Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Over Ear Wireless Bluetooth Headphone, Adaptive Noise Cancelling - Silver

I own the Sony 1000XM3, Bose N700, the previous Bose QC35 II, the predecessor Bower and Wilkins PX. I also tested the new Sennheiser Momentum 3 and Master and Dynamic M65 for a few days. This is by far the best among all of them. I do not proclaim myself an audiophile (pretentious term if you ask me), but I do like a good pair of headphones that reproduces music the way it is meant to be heard.Pros1. Sound quality is undoubtedly the best among all the above. Clean, wide soundstage, extreme clarity. Bass is on point. If you are a bass head, please look elsewhere. At the time of writing this review, B&W does not provide an equalizer in-app. So you cannot tune the bass even if you wanted to. I expect that B&W will resolve this in a future app update. But the default sound works well for my ears. The Sonys are more boomy and muddled in terms of bass and is pleasant enough. The Bose N700 is just bad in terms of sound quality. The Sennheisers and Master and Dynamic M65 are perhaps close in terms of sound quality.2. (Auto-)ANC is great. There are some who prefer the stronger ANC of the Sony and Boses. I never liked the ANCs on those because the pressure in my ear gets too discomforting and the hit on sound quality is significant. I'd rather have a bit of noise than ear pressure. The PX7 has somehow managed to incorporate ANC that does not cause any pressure at all. In most instances, I leave ANC off since the passive NC is good enough. I only turn on ANC on flights. The effect on sound quality is barely perceptible and the suppression of the noise is effective enough for my ears. The Sennheisers and Master and Dynamic M65 have much worse ANC.3. Comfort. These are miles ahead of the predecessor PX. I love my PX, but the clamp force is too strong and it does not fit all ears. The PX is also much heavier. The PX7 resolves all this with a much lighter carbon fiber construction. Clamp force is still quite strong but nowhere as strong as the PX. That said, the Sonys and the Bose QC35s are still more comfortable. I only have the PX7 for a week thus far. Maybe the clamp force will continue to decrease with time. Even at the current moment, there are no issues with hours of listening. But this obviously will depend on the shape of your head.4. The Bluetooth 5 connectivity seems to be great. I had sporadic connection issues with the other headphones and none absolutely with the PX7 so far. The fact that you can connect two devices at once is a great advantage over the Sony XM3. For example, I use my phone for music when walking to my flight and go into my iPad for movie watching seamlessly when I am in my seat.5. Misc. Auto-pause works as great as in the PX. The auto ANC mode seems to work well, though I generally prefer to control the ANC manually. The app is an aesthetic improvement over the old app for the PX, but rather basic at the moment - no EQ. The Sony and Bose apps are better developed. Master and Dynamic has no app whatsoever.6. Power. These charges on USB-C like the other flagships. I have no issues with any USB C source. This cannot be said for the Sennheiser, which are extremely fussy in terms of power source, e.g., I cannot charge the Momentum 3s using my MacBook Pro’s charger! Battery life is great.7. Design. Matter of taste, but the Master and Dynamic M65 has the best design in my opinion and the previous PX is a close second. Maybe the Bose N700 is third. The PX7 does feel cheaper than PX because it is no longer metal and hefty. The upside is of course comfortable. It still feels more premium than the Sonys and Bose QC35.To summarize, this is certainly the best ANC headphone at the current moment. It is expensive but on par with other new flagships. The sound quality is unrivaled. The ANC is a matter of taste, but if you are someone who hates uncomfortable, strong ANC, these are for you. Comfort is much better over PX, but Sonys still win on this.Minor update----------------1. Portability. These fold flat and are quite portable without the case. But the case is pretty large compared to the Sony XM3. Weight + volume - Sony XM3 definitely more portable.

These PX7's are fantastic! There really is no weakness to them. The sound quality, which is foremost to me, is simply fantastic. I am not a high-tech audiophile, but probably like many others here, I just really enjoy listening to music and want it to sound consistently great. What that consists of will of course mean different things for different people depending on their preferences. But for me it means the sound is precise and spacious and lively. I'm not sure what that means technically, but I know how it sounds. So to find a pair of headphones that fits the bill means a lot of time testing them out. I ended up testing at length the B&W PX7, Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless, Bose NC700, Bose QC 35II, and Sony wh-1000xm3. Sound quality immediately eliminated both Bose models and the Sony's. After extensive listening to the PX7's and M3's both the Bose and Sony's sounded noticeably flat and muddled and dull. I'd hear the music, but there was no life or energy to it. Even as I cranked up the volume it didn't move me at all, which was the complete opposite experience I had with the PX7's and M3's.With the Bose and Sony's ruled out the competition was between the PX7's and M3's. Sound quality in both was fantastic. Both completely fit my musical taste and I would have been completely happy with either set. But when I factored in everything else I landed firmly on the PX7's. Both were extremely comfortable in their own way. The PX7's felt solid, sturdy and secure, while also fitting my head/ears beautifully. The M3's were plush and cozy. The problem though is I don't care for the design with the metal sliders. They feel too cold and sharp, not like something you'd want to lay down on the couch with. Worse off, they don't hold their form well either. Every time I put them on I had to readjust the positioning of the cans as they'd slide on the arms too easily, whereas the cans on the PX7's are tight and never slide. The other things that favor the PX7's are that they have a much better battery life, much better ANC, a hard case, better feeling and more distinguishable buttons (seem crisper and better built), better transparency mode (though there is a 1-2 second delay to activate it and it doesn't allow you to raise volume of music while activated. Nevertheless it still works great!), and portability. Both have good and useful apps, though with the recent firmware update to the PX7 I'd give it the edge. The one nod that perhaps goes to the M3's is on call quality, but it is only marginally better.In summary the PX7's are five star all the way. For as much as I scrutinized them, looking for weaknesses, I couldn't find any whatsoever, but they do everything I want them to, and do it really well.Update: the recent firmware update now allows you to change the volume during ambient listening mode. And even better quality to these already almost perfect pair of headphones!