Premium sound comes at a high price

There are a lot of factors to consider when purchasing wireless earbuds. Some people want the best active noise cancellation (ANC) performance while others are more interested in features that allow for all-day wear. Some people want seamless interaction with their phones and others are looking for the best sound quality ever. If you fall into this last category, then… Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 ($399) Worth considering.

The company has consistently produced some of the best audio performance you’ll find in over-ear headphones. But wireless earbuds weren’t quite on the same level. They brought great clarity and great attention to minute details in the songs. However, there is still work to be done to build a fuller, more immersive soundstage. With Pi8the company overhauled its audio platform, adding new, larger drivers to capture more nuance and improve low-end tones. However, unfortunately, there are still some areas where Bowers & Wilkins needs to improve in order to truly compete with the best.

What’s good about Pi8?

Bowers & Wilkins has introduced a completely new design on the Pi8, offering a completely different look than… P7S2. This model has a more uniform, oval crust, which I think gives a more elegant look compared to its predecessor. The company also chose to use interesting details, such as a microphone grille that runs the width of the earbuds, to hide components that have historically been prominently displayed. Yes, this outer area still accepts long taps and taps for calls and audio playback, and these actions receive quick responses.

The biggest update to the Pi8 is sound quality. Larger 12mm carbon cone drivers drive the sound, a change from the 9.2mm dynamic drivers found inside the Pi7 S2. Bowers & Wilkins also opted for 32-bit digital signal processing (DSP), compared to 24-bit in the previous model. These earbuds also support aptX Lossless, while the previous version uses aptX Adaptive. The company says all of these changes, especially the new drivers, reduce distortion and deliver better high-frequency detail.

I found these claims to be true. The Pi8 has improved detail compared to the Pi7 S2, which is a major achievement as these earbuds already provide excellent clarity. Instruments like guitars feature prominently on albums like mewithoutYou’s emo/post-hardcore We caught foxes. On this recording, there is dialogue or interaction between the guitars during most of the songs, and you can clearly hear each of them playing their parts. The guitars also seem to float above the booming kick drum and meandering bass lines. Aaron Weiss’ mostly spoken word vocals also penetrate the mix with all the emotions and metaphors he brings to them.

Bass performance has also improved on the Pi8. It’s never overpowering, but you do get chunky rock and metal drum sounds that drive the songs rather than drowning out everything else. No Cure’s crushing metal album I wish I could die here is an excellent example of this. The drums are there to guide the thick guitar riffs through the heavier breakouts and grittier verses, but everything remains precise and distinct. Even though the vocals are screaming throughout, you can easily pick out each word instead of it fading into the mix.

Bowers & Wilkins has extended the Pi8’s battery life to 6.5 hours with ANC turned on. That’s 90 minutes longer than the Pi7 S2. This number is also closer to proverbs Sony WF-1000XM5 Which up to eight hours of noise-canceling listening. Bowers & Wilkins has once again included wireless transmission in the charging case, allowing you to use the Pi8 for times when a Bluetooth streaming source isn’t an option – such as in-flight entertainment. This tool is not new to the company’s products as others, such as JBL, have integrated it as well. However, wireless transmission is still not so common that I can say that it is readily available elsewhere.

What’s not so good about the Pi8?

The biggest downside to the Pi8 is the price: $399. The Sony WF-1000XM5 headphones were priced at $300 when they launched, though they’re typically available for around $200, and were at the top of our list. Best earbuds list since then. Bowers & Wilkins’ equipment has always outperformed Sony and others, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. While the Pi8 has a more accurate and detailed sound than the M5s, Sony and others offer advanced features that make your life easier.

For example, Sony’s flagship model can automatically pause audio when it detects you’re talking. It can also automatically adjust audio settings based on your location to help simplify your day. These types of tools can go a long way in extending the range of the Pi8. The basics are well covered in the latest range from Bowers & Wilkins, but there’s nothing extra here in terms of features, making their cost a major drawback.

This extends to the limited customization on the Pi8. There’s a five-band EQ in the company’s app to adjust the sound profile, and you can change what a long press does. However, you can only choose between ANC/ambient sound (left), voice assistant (right) or volume controls (top on the right, bottom on the left). Having to give up the ability to toggle between noise cancellation and transparency mode in order to have volume adjustments on board is a big sacrifice. These two actions are used frequently, and it would be nice to not have to use my phone to do both.

Active noise cancellation is another area where the Pi8 lags behind its competitors. I like to describe this as noise reduction, since technology here struggles with constant distractions like fans and white noise machines. Like a lot of earbuds, this model also has issues with human voices, but these issues are less worrisome at about 50 percent volume. ANC performed well on the Pi7 S2 too, so this is still an area the company can improve to further close the gap with the likes of it Boss.

Final verdict on the Pi8

Bowers & Wilkins continues to impress me with the sound quality it produces. The company’s Px7 S2e headphones are optional Best overall sound quality I’d probably give the same honor to the Pi8’s earbuds. Simply put, there are few companies that create audio profiles that contain the amount of detail, nuance and depth that Bowers & Wilkins consistently delivers. The audio performance is definitely the main reason to consider purchasing these earbuds.

But there are other very important things that ANC earbuds need to do. You need to be able to rely on it to block out a lot of noise, and the Pi8 isn’t great at that. I think advanced features like speech detection, adaptive noise control, and other automated tools are important as we head into 2025 as well. Add the ability to highly customize controls and settings to that list as well. These are missing from the Pi8, and I can appreciate that some people probably won’t care. But in my opinion, $400 earbuds should be all-inclusive and almost Flawless. Pi8 shows that this company is well on its way, but also that it still has a lot of work to do.