How good is the ANC in Bowers & Wilkins’ luxe headphones? I wore them at a live gig to find out
Bowers & Wilkins is known for its luxurious high-end headphones that look as beautiful as they sound. We rate the flagship over-ear offering, the Bowers & Wilkins PX8, as the best headphones in terms of design. The only downside is that they are only available in black and brown nappa leather finishes. Not anymore.
There’s now a brand new color up for grabs, which B&W is calling a “Royal Burgundy,” and for good reason. It has a beautiful deep tone and is complemented by new gold detailing on the single cast aluminum headband arm, which extends to the outside of the diamond-cut ear cups.
Apart from the new finish, the hardware itself of the PX8s is the same, meaning it still has “a ton of detail, agility and expansiveness to offer, all backed by gloriously heavy bass” that we fell in love with in our Bowers & Wilkins PX8 review. However, the team at Bowers & Wilkins have upgraded the firmware within the PX8 range at the same time as the release of this new colour.
The acoustic tuning update is claimed to “provide even more detail, creating an unrivaled combination of ultra-fast response and exceptionally low distortion across the entire frequency range,” according to B&W. The company even goes so far as to say that the PX8 now offers the best sound quality that the company’s headphones have ever delivered.
Hands on with the new burgundy Bowers & Wilkins PX8
I was lucky enough to try out the newly upgraded burgundy Bowers & Wilkins PX8 headphones on the day they launched, but I wasn’t in the best environment to test the sound quality in terms of fine detail. You know, I was at the Tate Modern, an art gallery in London, and while you might think that a gallery is a great quiet space, that wasn’t the case on this occasion.
Downstairs in the Vaults of the former Bankside Power Station, Bowers & Wilkins staged a live performance turned art exhibition with James Blake to celebrate his new album Playing robots to heaven. Inside were two video rigs (you can see one in the video below) with a row of PX8 headphones in front of each.
The first thing you notice about them is their minimalist design. They have an understated profile from a distance, but when you get close there’s an unmistakable premium flare that’s immediately noticeable through the wide ear cups that house angled drivers. Even in the dark, the gold details of the new color reflected the lights in a way that was simply stunning.
Maybe it’s because I’m used to seeing art at the Tate, but the PX8 headphones really looked like sonic sculptures hanging side by side. Of course, I was able to pick a few up and try them out – unlike the giant ear/cup-shaped speaker that sat in the middle of the room (or most of the art in general). The first thing that’s hard to miss is how soft the nappa leather makes them. They are extremely comfortable and easy to adjust to the size of your head. The bracelet felt smooth when you put it on.
But what really struck me was the active noise cancellation. We said in our PX8 review that we found this to be pretty average, but with the new firmware out it was good that I got to really put it to the test at this event because behind me was the infamous Bowers & Wilkins Sound System that is being almost never let out.
Built more than five years ago as a passion project among the company’s sound engineers, it reportedly cost a staggering amount of money. I’m told the company won’t part with it or create a new project even after being offered an obscene amount of money for it – the system is truly something unique and special.
It is said that the system can reach 120 dB, so I was actually standing in the middle of a concert. When I switched from Transparency mode to Active Noise Cancellation, I heard the voices and music around me fade away until the bass disappeared completely. While I could still hear some high frequencies leaking, everything else was drowned out.
The ANC was extremely effective given the environment I found myself in. I can tell you that it is a strange experience, feeling bass vibrations without actually hearing them. But the noise cancellation was effective enough to make that possible.
I don’t normally wear earplugs to a concert, even though I probably have to consider the ringing in my ears afterwards, which is a sign that your ears are damaged (in some cases where prolonged exposure to higher decibels can this lead to hearing loss). But this experiment made me think that I could at least protect my hearing between sessions with one of the best noise-canceling headphones.