Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) just updated its flagship noise-canceling headphones — be sure to read our Px7 S2 review. But even before the first reviews could be published, the British audio brand hit us with a bombshell: The Px7 S2 will have a very short reign as the company’s best cans.
Later this year, we will be introduced to the Bowers & Wilkins Px8, a set of wireless headphones that B&W has already indicated will be its new flagship product.
But that’s about all the company would say, at least for now. Well, that, and the price. The Px8 will sell for $549 — an increase of more than one-third over the price of the Px7 S2. And that puts the Px8 in a very small category of wireless headphones that cost more than $500. In fact, we can only think of three models in that bracket (that don’t lean on exotic materials like gold and diamonds for their price): Apple’s $549 AirPods Max, Beyerdynamic’s $600 Amiron, and the just-released $599 Master & Dynamic MW75.
How does Bowers & Wilkins intend on justifying the Px8’s stratospheric price? That’s top secret for now. B&W director of product marketing Andy Kerr gave Digital Trends and other members of the press a sneak peek at the new cans, via video, and promptly made it clear we were not to discuss the details of what we saw. So I won’t.
But I will tell you this: If you like the way B&W has styled the new Px7 S2, you will love the Px8. Oh, and one more thing. Kerr did reveal one very small but very tantalizing nugget of information regarding the new top-shelf head-huggers: They will feature “a brand-new drive unit technology.”
What is that technology and how does it work? All in good time, friends. For now, you must ask yourself this: If you’re due for a headphones update and you like where Bowers & Wilkins is coming from, do you jump in now, on the known quantity that is the Px7 S2, or, like Google fans questioning whether they should wait for the teased Pixel 7, do you hold off for another few months and see if the Px8 are as exciting as we are all hoping?
