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I am undecided Bowers & Wilkins cares for accolades, reader – and but that is what its engineers are going to get from me, and from this publication, till the model ceases to set new benchmarks for audio high quality throughout the class of wi-fi headphones.
You most likely know simply in addition to B&W does that our Headphones of the 12 months Award on the TechRadar Selection Awards 2025 was open to on-ear, in-ear and over-ear designs (moderately than simply cans, because the phrase ‘headphones’ could recommend). And right here we’re once more, one other full 12 months of testing below our belts, with me needing to impress upon you that selecting the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 as our Headphones of the 12 months was one of many easiest conclusions I’ve come to in 2025.
I put them on. I listened; I commissioned a full assessment – however actually, I did that simply to get a second opinion that confirmed my very own inner verdict. I already knew their rating.
And I write this even though Bowers & Wilkins does not make it simple for me when it comes to workload or stress ranges. Final 12 months, the TechRadar Selection Awards 2024 audio winner nonchalantly revealed itself late within the sport, on the finish of August – within the form of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8.
It will be simple to attract from this the conclusion that B&W does issues solely when the product is proper and not when it is time to put the feelers out for Awards season. I totally consider this to be true – I’ve met the Bowers & Wilkins staff and it is a firm that wishes to know inside its personal family-run manufacturing facility partitions that its new headphones are the perfect, earlier than garnering the opinions of others.
Bowers & Wilkins’ Px8 S2 arrived late to the get together, then hogged the limelight
The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 could have solely lately joined the ranks of our finest headphones (previously few days, in reality), however simply because not too many people have had the possibility to attempt (or purchase) them, it does not imply they are not the perfect. And in contrast to the majority of our Selection Awards, that are compiled utilizing reader enter in addition to our personal, this explicit nod is given solely by TechRadar.
There is no denying that the class of finest over-ear headphones is likely one of the most hotly contested guides I oversee – I usually put on cans simply so I will not be distracted (normally managing editors asking the place sure items of labor are, as a result of I needed to shelve issues to get a Bowers & Wilkins assessment stay in time for Award inclusion, did not I?) and I discovered myself plucking the B&W Px8 S2 from their newly slimmed down case each time previously few weeks, to dam out the world with detailed, nuanced, thrilling music.
Actually, sound high quality has by no means been a problem for B&W, however what the corporate has finished with the Px8 S2 is take the extremely gifted Bowers & Wilkins Px8 and newer (even higher) Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 upon which these are constructed and refine, tweak and improve will the expert hand of a surgeon.
Suppose further mics right here, extra EQ tabs there, upping the codec assist, tweaking the chassis and motor powering it to assist eke extra nuance and precision out of your music, shaving a little bit of weight off, including a classy uncovered cable element on the arm… it is the very definition of incremental achieve, and whereas they nonetheless do not come low-cost at $799 / £629 / AU$1,299, it is simple to see the place the cash has gone – and I urge you to attempt them earlier than deeming them too costly, since you can not knock the sound.
As we mentioned in our assessment, the Px8 S2’s “open, detailed and vaultingly dynamic sound”, “nice commonplace of construct and end” and “glorious management choices” merely can’t be bettered proper now, in what’s a hotly contested and ever-changing market.
Sure, you should purchase headphones for lots much less, however what we’re saying is which you can’t presently purchase higher for this cash or much less, within the wi-fi headphone area.
I’d humbly like to make Bowers & Wilkins conscious of the hi-fi and audio press’ exacting schedules and even perhaps remind the corporate of the deadlines for Awards inclusion, however final time I attempted to do this I ended up in a listening session, holding one of many 40mm dynamic cone drivers you will discover in B&W’s flagship headphones. And I heard myself agreeing that sure, we’re speaking unimaginable ranges of precision right here, involving many delicate processes – and no, you merely cannot rush these items…
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