– Pi8 True Wireless Earbuds, Noise Cancelling Earphones with 24-Bit Audio, aptX™ Lossless Bluetooth Ear buds, 6-Mic ANC, Smart Charging Case with Audio Retransmission - Anthracite Black

So this might be a long review. The tl;dr is these are unbelievable sounding headphones. Every few years I become obsessed with buying some form of high-end audio equipment. My last headphone mania was a few years ago with the original P5 and P7, then the wireless version of those headphones. And I have long been a fan of the Bowers and Wilkins sound having come from the DM601 s2s. I wasn’t even in the market for earbuds. I have a pair of AirPods Pro and have never found the sound particularly good, nor have I ever felt entirely comfortable with the feel of the earbuds experience. I was fully looking for a great pair of over ear headphones. After a lot of research, visually dismissing the Sony’s as too plasticky, and the AirPods Max as too showy, I knew B&W would be the brand again to deliver the looks, but more importantly the sound. Sound is incredibly important to me. I have studio monitors as my HiFi system in my lounge. I can be prone to relentlessly A/B testing new equipment until my brain can’t take it any more. I originally was set on the Px7 s3, but then noticed I could get the s2 for less than half the price on sale and so thought I’d get both to test. The s2 absolutely fit like a glove, so comfortable. But the sound, whilst decent, just didn’t have the detail and separation I was after. The s3 initially sounded phenomenal, so detailed, spacious, and confidently tuned. Definitely V-shaped tuning, different to the usual house sound. But there was something a bit fatiguing to the highs, certain cymbals and hi hats felt over-hyped to the point of being uncomfortable. Plus the clamping of the headband itself I felt was so tight it became unpleasant after not too long. And my ears were a sweaty mess. I was stuck with the s2 it seemed, and sent the s3 back. But damn, once you’ve heard that kind of sound, and you know there’s detail that you’re missing, I ended up not even listening to the s2. I started researching the Px8, could its carbon cone offer s3 sound but with more comfort? The more I looked into that model though, the more I started seeing issues with the headband peeling apart and didn’t want to take my chances with something of such high value. But in this search I noticed Pi8. I looked into it and saw they were earbuds. The reviews were glowing (from review sites, I have no idea how these aren’t rated higher here) and so I ordered a pair just to try out. MY. GOD. I had no idea that earbuds could sound like this. The detail, soundstage, instrument separation and accuracy across all the frequencies was just jaw dropping. I literally could not believe I didn’t have over-ear headphones on. For a week I was in utter bliss, listening to all my old albums, hunting for new music, revelling in the exquisiteness of these earbuds. Then my brain kicked in. These can’t possibly be this good. There must be something they are missing… On the Max Cooper track ‘Order from Chaos’, I became convinced that in the intro there was a sub-bass extension that just wasn’t being reproduced by the Pi8. There it is I thought. I can’t be happy with headphones if I know they are missing something. In order to prove it to myself I reordered the s3. (I can’t listen to my monitors in my new flat due to neighbours, hence needing headphones). The s3s arrived and eagerly I put them on, put the track on, and waited for that sub-bass extension… Except it didn’t exist. My brain had made it up. But then came the truly astounding part…I A/B tested the Px7 s3 to the Pi8, and to my ears, the Pi8 actually sound BETTER. All that glorious detail and separation and soundstage is there. But where the s3 hypes the treble somewhat, the Pi8 delivers it perfectly. And also delivers the most gorgeous bass. Everything is there. So yes. If you’ve made it this far you’re probably as crazy as me. And in that case you are going to absolutely love these headphones. Extremely comfortable, app is decent, connectivity is great, ANC is easily good enough…but that sound… Truly astonishing.

Simply incredible sound. It’s so rich and deep. I had B&O Beoplay EX and thought they were great, but returned them due to the terrible noise when wearing outside - even a gentle breeze caused considerable interference even with the wind guard feature activated. These, on the other hand and despite not having a ‘wind guard’ feature, have little to no interference in comparative external environmental conditions. I’m really impressed with the depth of sound and immersive acoustics - pricy but defo worth the money. They are lightweight and really comfortable even if worn for extensive periods of time. The ANC is also pretty good in my view (and better than B&O). The ability for the case to tether them to devices is a cool feature, e.g. TVs and other audio devices or laptops. Downside: one earbud seems to lose Bluetooth link every now and again and needs to be re-paired. Whilst annoying, I can live with it because the immersive sound quality is so outrageously good. [Update: a later software update cleared this issue]. I’m not sure the McLaren edition ones are worth the large additional cost just for the superficial difference - unless you are a massive McLaren fan with deep pockets. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that you’re getting the Bowers and Wilkins research and development (R&D) packed into these little nuggets. Other iconic products include their Zeppelin, and Nautilus, of which a pair of the latter will set you back £90k! So, there is a rich history of sound engineering, R&D, and expertise getting squeezed into the Pi8. Expensive but worth the investment. If you’re not an audiophile you soon will be!

These earbuds without doubt are within the top three for Sound quality I have become a bit obsessed with finding the perfect earbud and own B&O, Bowers and Wilkins all of the Apple products and Shure 535s. Of all of them the Pi8s are easily the most comfortable with good noise isolation and the best sound I’ve ever heard I also have Apple over ear headphones Bose quite comforts and none of them compared to the sound quality of these earbuds so why the one star review? Quite simply they are brilliant when they work. As someone who might go a day or two without listening to music, with the earbuds sitting comfortably in their charging case, I am regularly disappointed to find that I have to revert to one of my other devices because the Pi8s rather than using the case to maintain their charge have taken the opportunity to fully discharge. This seems to be a common occurrence for many owners. In the few months that I have own these devices I have also had to factory reset them an alarming number of times. Which seems to be the Bowers and Wilkins solution for the discharge problem. It’s also more concerning because knowing of the problem I I’m always fastidious to ensure that the devices have disconnected from my phone when they are put back in the case so it’s never a case of them still being an operation that causes the discharge. Put simply they are by far the best headphones I have ever owned when they work sadly that’s less than 10% of the time until these issues are resolved I would suggest investing elsewhere.

My Bowers & Wilkins Pi8’s are in the anthracite black; and B&W have spent some time making them look good. Some of their design decisions I’m not sure about; like the charging case doesn’t stand up on a table and lies flat. The charging case does charge by usb-c or wireless qi charging which is convenient; and retains the wireless resending of audio when connected to an audio device – and B&W include a usb-c to 3.5mm jack for connecting to audio outputs. You can setup the headphones using the B&W Music app, which is easy to use, though does require registration to use. In a first for a while the headphones arrived and didn’t need a software update on first connection. The app offers a 5 band EQ settings; as well as a pure flat mode toggle. To test the earbuds, I used the pure flat mode. The app lets you set the ANC mode from noise cancelling, transparent and off. You can’t tune the ANC; but you can assign transparent mode to one of the touch buttons on the side of the headphones. The touch buttons are a little slow to respond for me; when they do the headphones make a low click sound so you know it’s been done. It doesn’t have movement touch, but you can setup multi-clicks to cause actions. Ear fit I have struggled with a lot of in ear headphones that they fall out as I walk around. You can mitigate some of that with a good cleaning of them; but B&W’s headphones have always done well in my ears; and the Pi8 stuck inside my ears even walking around on a hot day. You get 3 sets of tips to swap out; but the medium size tips worked best for me. Sound quality support in the Pi8 is headlined by offering lossless aptx playback. Most of us won’t be able to use it; very few phones or tablets support it. B&W missed a trick with the case; it supports the aptx adaptive standard rather than lossless; adding lossless support would have given a route to higher quality music. That said to my ears plugging in the dock to my iPhone over the usb-c socket does sound better than the apple native audio. It’s a bit weird carrying the case docked to my phone but it’s what I’m doing now on a 10cm usb-c cable. In both connection modes the Pi8’s has the B&Ws traditionally attacking punchy sound. These are in ear headphones; they don’t sound as good as over the ear headphones; and testing them with my iPhone or using the charging case as a transmitter isn’t going to get them the highest quality music they deserve. They sound excellent; far battery than their sister Pi7’s there is must more detail in the mid and treble which is great for vocal tracks; and they have made the bass punchier. They can handle the very delicate harps mixed with bass pads in my favourite test headphone track The Girl in Byakkoya. The Pi8’s kept the brittle sounding harps whilst delivering the pumping bass at the same time. The electronic voice sounded crystal clear over the instruments. Choirs delivered what sounded like huge air moving around you, along with clear breathing sounds. In Electronic music all the textures come through. They are a huge step up from the Pi7’s I have been using and very happy with for a few years. They don’t sound like over the ear headphones. If you want them to these headphones go very loud, I have been listening to them at my desk on 30% volume; and when I went out along busy roads bumped it up to 40%. If you want to go deaf or mimic your favourite concert you can get a lot of volume. Noise cancellation is good for in ear headphones though it’s not as good as the very best in ear headphones at removing the outside world. It retains the excellent music quality whilst it is in use though which is a big advantage. It’s not going to beat the best over the ear headphones as they have a mass advantage, but it quietens traffic as you walk around; and does a reasonable job stopping the clanking and diesel engine roar of British trains. The microphones are great; I could make calls in noisy rooms and the noise cancellation on the microphones didn’t dim my voice to silence in taking out fans or washing machine sounds. Battery life was about 6 hours on my first two recharges which could be longer; the case will give you 3 more charges. 15 minutes in the case adds about 2 hours of playtime.

1/ Fit = Very Comfortable, far more comfortable than my AirPods or Galaxy Buds for me. 2/ Sound quality is absolutely superb; no artificial rubbish, just beautiful sound as it was intended. 3/ Phone calls: mostly good, but not as good as the AirPods or Galaxy Buds; same regarding the ANC. Very close but not quite as good as the Apple or Samsung offering. 4/ ANC, the best are the Bose, followed closely by Apple, then Samsung and finally the Pi8. To be clear, there is not a great deal in it, but I have tried all of them, and for sure, the Bose cuts out most of the external sound. The trade-off is music quality; it's measurably superior on the Pi8, surprisingly so!!. If Music excellence is your priority, followed by good ANC and Good (Not excellent) call quality, then you will not be disappointed.

While the sound quality is sublime, wonderful depth, power and detail, the controls for other functions offered by these £500 earbuds are hopelessly inadequate, compared to even £100 models. For instance, when you answer a call, you press either earbuds to answer. So far so good. But when you finish, you have to short press, short press, long press to hang up. Who in their right mind thought that would be a good idea? Equally, you can EITHER have volume on the earbuds (left and right long press) OR switching noise cancelling on/off and something else. This has not been thigh through well. It really needs an overhaul via a software update. Come on B&W, you can do better. UPDATE after 2 weeks of mixed use. I'm experiencing dropouts regularly when moving e.g., walking, gardening etc. with phone in my pocket. I've tried different noise cancellation settings, tried wear detection on and off, with the same issue. I've compared all this with my previous earbuds, and have tried everything I can think of with the new ones but there are zero dropouts on the old ones and there are plenty on these. Googling, I see others have had similar/identical issues. There are just too many issues for this price point. I'll do a reset on both phone and earbuds, and try again, but I'm expecting to send them back.

Fit = Perfect, even after a few hours no discomfort at all. Battery Life = Average, I play my music loud and you will notice its limitations if you listen like me. Charging = Wired no problem, nice and quick. Wireless, unreliable, lit up to say its charging, worked most of time but I did not completely trust as it failed to charge on several occasions. Sound = Great for volume at up to 80%, the last 20% the quality drop of was significant and even with kind EQ settings, you are going to get rattle. Bluetooth = Shocking. Range is poor, Left side would connect after replacing back in case for 2nd time. Faffing to much for a premium and on sub £100 does not happen. Firmware updates = Shocking, say no more. App = Very poor, as most manufacturers apps are, but this one finds a new level of poor. Device switching = After the latest firmware update, much better. Bowers and Wilkins support = Slow, emails cannot be read on mobile phone as you can only enlarge the image (that's right - image) to a certain size. Telephone support - Disappointing. Smoke signals would be a quicker way of communicating. Amazon support - Pretty good with this product. Touch controls - Poor and very limited. If you do a slightly heavy walk, guess what, you gonna be reaching for your mobile to press play over and over and wondering why its sounds like your ears are popping. Don't blow your nose with them on - the bud sensors are far to sensitive. Noise cancelling = Average I purchased these after owning a pair of Bose quiet comfort, now if the Bose were as comfortable to wear as these, I would never have switched. If this is audiophile quality, keep it. I will now be getting the Technics buds, I'm really hoping I do not have this experience with them.

I spent quite some time researching what Bluetooth earbuds to buy, and having listened to the over-ear offerings from B&W these were near the top of my list. I couldn’t find anywhere to try these in store, but I felt confident going in to purchase these knowing the brand and the quality of other products. I was disappointed to find that even after trying the different tips, the comfort of the fit wasn’t fantastic. They felt quite heavy for something supported by such thin silicone eartips. I found hat after just a few minutes, I found myself reaching up to readjust because they were getting itchy. In terms of sound quality, they were fairly good. I compared them to the offerings from B&O, Sony, Apple and Bose. I found these to be comparable to the Sony in terms of sound quality, but these are £100 more expensive. Also, of the 4 brands, these and the B&O were the quietest. Where I would be at around 80% on the others for the same perceived volume on these at full, meaning I would run them at full volume all the time. When it came to noise cancellation, again this was in the bottom two. The transparency mode sounded quite artificial and the quiet mode didn’t do a fantastic job. They paired up very easily and reconnected quickly every time I got them out the case.

I have bought and sold numerous earbuds ranging from the Google Pixel Buds 2, Sony WF-1000XM5, and many more. I am no audiophile, I just want earbuds that fit well and don't fall and have decent sound. After watching many good reviews about these earbuds, I decided to give them a try although the price is REALLY expensive for a pair of earbuds. I was surprised by how well they fit, part of that is because they fit deep into the ear canal so they sit in your ear tight and snug. The medium sized eartips that came fitted was good for my left ear but were not so tight on the right ear so I swapped the right one for the large sized eartips and it was perfect! The Bowers&Wilkens app is very easy to use. I had them setup in about 1 minute literally then did a firmware update which took about 5 minutes and I was ready to go. Another positive thing is how you control actions with the earbuds. With other earbuds, it is not as easy to tap the part which activates them but with these earbuds, they have a flat surface so you never miss any tap/double tap to activate any action (which are all customizable). The sound quality is insane, you feel like you are in a club with very rich and deep bass.

This one is the best as it gets, clear and rich sound,great punchy bass. Combined with Qobus it literally makes the hair on my arms stand up

Son incómodos al oído, no son ergonómicos

geweldig geluid en kwaliteit

Okej, skalet känns plastigt och lurarna är lite klumpigt utformade. Men ljudet är verkligen överlägset, vilket man kanske också borde förvänta sig av denna erkänt skickliga högtalatillverkare.