A must have for any music lover

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Design and Fit

Despite the charging case (1.6 ounces, 2.6 x 1.1 x 2 inches), which is a bit larger than other premium earbuds, the Pi8 earbuds are compact. At 0.24 oz, it’s almost as light as some of my all-time favorite things, which are Sony WF-1000XM5 (0.21 oz), which is approximately compact.

The Pi8 is a beautiful pair of earbuds that mixes glossy and matte plastic with a thin vent separating the two. The Pi8’s tops are glossy and have a Bowers & Wilkins in the middle, while the rest of the chassis is matte black with four gold-tone connectors, a sensor, and a microphone vent. It ends with one of the smallest silicone ear tips I’ve seen. Bowers & Wilkins offers three additional tips to ensure a proper fit. My review pair for the Pi8 came in Anthracite Black, which is beautiful, but man, I wish I had gotten the Jade Green or Midnight Blue versions, because they look amazing. For white fans, the earbuds are also available in Dove White.

The Pi8 earphones are not only beautiful, they are also quite durable with an IP54 rating, which means the earbuds are protected against dust and water. And by water, I mean a light mist or maybe some sweat. Do not immerse it in water; You will be sad and $400 poor. The Pi8 is more durable than the XM5, which only has an IP4 (light splash) rating.

Return to charging state. Like the earbuds, the Pi8’s case is made of matte black plastic with a thick band stamped with Bowers & Wilkins. The status light is located directly below. The USB-C charging port is located directly at the bottom of the case. The case outperforms the XM5, which weighs 1.4 ounces and measures 2.5 x 1.8 x 1.04 inches.

With my weird, small ears, I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to replace the ear tips with larger ones, but here we are. The Pi8 comes with extra small ear tips by default. They were too small, forcing me to switch to mini tips. From there, I was golden. The seal was secure enough that I was able to overpower the beast, my elliptical machine, and they stayed in place. I ended up wearing the Pi8 comfortably for six hours straight.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Controls

Unlike other leading earbuds, the Pi8 has a few controls you can learn. Play/pause and answer calls are performed with a single quick tap while skipping ahead on a track, and ending a call requires a double tap. You need to press and hold the right bud to access the voice assistant. To switch between Passthrough and ANC, press and hold the left button.

My only issue is that you have to use the app for the initial pairing. Once you’ve installed the free Music|Bowers & Wilkins app, you’ll need to press either speaker for three seconds. It’s a small problem, but sometimes people want to dive into listening rather than dealing with a companion app. But as far as companion apps go, that’s not a bad thing.

The interface is clean, with an adjustable equalizer with pass-through and active noise cancellation modes. The app also lets you bundle several streaming services, including Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, NTS, and Soundcloud, allowing you to access and control the services via the app. You can also get a 2-month free trial of Qobuz. Although it would be nice to have a “find my buds” feature for such an expensive pair of earbuds, Bowers & Wilkins will replace missing buds if you lose one.

Photo: Bowers Wilkins

In terms of connectivity, the Bluetooth 5.4 compatible earbuds also have multipoint capabilities and can connect to two separate devices.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: ANC

Bowers & Wilkins has integrated three microphones into each earbud. Two of the microphones are designed to cancel out ambient noise, while the remaining microphone is designed to amplify sound during a conversation. Besides good sealing, the microphones can implement some solid active noise cancellation. Is it as good as Bose QuietComfort headphones Or Sony WF-1000XM5? No, but Pi8’s ANC still does a great job of keeping out the New York City noise.

I walked around my neighborhood with ANC enabled. I could hear most of the conversations around me without any music playing, just a muffled volume. As the train passed over me, I heard every crack, crack, and crash. Playing music instantly drowned out any noise outside of New York City. At home, the Pi8’s ANC couldn’t drown out my TV unless the volume was set to four. Compare that to the XM5 (Volume 6) and QC Ultra (Volume 7). In general, you can use the Pi8’s ANC technology to dampen noise rather than completely mute ambient noise. However, there are very few earbuds that can claim this feat.

The Pi8 has a passthrough mode to let the outside world in. This is useful when exercising outdoors or when you want to stay ahead of your surroundings.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Performance

Reference earbuds? Wow, Bowers Wilkins, that’s a big claim. The company says it’s unlikely that a studio engineer will need to grab a pair of wireless buds to master the work. However, these earbuds provide the most accurate performance that Bowers & Wilkins can squeeze out of a wireless device. This means fans of enhanced bass and treble need not apply. I prefer flat tuning because it lends itself better to skipping genres at will. Since I keep my playlists on shuffle, these earbuds seem like they were made just for me.

So, how does Bowers & Wilkins do it? The answer lies in cone drivers. The company has created miniature versions of its carbon cone drivers, usually in speakers or headphones. The Carbon Cone drive unit is stiffer and therefore behaves more accurately at higher frequencies because it does not bend as much as a traditional cone. Additionally, thanks to its lighter weight, the cone driver can respond faster to dynamic changes in your music resulting in a more powerful and realistic sound. I quickly learned that the resulting 12mm carbon cone drivers are impressive, delivering warm, balanced performance regardless of type. As with all of my tests, I used Tidal with Hi-Fi and Master quality tracks.

To kick things off, I started off with Jamirkuy’s “Time Won’t Wait” and immediately got into the groove of the powerful bass, peppy guitar, silky horns, and playful beats. The soundstage is vast, and everything has its own space, even the occasional space sound effect. Best of all, I didn’t need to turn the volume any higher than 50-60%, depending on the environment, to achieve a complete NYC lockout.

The vocals on Doechii’s “ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL” sounded utterly ethereal, the swinging soprano balanced by a gritty alto and an impassioned tenor. And I have to say, I was so blown away by Snoh ​​Allegra’s “DO 4 LOVE” that I listened to the song four times before putting it down. The strings sounded very full, building into a wonderful crescendo that gave way to a forward keyboard and a powerful, mournful sound supported by beautiful choral backgrounds. These are easily one of the best wireless earbuds I’ve listened to this year.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Call quality

While the Pi8 earbuds excel at music and podcast audio quality, their call quality needs improvement. I have contacted many people with buds and participated in a few video conferences. However, out of three calls and two video conferences, only one produced good results. My callers quickly noticed that I seemed muffled on all other calls and conferences.

That was my main complaint, as I sometimes had to struggle to hear people clearly. However, after updating the software, I got better results, but not by much.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Battery life

Bowers & Wilkins estimates the Pi8 will last for 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. The company doesn’t include an estimate for using the earbuds without ANC. However, I reached 8 hours without noise cancellation. The charging case provides an additional 13.5 hours of battery life for the mix, bringing total battery life to 19.5 hours with ANC and 21.5 hours without. As a strong proponent of active noise cancellation, I spent 6 hours and 35 minutes streaming Pi8 music, watching episodes of “Invincible Fight Girl,” and taking calls before I got the low battery warning.

That’s not too bad, but it can’t match the staying power of the WF-1000XM5, which lasts 8 hours with ANC enabled and 12 hours without it. The charging case adds another 24 hours, for a total of 32 hours with ANC and 36 hours without noise cancellation.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Verdict

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 has drawbacks – poor call quality, no Find My Headphones feature, and good, but not great, active noise cancellation. But the Pi8 has few competitors with reference-quality drivers for excellent music sound quality. Plus, they’re durable, compact and have a sleek look, which is exactly what you’d expect from a pair of flagship earbuds. As a reviewer, I can say that these will be my flagship earbuds for at least the first quarter of 2025. It will be up to other leading companies to make me part with them.