Professional’s Ranking
Execs
- Excellent sound
- Comfy for lengthy listening periods
- Revolutionary charging case doubles as an audio transceiver
Cons
- Mediocre name high quality
- ANC doesn’t match the less-expensive competitors’s providing
- No LDAC help
Our Verdict
The Pi7 S2 are a number of the best-sounding in-ear displays for Android customers who take heed to high-resolution information or music streaming companies, however frequent flyers will discover their noise cancellation wanting.
Finest Costs In the present day: Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2
Bowers & Wilkins has up to date its flagship wi-fi, in-ear headphone. And whereas this isn’t a from-the-ground-up redesign—the B&W Pi7 S2 use the wonderful identical drivers because the mannequin that shipped in 2021—enhancements in a bunch of different areas lead to higher battery life and longer Bluetooth vary. Extra importantly, in case your major consideration is the standard of an earbud’s audio replica, they ship incredible listening experiences. Your determination might get extra difficult as you contemplate different options, equivalent to lively noise cancellation, EQ choices, and worth.
Bowers & Wilkins has helped outline the British hi-fi audio sound for almost six many years with its extremely regarded loudspeakers. The corporate entered the powered speaker market with its iPod-compatible Zeppelin speaker in 2006 (since up to date to help Bluetooth and AirPlay) and added wired headphones to its line in 2013. B&W launched its first era of in-ear displays in 2021 and the Pi7 S2 are the newest launch.
This evaluation is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best noise-cancelling headphones.
How the B&W Pi7 S2 are made
These second-generation earbuds are available Satin Black, Canvas White and a formidable Midnight Blue. The blue earbuds make fairly a press release, for the reason that silicone ideas, earbud physique, and contact floor are all the identical hanging colour. Each the black and white variations characteristic a silver contact floor. Upon getting them seated in your ear canal, solely you’ll know what colour earbuds you selected except they get very shut. The blue earbuds have a gold metallic lid on the matching case, whereas the white and black instances have a silver lid.
Bowers & Wilkins
These earbuds include three sizes of silicone ear ideas. The Pi7 S2 characteristic 5 hours of playback (improved from 4 within the earlier era), with an extra 16 hours from the case on a full cost. A 15-minute cost offers two hours of playback within the earbuds. The case helps each wi-fi and wired charging by way of the included USB-C to USB-C cable.
B&W guarantees a spread of 25 meters from the audio supply, which the Pi7 S2 simply delivered outside. Like most Bluetooth alerts, nonetheless, you received’t get almost as a lot distance if your private home or workplace has thick partitions. I obtained dropouts once I moved a number of rooms away from the supply.
James Barber/Foundry
Every Pi7 S2 earbud contains a 9.2mm driver plus a balanced armature driver, and B&W has powered every drive unit with a separate amplifier. The Pi7 S2 join by way of Bluetooth 5.0 with aptX Adaptive know-how, which additionally helps aptX HD and aptX Basic. The earbuds additionally help the AAC codec favored by Apple and the run-of-the-mill SBC codec.
There are three microphones in every earbud that energy the noise cancellation system and are supposed to offer an amazing expertise for telephone calls. The ANC is efficient and works positive in a barely noisy atmosphere, however it will probably’t examine to the sturdy noise cancellation delivered by the Apple AirPods Professional 2, the Sony WF-1000XM4, or the Bose Quiet Consolation II earbuds.
The microphones don’t ship a stellar name expertise, both. I attempted them on a collection of calls throughout testing and normally obtained complaints from the opposite social gathering concerning the sound. Every a kind of folks mentioned the development was hanging once I switched the decision to the AirPods 2.
Utilizing the B&W Music app
James Barber/Foundry
Bowers & Wilkins depends on its Music app for iOS and Android to manage each its headphones and its wi-fi audio system. For the Pi7 S2, customers can get a studying on the battery degree for each the earbuds and the case. You may select between B&W’s default noise cancellation or select Auto to regulate noise cancellation based mostly on the quantity of background noise in your atmosphere. When Auto is activated, you should utilize the Passthrough setting to regulate the Pi7 S2’s transparency degree; i.e., the quantity of environmental sound you wish to hear blended in together with your music the earbuds are enjoying.
The app remembers all of your machine connections, even if you happen to made these connections utilizing completely different working programs. That lets you set the earbuds to robotically reconnect to the machine most not too long ago used when taking the Pi7 S2 out of the case. You too can modify the streaming high quality (greater high quality means extra knowledge consumption) when listening by way of Wi-Fi individually from whenever you’re utilizing cellular knowledge the place you may need a smaller knowledge cap.
There’s no strategy to modify the EQ settings within the app, however the sound design for these earbuds is so good that I can’t consider any changes I’d prefer to make. The identical goes for the ANC settings. I couldn’t discern any enhancements after making modifications from the usual setting.
The B&W Pi7 S2 have a killer characteristic that doesn’t fairly slay
James Barber/Foundry
B&W has launched a characteristic with the Pi7 S2 that I’ve by no means seen with another headphones: Utilizing the supplied USB-C-to-3.5mm analog audio cable, you possibly can stream any supply to the case after which re-transmit that audio from the case to the headphones. The commonest use case for this characteristic would whenever you’re touring by airline and wish to take heed to the in-flight leisure with out plugging a wired headphone into the armrest.
The attraction of this characteristic, nonetheless, is undercut by B&W’s middling lively noise-cancellation know-how—at the very least as its carried out with the Pi7 S2. It’s positive for working in a barely noisy workplace, but it surely simply isn’t as much as the duty of filtering out engine noise on a cross-country flight.
Listening to music with the B&W Pi7 S2
For those who worth audio efficiency greater than noise cancellation, the B&W Pi7 S2 shine. You’ll must ensure you get the right match by inserting them into your ear canal and giving them a stable twist towards the again of your head, however as soon as they’re in place, the listening expertise is magical.
James Barber/Foundry
Listening to Low-Life (Definitive), the newly remastered model of New Order’s 1985 album, at Qobuz, the outcomes are hanging. There’s decay on the synth drums and cowbell on “Good Kiss” that I by no means heard on the early vinyl or CD pressings of the album. The bass has extra low finish, and soundstage through the frogs breakdown close to the tip is breathtaking.
And that description is predicated on listening by way of an iPhone 13 Professional Max, which is proscribed to utilizing the AAC Bluetooth codec. Switching to an Android machine—particularly, the OnePlus 10T—and listening to the aptX Adaptive codec delivered an much more immersive listening expertise. If the sound on an iOS machine was nice, the sound for hi-res audio on an Android was nice plus ten.
Listening to a lossless Apple Music stream of Tough’s “Hell Is Around the Nook” from his 1995 album Maxinquaye, the sampled LP floor noise has a crackle that the AirPods Professional 2 couldn’t match. The Pi7 S2 had been equally spectacular when listening to rock, pop, jazz, and classical. For those who’re in search of exaggerated bass, you may choose one thing tuned within the outdated Beats type, however these earbuds ought to fulfill most another listener.
James Barber/Foundry
For those who’re utilizing to a lower-resolution music service, equivalent to Spotify, there are a whole lot of earbud choices priced at $100 or much less that can sound simply positive with the lesser streaming high quality. B&W is trying to attain listeners who’re having fun with their music in at the very least CD high quality, however you want higher-resolution supply music to reap the benefits of the tech constructed into these earbuds.
For iPhone customers, B&W can’t match the flexibility of Apple’s personal AirPods Professional 2. The Apple earbuds have a lot better ANC, they usually have all of the pairing benefits that comes with the in-house engineering that’s Apple’s specialty. The Pi7 S2 finest the AirPods on audio high quality, they usually could be definitely worth the premium worth if that’s your major concern.
Must you purchase the B&W Pi7 S2?
For those who’re an Android consumer with a telephone that helps the aptX HD or aptX Adaptive codecs, and also you take heed to high-resolution information or subscribe to a high-res music streamer like Amazon Music HD, Qobuz, or Tidal, the Pi7 S2 are incredible listening earbuds. For those who’re an iPhone consumer trying to distinguish your self from the AirPods military, these earbuds supply some compelling colour choices and audio that’s pretty much as good as what Apple has to supply.
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