Bowers & Wilkins has finally joined the growing true wireless in-ear headphones market with its own two new pairs, the PI7 and PI5, which the company says offer its “True Sound” experience along with smart and convenience features and a premium design.
The PI7 is the flagship pair, offering support for Qualcomm aptX Adaptive wireless transmission from compatible mobile devices and allowing for high-resolution 24-bit/48kHz music transmission from compatible streaming services, like Qobuz.
Despite being small enough to fit in your ear, each bud features a 9.2mm bespoke Bowers & Wilkins drive unit along with a high frequency balanced armature driver with each of the four drive units in the system (two in each earbud) actively driven by its own amplifier. This configuration ensures proper control, dynamics and deep, accurate bass, says the company.
With Adaptive Noise Cancellation, the PI7s will automatically monitor, analyze, and adapt to its surroundings. That ANC system is paired with six microphones, three in each earbud, for favourable sound quality when using them for phone calls
Also with a single 9.2mm Bowers & Wilkins-developed bespoke drive unit in each earbud, the PI5s use TWS+ technology and support CD-quality playback with the inclusion of aptX transmission of music from an aptX-compatible mobile device. There’s also user-selectable noise-canceling features, ambient pass-through mode, anda pair of built-in microphones for phone calls.
Both the PI5 and PI7 can be configured via the Bowers & Wilkins companion app and both have a simple
one-button user interface – a single capacitive button that can perform multiple tasks – coupled with voice assistant support via either Siri or Google Assistant, depending on the connected device.
Multiple source devices can be wirelessly paired to either model, allowing you to easily and conveniently reconnect to each source as and when needed, such as quickly switching from music on a phone to an online conference call on a laptop.
Both offer wireless recharging compatible with a range of suitable accessories and come with charging cases that can recharge each earbud when needed. PI5 will operate for up to four and-a-half hours before it requires a recharge and the PI7 for up to four hours. Both cases offer up to four full recharges for their respective earbuds. The PI7’s case can also connect to an external audio source like an in-flight entertainment system using a 3.5mm or USB cable and wirelessly retransmit audio from that source tot the earbuds.
The Bowers & Wilkins PI7 are available in Canada for $500 and the PI5 for $330.