These Gorgeous Wireless Earbuds Borrow Loudspeaker Tech to Deliver a Rare Kind of Sound

Bowers & Wilkins’s new flagship noise-canceling wireless earbuds, the Pi8, have improved style and sound.

Published August 21, 2024

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It’s difficult for traditional audio powerhouses — like Sony, Bose, Sennheiser and Bowers & Wilkins — to compete in today’s wireless earbuds market. Now that smartphone manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, and Google also make their own (really good) wireless earbuds, they can give them distinct software advantages.

For example, if you have an iPhone and AirPods, a Pixel smartphone and Pixel Buds, or a Samsung Galaxy smartphone and Galaxy Buds, these wireless earbuds will quickly pair with your smartphone. And all their best features are baked right into the device’s operating system, so there’s no toggling with Bluetooth settings or downloading a separate app.

There are a few proven ways that traditional audio companies can still compete, of course. Two of them are style and sound quality. Not everybody wants the same-looking wireless earbuds as everybody else, after all. And higher-fidelity sound quality is obviously what these audio companies specialize in.

And that’s exactly what Bowers & Wilkins is banking on with its new flagship noise-canceling wireless earbuds.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8

$399 at Bowers & Wilkins

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 are the next-generation versions of the previous Pi7 S2 flagship noise-canceling wireless earbuds, but they’ve been redesigned from the ground up. According to the company, they were developed by the same design and engineering teams responsible for B&W’s Px7 S2e and Px8 over-ear headphones.

The Pi8’s standout feature is its all-new 12mm drivers — compared to the Pi7 S2’s 9.2mm drivers — that feature B&W’s proprietary Carbon Cone technology. This driver innovation was taken from the company’s 700 Series of loudspeakers and also integrated into its $699 flagship Px8 noise-canceling headphones.

Additionally, the B&W Pi8 features upgraded internals — an improved DAC, amp and digital signal processor — to help them deliver truly elite sound quality. They support aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless codecs and can play CD-quality audio (up to 16-bit/44.1kHz) over Bluetooth if you have a device that also supports aptX Adaptive (which, unfortunately, iPhones do not).

One of the coolest things about the B&W Pi8 is that, just like the Pi7 S2, the charging case doubles as a Bluetooth transmitter. If you plug the case into an in-flight entertainment system (which still lacks built-in Bluetooth), you can listen to your wireless earbuds as you fly.

When using the case as a Bluetooth transmitter, you can actually stream even high-resolution audio (up to 24-bit/96kHz) on the Pi8s. This is an upgrade over the Pi7 S2, which maxed out at 24-bit/48KHz when using the case as a transmitter. (Yes, B&W includes the necessary USB-C and 3.5mm connection cables.)

For those who want more control over their sound, Bowers & Wilkins has updated its companion app, B&W Music, to give Pi8 users access to a five-band equalizer.

Bowers & Wilkins upgraded several other things on the Pi8. The new earbuds have Qualcomm’s latest chips and promise to deliver superior active noise-cancellation and transparency modes over the Pi7 S2. They have a new ergonomic shape for an improved fit. And they have a slightly better battery life — up to 6.5 hours with noise-cancellation turned on.

Price and availability

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 cost $399 — the exact same price as the Pi7 S2 when they were released in early 2023. They come in four different finishes: black, white, green and blue.

You can purchase the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 right now from the company’s website or other authorized dealers.