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B&W’s flagship Px8 headphones cost way more than they were supposed to

Simon Cohen
By

Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) has finally released its Px8 noise-canceling wireless headphones, which it had previously teased at the launch of the Px7 S2, but the price is far higher than what we were initially told. In June 2022, the one detail the company was willing to share was the Px8’s price: $549 — a $150 premium over the price of the Px7 S2. Now, however, we’ve been given a new price for the Px8. It costs an eye-watering $699. You can order them starting September 28 from bowerswilkins.com.

Woman wearing B&W Px8 wireless headphones in tan.
Bowers & Wilkins / Bowers & Wilkins

This makes the Px8 one of the few sets of wireless headphones to break the $600 barrier, joining  the $899 B&O Beoplay H95 and $999 Mark Levinson No. 5909 as some of the most expensive models you can buy. Digital Trends reached out to B&W representatives to ask for an explanation of the sudden price change, and we received this response:

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When we revealed our new Px7 S2 headphones earlier this year, we chose to announce our new flagship headphone model, the Px8, at the same time. This announcement was made much earlier than Px8’s planned on-sale date, but it was a conscious choice: we felt it allowed our customers to make their own decision on which model of Bowers & Wilkins headphone would be right for them. However, while that message was sent out with the best intentions, we mistakenly communicated a selling price for Px8 that was not an accurate reflection of the true final price.

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The company also said that it believes the Px8 “truly offers great value at a competitive price” given their ability and position in the market.

So what will you get for your nearly $700 investment?

B&W Px8 wireless headphones in tan.
Bowers & Wilkins

B&W says the Px8 use a custom set of 40-millimeter “ultra-high-resolution” carbon cone drivers that are angled within each earcup, a design that the company says will produce lower distortion and better resolution. On the materials front, the cans have been built with die-cast aluminum and Nappa leather trim for the ear cushions and headband and you get a choice of black or tan finishes.

The Px8 use a combination of Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec and B&W’s own digital signal processing (DSP) to deliver 24-bit audio with “outstanding quality.”

Other than these elements, the Px8 seem to be very similar to their much more affordable Px7 S2 cousins. The two headphones share the same active noise cancellation technology, with four mics dedicated to blocking unwanted sounds, and battery life is also identical, with a 30-hour rating from B&W. Both have the same excellent fast-charge time of 15 minutes for an additional seven hours of playing time.

Coinciding with the launch of the B&W Px8 is an update to the B&W Music app, which now features direct support for music streaming services such as Deezer, Qobuz, and Tidal. This makes the app behave a little more like the Sonos app, in that you no longer need to switch to these services’ third-party apps in order to stream your favorite songs or interact with playlists.

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Simon Cohen
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