B&W Px8 S2 McLaren Edition Noise-Cancelling Headphones

B&W Px8 S2 McLaren Edition Noise-Cancelling Headphones

Reference-level sound quality. Iconic McLaren design.

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition is the latest collaboration between Bowers & Wilkins and McLaren Automotive and McLaren Racing. It combines the exceptional wireless sound and luxurious materials of Bowers & Wilkins' flagship over-ear headphones with a bold, McLaren-inspired new design.

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition features all-new design details that reference McLaren's iconic performance and athletic heritage. The distinctive Papaya finish, still used on McLaren's Formula 1 team cars, was inspired by the iconic color of founder Bruce McLaren's early racing cars.

Anthracite Nappa leather on all main surfaces and metallic Papaya-colored earcups create a bold new elegance, while the embossed McLaren logo on the headband completes the look.

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition is comfortable to wear all day, providing a pleasant and luxurious listening experience thanks to precisely molded, perfectly cushioning earcups and fine Nappa leather. The elegantly designed headphones feature thinner earcups than the previous model, attached by durable aluminum arms with visible Papaya-colored cable details.

Many New Features

Careful redesign has made the Px8 S2 thinner, lighter, and more comfortable. The new, more compact carrying case easily fits for travel. As expected from a flagship, the finish is premium in every way. Luxurious Nappa leather covers the surfaces that touch the head. Aluminum parts and stylish details perfectly combine lightness, mechanical durability, and sophisticated design. The new model further improves ergonomics. Your fingers can reach the comfortable and precise buttons even more easily.

B&W's high-quality 40mm Carbon Dome drivers have been significantly improved in many ways. The frame, voice coil, suspension, and magnet have been optimized throughout, and the drivers are positioned at a precisely considered angle to the listener's ears. This ensures an even distance from the entire driver surface to the ear, improving soundstage accuracy and spatiality. A discrete headphone amplifier driving the drivers and Qualcomm's latest innovations, including aptX Lossless codec support, bring more power and scale to the sound.

Powerful Noise Cancellation and Crystal-Clear Clarity

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition headphones offer excellent noise cancellation, optimized with sound quality, comfort, and safety in mind. A new noise-canceling system relying on eight microphones ensures that external disturbances are kept at bay. Achieving reference-level sound quality and a pleasant user experience in noise-canceling mode requires expertise and smart design choices in headphone design – Bowers & Wilkins is a pioneer in this regard. New technology, including ADI Pure Voice technology, also ensures impressive hands-free clarity for calls and meetings.

30-Hour Battery Life and Useful Control App

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition headphones offer up to 30 hours of listening on a single charge. The fast-charging feature allows for up to 7 hours of additional listening time with just a 15-minute charge. Like other new Bowers & Wilkins over-ear and in-ear headphones, the Px8 S2 can be comprehensively managed with the Music app (iOS and Android). From the app, you can adjust noise-canceling settings, check battery status, select the sensitivity of wear detection, and assign your own function to the Quick Action button on the headphones. Also new is an adjustable five-band equalizer, whose settings can be saved as easily accessible presets. Alternatively, you can select the True Sound mode, which corresponds to the optimized tuning selected by the Bowers & Wilkins Southwater Research Establishment (SRE) acoustic team.

In Summary

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition noise-canceling headphones offer market-leading performance in both sound quality and comfort, making them an ideal choice for every music lover. The Px8 S2 is also ready for the future and new technologies. Future software updates have promised at least spatial audio support, Bluetooth® LE Audio, and Auracast™ compatibility.

Highlights

• Powerful DSP with optimized amplifier and DA converter
• True 24-bit audio connection
• 5-band customizable EQ + TrueSound™ mode
• Bluetooth 5.3 and aptX™ Lossless
• Multipoint connectivity
• Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)
• USB-C charging and audio connection
• Support for fast charging
• Apple MFi Made For iPhone® support
• Google Fast Pair support

Features

• Type: over-ear
• Type: Closed, dynamic
• Internal processing: 24 bit / 96 kHz DSP
• Drivers: 2x 40 mm carbon dome
• Active noise cancellation: selectable on, off, or ambient passthrough
• Battery life: up to 30 hours
• Fast charging: 15 min charge for up to 7 hours of listening time
• 8-microphone noise-canceling and communication system
• Wireless Bluetooth codecs: aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, aptX HD, aptX Classic, AAC, SBC
• USB-C connection: Charging and the best audio quality connection for mobile devices and computers
• Compatible app: Bowers & Wilkins Music (iOS and Android, available for free in app stores)
• Included in delivery: 1.2 m USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable, 1.2 m USB-C to USB-C cable, carrying case
• Headphone weight: 310 g
• Carrying case dimensions (W x D x H): 177 x 60 x 234 mm
• Serviceability: cushions and headband leather covering replaceable if necessary
• Warranty: 24 months