[mattbanks]

Been listening a lot more over the past week to the PX. Listening to a few songs (all Apple Music), one at a time, on a few pairs of headphones: PX, Sennheiser Momentum HD1 wireless, Astro A38, B&O H6, Audio Technica ATH-M50 (everything connected to my iPhone 7 Plus, either bluetooth or wired, depending on the headphone). Of all of them, the PX have a distinct feel of the music being far away and almost like it's being broadcast through a tube/tunnel. The highs are rolled off quite a bit compared to every other headphone and everything has a tonal quality of being sent through a long tube before getting to my ears.

Anyone else experiencing anything like that? Wanted to bounce ideas off people here before I get in touch with B&W support or return them. Not sure if this is normal for the soundstage with the angled drivers, I have a bad pair, or they just totally aren't my listening style.

 

[HD800NL]

Been listening a lot more over the past week to the PX. Listening to a few songs (all Apple Music), one at a time, on a few pairs of headphones: PX, Sennheiser Momentum HD1 wireless, Astro A38, B&O H6, Audio Technica ATH-M50 (everything connected to my iPhone 7 Plus, either bluetooth or wired, depending on the headphone). Of all of them, the PX have a distinct feel of the music being far away and almost like it's being broadcast through a tube/tunnel. The highs are rolled off quite a bit compared to every other headphone and everything has a tonal quality of being sent through a long tube before getting to my ears.

Anyone else experiencing anything like that? Wanted to bounce ideas off people here before I get in touch with B&W support or return them. Not sure if this is normal for the soundstage with the angled drivers, I have a bad pair, or they just totally aren't my listening style.

I guess B&W has a different approach. They wanted their headphones sound like loudspeakers. So they tried to have a good soundstage. Watch this video about the P9. Maybe it's not your cup of tea.

 

[richpjr]

I got the PX on Monday, just in time for a trip from the west coast to the east and back. Some rambling impressions below.

These are very nicely built and are great looking. At first I was not overly impressed with the lack of folding compactly and the lack of a hard case. But one big benefit to me was that they fit in a laptop bag. I usually travel with a back pack and space is not an issue, but have one customer that does not allow back packs into their building so I sometimes have to travel with a laptop bag. These fit in perfectly where the case on something like the QC35 would not.

I really didn’t get a chance to listen much on Monday, though did get them paired and played white noise through them all night to try and break them in a bit. As many others have noted, they sound best with ANC off and ANC doesn’t work as well as the Bose or Sony do. But they were fine for me as they drown out the inane chatter and baby crying on the flight. I greatly prefer the sound over the Bose and these were substantially more comfortable than the Beats Studio 3 I had bought and quickly returned (those were painful after about an hour with my big ears and glasses). I listened to these on a couple of 4 hour legs on the trip and they were fine. Not particularly hot on my ears and the headband did not bother me at all as it does others. Using my iPhone 7, the sound was neutral and pleasant. I’m not a bass head at all and generally listen to just about everything but hip hop and rap and am happy with the way these sound.

My PX paired right away to both my iPad and iPhone and it was easy to move between devices. I did have the PX get disconnected one time on the flight for no reason that I could see as I was sitting stationary reading at the time. I am still trying to decide if I like the auto-resume feature, but as a friend pointed out to me, that is exactly how my car works with my iPhone connected with a USB cable.

I had read about the sound leakage and on the return flight asked the woman sitting next to me if she could hear anything and she said if she listened hard she could faintly hear something but didn’t even notice it until I asked her. This was on about 50% volume on my iPhone. Not sure how some of you listen at 75% because that is way too loud to me. I have very good hearing (must be the big ears!) but I think I’d go deaf listening at any length at that volume.

I got to try them at the office all day on Friday with no ANC and overall am very impressed with these. I had bought and returned the Beats Studio 3 and H9 and borrowed a friends QC35 for extensive listening and overall these are easily the best combination of sound, comfort and features for me. Having a USB C charging cable is a huge plus for me as I use a MacBook Pro as my main computer and not having to carry extra cables or adapters is a plus.

 

[HD800NL]

Can anyone give me a size comparison between the P7W and PX as I find the P7's a bit bulky for daily travelling, although they are way more comfortable and better sounding sonically than the Sony 1000X. I currently use the sony's for commuting for ANC and the P7W for watching TV or casual listening over bluetooth but Intrigued by the PX's as they could replace both of these headphones for me.

The P7W and the PX are the same size but folds in a different way. PX is flat.

P7

PX

 

[mattbanks]

I guess B&W has a different approach. They wanted their headphones sound like loudspeakers. So they tried to have a good soundstage. Watch this video about the P9. Maybe it's not your cup of tea.

I get the good soundstage and loudspeaker design (I think the B&O H6 have a very good soundstage too), but these sound like the music is coming from far away and through a tunnel, no from near my head/ears.

 

[Hab]

I get the good soundstage and loudspeaker design (I think the B&O H6 have a very good soundstage too), but these sound like the music is coming from far away and through a tunnel, no from near my head/ears.

They sound faulty to me, I wouldn't describe mine as being anything like that.

 

[internetbob]

My first message here with a few questions:

The comfort of these PX headphones: I travel 4 hours every day by train
Both The Verge and Huffington say that after 1 to 2 hours these PX headphones will hurt.
Somebody had these PX headphones on for 4 hours a day?

The comfort of the Beyerdynamic Aventho wireless seems to me a lot more enjoyable: 240 grams as opposed to 335 grams.
Never have on-ear headphones. More comfort with on-ears ?

 

[wildpanda86]

Just got my PX from Amazon last night. Here is how I compare them to my P7 wired to an Audioquest Dragonfly red attached via Apple CCK to an iPhone 7.

- straight out of the box they sounded terrible... the sound was thin

So ran them through a 2 hours of some random youtube headphone burn in track

- after that they sound very similar to my P7 wired to the Dragonfly Red attached via Apple CCK. P7's by themselves seem to have more bloated bass and less seperation... however connected to my portable DAC/ AMP the P7's open up the soundstage, the bass gets tighter and more accurate, and everything is better spacially defined.
- I think the PX has as much bass output as the P7 however the internal DAC/AMP makes that bass tighter and more accurate so it seems as if it is less... but it's not... it's the same amt of bass just cleaner.

Essentially the PX sounds just like my P7 attached to a Dragonfly Red external DAC/ AMP. (Still need to see if the PX will scale up the sound quality if attached to the Dragonfly)

As far as isolation goes
- passive isolation with ANC off works well just like the P7 before
- ANC on works well too. These headphones will easily drown out music from my home stereo set to normal listening levels... to give an idea of how loud my home system is... I have dual 12 inch subs that drop down to 18 hz that augment my B&W 683's powered by a seperate Rotel amp.
- sound with the ANC on is enjoyable in all the settings as well.

Comfort wise
- they are heavier than my P7's... they make my P7's feel like feathers sitting on my head
- however they are fine for long listening... I think I fell asleep with them on last night.

Since the PX sounds as good as my P7's attached to a Dragonfly external DAC/ AMP without the cumberome wires and works seamlessly with my iPhone 7, it is safe to say you'd have to spend alot more to get better sound out of a headphone.

 

[Tamas Bonis]

Somebody had these PX headphones on for 4 hours a day?

I wear them about 3-4 hours a day, but not in a row, but in 3 instalments. 1:15 in the morning, 1-2 hours in the office, 1:15 in the evening. For me 1 hour was the best at the beginning, now it is 1:30 I can keep them on for. They are getting slightly better by time. However today I have just realised, that there is one thing I forgot (and forgot to mention, as it is quite certain for me). I wear glasses all day long, as I need them because of several reasons. I really have to wear them from morning to evening. And man, without the glasses the PXs feel completely different. They are really comfy, even after 2 hours of listening. I figured out, that PXs earpads put pressure on my glasses earpieces, that put pressure on my ears and my head, leaving me with a fatiguing headache. This was never an issue before the PXs, probably because the clamping force with the PXs are higher than previous cans I had. I just realised that the "footprint" of the earpieces are clearly visible in the foams... Now what? Sound signature nice, features okay, call quality excellent, but comfort for me is still not okay, and I'm not sure it ever will fit my expectations...

 

[Tamas Bonis]

Quick fix

 

[internetbob]

Quick fix

THX for your answer and the fix , i really don't know if these PX are the headphones for me. Comfort during wearing is essentieel to enjoy the great sound.

 

[wildpanda86]

I've had mine on for the past 4 hours (working in the office on a Saturday)... they still feel nice and comfy

 

[HD800NL]

THX for your answer and the fix , i really don't know if these PX are the headphones for me. Comfort during wearing is essentieel to enjoy the great sound.

I wear glasses from https://lindberg.com with flat titanium temples. Those are thin and a bit flexible so I have never problems with a headphone

 

[starpause]

SQ: I am loving the PX more and more, but I don't think that the review should have omitted just how bad the hit on SQ is when using the ANC. It really is night and day in my opinion. After the first few days of fiddling with the ANC I have left it permanently off and I doubt I'll ever use it again. I don't see these as a rival to my Bose QC35 at all, even though that is what I originally bought them to replace!

BT pairing/quality: Admittedly, I have only paired with one phone (I believe multiple pairing is a speciality of the Apple W1), but my PX paired first time, and I haven't had one drop out at all in many hours of using them. Admittedly, I found the QC35 good in this regard as well, but they do dropu out from time to time.

BT: I've got my PX paired with my macbook and android phone at the same time. Works well, nice to have a multipoint capable alternative to QC35.

ANC: I've been leaving it off, not necessary for office use. But nice that it's there for travel. The passive isolation is good enough with these that I would dj with them in a pinch.

Have you ever listened to the 1000x? If so, how does the bass compare on the PX to the 1000x? I don't need ANC, which is why I'm not leaning toward the PX over the P7, but if I'm dropping $400 on headphones I want the latest and greatest.

Yes, I just sent the 1000x back. Sound is sooooo subjective, but to me 1000x and QC35 are closer to each other, where PX and Momentum 2 are closer to each other. 1000x and QC35 sound extremely boxed in and up front, no depth to them kind of like HD 25-II. I know it's silly to compare PX to PM-3 since they are different beasts, but I do prefer the flatness of the PM-3, which I'm able to get close to with the PX using Neutralizer on my android phone. Still not the crystal clear planar sound, but livable until I break the bank snagging some AEONs >~<

Been using PX daily, probably too many hours but I'm in a deep dev jam period so have to keep going somehow. No issue with the pads, less hot than PM-3 or H9. I do wish for more padding on the headband, have to shift that around to avoid sore (hot?) spot. Around the neck is where I really notice the weight and almost wish they didn't swivel flat because it looks and feels weird. When they are not swiveled the cups support some of the weight too but they swivel so easily. Really splitting hairs but I guess this is the place to do it

All in all PX does well enough across the board (sound stage, flat enough, comfortable enough, wireless, ANC, look ok) that I'm keeping it and selling the PM-3 and H9. I also had a pair of TMA2 s02e06 that I enjoyed the sound of (spacious sound stage for closed, smooth transitions between all the frequency ranges) but they had terrible isolation... so I'm letting those go too.

 

[rkw]

I sometimes have to travel with a laptop bag. These fit in perfectly where the case on something like the QC35 would not.

That's interesting. Is it solely because of the thickness of the QC35 case? Would the fit be comparable if the QC35 was in a flat pouch like the PX?