At a look
Knowledgeable’s Score
Execs
- Glorious sound high quality
- Aggressive worth
- Spectacular battery life
Cons
- Noise-cancellation may very well be stronger
- No spatial audio or Dolby Atmos
Our Verdict
The noise-cancellation may very well be a little bit more practical, however the Px7 S3 offers hi-fi sound high quality, together with spectacular 30-hour battery life at a way more aggressive worth than most of its high-end rivals.
Value When Reviewed
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Finest Pricing Right now
Apple made some welcome updates to the AirPods Max in April 2025, lastly bringing its (nonetheless) overpriced headphones into the period of high-res audio in the end. In the intervening time, the Hello-Fi consultants at Bowers & Wilkins have launched the fourth-generation replace for his or her over-ear Px7 headphones, which now include the marginally ungainly title of the Px7 S3.
The U.S. worth of the S3 was up within the air due to that little kerfuffle with a worldwide commerce battle, however the U.Ok. worth was £399 after they went on sale within the U.Ok. in Could, and as of June 2025, now you can purchase them on Amazon U.S. for $449. The S3 offers a severe rival to each the AirPods Max and B&W’s personal flagship Px8.
Unsurprisingly, the Px7 S3 appears to be like fairly much like its predecessors, with the modern strains and minimalist stylish that’s the trademark of B&W’s headphone vary, together with a wide range of tasteful pastel shades that you may select from.
The S3 is much more minimalist than regular, although, as B&W has managed to cut back the thickness of the earpieces for this new mannequin, and has additionally diminished the burden to simply 300g – in comparison with 386g for the AirPods Max.
The earpieces are additionally padded with reminiscence foam, so the S3 ought to be mild and comfy sufficient to put on for lengthy intervals of time – and for lengthy journeys too, because it provides a formidable 30 hours of battery life even when utilizing noise-cancellation.
The Px7 S3 can work in each wired and wi-fi modes, supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and the AAC codec for Apple gadgets, in addition to aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for our Android buddies. There’s no spatial audio in the mean time, though B&W has mentioned that it’s creating its personal type of spatial audio that will probably be obtainable by way of a software program replace in coming months.
The PX vary had the power to make use of USB-C for charging and wired audio years earlier than Apple added that means to the AirPods Max, and the USB-C port of the Px7 S3 now helps high-res audio codecs as much as 24-bit/96KHz – barely greater than the 24-bit/48KHz of the AirPods Max – so it may deal with a lot of the high-res tracks obtainable on Apple Music.
There’s a USB-C cable included, together with a 3.5mm audio cable too, so you should use the wired reference to most computer systems and cell gadgets, and there’s a hard-shell carrying case thrown in for good measure as nicely.
Sound high quality is superb, and the Px7 S3 copes admirably with the heady cocktail of sounds on Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, streamed from Apple Music on my iPad Air. There’s loads occurring on this monitor with drums and percussion, guitars, horns and tinkling piano all competing for consideration, however the Px7 S3 is in a position to create space so that every instrument stays clear and distinct. It exhibits a light-weight contact on the rattling percussion that bounces in every single place, and there’s an infectious vitality because the horns blare out whereas Ricky yells – “she appears to be like like a flower, however she stings like a bee!”.
The Px7 S3 can deal with extra delicate sounds too. A latest re-watch of The Final Of Us (episode 3) prompts me to return to Max Richter’s chic On The Nature Of Daylight. The cellos open the piece with a mild, winding melody, however the tone of the strings is so unhappy and mournful that it’s an prompt tear-jerker. The sharper tone of the violins and viola provides to the bittersweet temper, and the Px7 S3 creates a way of house that enables the totally different strings to drift gracefully by the air and weave a fragile dance round one another.
The Px7 S3 is a winner on sound high quality and worth for cash, however one space the place costlier rivals such because the AirPods Max and Bose QC Extremely do nonetheless have an edge is the effectiveness of their noise-cancellation options. The Px7 S3 does job at blocking low-frequency sounds, such because the drone of an plane engine, however greater frequencies, such because the chatter of voices in a busy airport, do nonetheless leak by a little bit.
Do you have to purchase the B&W Px7 S3?
In case you’re obsessive about noise-cancellation then there are costlier headphones that may block out background noise extra successfully. Nonetheless, the superb sound high quality and spectacular battery lifetime of the Px7 S3, make it an ideal choice for anybody that desires a very high-quality set of headphones at a aggressive worth.
We have now checked out plenty of AirPods Max opponents, see our spherical up of the Finest over-ear headphones.
