Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 Review (2025)

The Px8 S2 is one of the best-built wireless headphones you can buy. Real Nappa leather on the ear cushions and headband, metal articulation points, and a fit-and-finish that genuinely feels like a luxury product rather than a premium-priced plastic one. It's heavier than the Sony and Sennheiser options at 310g, but that weight feels like substance, not bulk — you're aware you're holding something of real quality when you pick it up.

The case is refined, the folding mechanism is smooth, and even the color options — Onyx Black and Warm Stone — look more considered than the typical matte-black-or-gray choices everywhere else. This is the closest any mainstream wireless headphone gets to the feel of a traditional British hi-fi product.

Comfort is good but comes with an asterisk. The Nappa leather pads are plush and the headband distributes weight well, and for the first two or three hours the Px8 S2 is a genuine pleasure to wear. Beyond that, the 310g weight and moderately firm clamping force start to add up, particularly on longer listening sessions or flights. This isn't unusual for a headphone that prioritizes build and driver size, and most users will find it comfortable enough for typical everyday use. But if you know you need eight or ten hours of wear at a stretch, something lighter like the HDB 630 or XM6 will serve you better physically.

B&W's carbon cone drivers give the Px8 S2 a punchy, physical low-end that doesn't sacrifice definition for quantity. Bass hits with real impact — kick drums have body, bass guitars have texture — but the low end is controlled enough that it stays in its lane and doesn't bleed into the mids. Several reviewers note that it has more bass than a neutral reference headphone but noticeably less bloat than the classic B&W consumer sound or the Sony XM line. It's a musically satisfying tuning: lively and engaging without being exhausting. If you come from Sony's XM series, the Px8 S2's bass will feel tighter and more purposeful. If you come from something strictly neutral, it will feel slightly rich and full — but not overwhelming.

The midrange is the star. Vocals are open, naturally placed, and clearly rendered — there's no veil, no recession, and no artificial thickness coloring the presentation. Instruments have real tonal body: an acoustic guitar has resonance and string texture, a piano has weight and decay, and a string section spreads with proper space between players. This is the kind of midrange that makes you want to put on albums and listen straight through rather than just skipping between tracks. It's warm enough to be musical but honest enough to not lie to you about what's on the recording.

Treble on the Px8 S2 is clean, extended, and airy — one of the stronger points of the tuning. Cymbals shimmer rather than splash, reverb tails decay naturally, and there's a genuine sense of "open" space above the mids that keeps the presentation feeling alive. It leans slightly toward brightness on demanding recordings, which means that poorly-mastered or harsh material can expose a touch of sharpness. That said, this is a far more honest and detailed top end than you get from the Sony XM6 or most consumer-oriented competitors, and for well-recorded music it's a consistent strength rather than a liability. If you're treble-sensitive, the 5-band EQ can tame it gently without losing the character.

For a closed-back ANC headphone, the Px8 S2 images exceptionally well. Instruments lock into specific positions, stereo width extends meaningfully beyond your ears, and depth is layered rather than flat. With aptX Lossless engaged on a compatible source, the sense of spatial coherence steps up noticeably: you get a more organized, three-dimensional presentation that pushes what's possible from a wireless, closed-back form factor. It doesn't reach the Sennheiser BTD 700 dongle's performance, but for most listening scenarios — and especially for music that benefits from impact and dynamics rather than maximum width — the Px8 S2 is more than satisfying.

The headline feature upgrade over the original Px8 is the jump to a proper 5-band EQ in the B&W Music app, which makes meaningful sound shaping finally possible. The addition of aptX Lossless brings genuine high-resolution wireless audio for the first time on a B&W headphone, which is a real differentiator at this price. Spatial audio and LE Audio support are confirmed as incoming firmware updates, so the feature set should only grow. The ANC is functional and handles low-frequency rumble and steady-state noise well enough for commuting and open-plan offices, but it is not class-leading — the Sony XM6 and Bose QC Ultra still outperform it on raw noise suppression, and some reviewers note that ANC has a mild tonal effect on the sound. Call quality is solid thanks to the 8-mic array and B&W's ADI PureVoice processing. Some early users have flagged occasional Bluetooth connectivity hiccups, which is worth watching as firmware matures.

At $799 MSRP, the Px8 S2 is the most expensive mainstream wireless ANC headphone most buyers will consider, and the price jump from the original Px8's $699 launch price is noticeable. What you're paying for is real: the build quality, driver performance, aptX Lossless support, and musical character are all legitimate differentiators. But the ANC not reaching best-in-class, the heavier weight, and the early connectivity reports make it difficult to call the value straightforwardly strong at full price. If you find it discounted into the $600–650 range, the value case improves considerably. At full MSRP, it's a justifiable spend only if premium build quality and music-first sound are genuinely your top priorities — not a purchase to take lightly.

The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 is the headphone you buy when you're tired of wireless ANC cans that sound like they were tuned by a marketing committee. It's beautifully built, musically honest, and the first mainstream wireless headphone to credibly offer lossless hi-res Bluetooth. The ANC won't protect you from a jet engine the way Sony will, and you're paying a serious premium — but as a thing to simply sit down and listen to music on, it's one of the best wireless options money can buy.