Bowers & Wilkins upgrades the best-sounding wireless earbuds I’ve ever tried
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Bowers & Wilkins has just announced two new sets of true wireless earbuds: the B&W PI7 S2 and the B&W PI5 S2. These are, as the names suggest, the successors to the B&W PI7 and PI5 respectively – and I’m extremely excited about the PI7 S2, as I was stunned by the original model at launch.
As you can read in our full original Bowers & Wilkins PI7 review, these earbuds pretty much blew everything else on the market out of the water when they launched when it comes to sound quality. Compared to the original AirPods Pro (2019) that I used as my regular everyday headphones at the time, the PI7 was a revelation: the depth of the bass, the detail in the treble and the clarity of the vocals were on another level.
They also offer a genius audio transmission feature – you can connect the case’s USB-C port to a computer or analog audio source, and the sound will be transmitted to the earbuds in aptX quality. They really went above and beyond any other earbud, but they also cost about 50% more than the AirPods Pro, so you’d hope for a lot more, right?
Since then, the world of the best true wireless earbuds has caught up a lot when it comes to sound quality: there have been other super rich premium options, and the likes of the AirPods Pro 2 and Honor Earbuds 3 Pro have really raised the bar for audio quality at a lower price , so Bowers is back to try and reclaim his throne.
The B&W PI7 S2 doesn’t seem to promise much progress when it comes to the sound quality of the drivers – the two-way audio arrangement of a 9.2mm driver with a balanced armature treble unit in each knob looks the same on paper. as the previous generation, although clearly there may have been refinements.
But the technology behind the drivers has been tweaks. There’s no support for aptX Adaptive wireless, so you should generally get a more reliable connection (B&W says you’ll also get extended range of up to 25 metres) and Hi-Res Audio from compatible sources.
And the noise-cancellation, which wasn’t worth writing home about on the original, now promises to be adaptive noise-cancellation, so in theory it should be smarter at blocking noise. Perhaps the processing behind this will also improve the sound quality of the drivers in general – we’ll have to wait and test them to find out.
The new Bowers & Wilkins Music app also offers better control and customization of the earbuds – and the audio forwarding feature is still on board.
The biggest weakness of the original PI7 was its battery life, and the PI7 S2 just improves on that…just. The battery life in the earbuds has been improved from 4.5 hours toβ¦ 5 hours in the new version. I was hoping for more than 6 hours, which is now the norm for the best noise-canceling earbuds – and many comfortably beat it.
And the other most glaring potential problem with the original PI7 still exists: they are very large. The physical design hasn’t changed, meaning there’s a large portion just outside your ear canal. I gave the originals to a small adult (but still well within the ‘typical’ size) and she couldn’t even fit them in her ear because of the shape.
However, they come in three new colours: Satin White, Canvas Black and Midnight Blue β the latter of which is extraordinarily beautiful, with gold accents on a deeply mystical indigo.
And the B&W PI7 S2 is still very expensive: Β£349 / $399 / AU$700 – I hope they’ve upped their game in the ANC department, as there’s now more premium choice than ever.
The PI7 S2 is available today, but the blue version will arrive sometime in the spring.
B&W is also launching a new version of its other true wireless earbuds: the PI5. The PI5 S2 uses a 9.2mm driver, but doesn’t have the additional balanced armature, so doesn’t deliver the same dynamic range as the PI7. It still supports aptX, but it’s not aptX Adaptive, and it lacks the audio resend feature in the case. It has active noise cancellation, but not the adaptive technology used in the PI7 S2 (although you can adjust the level of cancellation). And it also has a battery life of 5 hours in the buds.
The PI5 S2 is available in four colors: Cloud Gray, Storm Gray, Spring Lilac and Sage Green (the latter coming again in the spring). These cost Β£249 / $299 / AU$450.
If you’re looking for a good way to get aptX Hi-Res sound to these buds, may I suggest our list of the best portable music players?