Bowers & Wilkins PX8

The best wireless headphones for 2023: which should you buy?

Look, I agree with you. $699 — oh c’mon, who am I kidding, $700 — is a lot to pay for a set of wireless headphones, even if they are the Px8, the new flagship of the Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) personal audio lineup. The truth is once you start to head north of $400, the improvements to sound quality start to taper off and it becomes more about design, materials, and — in a sense — the whole “premium-ness” of the experience. But if that’s what you seek — a set of wireless headphones that epitomize sophistication, performance, and class — the B&W Px8 will wrap your head in luxury. The Px8 initially were set to sell for $549. That’s still pricey by most standards, but only $150 more than the $399 B&W Px7 S2, a set of wireless headphones that share a ton of DNA with the Px8. That would have put them on par with the Apple AirPods Max, within spitting distance of the $599 Master & Dynamic MW75, and made them considerably more affordable than the $800 Focal Bathys and $899 Bang & Olufsen Beoplay ...

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 Review

Although Bowers & Wilkins' Px8 headphones offer high-quality audio and occasionally impressive noise cancellation, they don't quite justify their sky-high price. At $699, Bowers & Wilkins' flagship Px8 noise-cancelling headphones cost more than many competitors in the segment, approaching the realm of wired, audiophile-friendly models. In their favor, the headphones are exceedingly comfortable, offer hi-res audio playback on some Android devices, and even support wired playback via a USB-C port. We also experienced some improvement in noise cancellation over the $399 Px7 S2. But for $699, there's simply not enough here to compete with the likes Sony's top-tier $399.99 WH-1000XM5 headphones, which offer laudable audio quality and noise cancellation for nearly half the price.High Design and High-Quality Codecs The Px8 headphones are available in black with metallic gray details or in white with tan-and-silver details. No matter the color, they have a circumaural (over-ear) design with a heavily cushioned headband and earpads that both feature Napa leather. The fit is ridiculously comfortable, even over long listening sessions. The earpads hu...