Bowers & Wilkins Px8 vs. AirPods Max: redefining luxury headphones
Back in 2017, Bowers & Wilkins convinced
me that wireless audio had reached a point of excellence.
I no longer own the P7, but today their distant successors, the Bowers
& Wilkins Px8, are perched on my head as I write this—prompting
me to reflect on what a successful upgrade entails. When I buy audio
equipment, my goal is simple: to move the goalpost. The new item needs
to be better than what came before it on most—if not all—fronts. It
should become the new benchmark by which I judge its peers.
These days, somewhat reluctantly, the Apple AirPods
Max are my benchmark for Bluetooth headphones with ANC (Active Noise
Cancellation). It’s time to see if Bowers & Wilkins can usurp them.
How do they sound?
The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 sound brilliant. Once you put them on,
they’re impossible not to pay attention to.
To be honest, I struggle to multi-task while listening to music. My
brain is wired to latch onto any music I hear and either immerse in it
fully, or deconstruct it into a kaleidoscope of inspiration. Hazards of
being a composer. But to the extent that I can manage it (usually with
something like Endel’s vapid drones),
it’s even harder than usual for me to multi-task with the Px8. There’s
so much sound here that I’m compelled to focus on all the
wonderful nuances they reveal. I’m seduced.
But it’s quite a different sound signature from the AirPods Max.
Out of the box, the bass hits hard—too hard. The excess energy
down low was overshadowing the higher frequencies, collapsing the sense
of sonic width and smothering the poise and precision I later came to
love. Luckily, as with most modern Bluetooth headphones, you can control
the character of the sound using an app. With Bowers & Wilkins, this
control comes in the form of Low/High EQ sliders. Each slider adjusts a
gentle shelving filter. The lack of granularity makes these controls
hard to get wrong, which hopefully encourages more people to make use of
them—because these headphones really benefit from a few small
adjustments to the stock tuning.
Try these settings to start with, then dial them in to your taste.
I found that setting the treble slider around +1 and the bass around -3
creates a balance that feels more natural to my ears. This re-balancing
doesn’t negate the lively, engaging attitude that drew me to these
headphones in the first place.With those adjustments made, I settled in
to appreciate the magnificent portable hi-fi experience that was hiding
under the wonky stock tuning. These headphones are engrossing and
flat-out entertaining to listen to. I’m not sure they’re the first pair
I’d reach for when critically evaluating my mixes, but they put a smile
on my face every time I listen to a favourite piece of music through
them.
I find myself compulsively looking for time to cruise through new music
discoveries—I love this feeling!
Bowers & Wilkins Px8 vs. Apple AirPods Max
Throughout this review, I’ll compare the Px8 with the Apple AirPods Max.
Not only because I have both on hand for direct A/B testing, but also
because I suspect many of you are cross-shopping these models.
I tested both pairs back to back following my
usual method, which is intended to overcome the brain’s poor audio
memory. It’s worth noting that my AirPods Max have Personalized Spatial
Audio configured, even though I mostly listen to music with Spatial
Audio turned off. I also want to stress that what I’m about to describe
are nuanced differences that matter to me. Whether you would care
about—or even notice—any of these things only you can say for certain.
For starters, the Px8 can get a lot louder than the AirPods Max. I
appreciate my hearing and want to protect it, so I keep the volume below
the midpoint most of the time and find it’s plenty loud enough. Of
course…it’s exhilarating to push it up for those brief moments when you
crave a bit more. Like with a performance car, there’s lots of
headroom here.
At higher volumes, the uppermost frequencies on the AirPods Max sound
slightly harsher, even though the Px8 have more detail retrieval up
there. There’s a tiny sense of graininess or brittleness in the AirPods
that the Px8 simply don’t have.
The AirPods Max offer solid soundstage width for closed-back headphones.
That’s especially true with Spatial Audio active on the right recording,
but can be the case even in stereo. Despite other reviews priming me to
expect differently, the Px8 do indeed beat the AirPods Max here. Not
only in horizontal width, but also in the sense of depth and sound
positioning. You get an ever-so-slightly more “smeared” impression of
instrument placement on the AirPods.
Let me draw from another hobby to offer you an analogy: imagine looking
at a photograph of the musicians playing in front of you. With the
AirPods Max, the photo’s a bit blurry; you can still tell where everyone
is, but you can’t make out the details, so the boundaries between them
are hazy. On the Px8, it’s a sharper picture. You can tell what watch
the bassist’s wearing. Heck, with the right quality of recording, you
could probably hear it ticking.
The Px8 are more dynamic as well. On headphones with poor dynamic range,
the gap between the loudest and quietest sound is compressed, as though
everything is being squeezed together. When you read reviews where
people talk about a headphone sounding “processed”, this is often part
of the problem they’re referring to. Very dynamic mixes, common in music
with acoustic instruments, can sound artificially flattened, even tame
on the AirPods in a direct comparison against the Px8.
The Px8 whispers and roars. Listening to a quality recording can be
transcendental. But by the same token, bad mixes have nowhere to hide.
If you want safe, go with the AirPods. If you want special, you’ll want
to hear the Bowers & Wilkins.
Bowers & Wilkins Px8 vs. Focal Bathys
My fellow audiophiles might be wondering why I chose the Px8 over their
biggest competition, the Focal Bathys? When I
did my usual obsessive cross-shopping, I noted that many reviews
favoured the Bathys. In fact, I was surprised to see a number of reviews
criticizing the sound of the Px8 quite harshly.
This didn’t fit with my experience of Bowers & Wilkins. Every
product of theirs I’ve owned has felt like it set a new benchmark for
what I expect of consumer hi-fi products going forward. Specifically,
the aforementioned P7 Wireless and a very early version of their
unmistakable Zeppelin
home speaker both felt substantially better in their respective
categories than what I’d heard before them.
Still, every company makes missteps. I visited my favourite local hi-fi
store and listened to the two pairs back to back for a while to gauge
the differences for myself. This isn’t a review of the Focal Bathys, and
I didn’t spend enough time with that pair to give you a fair evaluation.
But I can tell you this: in that initial listening session, the Bathys
left me impressed, but...unmoved. They’re excellent, just not
distinctive.
When it came time to put down the cash, it’s the Px8 that came home with
me.
If looks could thrill
After unboxing, my pair took an extraordinarily long time to perform
their first firmware update—we’re talking like thirty minutes. They
didn’t force me to apply it, at least; I chose to.
But I didn’t mind the delay too much because I spent the first few
minutes admiring how these headphones look. The Bowers & Wilkins Px8
are beautiful, and I’m glad I took a chance on one of the
bolder colours. This may be the most gorgeous green hue on a consumer
electronics product. I literally said “wow” out loud to myself when I
pulled the case (a real case!) out of the box, and then “damn” when I
pulled the headphones out of that case.
The way the Px8’s distinctively squared-off earcups attach, via
backward-slung arm joints, is perhaps the focal point of the design.
These arms look sculpted with pride, unlike like the nesting pool
noodles of the AirPods.
On the other hand, the Px8’s visual profile when worn will be wider than
with the AirPods Max, with more obvious gaps between the headband arms
and the side of your head. This isn’t a big deal to me, but it’s worth
noting for those who might mind.
Though both headphones feature impressive industrial design, the Px8 are
mid-century modern to the AirPods’ minimalism. Others like the look of
the AirPods Max, and I can appreciate it too, to an extent. The shapes
are certainly striking…but everything is cold.Conversely, Bowers &
Wilkins have drawn from their profound experience with high-end
materials to assemble these headphones from a blend of metals,
synthetics, and leathers that impart a warmer, more sophisticated
impression of luxury.It’s not just a matter of aesthetics, though.
Bowers & Wilkins have considered how their material and design
choices impact daily use.
For instance, the earcups are soft and plush against the skin of my
face, not scratchy. Inside, the Px8 leaves more room for my ears, and
the reduced contact there helps ward off the sense of itchiness that I
often get from the AirPods Max. As someone who uses over-ear headphones
mostly indoors in climate-controlled environments and never while
exercising (pro tip: don’t wear over-ear headphones while exercising), I
encounter the itchiness problem way more often than sweaty ears, so this
material choice makes more sense for me.
Still, the design isn’t without its flaws.
For one thing, the headband could use more width. The cushioning is
good, don’t get me wrong, and the headphones don’t create a hotspot on
the top of my head as readily as the Sony XM5s
did, but they’re more prone to it than the AirPods Max, which
benefit from the broad mesh hammock in their headband. What this amounts
to is me having to adjust the position of the Px8 on my head over the
course of longer listening sessions. Unfortunate? Sure. Deal-breaker?
No.
The other thing that bothers me is the logo, which is unnecessarily
prominent. Bowers & Wilkins’ headphone designs are recognizable
enough that they didn’t need to place their logo so ostentatiously. It
comes off as insecure in an otherwise confident design.
Living with the Px8
Since we’re talking about Bluetooth headphones, there’s more to the
story than just how they sound and feel.
When people talk about the advantages of AirPods, they usually mention
how Apple has built some proprietary software enhancements into their
operating systems that make connecting AirPods and switching between
devices with them more pleasant. This
is not as big an advantage as they would like you to believe.
The Px8 can connect to multiple devices too, and they can stay actively
connected to any two at the same time, allowing for seamless hand-off
between your laptop and phone, or tablet and TV, or whatever combination
you need. For my uses, this turns out to be plenty.
If you’re not immersed in the Apple ecosystem, you’ll also benefit from
access to more advanced Bluetooth codecs that unlock higher-resolution
audio, lower latency, and other advantages.
In terms of environmental audio processing, your expectations are likely
correct: noise cancelling and transparency (Bowers & Wilkins calls
it “Pass-through”) performance on the Px8 aren’t as good as on the
AirPods. That AirPods transparency mode really does spoil you. The noise
cancellation, however, isn’t that far off and is more than sufficient
for flights and transit trips.
Those two features rely on the array of six microphones built into these
headphones, which are also used for calls. I expected more of a gap
between the Px8 and the AirPods Max on this front, but the truth is they
trade blows: neither sound amazing, but in ideal conditions the Px8
retain more of the overall body and character of my voice. Similarly,
higher frequency sounds, especially sibilant phonemes like “s”, “t”,
“sh”, etc. don’t get quite as badly damaged on the Px8 as on the AirPods
Max.
While comparing the waveforms of recorded audio snippets, I noticed that
the AirPods Max retain more of the original dynamics of my voice.
Quieter sounds stay quieter and louder sounds get louder and can even
distort. For listening, you want as much dynamic range as possible, but
for mic input it’s not necessarily a good thing. The Px8 perform a bit
of dynamic range compression, which is typical for professional vocal
recordings because it keeps you consistently audible to the listener. If
you speak quietly, it’ll make sure you’re still heard, and if you yell
it’ll attenuate the levels. The overall effect is a slightly quieter but
more predictable, less fatiguing experience for those on the other end
of the call.
While using the Bowers & Wilkins on calls, you’ll notice a bit of
sidetone, too—that’s the ability to hear what you sound like to the
other person. This is a nice touch, especially when you have ANC active,
as it helps you avoid speaking more loudly than you need to.
These waveforms depict a snippet of me speaking in my quiet office, to test the mic performance under ideal conditions. Notice how the distance between the tallest “peaks” and lowest “valleys” in these diagrams differs between the two sides.
Perhaps the most significant upgrade over my AirPods Max has been
battery life.
Since you can switch them off, the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 aren’t
constantly draining charge when you aren’t using them. And the
difference is staggering: I typically charge my AirPods Max every three
days or so, depending on usage, but despite using them more it took me
over a week just to get the Px8 to 50%. Between that and USB-C
charging (my AirPods Max are the original Lightning variety), living
with these headphones has been significantly more pleasant from a power
perspective.
Besides the power switch, the Px8 also have volume up/down buttons
straddling a multifunction control that performs the usual play/pause
tasks, plus a single button on the left earcup for switching between
noise cancelling, pass-through, and an “off” mode that disables any
environmental processing. Having physical buttons is great, especially
here in Canada where winter can make touch controls unpleasant and
unreliable. But I slightly prefer adjusting volume on the AirPods Max
with a spin of the Digital Crown. It gives me more granular control from
a simpler movement, though admittedly it can be harder to land on a
precise spot.
The Px8 feature a wired listening mode that works with any USB-C cable,
unlike the terrible and expensive Lightning-to-3.5mm cable my AirPods
Max require for wired listening (now discontinued). Is the difference
between wired and wireless listening large? No—and that’s the remarkable
part.
Wired or not, you can enjoy perceptually lossless, high-resolution music
on these headphones. It’s a testament to the engineering prowess of
Bowers & Wilkins, and advancements in Bluetooth technology that you
can stream up to 24-bit/48kHz audio on these (using the AptX Adaptive or
AptX HD codecs on supported source devices—sorry, Apple friends). That’s
significantly higher fidelity than CD audio being transmitted, and it’s
happening wirelessly.
This is by no means unique to the Bowers & Wilkins Px8, but I
appreciate and celebrate it nonetheless. Wireless audio has come a long
way, and it’s wonderful to see.
I didn’t want to read that much, can you summarize?
Here’s what you need to know:
The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 are supremely enjoyable headphones, with an immersive and exciting sound...provided you make some EQ tweaks.
They outshine the AirPods Max in sound, design, and comfort, though a wider headband and subtler logo placement would be welcome improvements.
Battery life is a game-changer. A charge can last me two weeks on these, compared to the 3 days or so I get from my AirPods Max.
ANC and Transparency modes are both worse than on the AirPods Max. The former by a little and the latter by a lot. But I prefer how the Px8 handle microphone input for calls.
Even connected via Bluetooth to an iPhone (so listening to them at their worst, technically), the Px8 are consistently and noticeably better sounding than any competing products I’ve tried thus far. Listening over a better Bluetooth connection, or wired, they’re simply sublime.
Moving the goalpost
Do I recommend the Bowers & Wilkins Px8? Yes, absolutely. Are they
the first pair I’d recommend to the average person asking me
for advice? Unlikely.
These are specialized. Expensive. They’re a premium choice in a category
where you’re already paying extra for the convenience of Bluetooth
connectivity. With the AirPods Max, the extra money buys you things like
Spatial Audio, best-in-class transparency, and a few proprietary
Bluetooth tricks. With the Px8, you’re buying a more mature sound,
better materials, and a number of quality-of-life improvements like
superior battery life and a solid case.
Which flavour of luxury do you prefer?
Ask yourself why you’re interested in the first place. Do you use
headphones mostly as a utility to cancel or drown out the sounds around
you while you do other things? That describes most people, and to them
I’d say don’t waste your money on the Px8. The ways in which they’re
better than the competition aren’t likely to impact you, and that’s
perfectly fine. Save your money for things that matter. Do you
appreciate those benefits but care about getting a hi-fi sound that
rewards active listening, in a form factor that looks and feels
sophisticated? Then the Px8 should be on your shortlist of contenders.
After I reviewed the Sony XM5 last year, despite enjoying the experience
overall, I didn’t keep them. Like I said at the start: to earn a place
on my desk, a new piece of audio equipment has to move the goalpost. It
has to improve upon basically every aspect of what came before them. The
Sonys didn’t.
But the Px8? Oh yeah, these aren’t going anywhere.