Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

Bowers & Wilkins are now onto their second generation of the Px8 over-ear headphones, and they've already refined the design. It's not a complete overhaul, but the headphones are slimmer, sleeker, and honestly more graceful. For me, the biggest improvement is the fit. These headphones may only come in two colours, but they offer one of, if not the best fits among current high-end ANC headphones on the market.

As expected, the cables are fabric-sleeved and anchored by aluminium arms that hold the earcups, which are wrapped in Nappa leather. It's premium all the way: lovely, gorgeous, and priced to match at €729, which is about twice the cost of what most consumers would consider "premium." Still, that's cheap compared to some of Bowers & Wilkins' speaker models, which can cost €55,000, and that's not even their most expensive.

Aside from being one of the best-looking headphones I've seen in years, my only real critique is the plastic buttons on the side of the earcups. They simply don't match the rest of the build. It feels like someone decided to cut corners, even though the rest is beautifully refined metal. At this price point, the buttons should absolutely have been aluminium. If you can afford memory foam earcups and an aluminium headband, you can afford a few extra grams of metal for the controls.

Of course, the most important part is the sound, and B&W doesn't disappoint. These headphones fully support 24-bit sound, including aptX Lossless, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive codecs.

ANC is powered by an eight-microphone array. In a normal office environment, passive noise cancellation is often enough but when, say, someone is using a jackhammer outside your window, reducing that roar to a mild background buzz is very impressive. The proprietary ANC system, combined with ADI PureVoice voice rejection, is surprisingly effective. That said, ANC does affect sound quality though only slightly. Without ANC, the music sounds more alive, with greater ambiance and an expanded soundstage. While the carbon driver remains the same, the amplifier, DSP, suspension, voice coil, and other elements have all been upgraded.

ANC and EQ are controlled via the B&W Music app, where the feature is branded as "TrueSound". While I'm not a fan of installing yet another app on my phone, this one is intuitive, simple, and pleasant to use. Later this year, B&W will also introduce their own spatial audio, as well as LE support via OTA updates.

Battery life is listed at 30 hours and is very close to my real-world results, even with ANC set to maximum. It's rare to see a company give a conservative estimate instead of an overly optimistic one. The package includes a hard carrying case. While the earcups and headband are replaceable, although a replacement must still be completed at an authorised service centre.

The sound quality is far above what you'd expect from a mainstream product. There's real resolution, with soundstage, bass, and dynamics that come closer to a pair of proper speakers than almost any other consumer headphone. Treble reproduction has timbre and detail, midrange is coherent and punchy without sounding disjointed, and the overall presentation is refined and balanced. While it doesn't quite have the airy openness of open-back headphones, it's vastly superior to most competitors in its class, though, of course, the price reflects that.