[Gilles De Rais]

From a counter position, if you have a small head (and ears) these are nigh on perfect. The Sonys both the w1000xmk2 and the h.ear-on are too big and the cups rest on top of my ears. The Senn PXC 550 earcups are actuallly shallower and touch my ears. The PX on the other hand are stable and secure. As always horses for courses...

Regards,
Giles

 

[billbishere]

I don't get it. I have never had any of those issues outside of wearing a hat. I loose some seal then but. that's it.

 

[Burty]

I used to get problems with the ear cups losing seal but now they have softened it's no longer an issue at all. The pads could have done with an additional 5mm thickness so they work better for more people. I'm surprised B&W haven't offered an option.

 

[alchemical]

I used to get problems with the ear cups losing seal but now they have softened it's no longer an issue at all. The pads could have done with an additional 5mm thickness so they work better for more people. I'm surprised B&W haven't offered an option.

I've found the same. It certainly took time but now the pads have softened I don't experience any seal or comfort issues. The headband has also gotten more supple, so the dreaded top of the head hotspot is also a thing of the past. They're pretty much indispensable to me now.

Of course these things shouldn't have been such an issue out of the box in the first place. I remember the first time I wore the PX, coming from the P7W, the cups felt like rings of steel clad around my ears in comparison.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

TBH all B&W needs to do on the next iteration is fix the pad situation and I think they'll have a hell of a winner on their hands. They probably had my favorite sound of any BT set I've tried. Or even just sell some big ol' poofy pads to put on the current PX.

 

[dannydj]

I'm in the small head camp so they fit nice and securely. The Sony 1000mk2s touched my ear inside the cans. I use them about 1cm from fully closed and they fit great.

I have to agree with others in that so far these don't seem to be designed for active / travel wear. Yes the comfort has got much better over time and when using them sitting in one place they are the perfect BT headphone. Comfortable, strong seal and no pain whatsoever. Unfortunately if I get up and go to do something, like clean the house, they become very painful behind the ears (right side pretty much unbearable) after 15-45mins. The plastic digs right through the pads into my head behind the ear. I am not sure why the comfort changes from sitting to walking / movement.

I do love these cans and hope with time the pain goes away soon when active. I have had them for 2 months now and use them daily so I am not sure how much use/time will make them more comfortable.

As for the sound quality, I mostly listen to flac 16's but had a Cranberries track playing at 256kbps and it sounded phenomenal. I was genuinely shocked and will not be getting hung up on bit rate numbers from now on as these cans perform some sort of magic upscaling.

 

[duaned]

Did the latest firmware improve audio performance, or is it just the placebo affect?

 

[dannydj]

Did the latest firmware improve audio performance, or is it just the placebo affect?

I wish they would go into more detail as to what has actually changed. Still haven't updated mine yet.

.

 

[dannydj]

Has anyone worked out what the 6 tone alert siginfys when listening to the HPs ? Guessing it's battery status but meaning what exactly ?

 

[hifi80sman]

Don't mean to join the dogpiling on the PX, but I've also sold my pair. My H9, Sony MX2, and old P7W are all still here and I absolutely hated selling off the PX but they had to go. I've never owned a pair of portable headphones as aggressively anti-portable as the PXes. We all know the cons of the PX by now so there's no point in me bringing them up again but I do hope that B&W designs their next ANC can with more thought put into comfort and portability.

If they considered releasing a much plusher ear pad with a far wider footprint, similar to the P9, that could be a potential solution. Not sure how it would impact the sound signature, but my guess would be increased warmth, although you're now putting more control in the consumer's hands. Just like V-MODA has XL ear pads, so to could B&W. I mean, the ear pads are readily removable, so why not?

 

[XRcrush]

Hi everybody,
Just checked in here on Head-Fi after reading through various topics for weeks (and this one in particular). I'm from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and being Dutch, English is not my native language so apologies upfront for poor wording, wrong grammar etc.

I bought the PX some 3 weeks ago at Atlanta airport on my way back home and man, am I happy with them... They are even better than I hoped after reading through just about every single review and piece of information around the web. I'm a bit of an old school high-end audio geek and somehow I never really used HPs a lot before. But as I've gradually got more interested in streaming audio plus that I have to do a fair bit of flying in my current job did put a pair of ANC cans on the agenda.

I really didn't expect that wireless HPs - crippled by a 'crappy' low bandwith bluetooth connection - can work and sound this good. Really amazing... My final comparison was between the usual suspects Boze, Sony, Sennheiser and B&W. As soundquality is the most important aspect for me, that was easy. The PX is head-and-shoulders above the rest here. ANC is less important for me but during my interncontinental flight back from Atlanta I was very impressed how well they worked in Flight mode watching movies. At home browsing music on Tidal, ANC is always off. As posted by others here too, I think that Office mode is the best balance between soundquality and ANC but off clearly sounds best. Some info, views and impressions in random bullits:

• So far I've only listened to Apple Music (AAC) but mainly to Tidal Hifi (FLAC & ALAC 1411 Kbps) & MQA hi-res
• Devices are iPhone X, iPad Air 2 via AAC Bluetooth and an HP Windows 10 laptop with AptX Bluetooth
• The soundquality of the PX improves immensly during the first 24-30 hours of playing time, less & slower after that
• Bluetooth pairing and connecting between devices back & forth is flawless and quick
• Firmware updates work flawless (v.1.110 now)
• Wear sensors for pause by lifting one cup or taking them off work really well
• Beautiful design & build quality
• Excellent comfort, 3-4 hour stretches of listening without any complaint
• The carrying pouch looks and feels nice but a hardcase would have been better
  
• *Stunning* soundquality given this is a wireless headphone working with Bluetooth
• Smooth, beautifully balanced sound with excellent soundstage, detail and insight
• Superb, natural bass that's tight, quick and transparent without being fat, overblown and muddy like sooo many others...
• Honest, poor recordings sound just like that, poor... while good recording sound marvelous
• Very, very engaging sound overall making you just keep on listening track after track after track... the biggest compliment of all imo

I love'm!

Richard

 

[bedlamite]

If they considered releasing a much plusher ear pad with a far wider footprint, similar to the P9, that could be a potential solution. Not sure how it would impact the sound signature, but my guess would be increased warmth, although you're now putting more control in the consumer's hands. Just like V-MODA has XL ear pads, so to could B&W. I mean, the ear pads are readily removable, so why not?

If B&W had done this right out of the gate, I'd still be keeping my pair.

I really didn't expect that wireless HPs - crippled by a 'crappy' low bandwith bluetooth connection - can work and sound this good

This, like Beats-bashing, isn't really a thing anymore. BT has been fine since the AAC codec. Is it "audiophile"? No, but to completely dismiss the transmission medium...well, that's your loss. There will always be audio purists who can only listen to music from thousand-dollar standalone FLAC players hooked up to even more expensive CIEMs, but for the vast majority of people, even a fifty-buck pair of Anker BT inears have more than sufficient sound quality for outdoor use. Wireless is incredibly liberating once you get used to it,I just can't go back to wired cans for commuting anymore.

 

[XRcrush]

This, like Beats-bashing, isn't really a thing anymore. BT has been fine since the AAC codec. Is it "audiophile"? No, but to completely dismiss the transmission medium...well, that's your loss. There will always be audio purists who can only listen to music from thousand-dollar standalone FLAC players hooked up to even more expensive CIEMs, but for the vast majority of people, even a fifty-buck pair of Anker BT inears have more than sufficient sound quality for outdoor use. Wireless is incredibly liberating once you get used to it,I just can't go back to wired cans for commuting anymore.

It seems like you read my comment on Bluetooth much more black & white than I intended.
I didn't dimiss the medium at all. Actually, I'm very surprised that it works (read sounds) so much better than I expected. But that said, currently BT is still the weakest link and bottleneck in the chain between the source file/data and your headphones (apart from the obvious discussion about the quality of the other parts involved in the chain). Hence the emerging of better BT codecs like AptX HD and LDAC. But as said, it works good with AAC and AptX too.

 

[billbishere]

I think several of the things talked about here would be resolved with break in... As the pads have gotten very cushy for me and I never have any issue with loosing seal at all. I eat most meals with them on and I go on walks with them as well. They also do a great job of not getting hot either. As long as I am not sweating they do not cause sweat.

I literally wear these headphones for 8 - 10 hours off and on throughout day. wearing them several hours at a time without issue.

I just wanted to share my experience as I was almost pushed away from even trying them after hearing people complain about the seal and fit. However I am super glad I gave them a try... as anyone on the fence should too. everyone is different.

 

[Shoeski]

I agree with XRcrush,
AAC is just fine and I don’t think most people could distinguish it with aptX HD. Not to mention that AAC has some unspoken benefits anyways.

And in my opinion, I’d rather have an iOS device with “worse” Bluetooth audio than an Android any day.