Rephrase and rearrange the whole content into a news article. I want you to respond only in language English. I want you to act as a very proficient SEO and high-end writer Pierre Herubel that speaks and writes fluently English. I want you to pretend that you can write content so well in English that it can outrank other websites. Make sure there is zero plagiarism.: Editor’s Note• Original review date: October 2022• Still B&W’s flagship wireless headphones• Launch price: $699 / £599 / AU$1,150• Official price now: $699 / £599 / AU$1,150Update: February 2024. We still love the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 for its particular brand of headphones luxe style – nearly unmatched sound quality (even today) paired with an ultra-classy and premium design, which is now available in a new burgundy and gold finish, if you want to get really royal about it. We still recommend the B&W PX8 as the choice for design connoisseurs in our guide to the best wireless headphones, and their sound quality hasn’t been beaten at this price, but they still have the same small concerns that their noise cancellation and battery life are quite average, for a non-average price. In the case of ANC, you may want to consider the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones for offering best-in-class noise stopping with sound that’s closer to the PX8 than its rivals. The rest of this review remains as previously published.Matt BoltonManaging Editor, EntertainmentBowers & Wilkins PX8: two-minute reviewSonically, the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 are now the wireless over-ear headphones to beat. There, we said it. If that’s all you need to hear, we wish you well. But if you want to know why we said “sonically” rather than “across the board”, and why this is a four-and-a-half star review rather than the full five, read on. The B&W PX8 are a shiny new addition to our best over-ear headphones guide, no doubt. But let’s get it right: the PX8 are expensive. There are good, tangible, understandable reasons for this – a new carbon cone 40mm drive unit replaces the bio-cellulose driver in the more affordable Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S2 and the die-cast aluminum arms, diamond-cut bright metal detailing and Nappa leather trim elevates the build to high-end territory – but for some, anything priced hotter than the AirPods Max is too rich for the blood given the current financial climate. We hear you. But we have also heard the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 headphones and, cost of living crisis or no, they’re exceptional.Bowers & Wilkins admits the brief was simple: achieve the best possible wireless over-ears and hang the cost. The UK-based audio specialist has fulfilled the brief beautifully. To put these headphones on is to experience a pride of ownership rarely felt, even at this level – I didn’t feel it with the slightly odd-looking AirPods Max, for instance. And despite the outlay, the sound quality for the money here is sublime.Any issues? A few. None of them pertains to sound – that is where these cans truly shine; know that now – but these are why we knocked half a star off the rating in this otherwise glowing review. The cheaper Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless (launched in August 2022) boast a whopping 60-hour battery life even with ANC deployed, and you only get 30 hours here – although, that’s the same as you’ll get from the Sony WH-1000XM5 (which launched in May 2022 – we like to save you the hassle of checking). Also, the ANC cannot be customized, the EQ tweaks are limited to treble and bass, and there are no big extra features. But that’s where the negatives end. Elsewhere, the Bowers & Wilkins Music app now corrals your streaming services into one place (provided these are Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud or Qobuz, although B&W hopes to work with Apple Music in the future) and because this one app now rules the roost, it creates a B&W ecosystem whereby whatever’s coming through your cans could simply transfer to your Zeppelin, Formation Wedge or other supported B&W speakers when you walk through the door. As regular TechRadar readers know, in this house, sound is king. And the sonic performance here is detailed, agile, spacious, musical and nothing short of delightful. If you can afford them and you want the best-sounding wireless cans on the market, you will not be disappointed in the PX8.Hang it all, the PX8 are a good-looking set of cans. (Image credit: Future)Bowers & Wilkins PX8 review: price and release dateReleased on September 28, 2022$699 / £599 / AU$1150The Bowers & Wilkins PX8 are available now, for £599 / $699 / AU$1,150 / €699.Expensive, we know, but this is top-tier B&W territory…OK, so there’s no escaping the fact that this makes the PX8 more expensive than the Apple AirPods Max, Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 Wireless (at $349 / £300 / AU$549) and the class-leading Sony WH-1000XM5, which retail for $399 / £380 / AU$550. And considering the Sennheiser over-ears boast double the stamina of the Bowers & Wilkins PX8 (and the XM5, while we’re on the subject) that pricing starts to look a little ambitious…Only, it’s not. Why? Because the sound quality makes them an exceptional buy, that’s why. The case also feels premium, with a compartment for the two cables included (Image credit: Future)Bowers & Wilkins review: featuresExcellent Music app support for full, multi-room ecosystemsSimple, dependable physical on-ear controlsANC and transparency profiles cannot be customizedWhile the Bowers & Wilkins PX8’s spec sheet is good rather than excellent (the ANC profiles comprise on, off, or pass-through, while the EQ tabs involve bass and treble tabs only, so anyone hoping for full five-band EQ settings is out of luck) what the PX8 do, they do very well indeed. There’s wearer detection and auto-standby (which sends them into low power state after 15 minutes of inactivity) both of which can be turned on or off, and the left quick action button can be customized depending on whether you want to scroll through ANC profiles or access your voice assistant of choice.A nice touch here is the ability to set the streaming quality (using your mobile data or Wi-Fi) and also the wearer sensor, the latter at low, normal, or high. If the PX8 fail to pause when you lift an ear cup to talk to a colleague, switch it to high. Find them pausing unexpectedly during use? Switch it to low. Perhaps we might have hoped for more than the ‘standard’ 30-hour battery life, although this is better than both the Bose QuietComfort 45 and Bose Noise Cancelling 700, which offer between 24 and 30 hours. Also, a quick 15 minute charge gets you seven hours playback – a claim we tested and found to be true. There’s a traditional approach here when it comes to on-ear controls, but they work beautifully, with volume, playback and power buttons on the right ear cup and a ‘quick action’ button on the left, which we use to quickly switch ANC. On this, the ANC here is good, nixing all but the noisiest of buses and aeroplanes overhead as we walk into the office. The transparency mode is a more subtle affair entirely and seems a little reticent to actively filter in ambient sounds quite so eagerly as the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless, say. That said, there is a marked difference in sound pass-through – you will hear the outside world – but we would have dialled it up a tad, if it were possible.The big ace up B&W’s sleeve is its Music app, which now greets you with “spaces” and can group your Bowers & Wilkins products accordingly for multi-room audio when you get home, similar to that offered by Apple Home or Amazon’s Alexa app. The B&W PX8 come toting Bluetooth 5.2 plus support for aptX Adaptive (one of the best Bluetooth codecs available today) as well as aptX and aptX HD, and the six mics in total (four for ANC, two for call-handling) make for clear phone calls during our testing. These are over-ears you’ll want to be seen in – ideally, on a yacht in the Maldives (Image credit: Future)Bowers & Wilkins PX8 review: designBeautiful metal accents (especially on the tan colorway)Drivers are angled to the wearer’s earClamping force is perfect For flair and beauty, Bowers & Wilkins has hit a home run with the PX8. These are cans to be seen in – as we said in our hands-on review, the PX8 would look right at home around the neck of a…
