Company & Product Overview

Bowers & Wilkins, the iconic high-end speaker manufacturer from England, just released a newly redesigned top-of-the-line P Series noise-canceling headphone—the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2.

The previous Px7 Over-Ear Noise-Cancelling headphone was highly successful and quickly became one of the Best Wireless Headphones available after it debuted in 2019. Year over year, the luxury Px7 still constantly tops our list of Must-Have Audio Gear for Remote Workers.

The Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 is completely redesigned inside and out—but this series continues the trend of drawing inspiration from the beautiful designs of high-end luxury sports cars. Needless to say, we were excited to be the first to receive it and review the new Px7 S2 from Bowers & Wilkins ahead of the official release.

We will talk about the Px7 S2 throughout this review—but bear in mind that the build quality, performance, and software is the same for the Blue & Gold, Black, and Light Gray versions—so, if you are considering any of the new Px7s, this review is for you. Keep in mind that when you buy from Audio Advice, not only do you get free shipping, lifetime support, and a price guarantee, but you’ll also receive our exclusive Tips & Tricks setup guide to get you up and running with your new Bowers & Wilkins Px7’s in no time.

Packaging, Design & Build Quality

Bowers & Wilkins bundles a nice headphone case to help protect your investment while on the go. The new soft-shell travel case has been redesigned to accommodate the Px7 S2’s new form and shape.

The headphones, themselves, are smaller, lighter, and easier to carry around. So, the new case has also been redesigned to be slightly smaller and to slip more easily into a backpack or a bag.

We love that the Px7 S2 features swiveling ear cups, allowing the headphones to lay flat on a desk whenever a headphone stand isn’t close by. This smart design also lets you stow the headphones inside the slimmer travel case with enough room to fit the included accessories.

The redesigned case also has a little more depth than most bundled cases to accommodate the Px7 S2’s larger ear cups, and we like the deep central pouch that magnetically snaps shut to stow the bundled accessories inside of its travel case. Inside the pouch, there is a very long 4-foot USB-C to 3.5mm headphone cable and another generous 4-foot USB-C charging cable.

Overall, the total weight of the headphones with all bundled accessories tucked inside the case is only slightly over a pound, which is just fantastic when bringing this along in a carry-on bag for a long flight.

In terms of looks, the headphones themselves have a modern, high-end design. The Px7 S2 features a cloth, and aluminum construction, which gives them a pretty understated style that also reminds us of a luxury vehicle. The new S2 has accent rings that surround the earcups with matching Bowers & Wilkins logos on the sides—and this creates a nice “pop” of sheen against the S2’s classic Bowers & Wilkins aesthetics.

The S2 is available in a range of colors—including Blue & Gold, Light Gray and a classic Bowers & Wilkins Black finish for the most understated look. All three are made from premium materials—and the beautiful detailing will make you proud to show them off—or even stand out in a crowd where everyone’s using the same basic product made by the same brand.

At Audio Advice, we really like the distinctive contrast between the shiny accent rings and the durable cloth on the S2’s ear cups. The competition in the wireless noise-canceling headphone category has been heating up a lot more recently. So, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, we think Bowers & Wilkins produced an even more high-end look with the S2 that is several steps above the previous model—and the majority of the competition in this price class.

On the left ear cup, there is a multifunction button that you can customize to activate the Active Noise Canceling and Ambient Aware transparency modes. Or you can set it to automatically activate your phone's built-in voice assistant.

On the right ear cup, there is a toggle switch that powers the headphones on/off and this also activates the Bluetooth pairing modes. There is also an indicator LED that flashes or illuminates a solid white light to let you know the status of the Bluetooth connection and the battery. Next, there is an easy-to-find ribbed button to control the playback between dedicated buttons for raising and lowering the volume.

Finally, there is a USB-C port for charging the headphones, and the indicator LED that will glow amber to show you that it is time for a charge. It’s important to note, Bowers & Wilkins is one of the few who make the USB-C port capable of both charging the unit and passing hi-res audio through the wired connection. Since many people will be using these to work from home with a laptop that no longer includes a 3.5mm jack, we see the USB-C audio cable as an added convenience for those wanting the best audio quality from their laptops.

Comfort

The redesigned form and shape for the S2 took many months of research and development to deliver a better clamping force around the head and even better acoustic sealing that locks in the premium sound that the original Px7 was known for. The engineers spent many months perfecting the level of comfort you get to ensure the new S2 remained comfortable for longer.

In terms of weight, the Px7 S2 is slightly smaller, which not only improves the way it fits inside of its compact travel case, it also cuts down on materials that add weight on top of your head. The S2 weighs less than 11 ounces, which is slightly over half a pound. When at work or on a long flight, every little bit of weight counts, however, after about 30 minutes of wearing them, pressure on top of the head was very evenly distributed around the ears, which helped reduce pressure points.

The S2 features upgraded pressure-relieving memory foam that covers plenty of surface area around the ears with thicker, extra soft padding in the ear cushions and soft padding in the headband. Bowers & Wilkins designed the earcups with a more oblong rectangular shape instead of an oval-shaped design, which helped cover more surface area at the right points of pressure around the ears to help evenly distribute the clamping force around your head for a tighter, more secure, snug fit.

The engineers also spent a lot of time designing the earcups chambers to give your ears more room to breathe. In the S2, the drive units are carefully positioned at an angle inside the earcups to better direct sound into your ear canals—but this also creates more depth inside the earcups for ample chamber real estate that helps your ears to stay cooler.

We were already extremely satisfied with the previous Px7’s comfort level, so we were thrilled to find out Bowers & Wilkins created some extra room inside the earcup chamber—while also improving the acoustic performance—and without tacking on much more additional weight than the previous model. The updates allowed us to wear the S2 just as long as the previous Px7 before our ears started getting clammy or sweaty.

Overall, we were really impressed with Bowers & Wilkins’s upgrades in Px7’s build and design, and how well the S2’s strong, but lightweight materials made the smart compromise between a secure fit that stayed on our heads while providing a level of comfort that remained comfortable for longer.

Features & Technology

Bowers & Wilkins Music App Integration

The Px7 S2 utilizes the Bower & Wilkins Music app on your smartphone to adjust noise-canceling and ambient pass-through modes. This is the same app that also integrates with Bowers & Wilkins’s newer products—such as the Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3 Dolby Atmos Soundbar and the Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Hi-Res Wireless Speaker System.

Apps like these enable the manufacturers to update software, so your investment is constantly improving over time. It’s also nice to see all of Bowers & Wilkins’s products integrated into a single app instead of spread across multiple apps that you have to install for each product. Our favorite feature, however, is the new EQ tone control that will let you tailor the sound. So cool!

Advanced Hybrid Active Noise Canceling (ANC)

The Px7 S2 features an advanced Hybrid ANC algorithm developed by Bowers & Wilkins that utilizes a new DSP hardware platform and algorithms to optimize the audio, ANC, Ambient Pass-Through, and call quality performance.

Revised Custom Bowers & Wilkins Full-Range Drivers

One area where Bowers & Wilkins slightly outshines most of the competition in the noise-canceling headphone category is the superior sound. Bowers & Wilkins utilizes the same engineers as the team behind their prestigious 800 Series Diamond speakers for the Px series. These are the same speakers used at Abbey Road Studios, and we think this is what sets the Px7 S2 apart.

The S2 features a custom 40mm Bowers & Wilkins driver with a low-distortion bio-cellulose diaphragm (<0.1%(1kHz/10mW)) and a 20mm voice coil that Bowers & Wilkins says is based on their Kapton former—the same kind of voice coil former used in their premium loudspeakers. Bowers & Wilkins told us these are positioned alongside updated magnets (or motor systems) to produce new cones that reduce overall distortion in the S2 for improvements in resolution & detail.

Trickle Down Tech

The drive units are then carefully positioned and angled inside of the earcups to better direct sound into your ear canals. This attention to detail is something we usually only find in more expensive audiophile-grade headphones to create the ideal stereo image with the most open, spacious soundstage. These headphones usually cost hundreds or thousands of dollars more.

In fact, this is the same technology Bowers & Wilkins developed for their flagship Signature headphone, celebrating Bowers & Wilkins' 50th anniversary. At Audio Advice, we love it when companies use trickle-down tech to make their less expensive gear even better, so we are really excited to see some of that premium audiophile-level performance trickle down into a wireless noise-canceling headphone.

Premium Bowers & Wilkins Sound Quality

Getting music into the S2 is achieved wirelessly over Bluetooth with support for AptX Adaptive for higher-resolution transmission of audio compared to standard Bluetooth. This promises class-leading, 24-bit/48kHz Bluetooth transmission, and low latency. Think of music with tighter bass, clearer mid-range, and more details in the overall sense of presentation.

You could also connect the Px7 S2 to your laptop using the included USB-C headphone cable and use the Px7 S2’s built-in DAC to conveniently enjoy hi-res audio up to 24 bit/48kHz quality through the wired connection. Fans of hi-res audio will appreciate having a wired connection that supports lossless 24-bit audio since aptX is inherently a lossy Bluetooth codec.

New Microphone Pattern w/Powerful DSP Processing

Bowers & Wilkins takes the signal from your music source and runs it through its new optimized DSP algorithm to ensure high-resolution audio no matter what you are listening to. Bowers & Wilkins then teams its powerful DSP processing technology with a new microphone pattern which consists of six microphones. The Px 7 S2 has four microphones dedicated to the ANC system while a dual voice-calibrated mic system is dedicated to picking up your voice.

Px7 S2 Call Quality: Crystal Clear Phone Calls — Anywhere.

For active noise-cancellation, the S2 has one microphone dedicated in each earcup listening to the output of the drive units—while another in each earcup is dedicated to listening to the outside world—and finally, two more dedicated voice-calibrated mics on the outside of the earcups are positioned and angeled to pick up your voice better while suppressing outside noises, like wind, from being captured—ensuring your voice always sounds clear during phone calls no matter what is happening around you.

Px7 S2 Battery Life

Another upgrade over the previous model is charging time. The S2 has cut down the total time to charge to 100% from 3 hours to just 2 hours of charge time!

With active noise-canceling turned on, the Bowers & Wilkins will run 30 hours on a single charge. Of course, this will be great news for travelers, but when you start talking over 25 hours of active noise-canceling, it really opens the door for these to become daily headphones you can actually use regularly for work, home, or really anywhere in between. Plus, in terms of quick-charging, Bowers & Wilkins gives you 7 hours of charge in just 15-minutes, which is just fantastic!

Wear Detection

There’s also a handy wear detection feature that automatically powers off the Px7s for you after enough time has passed. A proximity sensor will detect when you are wearing the headphones, so when you take them off, you don’t have to worry about draining the battery. The standby timer can be turned on/off in the app. After about 15 minutes your Px7s will power off automatically. This also works with music—so, whenever you remove the headphones, the Px7 pauses the music for you. Once you experience wear detection, you’ll never want to go back to headphones without it!

Intuitive Controls

In terms of controls, some headphones use intuitive touch-controls on the earcups, so you can swipe your finger across it to pause, play, or increase the volume. However, capacitive touch tends to have issues with consistency and being dependable in certain types of weather. So, Bowers & Wilkins went with physical buttons that are always dependable, always there, and really easy to find. We find having physical buttons really do offer the most consistent experience in all types of weather no matter what the temperature is like outside.

Performance

Now that we've had the Px7 S2 for more than a week, we’ve done a lot of listening. We even had the opportunity to bring them along for a road trip that let us put it through the paces. We used them in a variety of scenarios like riding in the car, crossing a busy street, and taking calls at the office. Since audio quality is something that’s typically overlooked in a lot of other wireless noise-canceling headphones, we listened to a lot of different styles of music with the new Px7 S2.

Sound Quality

Since the engineers carefully positioned and angled the drive units to better direct sound into your ears, audiophiles will appreciate having an improvement in stereo imaging with a wider, more open, spacious soundstage. If you leave all the settings neutral, we think the Px7 S2s are just a touch closer to matching the original source material and depth of bass. Overall, Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 presented a wide soundstage and deep bass reproduction. Bowers & Wilkins did not provide a frequency response—however, the Px7 S2 has a neutral profile that sounded very natural across a wide range of frequencies.

The Px7 S2 utilizes a custom low-distortion bio-cellulose 40mm Bowers & Wilkins diaphragm. With the Px7 S2, you will hear a broad presentation of lower frequency content across the board, especially on recordings where there’s a lot of natural instruments playing all at once. John Lennon’s trippy, psychedelic ballad, “Bless You,” is a really good track that will let you hear this natural presentation of details.

Recorded in 1974 for his solo album, Walls and Bridges, John Lennon’s vocal is accompanied by a vibey Fender Rhodes piano, bass, percussion, and acoustic guitars panned hard left and right. At 1:50, Lennon’s vocal just floated naturally in the center of the S2’s soundstage alongside the other instruments in the mix—which made it really easy for us to just kick back, relax, and get lost in the sounds.

This natural presentation of detail also translated very well with newer recordings. When we switched over to a funky, vibey track called “Salt” off the indie-infused 2014 Language & Perspective from a band called Bad Suns out of California, we were immediately impressed with the articulation of details. Percussive elements like bongos, synths, and electric lead guitars were presented naturally with a pretty wide sense of presentation for a closed-back headphone. The bass guitar was tight, resolute, and very balanced with all of the other instruments.

Px7 S2 Noise-Cancellation Test

Next, we tested the noise cancellation. In terms of low frequencies like the low-end “hum” of a car or the sound of a train passing, the Px7 S2 performs really well. We found the performance was comparable to the best noise-canceling headphones on the market. We compared them directly to the Bose 700 and the Sony WH-1000XM5 top-of-the-line noise-canceling headphones in our 2022 Best Noise-Canceling Headphones Comparison—so be sure to check that out, if you want to know how the Px7 S2 performed against other leading noise-canceling headphones.

Overall, we were very impressed by how well the Px7 S2 canceled out high-frequency sounds too. When we were out and about in a noisy street with honking cars, sirens, and people talking all around us, the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 did an even more fantastic job reducing the noise.

Call Quality Test

In terms of noise-canceling on phone calls, we tested them in the car, walking across the street while taking business calls, and in the office. In all of these scenarios, people on the other end consistently told us the reduction of background noises was substantially better, especially when we were walking around in a busy downtown environment. People told us our voices sounded clear during the call, and on conference calls, fewer people were asking us to mute if there was wind or other noises in the background.

Overall Recommendation

At Audio Advice, we are big fans of noise-canceling headphones that offer great performance.

We were the first to receive the new Px7 S2 from Bowers & Wilkins before the official release and we were the first to review it. After more than a week of comparing the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 vs the best noise-canceling headphones of 2022, we are seriously impressed that Bowers & Wilkins has made the Px7 even better. If you want a top-of-the-line wireless noise-canceling headphone with the best sound quality available, the Px7 S2 is the best option for the money. Plus, when you buy from Audio Advice, not only do you get free shipping, lifetime support, and a price guarantee, but we’ll also send you our exclusive Tips & Tricks setup guide to get you up and running with your new Bowers & Wilkins Px7’s fast.

With every Px7 iteration, Bowers & Wilkins utilizes the same engineers as the team behind their prestigious 800 Series speakers. These are the same speakers used at Abbey Road Studios, and we think this continues to set a benchmark in terms of audio fidelity for noise-canceling headphones.

You’ll still get that same great Bowers & Wilkins performance and features with any of the previous Px7 editions for the same amount of money—but, truly, if you want a slight acoustic advantage, the trickle-down tech from Bowers & Wilkins’s premium loudspeakers and their flagship headphone model makes the Px7 S2 the coolest looking pair that will give you that slight edge in performance.

As a bonus, the S2’s redesigned microphone pattern offers the best clarity of voice on phone calls of any noise-canceling headphone in its price class.

Either way, you’ll be really happy you made the choice with a headphone from Bowers & Wilkins. We hope you’ve enjoyed this review, but if you have any questions about the new Px7 S2, feel free to give us a call, chat with one of our experts at audioadvice.com, or stop into one of our Raleigh or Charlotte North Carolina showrooms—we’ll be happy to help you out!