A must-have for every music lover

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Design and Fit

Despite its charging case (1.6 ounces, 2.6 x 1.1 x 2 inches), which is a little larger than other premium headphones, the Pi8 headphones are on the small side. At 0.24 ounces, they’re almost as light as some of my all-time favorites, the Sony WF-1000XM5 (0.21 ounces), and almost as 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 shiny and have Bowers & Wilkins in the center, while the rest of the housing is matte black with four gold connectors, a sensor and a mic vent. It ends with one of the smallest silicone ear tips I’ve seen. Bowers & Wilkins provides three additional tips to ensure a proper fit. My review pair of the Pi8 came in Anthracite Black, which is nice, but man, I wish I had the Jade Green or Midnight Blue editions, as they look amazing. And for fans of white gadgets, the headphones are also available in Dove White.

The Pi8s are not only beautiful, they have some built-in durability with an IP54 rating, which means the headphones have ingress protection against dust and water. And by water, I mean light splashes or maybe a little sweat. Don’t go tossing these around in the water; you will be sad and $400 poorer. The Pi8 is more durable than the XM5, which is only rated IP4 (light water spray).

Back to the charging case. Like the headphones, the case of the Pi8 is made of Matte Anthracite Black plastic with a thick band printed with Bowers & Wilkins. A status light is located directly below. A USB-C charging port is directly at the bottom of the case. The case eclipses the XM5, which weighs 1.4 ounces and measures 2.5 x 1.8 x 1.04 inches.

With my weird, tiny ears, I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to trade in the tips of my ears for bigger ones, but here we are. The Pi8 ships with the small extra ear tips by default. They were too small, forcing them to switch to small spikes. From there, I was golden. The seal was pretty sure that I faced the beast, my elliptical machine, and they stayed put. I ended up comfortably using the Pi8 for six hours straight.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: controls

Unlike other flagship headsets, the Pi8 only has a few tap controls to learn. Play/pause and answer calls are accomplished by a quick single tap while skipping forward on a track, and ending a call requires a double tap. You need to press and hold your right hand to access the voice assistant. To switch between Passthrough and ANC, press and hold the left button.

My only complaint is that you have to use the app for the initial pairing. Once you’ve installed the free Music|Bowers & Wilkins app, you need to hold the human for three seconds. It’s a small quibble, but sometimes people want to immerse themselves in listening instead of dealing with a companion app. But in terms of companion applications, this is not bad.

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

Photo: Bowers & Wilkins

In terms of connectivity, the Bluetooth 5.4-compatible headphones also have multipoint capabilities and can connect with two separate devices.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: ANC

Bowers & Wilkins has integrated three microphones into each headphone. Two of the microphones are designed to cancel ambient noise, while the rest is there to amplify the voice for conversation. Combined with a good seal, the microphones can implement powerful active noise cancellation. It is as good as the Bose QuietComfort Buds or Sony WF-1000XM5? No, but the Pi8’s ANC still does a bang-up job of keeping New York City noise down to earth.

I walked around my neighborhood with ANC on. I can hear most conversations around me without any music, just at a muted volume. And when the train went over, I heard every crick, crack, and bump. Turning on the music immediately drowned out any din outside of New York. Back home, the Pi8’s ANC could only drown out my television if the volume was set to four. Compare that to the XM5 (volume 6) and the QC Ultra (volume 7). In general, you can use the Pi8’s ANC to cancel noise rather than completely mute ambient noise. However, there are very few headphones that can claim that fact.

The Pi8 has a passthrough mode to let the outside world in. This is useful when exercising outside or when you want to stand out in front of your surroundings.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Performance

Reference headphones? Phew, Bowers & Wilkins, that’s a big statement. The company says that while it is unlikely that a studio engineer will take a pair of wireless buds to master the work. However, these headphones deliver the most accurate performance that Bowers & Wilkins can squeeze out of a wireless device. That means fans of enhanced bass and treble need not apply. I prefer a flat tuning as it lends itself better to skipping genres at will. And since I keep my playlists on shuffle, these headphones seemed made for me.

So, how does Bowers & Wilkins do? The answer lies in the cone drivers. The company has created mini versions of its carbon cone drivers, typically in speakers or headphones. The Carbon Cone transmission unit is more rigid and therefore behaves more precisely at higher frequencies because it does not bend as much as a conventional cone. In addition, with its lightness, the cone driver can respond more quickly to dynamic changes in your music resulting in a more powerful and realistic sound. I quickly learned that the resulting 12mm carbon cone drivers are impressive, offering a warm and 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 immediately grooving to a robust bass, lively guitar, silky horns and lively percussion. The stage is spacious, with everything having its space, even the spatial sound effects that play occasionally. Best of all, I don’t need to push the volume higher than 50-60%, depending on the environment, to get a total shutout of New York City.

Doechii’s vocals on “ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL” sounded truly ethereal, the soaring soprano balanced by a spunky alto and fervent tenor. And I have to say that I was so taken by Snoh ​​Aalegra’s “DO 4 LOVE” that I listened to the track four times before leaving. The strings sounded so full, building into a gorgeous crescendo that gives way to a forward-facing keyboard and strong, plaintive vocals backed by beautiful choral backgrounds. 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 several people with bombs and even participated in a few video conferences. However, out of three calls and two video conferences, only one produced good results. My callers quickly noticed that I sounded muffled on all other calls and conferences.

That was my biggest complaint, as sometimes I had to strain to hear people clearly. However, after a software update, I had better results, but not by much.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Battery Life

Bowers & Wilkins estimates the Pi8 will last 6.5 hours with ANC on. The company doesn’t list an estimate for using the headset without ANC. However, I hit 8 hours without noise cancellation. The charging case brings an additional 13.5 hours of battery life to the mix, bringing total battery life to 19.5 hours with ANC and 21.5 hours without. As a staunch supporter of active noise cancellation, I squeezed 6 hours and 35 minutes out of the Pi8 streaming music, watching episodes of “Invincible Fight Girl,” and taking calls before I had the warning of low battery.

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

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Verdict

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 has flaws – poor call quality, lack of find my buddies function, and good but not great active noise cancellation. But the Pi8 has few rivals with its reference quality drivers for stellar music audio quality. Plus, they’re durable, compact and stylish, exactly what you’d expect from a pair of top-of-the-line headphones. As a reviewer, I can say that these will be my main headphones for at least the first quarter of 2025. It’s up to the other flagships to get me there.