps even more surprising was that even with the noise cancelling off, outside noise was still relatively muffled! Even walking outside at a shopping center next to a busy intersection, with noise cancelling on, I could barely hear the traffic. Simply put, I was quite impressed with the Pi8s and its sound insulation. Furthermore, they are quite comfortable; long listening sessions never caused any discomfort. As for call quality, I was also quite impressed with the sound. Voices were nice and clear and there was a noticeable difference from the cheaper earbuds that these replaced. Most should be please with regards to the noise cancelling perspective. As with sound quality, I first want to mention a couple of preliminary points before I discuss my observations; most importantly the Bluetooth protocols. As most are probably aware, the Pi8s support the newest APTX lossless protocol (or Snapdragon Sound with APX Lossless). Unfortunately, depending on your device, the implementation of codecs may or may not be supported. Initially, I was under the impression that my Sony Xperia 5 III would be new enough to support the latest codec, but unfortunately it wasn’t added until the next generation (aside from the fact that my phone on Qualcomm’s website is listed as Snapdragon Sound compatible but not lossless). Upon opening the developer options, my only choices was SBC, AAC, APTX (presumably APTX Classic as listed on the Pi8 spec sheet), and APTX adaptive audio. Now keep in mind that APTX adaptive audio is listed as 276 kbps to 420 kbps and it will shift depending on the connection environment so unfortunately this is limiting the Pi8’s in that regard. It is also a shame that the Pi8’s do not support LDAC as that would have at least allowed an increase in the transfer rate up to 990kbps on my device, though the bit rate on some of my FLAC files do exceed over 1,000 Kbps. Undoubtedly, this naturally raises the question can you fully have lossless quality over Bluetooth? Personally, with such a question I have always tried to argue that it is best to assume the worst and say no. Given the nature of wireless transmission (packet loss), even if the smallest fraction of a byte is lost during its transfer at any point regardless if its audible or not, the end result cannot be called not lossless. As such, perception is not the same thing as reality. In that regard, it is why I have always preferred wired connections with any audio device, stereo, or home theater system. However, I certainly do not want to diminish the Pi8’s and their fairly high quality sound; it is merely difficult to minimize the technical context that accompanies such products and audio in general. As noted earlier, my lossless collection has blossomed over that past decade; currently, my library consists of 3,573 songs with my FLAC backup at around 265 GB across over 13 genres. As such, the majority of my songs are 44.1 KHz/16 Bit sourced from my physical CDs. All songs were ripped by EAC 1.3 using the secure rip feature and are encoded to FLAC 1.30. I have also personally scanned each file and analyzed every single song using a spectrogram (Spek 0.8.5) to make sure it is of proper quality (just because it’s on CD doesn’t guarantee someone knew what they were doing; music sourced from lossy sources have made it on to official CDs which will also make it on to streaming platforms and digital stores. I do not stream for this reason nor do I own the music). All songs were played from my Sony Xperia 5 III over APTX adaptive audio. As for sound quality, the quality of the Pi8’s is quite exceptional given their size. It is a clear upgrade over my old Bose Soundsport headphones. Starting with my metal and rock genres, I was quite surprised here as I noticed instrument separation was quite good. A couple of standout tracks worth noting was on Crypta's "Stronghold" starting at 5:16 the guitar solo has some really good separation from the low end. On "Lullaby For The Forsaken" the bass at 0:50 is extremely clear. On Trivium's "Torn Between Scylla And Charybdis" the bass line intro comes in perfectly. Shockingly, you can hear the whole thing; for comparison, most laptops I own can barely replicate this part. Next on Epica's "Victims Of Contingency" from 0:45-1:20 the drastic vocal changes were handled quite well; towards the end of the song, I heard more choir and background vocals than on my other earbuds. Lastly I was quite pleased with Elysion's "What Lies Beneath" and "Break Free" as vocals were nice and centered. Next, I wanted to test a few other genres, specifically with a focus on more instrumental tracks. On Fat Jon's "Risk It All" there is a bass line that starts at 0:43 that runs on top of smaller bass notches; the Pi8 held its own here and completely produced the line throughout. On "Your Purpose" at 0:39, the middle tapping sound is centered perfectly over the bass line along with the ambient string like sound that plays throughout. Lastly, on "How You Feel" is an absolute joy to listen to; the tapping and bass line are just perfect. Next, I moved on to Septicflesh's "Dogma Of Prometheus (Orchestra Version)" one in which has a good balance of choir and orchestra. At 2:10, the brass sections really come alive; at 4:09 there is a nice clap with choir vocals over it. The Pi8 is quite the performer. Next, I moved on to Si-Sé's "Mariposa En Havana" in which the crisp middle frequency percussion taps and viola at 0:20 are quite delightful with distinct separation. As for the low end, there is a slight occasional rumble but nothing too crazy. On "Slip Away" there is a nice bass line that picks up at around 2:00 mark, and the song finishes with a nice piano arrangement at the end; when it merges with the low end, the Pi8 really shines here. Lastly on "Steppin' Out" the intro bass line is quite low; to even produce a fraction of this rumble is quite extraordinary. At around 1:04, the higher chime like notes are crystal clear. Lastly, on Nujabes "The Space Between Two World" is just pure gold. Every section of the song from lows to middles are rendered perfectly clear. Overall, the Pi8's is perfectly natural across all genres and most should be completely satisfied. In conclusion, the Pi8s are perhaps the best wireless headphones I have personally used; even more impressive was given their relatively small size and weight, they were still able to replicate parts of my music that I wasn't expecting. In addition, the noise cancelling is spectacular and I was able to drown out most of all the external noise during my testing. Furthermore, they are extremely comfortable. Aside from the codec situation, the Pi8s are still worth a strong look as they do sound that good; understand that the lossless claim should be taken with a grain of salt and that your device will also determine if you can use the proper codec. Despite this, if the budget allows, the Pi8's still come highly recommended.

The earbud is slick and comfortable, and I like the noise cancellation but it's flaky and keeps disconnecting from my iPhone on either side

These are probably the best in ear headphones I've ever heard/owned and they are beautiful and classy looking. I am definitely keeping these. Let me explain why I gave it 3 stars. It has nothing to do with the sound, but more with the connectivity and app performance. When I first paired these to my iPhone, I was prompted to update the firmware. Make sure you leave the earbuds in the case with the lid open so that it maintains connectivity. The used the default ear tips. Now, I'm coming from an AirPod Pro 2, so these are a bit big in my ear and I thought it would take time to get used to. Well, they sit so comfortably in my ear and I did not notice any added weight. I have not tried running with these so I can't comment on how well they stay in my ear, but I did not feel like they were slipping out like I've experienced with other earbuds. I did have an issue with sound coming out even though it shows that it's paired on my iPhone and on the app. I had to remove it from both and re-pair it again. With the first song that played, I can hear how clear and warm these are right out of the box. It has a 5 band EQ slider that I was able to play around with to get the sound I wanted. Over the 3 weeks that I've owned them, I've had issues where when I take 1 earbud out, the music is still playing. There have been times where I don't hear anything out of them. I've also had issues where the it shows connected on my bluetooth screen, but when I go to the app, it's not connected. I've had to remove and pair them again on multiple occasions. And just this last week, there was an update available that seems to have made it worse than before. I hope B&W resolves this quick, because I love the sound out of these and would hate to have to return them Now as far as the sound goes, with the 5 band EQ, you can customize it to your liking. The soundstage on them are fantastic and everything is so clear. These are good for all types of music, but you will see how well these fair with acoustic or songs in the rock/grunge category. For me, I've listened to the same songs on multiple occasions, but with these, I started to notice other sounds in that song that I've never heard before.

Have had these about 60 days, tbe right ear will no longer charge. Bestbuy wibt exchange them and BW is guving me tve run around with a warranty claim. Just save your self 400$