Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones review

Our Verdict

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones offer warm, balanced audio performance, stiff ANC and 30 hours of battery life with a premium design.

For

Gorgeous, elegant design
Warm, balanced audio
Strong agile noise cancelling
Excellent battery life

Against

Lacks blaster
ANC not as powerful as competing brands

Laptop Mag Verdict

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones offer warm, balanced audio performance, potent ANC and xxx hours of battery life with a premium design.

Pros

+
Gorgeous, elegant design
+
Warm, counterbalanced audio
+
Potent active noise cancelling
+
Excellent battery life

Cons

-
Lacks equalizer
-
ANC non as powerful as competing brands

Ugh. I'm a sucker for a good-looking pair of premium headphones. Where some people accessorize with jewelry or a fresh pair of kicks, my must-take are a pair of cute cans. And with their carbon fiber and metal housing, the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones have earned a identify in my steady rotation. Merely the $399 headphones are more than eye candy. The cans serve upwards some forward-facing, warm all the same balanced audio that can hands make you feel like you're front row at a concert. And you've got strong active noise cancelling technology, slap-up call quality and over xxx hours of battery life.

The price tag is a piffling steep for entry-level music lovers, just those looking for a pair of headphones that audio great, wait even better and pack a powerful ANC, should requite the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones, the latest add-on to our Best Noise Cancelling Headphones page, a mind.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones pricing and configurations

Premium products demand premium prices. That's why the PX7 are priced at $399. The cans are available in three colors: Carbon, Silver and Infinite Gray. That'south somewhat more expensive than its top competitors, the $329 Bose 700 and the $349 WH-1000xM4.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones pattern

All black everything –– well near. You'll run across gleaming silvery accents adorning the headphones' earcaps, with a Bowers & Wilkins logo on the metal caps and a sliver of silver lining the Carbon black oval. Information technology'due south a small thing, but when the calorie-free hits it, there'southward a nice chip of sparkle. The metal caps and the blackness anodized aluminum yokes and extenders are absurd to the bear upon, which contrasts against the rest of the headphones.

The top of the headband and the outer portion of the earcups are fabricated of soft blackness carbon cobweb. The underside of the ring and interior earcups are made of pliable retentivity cream wrapped in supple black leather. Each loving cup has a wear sensor that pauses whatsoever you lot're listening to when the cup is not around your ear and resumes the fun when the loving cup is returned to its rightful identify.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones — (Image credit: Laptop Mag)

It has all the trappings y'all'd expect from a premium pair of headphones. There is a small strip of black matte plastic wrapped around the correct earcup, housing the USB Type-C port, 3.5mm audio jack, multifunction, Bluetooth/power and volume buttons. You'll find another small slice of plastic panelling along the left earcup where the noise cancelling push resides.

But all those premium materials practice make for a heavier pair of cans, with the PX7 weighing 10 ounces and measuring 3.1 x half dozen.9 10 8.7 inches. That is heavier than both the Bose Dissonance Cancelling Headphones 700 (nine ounces) and Sony WH-1000xM4 headphones (8.9 ounces).

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones comfort

I've worn the circumaural PX7 for iii months at present and they're uber comfortable. There was never a need to interruption them in, as the leather-wrapped memory cream gently nestled around my ears, creating a nice seal that helps the ANC. I never felt any uncomfortable pressure level with the PX7, assuasive me to wear the over-ear cans for the entirety of my work day.

And while I accept a rather small head, my 20-yr-erstwhile locs brand for some large hair, specially with the imitation pompadour I've been rocking as of late. The PX7'due south extenders were enough to accommodate my poofy do, camouflaged past imperial, blue and pinkish locs.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones setup

Connecting your PX7 to a Bluetooth-compatible device is as simple equally belongings a switch. OK, there's a little more involved, but not much. After turning the PX7 on, I held the switch in the upright position for five seconds to initiate pairing mode. From there, I went into my Samsung Milky way Note 20 Ultra's Bluetooth menu, selected the headphones from the list and I was good to go. The process was just as seamless on my function MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 17.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones controls

I'm torn between blueprint and functionality on this one. I would absolutely love for Bowers & Wilkins to comprise bear upon controls in the earcaps. Yet, that would probably entail calculation big plastic pieces, which would take away from the premium design.

Wrapped around the right earcup are the majority of the PX7'south controls. Starting from the top, you have the Power/Bluetooth switch, and the multifunction push sandwiched between the volume buttons. The multifunction button works similar to others in the category with a unmarried press controlling play/pause while listening to content or answer/end when a call comes in. A quick double tap skips tracks forrad while a triple hit skips backwards. The noise cancelling button on the left earcup switches betwixt the headphones three levels of ANC.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones app

Just like almost headphones on the market, the PX7 has a companion app to enhance your listening feel. The free app is available on both Android and iOS and offers a make clean, intuitive interface. Once paired with the headphones, you lot can check battery status, switch between the ANC levels or plow ANC off altogether. Information technology'south hither that y'all can also conform the Ambient Passthrough level.

You can also use the app to switch betwixt devices connected to the cans, check device history, rename the headphones, adapt the wear sensor sensitivity, ready the standby timer and enable or disable the voice prompt. The app also offers six singled-out soundscapes to requite you some mindfulness inducing calm. You can choose between the sounds of the ocean, a rainy twenty-four hours, a crackling campfire in the forest, rustling leaves, a blathering brook and a waterfall.

And while the soundscapes are pretty cool, I wish the company included an equalizer so listeners could arrange the tuning to better arrange their listening habits similar to what Bose and Sony offers.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones active noise cancelling

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones are equipped with 6 microphones –– 4 mics for active noise cancelling and ii for Clear Voice Communication for taking calls. I'thousand happy to report that like any premium pair of ANC cans, the PX7'south mics are seriously quiet, meaning that when they were hard at work keeping the hustle and bustle of New York City at bay, there wasn't whatever subtle white noise. Instead, it'due south similar the globe put on a powerful muffler.

Are the mics powerful enough to totally silence the metropolis? No, every bit I walked to the fish market, I could notwithstanding hear the railroad train get by overhead and the chat between the couple continuing in front of me in line outside the store. However, both instances of noise were severely dampened, equally I just heard bits and pieces of conversation while the train's clattering sounded like it was a world abroad.

When it'south on high, the PX7's ANC is pretty strong, I found it vicious a bit short of the Bose and the WH-1000xM4 which blocked out my LG Idiot box with no music playing compared to the PX7 silencing things with the volume on 10.

The PX7 has three levels of ANC (Loftier, Low and Auto) with a sliding Ambient Pass-Through calibration that allows you to arrange how much of the outside earth is allowed into the soundscape. Information technology's more limited than Bose 700'southward 10 levels or fifty-fifty the WH-1000xM4'due south 20 levels. Withal, the PX7's get the job done. On High, with the music or one of the soundscapes playing, exterior distractions were kept at bay. But when I took my daily walk effectually the block, the Ambient Pass-Through allowed me to strike a comfy balance between Sade's "The Sweetest Taboo" and incoming traffic.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones audio quality

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones are equipped with 43.6mm custom drivers –– the biggest in Bowers & Wilkins headphone line. The result is rich, balanced sound beyond the highs, mids and lows.

My testing began with SYD'southward "Missing Out," where the steady hum of an electric keyboard laid the groundwork for an airy presentation. Softer details like the triangle were piece of cake to option upwards as the vocalizer sang in a resigned mezzo-soprano. When I switched over to the Bose 700, I noticed that the PX7 were louder at 50% than the Bose. Still, the headphones were pretty evenly matched in terms of quality with one exception –– the percussion section on the track was a bit punchier on the Bose.

When I switched to Chapel Hart's "Jesus & Alcohol," the PX7'south rather spacious soundscape allowed me to hear the range of instruments in the upbeat track, including both the acoustic and electric guitars, organ, pianoforte and drums. Despite everything going on, the vocals were squeamish and clean, especially when the harmonizing backup vocal came in. Listening to the same track on the Bose 700, details such equally the twang of the guitar strings were more than pronounced, but it lacked the warmth of the PX7.

For my last track, I chose Aryon Jones' "Mercy," and reveled in the gritty electric guitar, powerful drums and crisp cymbals on the PX7. While the guitars were quite bracing, there was a bit of diffusion, but information technology didn't take away from the powerful, ambitious vocals. Again, the Bose 700 delivered more dash, eliminating that diffusion I heard on the PX7, and cleaner chords and sharper cymbals, only it wasn't equally frontwards as the PX7.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones battery and Bluetooth

Bowers & Wilkins estimates that the PX7 Carbon Edition headphones have a xxx-hour battery life with the ANC enabled and 33 hours when disabled. That'southward on a par with the Sony WH-1000xM4 (30 hours ANC, 38 hours ANC disabled) and far longer than the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 (20 hours ANC).

The cans held up to the hype equally I listened to the PX7s for 8 hours everyday for 3 days, with the headphones sounding the low battery alarm around the middle of the 4th day. When it'due south finally fourth dimension to give the cans a recharge, the quick charge applied science delivers 5 hours of play time in 15 minutes.

The PX7 has Bluetooth v.0, which has a theoretical range of 800 feet, meaning I had no problem leaving my phone on the amusement fix and going downstairs in my office. I also made it into the lawn to liberate my barbecue grill from the snowfall. The sound only started to cutting out once I left my house and hit the sidewalk.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition Headphones call quality

The remaining two mics on the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones have Clear Phonation Advice technology, which is in that location to pick upward your voice during phone or video conferencing calls. I made several calls and I was impressed with my callers' reports on how I sounded. Everyone stated that they heard loud, clear audio, with one person commenting that the timbre of my voice sounded very warm. As for my terminate, everyone remarked on how the warmth and depth of the voices on the other stop of the line. I even heard someone sneeze in the background of one of the calls.

Lesser line

Come up for the design, stay for the audio quality. The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones are worth the $399 price of access. The premium pricing gets you a pair of cans that don't expect like anything else on the market. No plastic here, but beautiful carbon cobweb, metallic and leather. Merely even better, the PX7 sound just equally good every bit they look, delivering warm, balanced audio regardless of genre. Plus, the headphones accept powerful ANC and thirty hours of battery life.

All the same, for the money, I wish Bowers & Wilkins would add an blaster to the app and then listeners tin can have some measure of control over the audio. Y'all can get that and a host of other features from both the Sony WH-1000xM4 ($349) and Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 ($329), plus fifty-fifty more powerful ANC for a few dollars cheaper. But if you want headphones that look just as premium every bit they audio, the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Carbon Edition headphones are the way to go.

Sherri L. Smith has been cranking out production reviews for Laptopmag.com since 2022. In that time, she'due south reviewed more than her share of laptops, tablets, smartphones and everything in betwixt. The resident gamer and audio junkie, Sherri was previously a managing editor for Blackness Spider web ii.0 and contributed to BET.Com and Popgadget.