[BooleanBones]

My understanding as well over the years. Passing digital to internal headphone dac without all of the conversions. There is a long discussion about this in one of the PX threads from a while back. I will try and see how noticeable it is tonight.

FYI, tested this and the difference using the usb-c to usb-c vs the usb-c to 3.5 is night and day. It would have to be a true emergency for me to use the 3.5 cable.

 

[Houstonnewbie]

Haha, sorry, I was being sarcastic. I would fully expect the PX8 to beat the XM5 - the XM5s main selling point is the best ANC with okay SQ.

I tested both, they are not in the same league in terms of SQ, not even the S2.
if XM5 was 5point in SQ S2 will be 7 and PX8 will be like 8

 

[mainguy]

B&W need to up their game.

Compare the Bathys launch to PX8. On day one of Bathys we have almost a dozen reviews, a 20 minute insider at the Focal factory with Resolve from Headphone Show. A slew of measurements, an official head-fi thread, as Focal reached out to Jude no doubt.

Meanwhile we don't have one reputable review of PX8 almost a week into launch, not a single youtube review, and as far as I can tell not a single measurement?

I love B&W but their headphones are definately an afterthought or they're getting complacent. I think a lot more people will drop the change on the Bathys at this point simply because they know what theyre getting, as for this price you really need to get marketing sorted. Not many people will drop 600 blind based on brand alone, I certainly wont despite the P9 being a favourite of mine.

 

[alchemical]

Must agree on this. I don’t think I’ve seen a B&W headphone launch to such little marketing effort. I saw a FB post from their official page earlier linking to a PX8 ‘review’ that was nothing of the sort, and purely a reconstituted press release. That’s not even seeming to be trying.

 

[rgbyhkr]

I can see a couple of things at play here. No, it would not appear that B&W has put extra special effort into marketing the PX8, pushing for reviewers to pay particular attention to it with pre-launch promotion, etc. On the other side of things though, the PX8 represents an evolutionary step forward compared to models they have offered in the past vs something that feels truly new and special. Focal on the other hand is doing something that feels different and exciting - for them (the Listen exists, yes, but I don't think anyone has considered it to be in the same family as their current higher end lineup). To that end I think journalists and reviewers were far more likely to be interested in the Bathys just to see what they pulled off, if nothing else. B&W could have tried more but I don't know that they would have gotten anywhere near the same kind of excited reaction from the audio establishment.

 

[alchemical]

I’m particularly surprised though that most outlets don’t seem to have even received PX8 review units. Unlike the PX7 S2, which had day 1 reviews everywhere. Surely that’s the least B&W could’ve done.

 

[vincenz]

Well it makes sense now the sudden price increase on the Px8! When they blow the year’s marketing budget on the Px7 S2 it’s what they needed to do.

 

[garethr]

To be fair I think B&W had a pretty torrid time on the PX8 launch day. Their website crashed entirely under load for most of the morning UK time and their phone lines were down too.

The PX7S2 is clearly the more mass market proposition for them, and given the impromptu price bump on the PX8 I’d wage they may even make more margin on the 7 too.

Their excuse that they erroneously miscommunicated the RRP is frankly bizarre, but then the world is changing rapidly and maybe increased costs all round since May have impacted them more than anticipated.
The PX8 was originally intended of course to launch with the PX7S2 but I believe it was component shortages that forced them to delay.

Still, odd the lack of official reviews out there!

 

[Benesyed]

Yeah it's pretty hard to say what exactly was the true driver for the price increase. However if you look at T + A and their difficulties pertaining sources and having to delay the launch my guess would be it was at least our related to difficulty and sourcing and rising costs

 

[Benesyed]

Also I do have to add that pretty much every official review that I've read for almost all headphones tends to be completely useless they almost read like the exact same review without any real usefulness derived from it. Actually the main reason I came to this forum was that you guys actually provide real reviews and can answer questions in a more pointed manner

 

[garethr]

Also I do have to add that pretty much every official review that I've read for almost all headphones tends to be completely useless they almost read like the exact same review without any real usefulness derived from it. Actually the main reason I came to this forum was that you guys actually provide real reviews and can answer questions in a more pointed manner

So true. A lot of lazy reviews these days. Many review sites often fall under the same ownership banner and just seem to end up regurgitating press releases.
Then they all feel the need to almost make up pretty random list of ‘pros’ and ‘cons’

 

[ryanmatic]

Kinda amusing when you consider smartphone reviews, for example: reviews that talk about the new iPhone having a “rich, vibrant screen” and “fast processing” are pretty much useless while worthwhile reviews go into detail comparing the current generation against the previous one, to help people understand if the iterative improvements are meaningful to them.

I don’t think any of the reviews of the PX8 so far (or even the PX7S2, though I haven’t been checking closely) have gone into detail comparing them to their predecessors, but rather have just mentioned things like “rich bass” and “good treble.” It would make such a difference in credibility to read a major reviewer acknowledge B&W’s house sound, how it’s changed since the P7 era, and which of those curves the PX8 more closely hews to.

 

[frdtitan]

Agreed. They're all run-of-the-mill, generic reviews thus far. There aren't even any Youtube reviews on this yet (afaik).

 

[MdJdB]

There is another review on Techradar but we won't learn more that we already know about it https://www.techradar.com/reviews/bowers-and-wilkins-px8

It almost looks like a sponsored article with generic information...we lack a real review!

 

[Blinxat]

I dont think actual performance or sound quality is related to the segment. BUT I do think Focal is more of a audiophile headphone scene sort of thing.

While things like B&W, B&O, Sony, BOSE, MD - is more of a lifestyle premium segment rather than audiophile.

again, I sthink a product from that segment can sound even better than something from audiophile sphere but I dont think it makes much sense to compare the launches in that sense.

But I agree it would help B&W reach us better if we had some real reviews.