Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3: what improvements have been made over the Px7 S2e?

The British manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins has just unveiled its new high-end wireless headphones, the Px7 S3. As the direct successor to the multi-award-winning Px7 S2e from 2023, this model brings several significant improvements while retaining the DNA that has made the brand so successful. Let’s take a detailed look at the technical, aesthetic, and functional evolutions that set this new generation apart.

A Refined Design for Greater Elegance and Comfort

The Px7 S3 features a noticeably slimmer profile than its predecessor, while maintaining Bowers & Wilkins’ distinctive visual identity. This complete overhaul of the industrial design elevates the brand’s iconic DNA to new heights in the premium wireless hi-fi headphones (Bluetooth) category.

The weight has been optimized to exactly 300 grams, offering an excellent balance between sturdiness and lightness. The headband and arm mechanism have been completely redesigned to ensure a closer fit to the head. The luxurious ear cushions, equipped with improved memory foam, perfectly envelop and support the ears for optimal comfort, no matter how long you listen.

The carrying case has also been redesigned to be more compact and easy to store in a bag, measuring precisely 177 mm wide, 60 mm deep, and 234 mm high. The Px7 S3 is available in three elegant finishes: Anthracite Black, Indigo Blue, and Canvas White, each with complementary detailing.

A Completely Redesigned Sound Architecture

The Px7 S3 marks a dramatic leap forward in acoustic performance compared to the Px7 S2e. Nearly every element of its design is new, except for the speaker cone material.

Optimized Components for Better Performance

The 40 mm biocellulose drivers benefit from numerous improvements:

• A redesigned and improved chassis
• A re-engineered voice coil
• An optimized suspension system
• A superior magnet

These drivers are carefully angled towards the listener’s ears to ensure a consistent distance between every point of the speaker surface and the ear, resulting in better stereo imaging and more precise spatialization.

For the first time in a Bowers & Wilkins over-ear headphone, these high-resolution drivers are powered by a dedicated, discrete headphone amplifier. This innovation brings greater scale and energy to the sound, ensuring the Px7 S3 is as dynamic and exciting as it is precise and realistic to listen to.

The result is reduced coloration and distortion, improved resolution, and superior dynamics, delivering an exceptional listening experience.

Significantly Improved Active Noise Cancellation

Bowers & Wilkins engineers are confident that the Px7 S3 features the most powerful and effective active noise cancellation technology the brand has ever developed. The chosen approach carefully balances effective cancellation of unwanted noise while preserving the musicality of the performance.

The headphones incorporate eight high-performance microphones, strategically positioned around each earcup and working together to deliver the best results:

• Two microphones measure the output of each driver
• Four microphones, positioned at opposite ends of each earcup for optimal coverage, monitor ambient noise
• Two additional microphones ensure outstanding voice clarity

The careful positioning and orientation of these microphones enhance performance even in the noisiest environments. During calls, unwanted noise is effectively suppressed by the latest generation of voice processing technology, ADI Pure Voice. The eight microphones work in tandem with noise reduction and voice processing technologies to ensure exceptional call clarity, wherever you are.

Enhanced Connected Features

The Px7 S3 benefits from advanced Bluetooth connectivity with full support for high-quality audio codecs:

• aptX Lossless
• aptX Adaptive 24/96
• aptX HD
• aptX Classic
• AAC
• SBC

This extensive compatibility ensures optimal sound quality with virtually all modern audio sources. The headphones can also receive audio via USB at up to 24-bit/96 kHz resolution, a considerable advantage for computer users and owners of compatible mobile devices, including the latest generation of iPhones.

An Improved Companion App

The Bowers & Wilkins Music app now offers significant new features:

• An adjustable 5-band equalizer allowing listeners to fine-tune the sound, with the ability to save favorite settings as easily accessible presets
• A “True Sound” mode representing the preferred audio tuning selected by the Southwater Research Establishment (SRE) acoustic team
• Direct integration of streaming services such as Qobuz and Tidal
• The ability to configure the quick action button
• Adjustment of the wear sensor sensitivity

The layout of the physical buttons has also been revised, with a new shape for the volume and play/pause buttons to improve tactile interaction, and the power button moved to the left earcup, making operation more intuitive than ever.

Promising Future Updates

For the first time in a Bowers & Wilkins headphone, the Px7 S3 will offer support for spatial audio. In line with the brand’s True Sound philosophy, SRE engineers have developed proprietary audio processing technology designed to give listeners a realistic sense of acoustic space and a natural yet immersive experience with spatial audio. This new technology will be rolled out via an over-the-air update later this year.

The Px7 S3 will also support Bluetooth LE Audio, with Auracast broadcast functionality, allowing a single audio source to stream to an unlimited number of receiving headphones. LE Audio also includes a new high-quality audio codec, LC3, which offers the potential for superior sound quality compared to standard Bluetooth audio. Bowers & Wilkins will roll out LE Audio compatibility for the Px7 S3 in a future update.

Comprehensive Battery Life and Connectivity

The Px7 S3 offers an impressive 30 hours of listening time with noise cancellation activated. It also features a quick charge function, providing 7 hours of use after just 15 minutes of charging.

In terms of connectivity, the headphones come with a complete set of accessories:

• A 1.2 m USB-C to 3.5 mm stereo jack audio cable for analog wired use
• A 1.2 m USB-C to USB-C cable for charging and digital audio transmission
• A sturdy carrying case to protect the headphones on the go

Technical Comparison with the Px7 S2e

The Px7 S3 thus represents a significant evolution from the Px7 S2e, with notable improvements in design, sound quality, and noise cancellation, while retaining the strengths that made its predecessor so successful. These optimizations allow Bowers & Wilkins to further strengthen its position in the premium segment of wireless headphones with active noise cancellation.