HeadphoneOverreview

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

The press hears a natural, balanced flagship; every measurement rig sees big bass, a scooped presence band and a spike at 8 kHz — and owners split down exactly that line.

32 sourcesUpdated
$799Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

The short version

What to know.

A closed-back wireless noise-canceller sold as a luxury object first and a technology showcase second. The agreements are broad and easy to act on. Build and materials are the least disputed thing about it: aluminium arms, real leather, no creaks, and physical buttons rather than touch controls — though those buttons are small and several reviewers found them fiddly, and the pads and headband are replaced by a service engineer, not by you. Dynamics are the strongest sonic agreement — punchy, fast, unstrained at volume — and detail retrieval and soundstage width draw wide praise for a closed design. Noise cancelling is a firm, unanimous 'good, not class-leading': every source places it behind Sony, Bose and Apple, and owners argue whether it even beats the original Px8. Battery runs 25–30 hours in testing against a 30-hour claim, and USB-C listening is widely heard as a step up from Bluetooth. Where it gets interesting is the tuning. Most editorial reviewers call it natural, neutral or faintly warm; every measurement rig — RTINGS, SoundGuys and three independent squig databases — shows a very large bass shelf, a deep dip through the 2–4 kHz presence band and a narrow peak near 8–9 kHz, which RTINGS sums up as roughly V-shaped. That one shape splits four aspects: tonality (natural vs coloured), bass (elevated but controlled vs simply too much), treble (crisp vs sibilant) and, on value, whether $799 buys enough over the Px7 S3 and the discounted original Px8. Comfort is mostly praised but has a recurring complaint — pressure on the crown of the head after an hour or two.

About this product

The second-generation Px8, launched September 2025 — not the 2022 Px8, which has its own review. The McLaren Edition and the later Midnight Blue and Pearl Blue finishes are the same headphone.

Three years after the original Px8 turned a pair of noise-cancellers into a luxury object, Bowers & Wilkins rebuilt it rather than replaced it. The Px8 S2 keeps the cast aluminium and Nappa leather, slims the earcups, exposes a length of braided cable in each arm as a nod to the 2010 P5, and puts a stiffer chassis and motor behind the same 40 mm carbon cone — driven, like the cheaper Px7 S3, by its own dedicated amplifier. It added aptX Lossless, a proper five-band EQ and USB-C audio up to 24-bit/96 kHz, and it went up $100, to $799.

The launch reviews were close to unanimous: five stars, Best Buys, award badges, a long run of 'best-sounding wireless headphone' verdicts. Then the measurement rigs and the owners who paid full price caught up, and a second story emerged — not about how good it is, but about what kind of sound it actually makes, and whether that is the sound you want for the money.

A good fit for

  • Listeners who want an energetic, bass-rich, dynamic sound and enjoy it as-is or with a light EQ trim.
  • Anyone who values materials and finish as much as sound, and wants a headphone that looks and feels expensive.
  • Desk and travel use over USB-C or a high-quality aptX dongle, where it sounds its best.
  • Travellers who need decent rather than maximum noise cancelling, with good transparency for announcements and calls.

Think twice if

  • You are sensitive to sibilance or treble glare — try it first, because sensitive owners rarely fix it fully with the five-band EQ.
  • You want a neutral or target-tracking tuning out of the box; the measured voicing is far from it.
  • Maximum noise cancelling is the priority — Sony, Bose and Apple all block more.
  • You are prone to headband pressure on the crown of your head, or want something lighter than 310 g.
  • You want rich software features — the app has a basic five-band EQ and no adjustable ANC levels.

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

5 / 12topics divide opinion
dynamicsbuildmidssoundstagedetailcomfortisolationtonalitybasstrebleimagingvalue
2 Strong agreement5 Mostly agree5 Divided opinions

Common ground5

  • Build and materials are first-class — aluminium, real leather, no creaks — and better than Sony's, Bose's or Apple's.
  • Dynamics are a real strength: punchy, fast, and composed at high volume, with headroom for quiet recordings.
  • Noise cancelling is good but behind Sony, Bose and Apple; transparency mode is one of its better features.

Points of contention5

  • Tonality: natural and balanced to most reviewers, plainly V-shaped to every measurement rig and many owners.
  • Bass: elevated but well-controlled, or simply too much on bass-heavy music — the same measured shelf.
  • Treble: crisp and detailed to some, sibilant and fatiguing to others; the 8–9 kHz peak is where they part.

A closer listen.

12 topics · 5 divided
Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Tonality

Leans positiveDivided opinions
Reviewer sentiment19 supporting sources
CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split, and the line runs between listening and measuring. Most editorial reviewers hear a natural, smooth, neutral-to-warm balance and treat it as the point of the product. Every measurement rig, the critics and a sizeable share of owners describe a coloured, V-shaped voicing — heavy bass, recessed presence, a lifted top — that many of them correct with the app's EQ. Owners who keep it often say they turned the bass down a notch.

Measured

RTINGS (B&K 5128, bought unit) reads Sound Signature “≈ V-Shaped”, Bass Amount “Very Emphasized (5 dB)” and Treble Amount “Balanced (-1 dB)”. Three independent squig rigs agree on the shape: relative to the HD 600 measured on the same rig, DHRME and Kuulokenurkka show roughly +13 dB at 50 Hz, an 8–11 dB deficit at 2–3.5 kHz and a 6–11 dB excess at 8–9 kHz; Earphones Archive's B&K 5128 trace sits about 15 dB above its diffuse-field target at 50 Hz and 4–9 dB below it at 2.5–3.5 kHz, and that database grades it C+ against B+ for the HD 600 and HD 650.

vs. listeners — The measurements are unambiguous about the shape, so the split is about how that shape lands. A deep presence dip pulls the upper mids back and the bass shelf fills in underneath, which many listeners read as smooth, full and 'natural' rather than as a dip; the 8 kHz lift then supplies the sense of detail. Listeners who hear it as V-shaped are hearing the same graph described the other way round. Sound & Vision's reviewer hears 'neutral with perhaps a slight warmth' — a fair summary of how the camp that likes it experiences a headphone that measures far from neutral.

Where it splits
Natural and balanced — a smooth, even tuning, neutral with at most a touch of warmth.56%

“Add in super-smooth frequency response and nicely neutral tonality, and they’re very close to being the complete solution.”

TechRadar (Simon Lucas)
Coloured and V-shaped — big bass, scooped presence, lifted treble; most owners in this camp reach for the EQ.40%

“most B&W headphones tend to approximate a comparable V-shaped sound”

RTINGS
Link to this topic

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked

Design

Type
over-ear
Drivers
1 × 40 mm dynamic (full-range carbon driver)
Microphone
Built-in

Connection

Cable
Detachable, 1.2 m
Plugs supplied
3.5 mm
Bluetooth
Bluetooth 5.3aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, aptX, AAC, SBC
Noise cancelling
Yes
Battery
30 h
USB audio
Yes
Wired input
Yes

Physical

Weight
310 g

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from bowerswilkins.com, bowerswilkins.com.

Follow the evidence

Sources 32

1–6 of 32 sources

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of

What to keep in mind 7

  1. This is a read of where opinion lands as of October 2026, about a year after launch. Most of the glowing reviews were written in the first few weeks; owner reports from the months since are more mixed.

  2. Treble is the thing to audition. A narrow peak sits right where sibilance lives, and whether you hear it as sparkle or as glare depends heavily on your ears, the recording and how the cups sit.

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