[Sonic Defender]

Got it! Dual Audio was turned on. I disaabled it and voila, AptX active..

What does Dual Audio do and why does it prevent an Apt X connection? Just curious.

 

[dannydj]

Received my PXs yesterday. Great build quality and surprisingly taken by the soft gold colour, this coming from someone who hates 'bling'. Possibliy the paring with the blue material and the gold having a slight bronze tinge really helps. Although I'm not sure how comfortable I will be wearing this colour out and about as they do stand out somewhat.

Just a few questions :

1) does the seal improve over time ? I really like the sound signiture but the loss of bass is disappointing. If I slightly push the cans towards my ears forcing a seal they sound exactly perfect for me with a lovely sub bass complimenting the gorgeous mids and highs. Just wearing them normally without pushing them in the bass just disappears.

As for fit my ears fit perfectly inside the cans and I have a small head. I'm guessing the rigidity of the new pads hasn't moudled to shape yet this not creating a perfect seal allowing for bass escape. Any thoughts on this over time ? As I'm not sure I can live with such empty sounding lows.

2) build quality is top notch as expected by B&W. Although I would have expected more with the cloth finish on the cans themselves. The finish to the right can is a bit rough around the edges compared to the left (which is perfect). I have tried to highlight this in the pictures. What's the finish line on your cans ? Is this just the way they are manufactured ?

Thanks and happy listening

 

[Burty]

When I first got mine the seal was hit and miss. I'm not sure if I've gotten used to putting them on properly of if the pads have just improved but they seem fine now. The difference in sound between getting a good seal and not quite right is massive. It's even more obvious with the noise cancelling, it's rubbish if they don't fit properly. I think this is the problem with most of the complaints about poor noise cancelling because I think it's great without killing quality too much.
My biggest gripe with these and all bluetooth headphones is the sound quality being nowhere near as good as wired even using them with aptx HD, i tend to just plug them in.

 

[dannydj]

Slight sound sacrifice is the trade of to not be tethered to a device, a trade off I will gladly make. I've been very impressed with AptXHD flac so far.

Regarding the seal, when you say ''putting them on properly' can you elaborate ? Is it best to seal having the cans higher or lower on the side of your head ?

 

[Burty]

It's quite a big difference on my lg g6 with quad dac. Well worth plugging the cable in. I'd say its a much much bigger difference than I notice between flac and good mp3.
I used to have to move the headband forward and back and move the cups around to get a seal. I just seem to chuck them on now and they are good. Maybe the pads have softened??

 

[navdra]

What does Dual Audio do and why does it prevent an Apt X connection? Just curious.

S9 can feed two two headphoneses simultaneously

 

[Sonic Defender]

S9 can feed two two headphoneses simultaneously

Thanks mate, interesting feature, mostly for younger people. I see teenagers doing this all the time so I suspect that is the target audience for such a feature. Good to know. Thanks again.

 

[inspectah_deck]

I compared the PX (via aptX HD codec) and the Sony WH-1000XM2 (via LDAC) over the past week and they both have their pros and cons, but in the end I like the PX much more for one simple reason: soundquality.
The Sonys weren't bad sounding, but just boring.
I mostly listen to electronic music, Minmal, Deep House, Ambient, but also a bit of Jazz and a lot of oldschool HipHop and the PX where much more livley, present sounding and had more punch.

I also like the more compact and premium design of the PX and they fit perfectly over my ears.
They are perfect for acivities, because the footprint of the cups around the ears is not so big which makes them less sweaty.
The Sonys are more bulky and use more plastic materials, but I thought the design was very sleek too and they were lighter and foldable and came with the better bag.

Another pro of the PX is the comfort of auto-playback, -pause and -standby with the proximity sensor.
I love this feature, it truly feels next-gen and makes controling the Sony via the touchpad earcups feel weird, clumsy and dated, like in an old sci-fi movie.

One big plus for the Sonys is the ANC, which is -I have to admit- much better then on the PX.
Not only does the Sonys suppress noises better (tested while lawnmowing today ), it also has a lower noise floor.
With ANC activated and no music playing, the Sonys are almost completely quiet, while the PX have a constant (but low) acoustic noise.
I hope B&W can improve the ANC further via FW updates.

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I also have a question regarding aptX HD:
Does aptX HD automatically change the samplerate/bitdepth to match source or is it fixed?
In Android Oreo developer settings it always defaults to 24bit/48kHz, even when playing back 16bit/44.1kHz content.

 

[dannydj]

Thanks for the comparison. I was going to buy both and keep my favourite out of the PX and 1000mk2, but now that I have my PXs I am not going to bother. I really like the mid range and like you listen to a lot of electronic music mostly deep and dark techno ( Daniel Avery''s new album sounded fantastic on them today). I was a little concerned about the bass initially but two days in I quite like the restrained bass that doesn't drown the other frequencies, also when it needs to pump it most certainly does. ANC is pretty terribly tbh but the times I need it are in the minority as mostly I will be listening with no ANC.

Is it possible to add LDAC via firmware ? I wonder if that will ever be a possibility for the PXs.

 

[UnsaneBrain]

I'll have to chime in after two weeks solid use of the PX. A few niggles far outweighed by the quality of the sound.

More than once I've had to steady myself as I'd forgot the cans were on and temporarily believed I was listening to some supersonic home surround sound system.

 

[inspectah_deck]

@dannydj:
Hmm, for me the bass is pretty strong, almost as strong as on my Fidelio X2s. But I have a big head and the cans sit pretty tight.

LDAC is proprietary Sony tech and I don´t know if they will ever license it out, at the moment it´s exclusive to Sony products.

 

[scarfacegt]

Have had the px since it came out.I have a love/hate releationship with the sound.But in the past ive come to the conclusion that i dont like the sound that much.A friend of mine said that they had an digital sound to them.I think they sound boring.Not bad sound,but just boring.Bought the v moda crossfade 2 wireless yesterday and the sound is very fun and engaging (only tried with cable).I also recently bought the beyerdynamic dt 1770 pro,wich also sounds great.I guess my taste is leaning forward to v-shaped sound.And a little bit of warm fun sounding headphone.Maybe the px is to neautral for me.I owned the p9 last year.and they where the opposite.They where to booming and dark sounding.A real dissaster

 

[dannydj]

You can charge these with a usb C to C via the mains right ? No mention of it in the manual anywhere ...

 

[ryanmatic]

You can charge these with a usb C to C via the mains right ? No mention of it in the manual anywhere ...

Yup. These will charge via USB C to USB C (or to USB A, as per the included cable).

 

[HipHopScribe]

@dannydj:
Hmm, for me the bass is pretty strong, almost as strong as on my Fidelio X2s. But I have a big head and the cans sit pretty tight.

LDAC is proprietary Sony tech and I don´t know if they will ever license it out, at the moment it´s exclusive to Sony products.

The new Audeze Mobius headphones support LDAC