Noble Wireless Headphones – Price & Review | €729

The British high-end manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins has been setting the tone in audiophile home equipment for half a century and has long been involved in the premium automotive and headphone sectors. Is football ace David Beckham really necessary as an advertising icon to underpin the claim and image of the new flagship headphones? We say: why not? The test of the wireless over-ear headphones Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2.

What makes the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 the S2 version?

The predecessor Px8 was already at home in the LowBeats-Test an “outstanding” result. So the bar is set very high. At first glance, the new one loses a few grams of weight and a few centimeters of circumference in the transport case. More cosmetic than decisive. The heir to the throne from B&W scores points with its inner values: The carbon membrane, light and at the same time stiff with a diameter of 40 millimeters, now works with an optimized voice coil unit.

In addition, an improved headphone amp with its DSP ensures more pleasant sound. Active Noise Canceling (ANC) now uses eight (instead of the previous six) microphones to monitor environmental noises – and of course optimize speech intelligibility when making calls.

The battery department promises sessions of up to 30 hours without having to refuel, and after just a quarter of an hour on a power source such as a laptop or PC, you can enjoy around seven hours of music enjoyment again. The approximately 300 grams of the Px8 S2 feel relatively light on the head, the pressure over the ears is okay for a mobile person, after all, you don’t want to constantly adjust the headdress while on the go. Long-term sessions are not a problem, although some stationary listeners take longer.

Many manufacturers transfer technology from larger models to smaller ones. At this point, Bowers does it the other way around: Upon closer inspection, we have already seen and heard the configuration as well as the technology and the battery performance with the B&W Px7 S3. The new P8 lives up to the noble flagship claim above all with its elegant appearance: delicate nappa leather covers the head cups and matt aluminum forms the temples. This not only feels very comfortable, but also looks extremely valuable.

Praxis

As with the Px7 S3, the technology department gave the Px8 S2 the chip power from Qualcomm, which goes up to a theoretical HiRes resolution of 24Bit/96kHz. For wireless sound performance, Bluetooth version 5.3 works, including aptX Lossless, which promises lossless CD quality. We will hear. Operation is basically the responsibility of the small surfaces of headphones, here mini buttons. In order to give commands accurately, it’s better to allow some time to get used to it, but then it’ll work out just fine. The “Music” app from Bowers & Wilkins also supports the operation of the Px8 S2 as a smart director, including sound adjustments or active noise canceling. The ANC of the Px8 S2 is at a high level and filters out driving noises such as in the ICE well, and even road noise is barely noticeable when the ANC is activated. The transparency mode, on the other hand, allows announcements to come through quite clearly. Good this way.

Great: Like its predecessor, the new one can make itself comfortable on the go in a sturdy hard-shell case with the earpieces folded to the side. There are two USB-C cables in the box, one of which can be docked directly to the USB-C port of the source device such as a laptop or smartphone. The other makes contact with a 3.5mm mini jack directly to the headphone outputs.

Hearing test

Active noise canceling (ANC) is part of the basic setting and also scores with the most lively richness of sound – slightly ahead of the transparency or off mode. The music performance of the new one has drive and a pleasant three-dimensional audibility, a nice wide stage, appropriate spatial depth and great resolution.

We start in practical, wireless Bluetooth mode: Guitarist and singer-songwriter Steve Strauss, recorded by Günter Pauler on his audiophile Stockfisch label, made people sit up and take notice on “A Very Thin Wire” with fine, delicate acoustic guitar work and precisely articulated vocals. It was already clear here that the new one has an even more detailed and dynamically confident performance than its predecessor.

Then jazz: The WDR Big Band delivered a thrilling happening – brass, drums, bass and saxophone shined via Px8 S2 with sparkling dynamics that, the longer you listened, the more you wanted to keep listening. Classical music again shone beautifully and physically, solo instruments such as cellos had a warm fundamental tone and shone sinewy in fast passages. The Baroque soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic performed Antonio Vivaldi’s “Summer” in a highly dynamic, captivating and rousing manner. Thanks to the fairly confident translation of the B&W, solo instruments such as Daishin Kashimoto’s violin also shined in clearly defined acoustic space. And all of this paired with a pleasingly good spatial representation – for headphones. However, I would have liked a little more midrange precision, which some stationary headphones in this price range such as the Sennheiser HD 660 S2 do better. But even compared to the conceptually very similar DALI iO8, in my opinion a touch more lightness would have been nice. However, the B&W sounds overall more energetic than the DALI, with more grip in the bass.

Docked to the MacBook Pro via a USB-C cable, the Px8 S2 even breathed a bit more air in terms of resolution than in wireless mode. And when connected to a headphone amp like the ifi Zen DAC V2, the transparency and richness of detail increased even further. But who wants to carry around a mobile DAC and cables all the time? Even.

Fazit 
B&W Px8S2

“S” is done: The new one with the additional abbreviation “2” overtakes its already excellent predecessor and, with its slightly more vivid and “faster” performance, places itself slightly ahead of it – but also ahead of the Px7 S3, whose excellent ANC also works in the new Px8. However, it is significantly more expensive compared to the current 7 Series; This doesn’t make it the price/performance winner of the B&W headphone line. The Px8 S2 underlines its flagship claims with a high-quality appearance. In this respect, he is undoubtedly in the top league of his class.

B&W Px8 S2	2026/01
OUTSTANDING

Reviews

Klang Praxis processing

The rating always refers to the respective price range.

	Balanced, rich, fine, spatial sound
	Low background noise even with active NC
	Excellent NC noise cancellation
	Very good speech intelligibility when making calls

Technical data

Teammates and opponents:

B&W Px7 S3 Bluetooth headphones test: luxury for your head
DALI iO8 test: closed-dynamic BT over-ear headphones with ANC
Sennheiser HD 660S2 – the bass-optimized over-ear classic in the test

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