Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 True Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones – Active Noise Cancellation, Qualcomm aptX, Bluetooth, Crystal-Clear Calls, Wireless and 15-Minute Charging, Canvas White

The sound quality is far superior to any other product on the market. No other earbud at this pricepoint even comes close. To realize how amazing these really are, I recommend you subscribe to hi-res music services like Qobuz or Tidal. These services offer hi-res music in 96/24 formats. With these hi-res formats (compared to CD quality or MP3) the music is equivalent to being in the studio in a live performance. Even the smallest details are reproduced with stunning detail and accuracy. You may hear the musician tapping his foot to the beat, of fingers sliding on the strings of a guitar. Vocals are seductive and luxurious. The bass is thunderous, and at the same time tight and detailed. The fit of the earbuds is excellent and critically important to get the deep bass these are capable of. Take your time to select the earbur tip which best fits your ear canal. The HD codec aptx is amazing and works flawlessly. LDAC is supposedly superior (not supported in these buds) but those differences in technology don't matter if the amplifiers and drivers can't reproduce all that goodness. Make sure your phone supports these hi-res formats. The Pi7 S2 meticulously reproduces the magic of hi-res music. If you are an audiophile, where the quality of music trumps every other consideration, the Pi7 S2 is a a good buy at $399. Note that you need to play these buds for at least a week before they reach their full potential. Like most any speaker driver - a mechanical component - they need some time to burn in, figuratively. The app doesn't have an equalizer or other frills you typically see at this pricepoint. A well designed earbud doesn't need an equalizer to force it to do something it can't do natively. That's the case here. The Pi7 is already perfect, and doesn't need artificial EQ tweaks. The app has a built in music player that connects to Tidal or Qobuz. In initially purchased this as a renewed product. Big mistake. The case was defective and caused connectivity issues. I recommend you purchase new, and get the 2 year BW warranty. Hi res music is more demanding of a good and fast bluetooth connection. So keep the phone close by for best results. The various other purchaser comments about the app are true. It's overly complicated and unreliable for installing and accessing the product. Problems installing and connecting get annoying fast. Easily installed on one phone, but same buds refuse to install on a secondary phone. I've also observed that the replacement for the defective buds does not have the pristine sound of the original ones. Highlights: 1. beyond spectacular music reproduction 2. considering audio quality only, worth every penny even at $399 3. subscribe to Tidal of Qobuz. you can easily transfer your playlists from other music services. 4. Expect some challenges with the app. Customer has been very helpful so far. Easy to reach on the phone and responsive to email. I initially tried 2 renewed products and often these are fully capable products. With these buds, I strongly suggest not. Spend a few extra bucks to buy new and avoid some of the issues reported by other buyers. For example, the buds are matched to the case. they are not interchangeable. products look identical, so used you may get Pi5 in a Pi7 case, or buds and case that are incompatible. So what about the BUT... 1. While the app integrates nicely with Qobuz and TIDAL, during playback via the app, it decides that a non B&W bud is connected and stops working. Only solution I've found is back in the case for awhile despite that the battery is still charged. 2. Without fail, after 1-2 hours the right buds stops working. Back in the case for awhile despite that the battery is still 50% charged. The app doesen't differentiate between left and right battery level, so it's almost like the right uses twice the power of the left. 3. ANC feature is generally poor. If ANC is at the top of your priority list, and you are willing to sacrifice audio quality, then the Bose QC may be the better choice. Bose QC II does not support hi-res codecs so the music reproduction is worse in a quiet environment but better in a noisy environment. 4. No firmware update since release, so not sure if these issues will be resolved by some future update. 5. The buds fit tight initially, but after a few minutes they lose the seal and sound quality degrades. The Bose QCII stay tight in the canal. This problem contributes to the poor ANC of the B&W. Everything considered, despite the stellar sound engineering, the problems are just too annoying. Back in the case every hour to charge or reset or whatever. No...

Some of the reviews I read about the Bowers and Wilkins PI7 S2 turned out to be accurate and true. While the sound quality is decent, the technical glitches with this product is totally unacceptable for a $400 pair of earbuds. Pairing was a major problem and took several attempts to get them to pair with iPhone 15 and Samsung S23 Ultra. After several grueling attempts to pair, the connection kept dropping if i moved away from the phone. This was very annoying as I had to re-pair them with the phone, which problematic to begin with. I was very disappointed with the PI7 S2. Because of the pairing issue, I didn’t even get a chance to really test the noise cancelling performance as they didn't stay connected long enough for me to assess the ANC feature. I would suggest as a consumer, that Bowers and Wilkins discontinue the sale of this product and go back to the lab and create a better performing product. The PI7 S2 is an underperforming product and certainly not worth the $400 price tag.

Bass is very clear and powerful, not much sub bass, but not expected with aptx adaptive regardless. Would be cool if it had ldac. Treble a little too bright, responds really well to dampening by external eq (app doesn't have eq), or foam tips. Amazing soundstage, only tws I heard that has a broader soundstage is noble prestige with wide bore tips, but it's on another price bracket/product category. Nozzle on the larger side, does not fit standard tips really well. Transperancy is very natural, no hiss even at highest level. ANC subpar for 2024. Infrequent connection issues, especially if you're trying monobud. In short, out of all mainstream buds, one of the most versatile that also has high fidelity sound quality. I would expect the future versions to support aptx lossless, ditch master/slave connection method, upgrade to BT5.4 at least, and improve on ANC, and add multi connect. If they can fix the shrill treble, that would be the perfect TWS at any price

I've been tussling with these for several days now. They're pretty. The case is pretty. They do sound better than Apple air pods. And at this price point, with that subjectively improved and candied-up sound, they will certainly satisfy many consumer's need to spend money in order to feel like they're getting "the best." I'm just starting my search for wireless headphones with a mic, so I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect and actually hope that these are not the best on offer in this segment. My core gripe is with the sound. These are marketed and described in reviews as having neutral sound, but they most certainly do not. "Hear music and movies as the artist intended" says the B&W website. I guarantee you this is not what was coming out of your favorite artists' studio monitors at mixing and mastering phases of their production. I don't know enough about speaker design to know if the effects I'm about to describe are being achieved by the physical design or by signal processing. Probably by a mix of the two. BTW, yes I've got them fitted properly, and no I'm not using any EQ from the players I use. Anyway, here's what I hear in these things: "rich bass!" Oh yes, the low end is definitely hyped, probably from about 200Hz on down, by as much as 4db. "Warmth!" yep, the low mids are also overrepresented, though not as badly as the low end. Also says the website: "..from deep and powerful bass to expressive and detailed high notes, and everything in between" - I do think that description should be amended to remove "everything in between" because the higher mids are definitely scooped out. Fans of loud guitar-based music should look elsewhere. The high end is certainly in better shape than the rest of the spectrum, but does seem oddly focused on transients. What I mean is that you've got the initial attack of things like hi-hat or ride cymbal, percussion, etc., but that these sounds decay somewhat quickly, unnaturally. This isn't super bad, but I hear it. It probably reads as "detail" to most consumers and reviewers. Speaking of transients, some reviewers mention the "punchy bass" of these things. The bass is certainly punchy. By that I mean the bass is both overrepresented and the attack of sounds like kick drum or bass guitar is very, very fast. It's a pretty cool effect, actually. This could certainly be due to speaker design - think about a teeny tiny transducer throwing out gobs of low end - that is gonna happen very quickly. I bet a lot of people enjoy this and I could definitely see it being the most special quality of these. B&W have really nailed that effect here. My point is just that it's an effect that interferes with my ability to listen to mixes critically, and, after the novelty has worn off, to even enjoy listening. Reviewers also describe the wide soundstage. Yes, it's wide because it's been tweaked, likely via signal processing that adjusts amplitude and phase relationships between the left and right channels that increases perceived stereo spread. This is also kind of a cool effect. For like 2 minutes. Then I just want to hear the recording. So all this is to say that if, like me, you are looking for accurate sound and you would notice the issues I've described, then these are probably not the headphones you are looking for. I'm sure all of it is by design, and this is probably what most consumers will enjoy. Just like a lot of people enjoy Thai food with a bunch of sugar in it. If you're really into sound, my advice would be to look elsewhere. Once I get sick of continually untangling the wires of my trusty old Etymotic ER4P's, I'm sure I will be doing just that myself.

These B&W earbuds are really nice. They have some of the best quality sound I've had with this sort of earbuds. The reason I bought them was because of the good sound quality during calls. I've got other earbuds that have just as good sound quality for music as these, but the others are all but worthless for using with my cellphone. I went to the B&W's so that I no longer sound like I am in a tunnel when I'm using them on a call. Immediately everyone knew that I had new earbuds when I talked to them on a call after using these. So, these are high end audio devices and priced accordingly, but really deliver on the sound quality both for music and phone calls. The overall noise cancelling is good, but not astounding. What I really like is the noise cancelling pass-through feature. You get noise cancelling of your environment, but just enough noise is let through that you get feedback of not only your own voice but what's in the environment around you. This way, rather than using full noise cancelling ability and basically having the equivalent of cotton in your ears, leaving you sometimes speaking too loudly, you get most of the really obnoxious environment noise cancelled but still can hear enough that your voice stays at a reasonable volume and you know what your listener must be hearing. It's a GREAT feature. What I haven't liked about these earbuds is the battery life, which is a bit dismal in comparison to some other high end earbuds I have, and the oddness at times where the earbuds placed in your ears won't always turn on. Oftentimes I have to take them out of my ears, put them back in the case and try again, which is for sure a PITA if you are in a hurry. Once they connect they stay connected. The only time I've had a problems with keeping connection once obtaining it is wearing them in cold rain or wearing them in subzero temps. During those conditions they will sometimes simply disconnect one or both earbuds. Overall, these are my go-to phone earbuds. Amazing for calls. Amazing for music as well, just don't expect long battery life.

Tl/dr: I bought to use in office area for music and gaming, for those functions it is a killer product especially at 20% off! I will update when taking out and about but that use case is minimal, although plan to use on flights as well. Mic is fine not as good as airpods which are class leading IMO, not as good as Sony or Samsung Pro 2, but not bad. Mic 3/5 Retransmission feature is a huge reason to buy as a gamer who has high expectations of audio experience. Gaming 5/5 Music genres listened to: Thrash metal, Old school R&B, Alt Rock, EDM, Pop and some Classical and Opera, nails every genre but especially Thrash and EDM( not usually an EDM guy but like to have some tracks to test gear). Music 5/5 I will update if connectivity issues arise in real world use as of now I can have them on all throughout my 1100 square foot apartment and it goes through most not all walls. 1 last thing: have the black model and it is a fingerprint magnet, keep that in mind if that bothers you, hope this helps! I saw a lot of bad reviews and not all identified my particular use case.

I debated for months on this purchase.. the reviews were decidedly mixed. I have b&o beo play ex(same price) Devialet, 1/2 price. status audio, Bose.. all have their distinct qualities. For the price of an iPad, expectations are high. Excellent quality, sound fantastic. Rich, full and balanced. Fit is comfortable but i don’t think they would be a good choice for sports. ANC is roughly 1/2 of the Devialet and equal to the bang and Olufsen. They are in my opinion outstanding in all aspects with one exception. The battery life is less than 4 hours. Status is 11-12 hours on a single charge. At 1/3 the price. So, I’m happy with the purchase, but it’s hard to justify as there are truly outstanding tws earbuds that sound every bit as good… Devialet is a crazy good value 1/2 the price from a company who specialize in eye-wateringly expensive speakers. Oddly, they are almost unknown in the us market, which is unfortunate as they are head and shoulders above options that cost 2x more.

Terrible earphones, sound quality is average and they suffer from connectivity issues where one earbud just refuses to pair no matter what I try. Avoid this brand and just buy bose.