Bowers & Wilkins - Px8

I mean sure if you find the Px8’s more enjoyable then get them for cheaper but I honestly don’t find the Bathys to be neutral at all. Sure they’re tuned more neutral than the typical consumer headphones but they’re nowhere near of what I would say is neutral. Wonky mid range with uneven yet relaxed treble. If you’re finding the P 8’s more enjoyable, then perhaps getting into the higher end audio range is not for you. I’m not gonna say your taste is bad but I’d choose the Bathys over the Px8’s any day even with the Bathys’ somewhat uneven tonality compared to the more so Px8’s.

I’m literally listening to my Bathys headphones as I read this post. I’m sorry that they didn’t work out for you, but I absolutely love them. They are the best sounding Bluetooth ANC headphones I’ve ever heard and I actually returned the PX8 and kept the Bathys. The PX8 had tech features that never worked properly, the ANC was not as good and the sound was less faithful or spacious. The higher frequencies on the PX8 were way exaggerated and overly bright. I had to run a -2 db adjustment on the treble for it to be tolerable. The PX8 had a more low profile form, and a more naturally comfortable fit on my head. The infinite headband adjustment helps to get a perfect fit. In comparison the Bathys’ notched adjustments is less precise but easier to match left to right. Finally, battery life on the Bathys was twice the capacity in usage hours compared to the PX8. I could go several days of long sessions before approaching the 50% mark. The PX8 would need charging every couple of days. Additionally, I’ve noticed over the years that you need to let speakers and headphones “burn in” with use to hear them at their best. I did that with both the Bathys and PX8. They both sound much better after 30 days than fresh out of the box (generous return windows help). When new they tend to sound harsh and condensed. At the end of the day, it’s what works for the individual. I just wanted to point out what works for me. https://preview.redd.it/xnke1dhlz82f1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aecc487daad6f9a465fdd290f2e6be448a976c6d

It's kind of funny because I compared them side by side with the PX8 and for me the PX8 were sounding like a radio (especially the bass) while the Bathys were crystal clear and much airier. Also I didn't feel the "premium" build quality with the PX8 either. Maybe I had that feeling with the DALI but for a commuter headphones I would not want a premium feeling anyway so you feel less bad carrying them around ahah.

I have the px8 (2022), You can replace the leather earcups as they are attached with magnets, you can get them pretty cheap ($80) via their customer service, even after warranty expires, I had this with another B&W headphone, as for the headband, unfortunately only replaceable by sending it in, I've been wearing it 4 hours a day (at home, not outside) for the past 4 years. and had to replace them last month, didn't do so and got the px8 s2 for a cheaper price

Bowers and wilkins px8 are excellent build quality and materials used, as well as being very fashionable and sounding great. Not a lot of wireless headphones out there with aluminum frame and hinges with good finish. They are quite luxurious. Nappa leather earpads and the likes. In general b&w has very nice aesthetics and exotic colorways, check either ruby red px8, or maclaren edition px8. The new JBL Tour One M3 have the unique "wow" factor with the included separate transmitter (which works excellent), but the headphones themselves are mostly plastic (good quality though) and look a bit generic in my opinion, similar to the sonys in fact. Bang and olufsen hx or especially h100 (but way out of budget) are guaranteed to turn some heads as well due to their design and premium aesthetics. Sennheiser momentum 4 are mostly plastic as well, but the headband exterior has this nice textile fabric to it, especially nice in Denim colorway with the cream paddings, good color combo imo. The case is made of the same fabric as well, feels pretty nice.

Bowers and wilkins px8 are excellent build quality and materials used, as well as being very fashionable and sounding great. Not a lot of wireless headphones out there with aluminum frame and hinges with good finish. They are quite luxurious. Nappa leather earpads and the likes. In general b&w has very nice aesthetics and exotic colorways, check either ruby red px8, or maclaren edition px8. The new JBL Tour One M3 have the unique "wow" factor with the included separate transmitter (which works excellent), but the headphones themselves are mostly plastic (good quality though) and look a bit generic in my opinion, similar to the sonys in fact. Bang and olufsen hx or especially h100 (but way out of budget) are guaranteed to turn some heads as well due to their design and premium aesthetics. Sennheiser momentum 4 are mostly plastic as well, but the headband exterior has this nice textile fabric to it, especially nice in Denim colorway with the cream paddings, good color combo imo. The case is made of the same fabric as well, feels pretty nice.

Bowers and wilkins px8 are excellent build quality and materials used, as well as being very fashionable and sounding great. Not a lot of wireless headphones out there with aluminum frame and hinges with good finish. They are quite luxurious. Nappa leather earpads and the likes. In general b&w has very nice aesthetics and exotic colorways, check either ruby red px8, or maclaren edition px8. The new JBL Tour One M3 have the unique "wow" factor with the included separate transmitter (which works excellent), but the headphones themselves are mostly plastic (good quality though) and look a bit generic in my opinion, similar to the sonys in fact. Bang and olufsen hx or especially h100 (but way out of budget) are guaranteed to turn some heads as well due to their design and premium aesthetics. Sennheiser momentum 4 are mostly plastic as well, but the headband exterior has this nice textile fabric to it, especially nice in Denim colorway with the cream paddings, good color combo imo. The case is made of the same fabric as well, feels pretty nice.

Just got my Bathys (Deep Black edition, £700), and after a few days of use, I’ve decided to return them. Here's a mini review and more details on why Coming from... Airpods Pro 2 (Daily for commuting & work) Sennheiser HD599 (Daily for home) Nuraphones Beyerdynamic Lagoon ANC Audio Technica m40x Design They look great—until you pick them up. The build doesn’t quite match the price tag. Compared to something like the Px8, they just don’t feel as premium in the hand. Not saying they’re poorly made (irony inbound) they’re solid—but they don’t scream £700 headphones Mine also came with a defect: the left hinge doesn’t swivel smoothly as it should (see pics) A big unexpected deal-breaker for me was sound leakage. These bleed audio like crazy. At 50% volume it’s noticeable, and above 80% it basically turns into TEMU speaker for anyone nearby. If you’re in an office or on public transport often, keep this in mind. Also, even in the Deep Black, they’re massive on your head. ANC Coming from AirPods Pro 2, the ANC here feels like a step down. It’s okay—definitely usable for commuting or on a plane—but nothing mind-blowing. Then again, you dont buy them for bleeding edge ANC. Sound This was the part I was most excited about, especially after all the hype from reviewers. I mostly listen to: DnB, Trance, Hard Techno, House. I dont think many of the reviewers of this headphone do. So here are my thoughts specifically for those genres. Highs and mids? Super clear, detailed, and crisp. You really do hear stuff in tracks you’ve listened to a hundred times before. Instrument separation is great, and the soundstage is wide and immersive. Listening to Oasis - Wonderwall Remastered was amazing. Where it fell apart was the bass. You probably saw this coming with the music I listen to but here's my take. Tracks like Magic by Pola & Bryson, which should hit hard with rolling basslines and fast drums, just felt dead. There’s no weight, no depth—just this kind of sterile, clinical sound. You can argue that’s the point (they’re audiophile-tuned after all), but it made those genres feel flat and boring. It’s like the headphones were analyzing the music instead of letting me enjoy it. And that’s with EQing. Without EQ it's noticeably worse What really sealed it for me was trying the Px8s. They’re about £300 cheaper here in the UK, and honestly, they blew the Bathys out of the water for pure enjoyment. It almost makes me feel crazy since people love to shit on them online. For those techno and dnb heads, do you have any suggestions for what's better for my use case?

I'm sold - if only it came in that deep green the px8 is in

I'm going to say no based on the following selection of headphones that I own: Dynamic: Verite Open, Focal Elegia, Beyerdynamic T5/3rd generation and HD650, Planar: DCA E3, DCA Noire, Hifiman HE1000 Stealth, Audeze LCD-2f. IEMs: FiiO FH7s, Westone Mach 40; earbuds: Galaxy Buds Pro 2, Galaxy Buds Pro 3, Jabra Elite Active 8, Sennheiser True Momentum 4, Bose QC II, Bose QC Ultra and ANC headphones Bose NC700, Bose QC Ultra, Sony XM5 and B&W Px8.

I have the OG Bathys and the B&W Px8. I like both a lot especially when using EQ. I've not used the others. And the Bathys are quite quiet for me in terms of sound leakage but I don't wear glasses. I think my dad's headphones on par or a bit better than the Bathys but not $1000 better.

Try the B7W Px7s3. It currently is a bit more than you are trying to spend but is a great ANC headphone. I have the Px8 and it fits snugger than my QC Ultra V1 or 2. It doesn't have a touch pad but buttons which I like more than the touch pad approach of the NC700 (just traded mine in after 6.5 yrs with it).

For background: I am not an audiophile, but I am a bit of a sound snob, have a background in audio engineering and spend a lot of time listening to studio monitors. I prioritize neutrality and clarity over custom EQs and tunings -- I want to hear exactly how they recorded at the studio, even if it sucks. I have wired Shure 1540s and absolutely love them, but thought I'd give the convenience of this newfangled Bluetooth technology all the kids are talking about a try. After reading a few reviews, I bought the **AKG N9 Hybrid** (list $439.95 / paid $249.99) Nice wide soundstage. Huge, boomy bass, but not necessarily in a good way. It's sloppy and not particularly tight. Decent clarity and resolution otherwise, and pretty flat, though the vocal midrange is prominent and it's not too easy to resolve background details. They sound decent, but not amazing. Physically, they're tight, but light weight and comfortable. The vinyl earpads get sweaty pretty quick. I had some functional complaints as well: Pairing is finicky (you have to disconnect or turn off Bluetooth on one device before you can even put these in pairing mode to connect them to something else.) I couldn't get them to work with my steam deck at all. This is forgiven a bit by the included usb-c dongle, which does sound better and makes them more plug and play. They also pause the music automatically when you take them off, which is fine, but then make a loud chime and say "Bluetooth reconnected" every time you put them back on, which is slow and ridiculous. They also sound terrible plugged directly into an analogue headphone jack -- the dsp is doing a lot of heavy lifting with these. I lived with them for a few months, but ultimately they left me wanting more. So, underwhelmed, and on a quest for audio excellence, I splurged and bought what are widely considered to be the best sounding Bluetooth cans: **Dali io12** (list $1750 / paid $1,399) Probably the widest soundstage, in terms of instruments sounding like they're out beyond the boundary of your ears. Incredibly bright and treble heavy, kinda V-shaped, except the bass is underwhelming, doesn't seem like there's much sub-bass at all and what is there is pretty muddy. The "bass mode" is even worse, emphasizing mid/upper bass and muting everything else. Overall, there's a weird thin-ness and lack of detail. Despite the wide soundstage, I had trouble picking out individual instruments in the background or resolving tight details. Describing audio is hard, but I'd say they're quite laid back, and don't present with a lot of energy. They don't sound bad -- just not, I guess, as amazing as I imagined $1400 headphones would sound. They *are* the most comfortable by a longshot, they're light on the head and the leather earcups are super soft. The controls are large and easy to use, but also *way* too easy to press accidentally just by turning your head towards your shoulder or taking them off and hanging them around your neck. I listened to them for a few days, but kept having nagging doubts that they were $1000 better than the AKGs. Surely we can do better. So I bought the next most expensive pair: **Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H95** (list $1,250.00 / paid $704.31 open box) These have the narrowest soundstage of them all, the music really comes from the center of your head. Probably the most sub-bass extension of the lot as well, which is fun. However, the bass is a bit boomier than I like. Very V-shaped with overdone, sparkly treble at the very high end. They resolve details okay. There's a weird tinniness to them overall, they kind of sound like they're behind a heavy sheet or something. Might be the Bluetooth compression, they sound a bit digital perhaps. The analog dials are nice for volume, although I hate the left one for controlling the ANC. Build quality is great, they look cool. I had connection issues, when they reconnect to my phone, they stutter and drop out until I disable Bluetooth and reenable it. Not ideal. You also have to register for an account just to use the app, which is ridiculous. All in all, I think these sound the worst of the three so far, and I spent the least amount of time with them. **Bowers & Wilkins Px8** (list $699 / paid $449) What can I say, the hype is real. Soundstage isn't quite as wide as the io12s, but still really good, and individual instruments are actually more distinct and easier to pick out. The bass is definitely overemphasized, but in the most fun way, still incredibly tight and detailed, but you can feel it in your skull which I quite enjoy. Aside from the bass, I think they're actually the flattest response of the bunch. The treble is present but doesn't hurt my ears. The midrange is present, vocals are easy to understand but not as in your face as other models. And the detail -- these things resolve details I've never heard before. I can hear the transient click of the beater hitting the kick drum, the slight tap of the pianists foot pressing the pedal, individual voices in group harmonies. I'm actually blown away that these sound so good over Bluetooth, not sure what magic they're working there but, it works. I've read reviews about the build quality not holding up. They look and feel solid and well made, but time will tell. They're also not the most comfortable, maybe even the least comfortable, pretty tight and the headband needs more padding. I have to adjust the the headband around on my head periodically. The earpads are nice and soft and seem to breathe more than the AKGs. You do have to make an account to use the app. Yes, I updated the firmware to 3.1.0 and couldn't tell any difference in bass. They definitely have noticeably more bass in ANC mode than with it disabled, so maybe people are comparing apples to oranges. Not sure. I was genuinely surprised by these, especially at the price I paid. At the risk of sounding like an ad, I found myself getting lost in my test playlist and just letting it roll -- these are *fun* to listen to. Even though I really like the px8s, I had already ordered one more set: **Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 SE** (list $299 / paid $299) Pretty similar to the io12s, still on the bright side, but with much more bass. The bass goes deeper and is much tighter and more detailed. Soundstage is very good, and the detail and resolution is excellent. Starting to hear subtle background instruments and feet tapping the floor. These might sound better than the io12s to my ears. They're different, the io12s are a little more encompassing and put you more in the middle of the music, but the two are closer than you think. I do prefer the px8s, in a way I'm not sure how to describe... the P100s still sound like you're listening to headphones, and the px8s sound like you're standing in the middle of the recording studio. But for the price, they're damn good. They're fairly comfortable, the app has a full parametric EQ, and they have a user-replaceable battery (which scores huge points in my book). If I had ordered these first, I probably would have kept them. **In Summary** This is not a sponsored post, I don't work for any of these companies, I paid for them all out of pocket. I only listened to each model for an hour or less, so these are just initial impressions. I didn't compare ANC performance at all, they all make the A/C quiet when ANC is on and that's good enough for me. I A/Bed them all directly, connected over bluetooth to my pixel 9 pro, listening to Spotify at the highest bitrate. I would have also liked to hear the Nobel Fokus Apollos and Focal Bathys, but couldn't find them at stores with easy/free returns. **TL;DR: I'm keeping the px8s.** My ranking: 1. B&W px8 2. Melomania P100 SE 3. Dali io12 4. AKG N9 Hybrid 5. B&O h95

Agreed. I bought the Momentum 4s and B&W PX8s on prime day to compare and return the pair I liked less. I like a PX8 a little more for the sound but the momentums are a little better overall. A little more punchy with bass but the app is good for tuning into your specific taste. And the battery is better than any other set I've tried. I just finished a flight from east coast US to SEA and used them through each flight and in during layovers and they didnt die.

a safe option could be a bose or sony. I liked bose quiet comfort ultra especially. Well rounded. I get a rich soundstage, everything sounds clear and punchy. A fun listening experience. Reviews say theyre way less neutral than eg sennheiser and some say theyre for bassheads. I found their sound pleasing and not overly exaggerated, definitely more vital than sennheiser (though). That's why i don't like sennheiser, they are neutrals kings! But every pair is customizable with an eq of course. Also really light and good anc. But both very plasticy. B&W px8 firstly impressed me the most. Really wide soundstage. Feels premium, but some may prefer their music more punchy and directly in their head. Very warm sound. Almost to much at first, but still everything is separated and detailed enough for that to 'compensate'. For old music theyre perfect. BUT, only wired imo tbh. Via Bluetooth (with my/an iphone), i actually think they're nothing special anymore, they sound quieter and a bit muddy. But wired it is. B&W px7s3 (wired again, couldn't test bluetooth) have a much more near soundstage. For me everything sounded a bit like my ears are under a blanket, but theyre tuned more like others and very punchy. I'd also consider Sonos Ace. They are gorgeous, premium feel, perfect weight, and good control elements. Want to test them via Bluetooth so bad! Wired they sounded promisingly. Spatial, not so much like px8, but bit more clear imo. Could be the perfect in-between. Soundcore space one pro are good for the cost i think.