It’s one factor to choose a struggle with the largest child within the playground. It’s fairly one other to try to do it by yourself phrases. But with its new Px7 S2 wi-fi over-ear headphones, Bowers & Wilkins has mainly squared as much as Sony and enquired as as to if or not the Japanese behemoth would love some. Bold? Reckless? A little bit of each?
A few years in the past, Bowers & Wilkins launched its authentic Px7 wi-fi noise-canceling on-ear headphones and priced them to fulfill the incumbent class chief, Sony’s WH-1000XM4, head on. And by taking part in on its heritage in addition to to its strengths, Bowers & Wilkins delivered a pair of headphones in a position to compete the place the basics of sound high quality had been involved. Yes, they had been a bit chintzy, a bit try-hard in look, however they’d it the place it counted, and they had been a legitimate audio-focused different to the all-singing, all-dancing, all-conquering Sony possibility.
Last month, Sony launched its WH-1000XM5. The value is up a bit, the burden is down a bit, the record of options and performance stays so long as your arm. And so right here comes Bowers & Wilkins with a brand new mannequin. The value is up a bit, the burden is down a bit, the emphasis on sound high quality and reasonably self-conscious “sophistication” stays precisely the identical.
Photograph: Bowers & Wilkins
What meaning for the surface of the Px7 S2, then, is a glance that’s each premium and understated, delivered by deploying high-quality and tactile supplies. At least, that’s true of our black evaluate pattern. The $399 (£379) Px7 S2 can be out there in grey or blue, however we’d be stunned if these finishes undermine the impression of high quality.
A mixture of sentimental, pliant, memory-foam-filled leather-based on the contact factors, flawlessly utilized material on the outer components of the headscarf and ear cups, high-quality and silent plastics for the arms and hinges, and a sky-high general commonplace of construct helps the Px7 S2 look and really feel good. Even the case during which they journey feels a reduce above the norm.
Comfortable, Fast-Charging Cans
Bowers & Wilkins has finessed the headscarf hanger association and reassessed the clamping drive in an effort to make these headphones extra snug than the mannequin they exchange. And assisted by shaving a share level off the burden (307 g in opposition to the 310 g of the outdated Px7), it’s truly labored. The Px7 S2 are not any burden to put on, and they keep snug even by means of lengthy listening periods. It helps that the ear pads resist returning your personal physique warmth to the perimeters of your head for an impressively very long time.
Photograph: Bowers & Wilkins
There have been revisions on the within too. But what hasn’t altered is Bowers & Wilkins’ willpower for these headphones to be the selection for patrons who worth sound high quality extra extremely than, say, adaptive energetic noise cancellation. The Px7 S2 use Bluetooth 5.0 for wi-fi connectivity and are suitable with SBC, AAC, and aptX Adaptive codecs—so 24-bit high-resolution audio high quality is offered. The sound itself is delivered by a pair of 40-mm full-range, free-edge dynamic drivers. This is an all-new bio-cellulose design with decrease whole harmonic distortion figures than the driving force it supersedes.
