Sound+Image

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

Luxurious in their materials and sound, Bowers & Wilkins sits proudly at the premium end of noise-cancelling.

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Bowers & Wilkins, famed for its loudspeake­rs, has been making headphones for a decade now, but Bluetooth models only since 2017, and full-size noise-cancellers only now with this PX7. This launched and remains at $599.95, the premium end of the market (until Apple came along to break that ceiling), with build and constructi­on seeming focused more on solidity than the overt executive luxury of previous designs. The PX7 is initially available in space grey (which looks like black) and silver (whch looks like grey), without the browns and golds of previous launches. The cascades of steel connectors have been replaced by remarkable moulded arms made of a composite which includes carbon fibre, yielding a slightly strange patchy matte native finish but positively screaming strength and rigidity, while also keeping the weight down to 310g, not bad for a full-size headphone. The headshells and headband are covered in a tightly woven fabric which has a stain and moisture-repellant coating, so they’re easily cleaned.

Smart functional­ity is also up with competitor­s at the price. Both headshells have wear sensors so that lifting an earcup will pause the music. These are headphones with a proper on/off switch, which we much prefer, but the wear sensors can also put the PX7 into standby when you take them off your head entirely, pausing media playback, disconnect­ing Bluetooth and switching to a low power state until worn again. They have six microphone­s covering the effective noisecance­llation, and for call-making and taking,

We’ve found such auto-off functional­ity can get a bit annoying if it happens too quickly, but B&W’s Headphone App lets you customise how long the headphones will wait before switching to auto standby (from five minutes to an hour). They claim 30 hours of battery power when listening via Bluetooth with ANC, and can be boosted back up quickly for an extra five hours play given just a 15-minute charge.

Still more to the point, these are the best-sounding B&W headphones we’ve yet heard, delivering a big, wide sound, assisted no doubt by the PX7’s over-size 43.7mm drivers, and a full range of Bluetooth codecs, with SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX HD, and also a new one — aptX Adaptive. Bass was rich, solid and low, while midrange and treble were both strengths, with spoken word very close to the original tone (deep male voices perhaps a little overfull), while the light and airy portrayal of higher frequency detail was a delight for the cues of jazz and classical music.

Premium performers, then — if we sometimes think they don’t look it, they certainly feel and sound it: strong all-round.

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