[tiestir]

I would say the strength of the ANC is comparable between the two. Where the PX8 has the edge is in the passive isolation.

I just ordered the mw75 as I was a little dissatisfied in the lack of sub bass existence in my PX8. Though I am a huge fan of everything else regarding the px8’s sound, especially the easy going vocals that never become harsh or sibilant (I’m pretty sensitive to aggressive treble) Do you think mw75 can stand in the same league sound quality wise, but perhaps with some better bass extension and a more sub woofer like rumble than what the px8 can offer? Thanks!

 

[JoePR31]

Is anyone having a battery issue? Have had the PX8 for about a month and all has been fine— wonderful, actually. But for the past several days, the battery drains down super fast… out of power in about six hours. Prior they would exceed the stated duration. User error? Did I do something? Anyway, any advice would be appreciated before I call B&W for help. Thanks!

Whats the lowest that you've let the battery drain down to? In order to maximize battery life, it's good practice to not let lithium ion batteries drain below 30%, and also to not charge them to higher than 85%.

 

[Denkmal]

Whats the lowest that you've let the battery drain down to? In order to maximize battery life, it's good practice to not let lithium ion batteries drain below 30%, and also to not charge them to higher than 85%.

It is kind of hard to not let the PX8 charge higher than 85% if you use them plugged in via USB. Mine charge fast even when connected to an iPad. So.... is it best to use them wireless and add charging cycles, or to have them plugged in...?

 

[Zimmy68]

Not sure if posted. Comparison of high end cans. Just watching the conclusion, doesn't seem he is a fan of the PX8.

 

[Denkmal]

Not sure if posted. Comparison of high end cans. Just watching the conclusion, doesn't seem he is a fan of the PX8.

It has been posted and discussed. Basically the guy deems the PX8 to be "unlistenable" for a variety of reasons. Also he measures it (with different results vs some others I have seen) and concludes that it is a terrible tuning.
So everyone can just go ahead and sell their PX8s now

 

[yrstruly]

It has been posted and discussed. Basically the guy deems the PX8 to be "unlistenable" for a variety of reasons. Also he measures it (with different results vs some others I have seen) and concludes that it is a terrible tuning.
So everyone can just go ahead and sell their PX8s now

Mate I’ll be honest you seem a bit triggered by that “unlistenable” comment he made…

It’s just one person’s view!

 

[Denkmal]

Mate I’ll be honest you seem a bit triggered by that “unlistenable” comment he made…

It’s just one person’s view!

Well that is right.
Fortunately it does not impact the fact that I do enjoy both PX8 and Bathys (not so much the 5909) almost equally. Actually if I could only own one ANC headphone, right now it would be PX8.

 

[Denkmal]

In USB mode the PX8 is seen as a DAC, but it will unfortunately charge as well. It works on my iPad air 2022, but not with my iPhone. Would expect it to work with apple devices that have USB-C port but it will not work without extra power on camera adapters for lightning.

ALAC is the codec format of the music, not what it sends to the headphones. The music is transcoded to the correct format for the output (afaik it even transcodes AAC when sending over Bluetooth, at least based on the tests I've seen). The format support depends mostly on the device transmitting (in this case the iPad) and will be lossless to the source file up to 24-bit/48khz which is the PX8 limit. E.g. an AAC file will be transferred lossless to the PX8 (same quality as after it has been decoded to PCM), but the damage done in the encoding will still be there, while an ALAC file will be transcoded to the same PCM data as before the ALAC compression and then transferred to the PX8.

I usually stream via Tidal or Spotify but started playing around with Apple Music and the lossless / hi res audio options.
Some reflections:

1. For BT over AAC - Is there any reason that sound quality after transcoding to AAC should be different with from Apple music (ALAC), compared to Tidal (MQA)?

2. I listed using my iPad and an USB-C cable connected to PX8. It sounds good, definitely, but I am not sure if I can distinguish between the "Lossless" (24 bit/48 kHz) and the "Hi Res" (24 bit/192 kHz). Is there a source to the above statement that the DAC in PX8 maxes out at 24 bit/48 kHz?

 

[Light - Man]

Santa came early this year. Got my Px8 a day early (you were right @erockg )! These definitely put a smile on my face, especially with acoustic sounds like cello and violins. Sound signature is clearly in the same family as my Px7 S2 but definitely better in soundstage, separation and treble extension to my ears (and my last 45 min with them). Vocals also sound more cohesive vs the Px7 S2 and less inside my head. I am listening with no EQ initially just to get used to them but I EQ my Px7 S2 (-1.5 bass and +1 db treble) and know I will be EQing these eventually. When I do I think the treble will need less adjustment for me, if any (treble on the Px8 seems much better in my opinion). As I expected before I bought these, the bass is a bit overpowering for my taste (bass line and kick drum take over the music for me with no EQ) but this is really personal taste. I don't think it muddies anything, just sounds out of balance for my taste if that makes any sense.

I was worried that they would look too similar to the Px7 S2 but there are enough differences that I don't think I will be confusing them even as I am rushing out the door. There are clearly enough physical differences and upgrades and the pictures definitely don't do the Px8 justice.

Back to enjoying my music.

I have the PX7 S2 and am considering the PX8.

Do you and others here feel the need to EQ the bass on the PX8 to tame it down?

It could be a deal breaker for me if EQ is necessary, as I am not a fan of EQ's and don't find the need to use EQ on my PX7 S2?

I like the light grey color which is only available on the PX7 S2 but the PX8 is almost double the price which makes it is a little hard to justify.

 

[Denkmal]

I have the PX7 S2 and am considering the PX8.

Do you and others here feel the need to EQ the bass on the PX8 to tame it down?

It could be a deal breaker for me if EQ is necessary, as I am not a fan of EQ's and don't find the need to use EQ on my PX7 S2?

I like the light grey color which is only available on the PX7 S2 but the PX8 is almost double the price which makes it is a little hard to justify.

If you dont eq the PX7 s2 I doubt you will feel a need to eq the PX8. Bass is tighter, faster but not necessarily heavier on the PX8.

With that said, I sometimes lower the bass a little if the tracks and my listening mood call for it. But it is easily done and settings done through the app are saved in the headphones so you dont need to mess around with that on multiple devices.

 

[vincenz]

I usually stream via Tidal or Spotify but started playing around with Apple Music and the lossless / hi res audio options.
Some reflections:

1. For BT over AAC - Is there any reason that sound quality after transcoding to AAC should be different with from Apple music (ALAC), compared to Tidal (MQA)?

2. I listed using my iPad and an USB-C cable connected to PX8. It sounds good, definitely, but I am not sure if I can distinguish between the "Lossless" (24 bit/48 kHz) and the "Hi Res" (24 bit/192 kHz). Is there a source to the above statement that the DAC in PX8 maxes out at 24 bit/48 kHz?

I can’t trace the signal chain to give a technical answer to #1, but I do know that the source plays a bigger role in sound differences than the codec used. I could not tell a huge difference between Tidal and Apple Music so I switched over once Apple went lossless. Been using Apple lossless for over a year and recently decided to give other streaming services a go and there is a difference among them, even though they all advertise Lossless music. I gave Qobuz and Amazon Music a try and differences were quite stark. Amazon music sounded terrible to me, very flat and missing details. On the other hand, Qobuz was another completely step up from Apple Music in the opposite direction. I’ve since canceled Apple Music and been so glad I’ve found Qobuz. Have the Bowers music app to thank for that. In short, I’d rather have Qobuz play to me in AAC than the other music services in aptX HD.

As for #2, I think he is referring to the max supported rate of the aptX HD codec, which is 24 bit/48kHz. I cannot tell a difference between cd quality and so called hi-res rates above that. Any differences I can hear come down to the fact that many hi-res albums also tend to be remastered, which gives them a more “modern“ sound. YMMV

 

[Laps]

Not sure if posted. Comparison of high end cans. Just watching the conclusion, doesn't seem he is a fan of the PX8.

Yes, it has been discussed and it is his privilege as a "reviewer" to post any sort of critique he feels is accurate. But, it is also my opinion, as an owner of the PX8, to state that his "review" is quite in the minority of other evaluations, and also he has lost all credibility as a valid headphone YT reviewer. No big deal in that he has lost a single subscriber.

 

[vincenz]

Yes, it has been discussed and it is his privilege as a "reviewer" to post any sort of critique he feels is accurate. But, it is also my opinion, as an owner of the PX8, to state that his "review" is quite in the minority of other evaluations, and also he has lost all credibility with me as a valid headphone YT reviewer. No big deal in that he has lost a single subscriber.

He is not even sure how to pronounce Bowers & Wilkins correctly, how much could someone really take seriously?

 

[TK33]

I have the PX7 S2 and am considering the PX8.

Do you and others here feel the need to EQ the bass on the PX8 to tame it down?

It could be a deal breaker for me if EQ is necessary, as I am not a fan of EQ's and don't find the need to use EQ on my PX7 S2?

I like the light grey color which is only available on the PX7 S2 but the PX8 is almost double the price which makes it is a little hard to justify.

I think the "need" to EQ is really personal preference. I agree with @Denkmal that if you prefer the B&W tuning of the Px7 S2, you may not need to EQ. At least that is how I view it and I know my personal taste can be very different from others. I EQ most of my headphones and IEMs when possible. I think the only one I have not that I currently use frequently are my Shure SE846 IEMs and Aonic 50s to give you a sense of my taste in sound signatures. Also, for the Px7 S2, which I use for commuting, I actually find the extra bass beneficial for noisy environments since that becomes harder to hear (at least for me). My Aonic 50s sounded very different to me (almost sibilant) when commuting due to the bass being drowned out by noise from the external environment.

With the above being said, I don't think the Px8 has "more" bass than the Px7 S2. As I wrote in my earlier post, my Px7 S2 is currently set at -1.5 db bass and +1db treble. I was only able to spend an hour or two with my Px8 yesterday and only tamed the bass by -.5 db so far. Not saying this will be my final EQ setting since I tend to play with EQ depending on my mood but I was pretty happy with the Px8. Sounded much more to my liking compared to the Px7 S2 without any EQ on both.

 

[evhvis]

I usually stream via Tidal or Spotify but started playing around with Apple Music and the lossless / hi res audio options.
Some reflections:

1. For BT over AAC - Is there any reason that sound quality after transcoding to AAC should be different with from Apple music (ALAC), compared to Tidal (MQA)?

2. I listed using my iPad and an USB-C cable connected to PX8. It sounds good, definitely, but I am not sure if I can distinguish between the "Lossless" (24 bit/48 kHz) and the "Hi Res" (24 bit/192 kHz). Is there a source to the above statement that the DAC in PX8 maxes out at 24 bit/48 kHz?

1) ALAC, FLAC, WAV and AIFF all have the same quality, unless there is a fault in the decoder and are essentially containers (with ALAC and FLAC being compressed in a lossless way). If the encoder and decoder is working as intended then you can make a roundtrip through all the 4 formats and still have the exact same PCM bits (identical end result). What matters with lossless is what is packed inside the file, not the container.

MQA unfortunately is a lossy file and technically the "MQA remastered" version of the master, basically not the same as the original master unless they only mastered in MQA. If not unpacked it will still be "damaged" compared to the original master but with even higher levels of artifacts. Not a fan of MQA, even if my main DAC supports it. Mostly try to steer clear of MQA by buying non-MQA versions and using Qobuz for finding new music. Apple music isn't supported much outside of apple devices (I use roon at home) so it is not an option for me, but lossless through apple music is a great option for those that mostly use apple devices for their music listening.

2) Read it a few places and when connecting the PX8 over USB to a UAC 2.0 device it only shows 24/44.1 and 24/48 as alternatives. Those alternatives are all you get unless you have drivers that open up support for more. The difference between 24/48 and higher res is minimal in my experience as long as the DAC has good filters. The player will typically down sample 24/192 to the highest format supported by the output.