Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 review: new headphone flagship offers bigger sound, gorgeous design

Introducing Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2, the latest Bluetooth headphone from the iconic UK Hi-Fi marque. These updated flagship cans build on the foundations of the original Px8, introducing mechanical and acoustic improvements for a more stable fit and commensurately expressive sound.

With high-res wireless codec support, advanced noise cancellation and luxury materials, this new brand champ is audiophile grade in everything except price (although the tag is still pretty toppy), and makes a compelling case for itself in every category that counts.

So should they be your next headphone buy?

As befits that Series 2 suffix, this second gen Px8 is an evolution on what we’ve seen and heard before, with a number of highly impactful refinements.

Bowers & Wilkins engineers have redesigned the drive units and even rethought the way it sits on your head. Turns out these advances are mutually beneficial. 

Priced at £629, the Px8 S2 is up against some stiff competition, including the Dali  IO-8, Sony WH-1000XM6  and Focal Bathys – but if you care about sound, comfort and craftsmanship in equal measure, they’re a serious temptation. Let’s take a closer look…

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Wireless Headphones: Design and features

Most obviously, build quality is superb. Supple Nappa leather covers the headband and ear cushions, offering a softness and breathability that synthetic alternatives still struggle to match. The cups maintain their cool over long listening sessions, so your ears don’t feel sweaty. 

Aluminium armatures replace the ABS plastic found lower down the product food chain. The change has both aesthetic and acoustic benefits, less flex and bounce.

As is the Bowers way, they still clamp a little tighter than rivals, but they’re undeniably easy to wear. They don’t budge, which is a boon when you’re bopping away to vintage Nu Metal.

The exposed cabling within the yokes is a nostalgic nod to Bowers & Wilkins’ original P5 headphones, released back in 2010; it’s a cool little detail that feels kinda celebratory.

There’s a choice of two finishes: Onyx Black and Warm Stone, each paired with colour-matched leather and aluminium detailing. My sample was the former, and I thought it looked rather classy.

Feature-wise, the Px8 S2 covers all the bases you might expect of a modern range topper. Active noise cancellation has been upgraded, using eight carefully positioned microphones. Two monitor driver output, four track external noise, and two focus on voice clarity. The result is effective enough, and copes well with daily hubbub.

To help call quality, there’s the latest generation of ADI Pure Voice processing, which is used to suppress background noise.

Feature-wise, the Px8 S2 covers all the bases you might expect of a modern range topper…

Battery life is decent, offering 30 hours with noise cancellation enabled, while a 15-minute quick charge provides up to seven hours of playback, enough to rescue most forgotten-to-charge moments.

Alongside Bluetooth with aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless, the Px8 S2 supports a 3.5mm analogue input and high-resolution USB-C audio.  

Control is split between small, slightly fiddly, physical buttons and the Bowers & Wilkins Music app.

Within the app, you can toggle noise cancellation, monitor battery levels, tweak wear-sensor sensitivity and fine-tune the sound via a five-band EQ. If you prefer to trust the engineers, enable True Sound mode, as this reflects the tuning chosen by Bowers & Wilkins’ golden-eared acoustic team at Southwater Research Establishment.

Future-proofing is also part of the picture. Over-the-air updates are promised, including spatial audio support and Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast functionality.

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Wireless Headphones: Performance

The good news is that beauty isn’t skin deep. The Px8 S2 justifies its premium status with a sonic delivery that’s incisive, articulate and musical. Key to this are the new 40mm Carbon Cone drivers.

These novel bio-cellulose units improve bass and reduce distortion; comprehensively redesigned from what we’ve heard before, they incorporate an improved magnet system and tighter mechanical fixings. The drivers have also been angled toward the ears, just a smidge, to ensure a more consistent distance across the listening surface, which in turn improves stereo imaging and spatial coherence.

The result is a headphone that handles scale brilliantly well. Simon Franglen’s ‘Brothers’ (Avatar: Fire and Ash original soundtrack) is majestic, cinematic. The soundstage is wide, emotive. I think the headphones benefit from a little running in, but it’s quickly evident that these are really rather special.

Dynamics have snap, while bass-heavy tracks drop hard. ‘New Rules’, by Dua Lipa, sounds positively epic, but this isn’t achieved with flabby depth. The track’s deep notes are controlled, and land with authority. Transient delivery is similarly fast and clean. ‘Coda’, by Novelists, is whip crack sharp and precise. I really felt these headphones were bringing me closer to the original recordings.

The stiffer aluminium armatures appear to play an important role. By holding the earcups in a more stable position, they improve the seal around the ears; better isolation contributes more bass control, and a wider soundstage, even when you prance around.

Vocals boarder on three dimensional – the lead on ‘This Is America’, by Childish Gambino, may be monophonic, but here it reveals delicious texture.

High frequencies are detailed without becoming brittle, and the midrange boasts clarity and weight – a combo perfectly demonstrated by ‘Uprising’, by Muse. This is pure stadium rock joy, unfettered and uncompromised. 

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Wireless Headphones: Verdict

The Px8 S2 are peerless performers. By focusing on mechanical rigidity, driver behaviour and long-term comfort, the wizards at Bowers & Wilkins have created superb noise cancelling headphones. Improvements to mechanical stiffness, fit and driver design translate directly into better sound, with greater scale, cleaner dynamics and more controlled bass than its predecessors. 

Add in luxurious leather trimmings, effective noise cancellation, strong battery life and genuinely useful wireless and wired connectivity, and you have premium cans that more than warrant their luxury audio status.

The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 are available now, priced at £629 ($799 / €729).