Bowers & Wilkins PX. Belated Neobzor

In the yard in 2019. Total stabilizer reigns in the world of portable wireless audio. Well-sounding Bluetooth headphones are able to do a few companies. And the final list of models does not reach even a dozen. Today let's talk about this model. Last year's flagship Bowers & Wilkins PX is still susceptible to competition as much as a battleship to tickling. Details under the cut.

Instead of intro

Warning! If you are an adherent of the products of one California fruit company and are not going to change the usual way of things, then it's time to close the tab and save your time. Otherwise, the author is not responsible for the burning below the waist, which may arise from the information below. No offense.

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The fact is that the company of the richest open gay in the world does not change its principles. The main one is to close any food chain on yourself. From warranty service and post-warranty repair to proprietary formats and codecs. While democracy and progress in the face of aptX HD reign in the camp of the green robot, Apple remains true to itself. The Cupertinians offer their army of fans, in recent years more and more resembling a zombie sect, the same AAC codec as it was ten years ago. Thus, files with a bit rate of 256 Kb / s were and remain a reinforced concrete limit of Apple’s fancier dreams. Alas, no FLAC was delivered here. And your brand new iPhone XS Max will sound via Bluetooth in exactly the same way as the beat 4S won that boy in Air Max and Seeds. And yes, if you think Apple Music is the benchmark of music streaming service, then you can safely save yourself $ 200 and restrict yourself to some Philips Fidelio M2BT. You will not hear the difference anyway.

What? Are you still here? Then most likely you understand perfectly why you needed Bowers & Wilkins PX Bluetooth headphones. And I can not go into endless technical details, thereby saving our total time. We continue.

Short (no) about design

Unfortunately, the modern electronics market is cruel and relentless to the losers. So, from the variegated diversity that prevailed here a few years ago, only a few schools remained. One of them is British. Having thoroughly mastered the principle “I'm not so rich to buy cheap things,” the subjects of Her Majesty were not used to saving on anything. Especially on the comfort.

In the case of the PX model, the desire to do beautifully and reliably did not go against the ergonomics. Aluminum supporting structure with steel swivel hinges here is adjacent to the skin, foam filling with memory effect and wear-resistant textured nylon.

The flagship has incorporated the key elements of previous generations. So, from P5 here swivel hinges perekovochek. From P7 - closed full-size acoustic circuit. From P9 - dynamic emitters. The continuity of generations on the face. Even if you remove the text logo from the outside of the cups, any sophisticated music lover will unmistakably identify the master's hand. Only the Vikings from Bang & Olufsen and the samurai from Audiotechnica can boast the same.

The feeling of owning a quality thing with a pretense of culticism arises at a glance at the PX. Tactile delight complements the already rich first impression. It is worth noting that the PX - heavy headphones. But the weight is pleasant. On materials and margin of safety here did not save. No, this is not a studio sissy P9. Not P7, the leather trim of which you were afraid to scratch with your eyes and therefore did not allow you to listen to your girlfriend with a cool manicure. Having started the PX, the British finally realized that the premium nature of the materials does not make the thing good. The product must also be properly designed. Prepared for a casual throw in a backpack. To lug around your neck over a woolen scarf. Moreover, despite the impressive weight, the owner does not want to remove them from his head for several hours. And silky calf skin should not stick to the ears and head. They should not lose sight in a year. Should not play and creak.

Did Bowers & Wilkins make a masterpiece of modern industrial design? Yes! I don’t want to pick up the Sony 1000XM3 or top Audiotechnica after the PX. Experience begins to relentlessly whisper to you that this plastic part of the headband will creak after the first visit to the sandy beach. But these earrings from the skin of young dermantine stick to your head in half an hour. Here you unwittingly begin to understand that not all manufacturers are true to the principle of a programmable breakage / engineered flaw. Yes, with design, quality, ergonomics and durability, the B & W PX is all good as far as possible with the modern gadget.

Contents of delivery

Should modern equipment be rich? If so, what should be included? The questions are complicated, because There are no unambiguous evaluation criteria. Bowers & Wilkins PX are equipped with a soft case for transportation. Yes, yes, this is the thing that you will never use. But it's still nice that he is there. Two cables complete the picture: 3.5 mm and USB-C-to-USB-A.

Practice shows that you will use the second more often. A 3.5 mm you can safely shove in the same box with cables. And do not ask how I know about him. That's all. Well, you didn’t think that I would enthusiastically describe here the quality of the printing of branded waste paper, which you even from a plastic blister never
get it, right?

Functionality

Alas, the duty joke about coffee in bed for the money will not. As, actually, and coffee. There is no modern touch control on the cups. No intuitive equalizer in
companion application. Fans of all and immediately clearly not on the way with the PX. However, everything that is really important and necessary is not only present here. But also performed perfectly. Active noise reduction is equipped with three main profiles that allow you to cut off extraneous sounds in the city, office or waiting room
airport.

The function of speech transmission is also in place. Moreover, the audibility of this very speech can also be enhanced. The thing is useful, but sometimes it distorts the sound very much.
The benefit of it, like the active noise cancellation itself, can be easily turned off. What am i
I recommend to make to all lovers of really high-quality sound in the first
minute of use. Fortunately, passive sound insulation is almost enough
for everything. Closed design and gorgeous branded leather ear cushions on
magnetic mounts brilliantly cope with their task.

There is also the possibility of updating the firmware through the above
companion application. And the updates themselves arrive quite often, permanently
improving the already great sound. A separate mention is worthy of the ability to connect B & W PX to a PC via USB. In this mode, the headphones also play the role of a 24/48 DAC. It turns out they have a very, very high quality. But only if you are not makovod. Yes, with Macs of the sample of 2016 and newer, it is not necessary to count on a good result. Moreover, fruit laptops traditionally do not know how to aptX, they also did not deliver normal USB audio. Therefore, if you do not want to listen to the death screams of a hippopotamus instead of opera arias, make sure that you are not one of those
lucky ones.

And the tactile donning sensor, which is responsible for pausing and resuming playback, becomes the cherry on an already elegant cake. Moreover, its sensitivity can also be very accurately calibrated through the proprietary application.

It remains only to mention more than the outstanding battery life of headphones. So, at 75% of the volume and with the noise switched on in city mode, I managed to achieve ~ 20 hours of playback with an initial 100% battery charge. At full
disabled noise reduction achieve the stated by the manufacturer 24 hours more than
really.

Yes, the PX still lacks NFC. Like the pair playback function
through 3.5 mm audio cable. Not enough more heaps of modern bloat. However, for traditionally ascetic Britons, this model was not just a step, but a quantum leap forward.

Sound

50 mm dynamic emitters from P9, located at an anatomically correct angle to the ear. Perfect damping. And great digital-analog stuffing. The recipe for outstanding sound was not so difficult. But this is only at first glance. The B & W engineers did a great job. And its result leaves no chance even for more functionally advanced competitors. So, Sony 1000XM3 rastiarenny LDAC outright loses aptX HD in PX due to the much more neutral frequency response of the latter. And thanks to better damping cups. As we see in the comparative frequency response curve below (taken from rtings.com ), the 1000XM3 has a pronounced hump on the bass. The middle, that is, the vocal segment of the frequency response, traditionally overwhelmed. And in the HF segment, an unknown porridge is created.

The touch control of the B & O H9 in practice turns out to be much less intuitive and accurate than the good old mechanical buttons. However, pretty lyrics. Let's go back to the sound.

At PX, it is traditionally neutral. Sometimes it is surgical. Without any frequency accents. Here, just as much as it should be. No more, no less. Therefore, this model is not suitable for lovers of monumental bass and adherents of traditional Apple V-shaped frequency response. But to those of us whom the bear did not trample eardrums, I can recommend B & W PX with a clear conscience. Nothing more than this.
sound model, in the market of wireless headphones for any sane money is still there. And, unfortunately, the next couple of years is not exactly in sight. It remains only to repeat the recommendation to all music lovers to immediately turn off the active noise cancellation and forget about this feature. As well as about the electronic voice filter. Otherwise, the outstanding musical abilities of the headset can be forgotten. Alas, today it is a given for all such decisions.

Summing up

The British turned acoustic masterpiece with a backlog for the year ahead. Is the PX worth its frankly a lot of money? Definitely yes. Feel free to recommend this model for purchase to all those whose smartphones support aptX HD.