Bowers & Wilkins has launched its new flagship active noise cancelling wireless headphones: the Px8 S2; an evolved design engineered for comfortable, extended listening with a notably slimmer form than the outgoing Px8. The new Px8 S2 has been trimmed and finished to the highest possible standards. Luxurious Napa leather covers every primary surface, while the aluminum-arm mechanism with it’s new exposed cable detailing produces the perfect combination of lightweight, optimized mechanical stiffness and exquisite design. Even the carrying case is more compact and easier to fit into a bag (as you would expect for a flagship Bowers & Wilkins product).
Px8 S2 is available in two Napa leather finishes: onyx black and warm stone, each with colour-coordinated leather and aluminum detailing. To ensure long term pride of ownership, Bowers & Wilkins has engineered the new design so that both ear cushions and headband are replaceable by trained service engineers.
“We are incredibly proud to launch the Px8 S2, the best headphone we have ever created. When we introduced the Px8 in 2022, it redefined what was possible in wireless headphone performance” stated Giles Pocock, VP of Brand Marketing. The Px8 S2 sets the benchmark once again, recalibrating expectations for sound quality, design and craftmanship. It’s the ultimate expression of our mission: to bring listeners even closer to the artist’s performance and of course, the beautiful design and finish only adds to that real pride of ownership.”
The Px8 S2 40 mm carbon cone drivers combine exceptionally low coloration and distortion in a lightweight chassis ensuring stunning detail and clarity plus effortless, powerful dynamics; whatever you’re listening to. These drive units feature a comprehensively redesigned and improved chassis, voice coil, suspension and magnet, and are carefully angled to the listeners’ ears to ensure a consistent distance from every point across the surface of each driver to each ear, ensuring better imaging and stereo spaciousness. They are powered by a dedicated, discrete headphone amplifier providing notably more scale and energy to the sound. Px8 S2 includes both aptX Adaptive 24/96 wireless technology and aptX Lossless. Both technologies can automatically optimize wireless music transmission from compatible phones, tablets and computers, ensuring the best possible sound quality with high-resolution music streaming services such as Amazon music, Qobuz and TIDAL, which are available to stream directly from the Music app.
24-bit / 96 kHz high-resolution sound quality is supported by powerful Bowers & Wilkins-developed DSP (Digital Signal Processing). 3.5 mm analogue audio connections are also supported, as is high-resolution-capable USB-C, a great benefit for computer users and owners of compatible mobile devices, including the latest generation of iPhone. Both cable types are included in the carry case that accompanies the headphones.
Bowers & Wilkins engineers are confident that the new active noise cancelling technology developed for the Px7 S3 and Px8 S2 are the most powerful and effective the brand has ever developed. As is always the case, the chosen approach carefully balances effective cancellation of unwanted noise while doing no harm to the musicality of the performance.
As with Px7 S3, the new Px8 S2 features eight high-performance microphones, carefully located around the periphery of each earcup and working together to deliver the best results. Two of them measure the output of each drive unit; four positioned at opposite eds of each earcup for the best possible coverage monitor ambient noise from the outside world, and two more provide outstanding voice clarity. Careful positioning and angling of those microphones enhances performance even in the noisiest environments. When making calls, unwanted noise is effectively suppressed by the latest generation of voice processing technology, ADI Pure Voice. All eight microphones work in conjunction with the noise cancelling and voice [processing technologies to ensure outstanding call clarity wherever you are.
Offering 30 hours of battery life with full noise cancellation on, Px8 S2 can play all day on just a single charge, while a 15-minute recharge is sufficient to provide up to seven hours of additional listening time.
As with all other current generations of Bowers & Wilkins headphones and earbuds, the Px8 S2 can be configured and controlled using the brand’s Music app that can activate or disengage the noise-cancelling transparency mode to let in more or less of the outside world, monitor the headphone’s charge levels, select the wear sensor sensitivity and define preferred operation for the physical ‘Quick Action’ button on the headphones. Listeners can now opt to fine-tune the sound through an adjustable five-band EQ, complete with the option to store their preferred settings as easily accessible presets. If preferred, the EQ option can be bypassed by selecting the True Sound Mode which represents the preferred audio tuning selected by the acoustic team at Soundwater Research Establishment (SRE).
As with all other current generations of Bowers & Wilkins headphones and earbuds, the Px8 S2 can be configured and controlled using the brand’s Music app that can activate or disengage the noise-cancelling transparency mode to let in more or less of the outside world, monitor the headphone’s charge levels, select the wear sensor sensitivity and define preferred operation for the physical ‘Quick Action’ button on the headphones. Listeners can now opt to fine-tune the sound through an adjustable five-band EQ, complete with the option to store their preferred settings as easily accessible presets. If preferred, the EQ option can be bypassed by selecting the True Sound Mode which represents the preferred audio tuning selected by the acoustic team at Soundwater Research Establishment (SRE).
As with Px7 S3, physical controls on each ear-cup are also included, ensuring full control even without the music app. The revised button layout, which reshapes the volume up, volume down and play/ pause buttons to improve their tactile interaction and relocates the power button to the left-hand ear-cup, is more intuitive to use than ever before. The Quick Action button allows users to either quickly cycle through the Px8 S2’s noise cancelling options – off / pass through / on / or seamlessly launch their phone’s Voice Assistant at the touch of a button. Bowers & Wilkins will roll out a series of over-the-air updates later this year, the first of which will include support for spatial audio listening, BlueTooth LE Audio, complete with Auracast broadcast functionality, will be added later.
The all-new Px8 S2 is now available from bowersandwilkins.com and select third party retailers. $799 US.