Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Wireless Headphones Review

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 have a unique and sleek design. They have a similar shape to the previous Bowers & Wilkins PX Wireless model, but with a few minor changes. The headphone's arm's hinges are now fully covered, hiding the cable, which is nice. However, the backplate of the headphones looks a bit plasticky and not as premium as the previous model. Nevertheless, these headphones are quite unique and have a high-end design.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 are quite comfortable headphones. They aren’t too heavy and the padding is noticeably softer and plushier than the Bowers & Wilkins PX Wireless, which was one of the biggest issues of the headphones’ design. The headband is also well-padded and distributes the weight of the headphones well. The cups have an exceptional range of motion, so most people should find the right angle for them to not have any gaps in their fit. Unfortunately, the cups are a bit on the shallower side. On the upside, the cups are detachable and replaceable.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's control scheme is great. You have many physical buttons that offer most common headphone functions. You can play/pause or take/end calls with the middle button. Volume control is on both sides of the middle button. To skip tracks, double tap the middle button twice, while going backwards is with a triple tap. You also have a button on the left cup for ANC control, which lets you cycle through High, Low, Auto, and Off. You can also hold that same button to enter the talk-through mode. The buttons are very clicky and you also get a voice prompt, which is nice and clear.

Like most closed-back over-ears, the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 trap a bit of heat under the ear cups. This will make you sweat more than usual and won’t be suitable for sports, as these aren't designed for this use.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 aren't very portable headphones. The cups do rotate to lay flat, making it easier to slide them in a bag, but they don’t fold into a more compact format. If you're looking for a pair of similarly-performing wireless headphones that are easier to carry around, consider the Bowers & Wilkins PX5 Wireless, which have an on-ear design with a slightly smaller overall footprint.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 come with a nice hard case that protects the headphones well against scratches, minor water exposure, and physical damage from falls. It has a nice texture and feels quite high-end. The interior is even molded and reduces the wiggle of the headphones inside the case.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 are very well-built headphones but don't feel as high-end as the Bowers & Wilkins PX Wireless or their successor, the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 Wireless. They have a lighter and cheaper feel, in part due to their plastic backplates. The cups are swappable and replaceable, which makes them more durable, but they aren't as easy to remove as the magnetic ones on the PX model. On the upside, the arm hinges are made from woven carbon fiber composite, according to the manufacturer. Although it's solid, it doesn't feel as durable as the previous model's metal arms. That said, the hinges completely hide the cable going through the headband, which is good.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 are decently stable on your head. They clamp enough to stay in place for a casual listening session, but they won’t be a great option for sports. Head movement may make them sway off your head quite easily. On the upside, their wireless design gets rid of the risk of getting a cable stuck or hooked on something, yanking the headphones off your head.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's frequency response consistency is sub-par. On the upside, the ANC system of the headphones seems to check for consistent bass, but they don’t seem to perform as consistently in the treble range. This means that most people won’t hear voices, lead instruments, and sibilants the same way as someone else. You might even experience differences in sound just by placing the headphones in a different position on your head.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's bass performance is decent. It's quite well-balanced and flat, but it's noticeably over our target curve. This results in a slightly boomy bass with extra thump and punch. Fans of bass may prefer this with bass-heavy genres like EDM and pop.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's mid range is also decent. The response is quite good and follows our curve well. Vocals and lead instruments sound accurate, but the dip in high-bass negatively affects their intensity and projection.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 have a disappointing and bad treble performance. It lacks quite a lot of detail and brightness. This, mixed with the overemphasized bass, results in a more dark sounding profile. On the other hand, some sibilants (S and T sounds) might sound too sharp and piercing for some.

Note that their frequency response consistency in the treble range is pretty bad, meaning they fail to deliver a constant audio throughout reseats and will perform differently according to your head and ear shapes and sizes.

The stereo imaging of these headphones is very good. The group delay graph shows that it's under the audibility threshold, which results in a tight bass and treble ranges. Also, our unit’s L/R drivers were fairly well-matched, but had a small difference in frequency and phase. This won’t be very audible for most, but could result in holes in the stereo image and some inaccuracies. However, note that these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's soundstage is sub-par, but can feel quite large for closed-back headphones. There’s a lot of interaction with the pinna, which gives the impression of a large soundstage. However, it might sound unnatural as they're closed-back headphones and won’t bring the soundstage to the front of the listener’s head.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's noise isolation performance is very good. Their ANC has the edge over their successor, the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 Wireless, when it comes to bass-range noise like the deep rumble of a bus engine, although the ANC still offers a passable performance in this regard. However, the ANC blocks out ambient chatter in an office setting more effectively, and is able to reduce the noise coming from the A/C system.

Their leakage performance is decent. Most of the leakage is from treble frequencies, making the leakage quite thin-sounding. However, thanks to their closed-back design, they won’t leak as much as open-backs. People surrounding you shouldn’t hear what you’re listening to if you're at a moderate volume, but might be disturbed if you’re blasting your music.

The recording quality of the Bowers & Wilkins PX7’s integrated microphone is sub-par. Recorded speech sounds noticeably muffled and lacking in detail, even in very quiet environments. Speech is still intelligible, but the audio quality is quite disappointing. It might also be sensitive to pops.

The microphone's noise handling is poor. It struggles to separate ambient noise and actual speech, meaning the other person on the line could have trouble understanding you if you're in a moderately loud environment like a busy street.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's battery life is outstanding. With only a bit more than 1.5 hours of charging, you can get over 30 hours of battery life with the ANC on. The manufacturer also advertises 5 hours of continuous playback with only a 15-minute charge time. The PX7 also enter a standby mode as soon as you take them off your head. Unfortunately, if their battery is dead, you can't use them wired with the included audio cable, as they need power to function.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's companion app is quite bare-bones. It gives you access to a few settings like ANC controls and a slider for their ambient mode. You can also see the list of connected devices and can reset the headphones to their default settings inside the app. Other than that, it doesn’t offer much and can’t customize their sound profile, which is disappointing. If you're looking for a pair of similarly performing wireless headphones with a more comprehensive companion app, check out the Shure AONIC 50 Wireless.

Update 11/21/2019: We had previously listed the PX7 to have 61ms of latency with aptX(HD), as we thought it was aptX Adaptive showing up as HD on our testing rig since it is backwards compatible. This was a reading mistake, and the 61ms was an error, which was pointed out by a user. After getting this feedback, we remeasured the latency, with 3 different dongles, and got results around 220ms with aptX(HD). The PX7 still support aptX Adaptive but we don't test for this. The review and text have been updated.

These headphones are Bluetooth 5.0 compatible, meaning you might even experience better results than what we’ve tested. They're also able to connect to two devices simultaneously, which is great at the office if you want to switch between a computer and a phone. However, they don’t support NFC pairing for a quicker and easier pairing procedure.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7's default latency is average for Bluetooth headphones, which means some people might not notice a delay when watching video content, and some others might. It's also compatible with AAC and aptX Adaptive, but we don’t currently test for these codecs, but aptX Adaptive apparently has around 50 to 80ms of latency.

Update: 06/11/2021: We have changed USB Audio to 'USB Type A' to reflect the source port instead of the headphones' port. When using their USB cable, the USB-A connector can be connected to any device with a USB-A port. The scoring of this box hasn't changed.

You can use these headphones wired with the included analog 1/8” audio cable or the USB charging cable. However, these headphones need power to function, meaning you must have battery life left to use them, even when using them wired. Unfortunately, there’s no in-line microphone on the 1/8” TRS cable, meaning you won’t be able to use the integrated microphone when wired.

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 don’t have a base/dock.