I’m undecided Bowers & Wilkins cares in regards to the reward, reader, and but that is what their engineers will get from me and this publish, till the model stops setting new benchmarks for audio high quality throughout the wi-fi headphone class.
You most likely know in addition to B&W that our Headphones of the Year Award on the 2025 TechRadar Choice Awards was open to on-ear, in-ear, and on-ear designs (somewhat than simply cans, because the phrase “headphones” could counsel). And right here we’re once more, one other full yr of testing beneath our belt, and I must make it clear to you that selecting the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 as our headphones of the yr was one of many easiest conclusions I’ve come to in 2025.
I put them on. Listen; I commissioned a full evaluation, however truthfully, I did it simply to get a second opinion to substantiate my very own inside verdict. I already knew his rating.
And I write this although Bowers & Wilkins doesn’t make it straightforward for me by way of workload or stress ranges. Last yr, the TechRadar Choice Awards 2024 audio winner was nonchalantly revealed late within the sport in late August within the type of the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8.
It could be straightforward to conclude from this that B&W does issues solely when the product is good and not when it comes time to ballot awards season. I totally imagine this to be true: I met the crew at Bowers & Wilkins and it is a firm that wishes to know throughout the partitions of its circle of relatives manufacturing unit that its new headphones are one of the best, earlier than getting the opinions of others.
How’s that for an up to date design that simply works?
Bowers & Wilkins’ Px8 S2 was late to the social gathering, then stole the present
The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 could have lately joined the ranks of our greatest headphones (in the previous few days, in truth), however simply because not many people have had the prospect to strive them (or purchase them), doesn’t suggest they are not one of the best. And in contrast to most of our Choice Awards, that are compiled utilizing reader enter and our personal, this specific recognition is awarded solely by TechRadar.
There’s no denying that one of the best over-ear headphones class is likely one of the most controversial guides I oversee: I frequently use cans so I do not get distracted (normally the editors-in-chief ask the place sure works are, as a result of I needed to save issues to get a Bowers & Wilkins evaluation dwell in time for award inclusion, proper?) and I discovered myself pulling out the B&W Px8 S2 from its lately lowered case each time the previous few weeks, to dam out the world with detailed, nuanced and thrilling music.
Honestly, sound high quality has by no means been a difficulty for B&W, however what the corporate has completed with the Px8 S2 is take the proficient Bowers & Wilkins Px8 and the newer (even higher) Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 upon which they’re constructed and refine, modify and replace with the knowledgeable hand of a surgeon.
Think further microphones right here, extra EQ tabs there, growing codec help, tweaking the chassis and the motor that powers it to assist get extra nuance and precision out of your music, slicing some weight, including a neat uncovered cable element on the arm… it is the very definition of incremental achieve, and whereas they nonetheless aren’t low-cost at $799 / £629 / AU$ 1,299, it is simple to see the place the cash has gone, and I urge you to strive them earlier than contemplating them too costly, as a result of you’ll be able to’t enhance the sound.
As we mentioned in our evaluation, the Px8 S2’s “open, detailed and tremendously dynamic sound”, “nice customary of building and end” and “glorious management choices” merely can’t be improved upon in the meanwhile, in what’s a hotly contested and ever-changing market.
Yes, you should buy headphones for lots much less, however what we’re saying is that you just at present cannot purchase them. higher for this cash or much less, within the discipline of wi-fi headphones.
I’d humbly love to tell Bowers & Wilkins of the demanding schedules of the audio and hi-fi press and maybe even remind the corporate of award inclusion deadlines, however the final time I attempted to take action I ended up in a listening session, holding one of many 40mm dynamic cone drivers you may discover in B&W’s flagship headphones. And I heard myself agree that sure, we’re speaking about unimaginable ranges of precision, involving plenty of delicate processes, and no, you simply cannot rush these items…