Bowers & Wilkins has launched its first adaptive noise-canceling wireless headphone, the PX. Featuring 40mm full-range drivers, elliptical ear cushions, and a soft leather headband, the PX uses Bluetooth with aptX HD for wireless streaming, and these headphones offer a variety of noise-canceling modes to suit different environments. The PX is also designed to respond to your behavior, turning on automatically when you up the headphones and pausing the audio when you lift them off your ears. The PX is available now for $399.
From Bowers & Wilkins
Bowers & Wilkins announces the launch of the PX headphone, the company's first adaptive noise cancelling wireless headphones. Delivering the legacy best-in-class sound quality for which Bowers & Wilkins products are known, the PX responds intelligently to the wearer's behavior--pausing audio when it senses the headphones have been lifted from the ear--for a seamlessly intuitive listening experience.
The PX reflects Bowers & Wilkins uncompromising approach to acoustic performance, with every element of the headphones' design focused on optimizing sound quality, and created in the same labs and testing environments by the same acoustics engineers used to create Bowers & Wilkins' highest quality speaker technology as seen in their flagship 800 D3 loudspeakers.
Among the PX's many updates and advancements, Bowers & Wilkins built on the acoustic quality of the P9 Signature headphones, with features including:
• Re-imagined Headphone UX. The PX is Bowers & Wilkins' first smart headphone, with sensors that allow listeners to control music in a way that feels completely intuitive. The PX works by responding intelligently to natural user behavior--pick them up, and the headphones will switch on immediately and automatically resume playing your music; put them down, and they return to standby mode. Lift an ear cup to talk, or hang them around your neck, and the PX will pause the music, resuming playback when you're ready to listen.
• Customizable and Adaptive Noise Cancelling. To provide an optimum listening experience in different environments, PX has three adaptive noise cancelling modes, which users can select and customize with the free app.
-'City' allows through traffic noise.
-'Office' removes typical background noise and has a mode to allow through voices so you can hear colleagues when they talk to you.
-'Flight' cancels ambient engine noise as well as other distractions.
The app also enables firmware updates for further innovations.
• A More Natural Listening Experience. The PX drive units feature the same angled design previously released on the P9, for a more convincing soundstage. Its smart suspension system allows the PX to produce the precision required for great high frequencies, while maintaining the compliance needed for deep and dynamic bass. Measuring 40mm for each full-range driver, the innovative placement of the transducers results in a more natural listening experience and vastly improved stereo performance.
• Adaptive Noise Cancelling Without Reduced Quality Sound. The function has been refined to provide optimum background noise isolation without distorting the music.
• Next-gen Bluetooth Technology. The headphones also use the latest aptX HD Bluetooth technology for 24-bit audio resolution to get the best possible sound from all sources and music file types.
• Class-leading Battery Life. The PX provides 22 hours of playback in wireless noise cancellation mode or 33 hours in wired noise cancellation mode.
Alexander Van Der Heijden, Bowers & Wilkins GM Headphones, said: "At Bowers & Wilkins we've always believed that the job of acoustic technology is to get out of the way, allowing music to take center stage. PX takes this principle to the next level. We've created not just the best sounding noise cancelling headphones you've ever heard, but headphones that are so intelligently designed, and so responsive, that you might forget you're wearing them at all."
The design of the PX upholds Bowers & Wilkins' tradition of using only high-quality materials, while offering a distinctive contemporary look. The headphones feature ergonomically designed elliptical ear cushions for superior comfort and the best possible acoustic seal, and come with a soft leather headband and a robust ballistic nylon ear cup exterior. The PX is available in either Space Grey or Soft Gold etched-aluminium finish.
Additional Resources
• Visit the Bowers & Wilkins website for more product information.
• Bowers & Wilkins Introduces 700 Series Speaker Line at HomeTheaterReview.com.