Bowers & Wilkins PX8 Royal Burgundy is even more detail-oriented

Bowers & Wilkins’ top-tier noise-cancelling headphones already threaded the needle between suave styling and superior sound, but the new PX8 Royal Burgundy goes even further. It sharpens up the looks with gold detailing and leather the colour of fine wine, then brings an entirely new acoustic tune designed to get the most from its bespoke carbon cone drivers.

We already thought the B&W PX8 was a fantastic sounding pair of over-ears, but Bowers’ audio engineers have taken lessons learned from the recently revealed PX7 S2e and upgraded the digital signal processing (DSP) to squeeze even more detail from every track. It also lowers distortion across the frequency range, which the firm says gives “resolution, realism and dynamics” better than any pair of headphones to have ever worn the B&W logo.

Existing PX8 owners don’t have to miss out, either. The new tuning will be pushed out to their headphones in a firmware update, available through the Bowers & Wilkins Music app.

Newcomers will just need to decide which colour to go for. Royal Burgundy is the third hue to join the line-up, which already included black and tan leather options, plus the more limited McLaren and 007 editions. All have single-piece cast aluminium arms, memory foam ear cushions and headbands, and come wrapped in soft Nappa leather.

As a refresher, the PX8 leads Bowers’ headphone range with bespoke 40mm carbon cone speaker drivers, which deliver 24-bit playback from compatible streaming services using the B&W app. They also promise “reference-quality audio” and superb noise cancelling tech.

Battery life remains at 30 hours with ANC enabled, which is more than enough for the longest long-haul flight, and a 15 minute fast charge is able to deliver another seven hours of listening. They’ll also do wired listening over USB-C or through a 3.5mm cable.

Just like other Bowers headphones, they have machined metal buttons built into the ear cups, including a voice assistant button.

The PX8 Royal Burgundy is on sale right now, directly from the Bowers & Wilkins website and all the usual B&W stockists. It’ll set you back $699/£599/€699.

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