[Anouk]

Hi Herman,
Thanks for that information! Does noise cancellation still work if you use the usb connection? Great to know that this is an option as this will still use the headphone's own dac. I am reading the manual now I guess using a 3.5mm cable would indeed not sound as good.
Thanks again,
Greetings, Anouk,

Hi Anouk. With MacBook works fine. When wired thru USB the SQ is even better. Works with iPhone 6. Great sound. Does not seem to work with depleted battery.

 

[Herman]

I think it does

 

[archagon]

No, no, the PX is Japanese stereo Hi-Fi from the 90's and 1000XM2 is state of the art 2020 sound. Sony have cheaper headphones which sound artificial and exuberant.

Having compared the two extensively, I have to disagree. The 1000XM2 sounds good, but the PX easily wins out in terms of soundstage, detail, and separation. They do sound very different, though — that much is undeniable. Might be a matter of preference.

 

[kismetsky]

With the sensor off, do you get the problem of the headphones turning off when you pause your music for more than two minutes?

Depends on what they're connected to

Having compared the two extensively, I have to disagree. The 1000XM2 sounds good, but the PX easily wins out in terms of soundstage, detail, and separation. They do sound very different, though — that much is undeniable. Might be a matter of preference.

Great read! Which one did you ultimately end up with?

 

[archagon]

Great read! Which one did you ultimately end up with?

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't decided yet. However, I'm likely going to be keeping the PX. It feels like an entirely different class of headphone from a SQ perspective (with ANC off) and the tech is really interesting. In comparing to my old MDR-1RBT, it's also better in pretty much every respect. But — it also has sooooo many technical quirks! The 2-minute shutoff when the wear sensor is disabled, the auto-resuming even after you've manually paused the music, the noise on the aux line, the flaky implementation of multi-device connectivity... makes me worried that they'll save all the improvements for PX 2.0 and only give the early adopters tiny incremental updates. Already, B&W support has sort of waved me off on Twitter.

As a purist, it also bothers me that this is no longer a "real" headphone, in the sense that all the circuitry, amplification, etc. is already baked in. There's no way to use it as an analog instrument. Meanwhile, the Crossfade excels as a wired headphone. Oh well. Tradeoffs...

 

[Anouk]

I am reading through soma manuals and listening to some youtube reviews. I love the fact that I can use the bowers with bluetooth but also with usb. I hear in a review though that if you use higher noise cancellation levels the auido gets fairly bad as with others this does not occur... Well Normally i buy stuff online but I think i will have to try these in a store and compare there...
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[mboerma]

Does anyone have ran into the issue where after two minutes, while playing music, the PX just goes to standby? I had my wearing sensors set toe low sensitivity. Switching it off completely fixes it. But it is strange that somehow the music is playing and it goes to standby. Defective unit?

Any idea?

 

[AlexonPX]

Any idea?

Yes I had that happening to me as well... Not a defective unit.

The problem is with how they work: when the wear sensor senses that the headphones have been removed, it stops the noise cancelling, starts the countdown timer to standby AND issues a pause command for the music through AVRCP. It does NOT shut down the headphones. If the player for whatever reason does not acknowledge the AVRCP pause command, music will continue playing through the headphones, despite the fact that the internal circuity assumes they have been removed.

I noticed this when using the headphones with my computer: as I was playing music through Play Music running in Chrome, the AVRCP commands are not passed through (not PX's fault, this is likely a Chrome/Windows/Play Music website issue. Stand-alone players in Windows do recognize the AVRCP commands). Sometimes it happens with my Pixel 2 as well.

I am not sure how the sensors work, but they seem to be extremely sensitive pressure sensors.

 

[cl5160316]

Just over 1 month in now. Pads are softened, sound is beautiful detailed and wide, Bluetooth always connects to my iPhone right away. Two small things: (1) Sometimes when I start them up, after they connect they’ll begin playing a completely random song on AppleMusic. I do exclusively use AppleMusic for listening, but this random treasure in a box music track thing is a bit weird. Though kinda funny too. (2) Now that I’ve been pairing my PX with other devices (such as AppleTV), my B&W app on iPhone no longer works and always says Bluetooth isn’t on. It’ll keep saying this as I use the PX over Bluetooth without issue lol.

 

[WindyCityCy]

I’ve had that same behavior where a random song plays on Apple Music with every set of Bluetooth headphones I’ve had.

 

[mboerma]

Yes I had that happening to me as well... Not a defective unit.

The problem is with how they work: when the wear sensor senses that the headphones have been removed, it stops the noise cancelling, starts the countdown timer to standby AND issues a pause command for the music through AVRCP. It does NOT shut down the headphones. If the player for whatever reason does not acknowledge the AVRCP pause command, music will continue playing through the headphones, despite the fact that the internal circuity assumes they have been removed.

I noticed this when using the headphones with my computer: as I was playing music through Play Music running in Chrome, the AVRCP commands are not passed through (not PX's fault, this is likely a Chrome/Windows/Play Music website issue. Stand-alone players in Windows do recognize the AVRCP commands). Sometimes it happens with my Pixel 2 as well.

I am not sure how the sensors work, but they seem to be extremely sensitive pressure sensors.

Ok. Thanks. This happens with my iPhone X and my iMac. So that feature is now switched off... Hopefully a future firmware update corrects this. It is very weird that even though music is playing it just switches off.

 

[anonymess]

FYI, I am trialling B&W PX vs B&O H9, and have posted a set of notes in the H9 thread at article #665.
At the time of writing I think the B&O will win (for me - others will have different priorities) ... but I'm not completely decided so thoughts welcomed before I return the unselected ones.

 

[brokenhat]

There is no B&O P9. H9? I have both as well.

 

[anonymess]

Yes, of course, that was a dumb typo and I have corrected it. I will be interested to see what you think from your own comparison.

 

[brokenhat]

Yes, of course, that was a dumb typo and I have corrected it. I will be interested to see what you think from your own comparison.

My thoughts on them:

H9 - Way more comfortable. Better looking. Better build maybe. Better app

PX - Wins everything else