Bowers & Wilkins has just announced two new sets of true wireless headphones: the B&W PI7 S2 and the B&W PI5 S2. They are, as their names suggest, the respective successors to the B&W PI7 and PI5, and I am very pleased with the PI7 S2, having been blown away by the original model when it launched.
As you can read in our full original Bowers & Wilkins PI7 review, these headphones blew the water market when they were first released when it came to sound quality. Compared to the original AirPods Pro (7) that I used as my go-to headphones at the time, the PIXNUMX was a revelation: bass depth, treble detail, and voice clarity were on another level. .
They also offer incredible audio pass-through: you can connect the case's USB-C port to a computer or analog audio source, and the audio will stream in aptX quality to the headphones. They've really gone further than any other earbud, but they also cost around XNUMX% more than the AirPods Pro, so you'd expect a lot more, right?
Since then, the world of the best true wireless earphones has come a long way when it comes to sound quality – there have been other super-rich premium alternatives, and the AirPods Pro XNUMX and Honor Earbuds XNUMX Pro have really raised the bar. for audio quality at a lower cost, then Bowers is back to try to reclaim the throne from him.
The B&W PI7 S2 doesn't seem to promise big advances in sound quality from the controller: the two-way audio setup of a XNUMXmm driver with a balanced armature tweeter unit on each and every button seems to be identical to the previous generation. , although obviously there have been improvements.
But the technology behind the controllers has altered. There's no support for aptX Adaptive Wireless, so you should generally get a more reliable connection (B&W claims you get a longer range of up to XNUMXm, too), as well as high-res audio from compatible sources.
And noise cancellation, which wasn't worth writing about in the original, now promises to be adaptive noise cancellation, so theoretically it should be smarter at blocking out sound. Perhaps the processing after this will also improve the sound quality of the drivers as a whole; We're going to have to wait and try them to find out.
The new Bowers & Wilkins Music app is also going to offer better control and customization of the buttons, and the audio streaming feature is still on board.
The original PI7's biggest weakness was battery life, and the PI7 S2 improves on that... alone. Button battery life has been improved from XNUMX hours to… XNUMX hours in the new version. I was expecting more than six hours, which is now the norm for the best noise-cancelling headphones, and many get over it comfortably.
And the other most notable potential drawback with the original PI7 is still there: they're just too big. The physical design hasn't altered, which means there's a huge section that sits just outside the ear canal. I gave the originals to a small adult (but they're still fine at the "usual" size) and she couldn't even put them in her ear because of the way.
However, they come in 3 new colors: Satin White, Canvas Black and Midnight Blue, the last of which is outrageously pretty, with gold shimmers on a deep mystical indigo.
And the B&W PI7 S2 is still very expensive: $XNUMX / $XNUMX / AU$XNUMX. I hope they've upped their game in the ANC department, as there are now more premium options than ever before.
The PI7 S2s are available today, but the blue version will be released in the spring.
B&W is also releasing a new version of its other true wireless earphones: the PI5. The PI5 S2 will use a 7mm monitor, but it won't have the auxiliary balanced armor, so it won't give quite the same active range as the PI7. It still supports aptX, but it's not aptX Adaptive and lacks the streaming audio feature in the box. It has active noise cancellation, but not the adaptive technology used in the PI2 SXNUMX (although you can adjust the level of noise cancellation). And it also has five hours of battery life in buds.
The PI5 S2 is available in 4 colors: Cloud Grey, Storm Grey, Spring Lilac and Sage Green (the latter will reappear in "Spring"). These cost €XNUMX / €XNUMX / AU €XNUMX.
If you're looking for a good way to get aptX Hi-Res sound on these headphones, may I suggest our list of the best portable music players?