A must have for any music lover

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Design and Compatibility

Despite a slightly larger charging case (1.6 ounces, 2.6 x 1.1 x 2 inches) than other premium headsets, the Pi8 earbuds are on the small side. At 0.24 ounces, they’re as light as some of my all-time favorites. Sony WF-1000XM5 (0.21 oz.) and is nearly compact.

The Pi8 is a beautiful pair of headphones that mix glossy and matte plastics with a thin vent separating the two. The tops of the Pi8 are glossy and center Bowers & Wilkins, while the rest of the case is matte black with four gold-tone connectors, sensor and microphone vents. It ends with one of the tiniest silicone ear tips I’ve ever seen. Bowers & Wilkins provides three additional advisory packages to ensure the right fit. My Pi8 review pair came in Anthracite Black, which is nice, but I wish I’d gotten the Jade Green or Midnight Blue editions because they look amazing. For fans of white gadgets, the headphones are also available in Dove White.

The Pi8 aren’t just pretty, they’ve got some durability with an IP54 rating, meaning the earbuds are protected against dust and water. And by water, I mean light sprays or maybe a little sweat. Do not submerge these in water; you’ll be sad and $400 poorer. The Pi8 is more durable than the XM5, which is only rated IP4 (light water sprays).

Back to the stuffing box. Like the headphones, the Pi8’s body is made of matte Anthracite Black plastic with a thick Bowers & Wilkins-stamped band. A status light sits directly below. The USB-C charging port is directly under the case. The case holds the XM5, which weighs 1.4 ounces and measures 2.5 x 1.8 x 1.04 inches.

With my weird little ears, I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to swap ear tips for bigger ones, but here we are. The Pi8 ships with extra small ear tips as standard. They were too small, forcing me to switch to smaller clues. I was golden from there. The seal was so secure that I tackled the beast, my elliptical machine, and they stayed put. I comfortably wore the Pi8 for six hours.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Controls

Unlike other flagship headsets, the Pi8 has just a few tap controls to learn. Play/pause and answer calls are done with a quick tap while skipping ahead in a track, and a double tap is required to end a call. To access the voice assistant, you need to press and hold the right bud. Press and hold the left button to toggle between Passthrough and ANC.

My only complaint is that you have to use the app for the initial pairing. After installing the free Music|Bowers & Wilkins app, you need to hold both buds for three seconds. It’s a small quibble, but sometimes people want to dive into listening instead of dealing with a companion app. But as far as utilities go, it’s not bad.

The interface is clean, with toggle adjustable equalizer and active noise cancellation modes. The app also allows integration of several streaming services, including Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, NTS and Soundcloud, allowing access and control of the services through the app. You can also get a two-month free trial of Qobuz. Although it would be nice to have a find my buds feature for such expensive headphones, Bowers & Wilkins will replace lost buds if one goes missing.

Photo: Bowers & Wilkins

When it comes to connectivity, the Bluetooth 5.4 compatible headphones also have multi-point capabilities and can connect to two separate devices.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: ANC

Bowers & Wilkins integrated three microphones into each earpiece. Two of the microphones are designed to cancel the surrounding noise, and the rest is designed to amplify the sound for conversation. Combined with a good seal, the microphones can perform some strong active noise cancellation. as good as Bose QuietComfort Buds or Sony WF-1000XM5? No, but the Pi8’s ANC still does a strong job of keeping out the noise of New York City.

I walked around my neighborhood as an active ANC. I could hear most of the conversations around me in a muted tone, without any music playing. I heard every creak, crack, and thump as the train passed overhead. Turning on the music immediately drowned out any noise from outside of NYC. Back home, the Pi8 could turn off my TV if the ANC volume was set to four. Compare this to the XM5 (vol. 6) and QC Ultra (vol. 7). All in all, you can use the Pi8’s ANC to muffle noise rather than completely drown out ambient noise. However, there are very few headphones that can claim this feat.

The Pi8 has a switch mode to let the outside world in. This is handy when exercising outdoors or when you want to stay ahead of your surroundings.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Performance

Reference headphones? Whew, Bowers & Wilkins, that’s a big claim. The company says it’s unlikely a studio engineer will grab a pair of wireless buds to master the job. However, these headphones deliver the most accurate performance Bowers & Wilkins can squeeze out of a wireless device. That means fans of boosted bass and treble need look no further. I prefer straight tuning because it allows me to skip genres better at will. As I keep my playlists on shuffle, these headphones seem to be made for me.

So how does Bowers & Wilkins do it? The answer lies in cone drivers. The company has created mini versions of the carbon cone drivers typically found in speakers or headphones. The Carbon Cone actuator is stiffer and therefore behaves more precisely at higher frequencies because it does not bend like a conventional cone. Plus, with its lightness, the cone driver can respond faster to dynamic changes in your music, resulting in a more powerful and realistic sound. I quickly learned that 12mm carbon cone drivers offer a warm, balanced performance regardless of genre. As with all my tests, I used Tidal with Hi-Fi and Master quality tracks.

To kick things off, I started with Jamirquoi’s “Time Won’t Wait” and was instantly drawn to the powerful bass, live guitar, silky horns and drums. The soundstage is wide, everything has its place, even the occasional cosmic sound effects. Best of all, I didn’t need to raise the volume above 50-60%, depending on the environment, to achieve a complete shutdown of New York City.

The vocals on Doechii’s “ALLIGATOR BITES HEAL NEVER HEAL” sounded distinctly ethereal, a lush soprano balanced by a snappy alto and sultry tenor. And I have to say, Snoh ​​​​Aalegra’s “DO 4 LOVE” took me so much that I listened to the track four times before releasing it. The strings sounded so full that it gave way to a grand crescendo that gave way to forward-looking keyboards and powerful, mournful vocals backed by beautiful choral backings. These are easily one of the best wireless headphones I’ve heard this year.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Call Quality

While the Pi8 headphones excel in music and podcast audio quality, their call quality needs improvement. I called a few people with the buds and even participated in a few video conferences. However, out of three calls and two video conferences, only one worked well. Callers quickly noted that I sounded muffled on all other calls and conferences.

This was my main complaint as sometimes I had to strain to hear people clearly. But after the software update, I got better results, but not much.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Battery Life

Bowers & Wilkins estimates the Pi8 will last 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. The company does not provide estimates for the use of headphones without ANC. But I hit 8 hours without noise cancellation. The charging case brings an additional 13.5 hours of battery life into the mix, bringing the total battery life to 19.5 hours with ANC and 21.5 hours without. As a staunch proponent of active noise cancellation, I squeezed 6 hours and 35 minutes out of the Pi8 streaming music, watched episodes of Invincible Warrior Girl, and took calls without getting a low-battery warning.

That’s not too bad, but it doesn’t match the staying power of the WF-1000XM5, which lasted 8 hours with ANC on and 12 hours without. The charging case adds another 24 hours, for a total of 32 hours with ANC and 36 hours without noise cancellation.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Verdict

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 has its flaws – poor call quality, no find my buds feature, and good, but not great, active noise cancellation. But the Pi8 has few rivals with its reference-level drivers for excellent music sound quality. Plus, they’re durable, compact and sleek looking, just what you’d expect from a pair of flagship headphones. As a reviewer, I can say that these will be my primary headphones for at least the first quarter of 2025. It is up to the other flagships to put them down.