Bowers & Wilkins, has introduced two new premium finishes to its portfolio of high performance, multi-award-winning over-ear headphones, Px7 S2e and Px8. The new Px7 S2e Ruby Red and Px8 Dark Forest finishes expand on the already extensive range of colors available – the widest choice of colors ever offered by Bowers & Wilkins.
The two new finishes further reinforce the brand’s unique approach to design, which ensures that its premium audio products always look as good as they sound. Both new models continue to offer industry-leading, award-winning audio performance to perfectly complement their refined design and luxurious materials.
The new Px7 S2e Ruby Red and Px8 Dark Forest are available from 18th September for $429 and $699 respectively at bowerswilkins.com and selected retailers.
Read our review of the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 or…
Our review of the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 headphones
How Audiophile Speaker Company, Bowers & Wilkins Got into the Headphone Business
Bowers & Wilkins, better known in audiophile circles as B&W, built its legacy on high-performance loudspeakers. Founded in 1966 in Worthing, England, by John Bowers, the company earned a global reputation for precision engineering, acoustic innovation, and its role in some of the world’s finest recording studios, including Abbey Road. For decades, Bowers & Wilkins was known strictly as a speaker company—bookshelf monitors, floorstanding towers, subwoofers, and home theater solutions. That all began to shift in 2009 when the brand entered the personal audio space with its first pair of headphones: the P5.
Bowers & Wilkins didn’t enter the headphone market as a reaction to a trend. It did so methodically, and much like how the company approached its loudspeakers, the goal was to bring high-end sound and refined industrial design together in a single product. The timing was strategic. By 2009, portable digital audio—fueled by the iPod, iPhone, and other mobile devices—had shifted the way people consumed music. The average listener was spending more time with headphones than with loudspeakers. For a brand with B&W’s pedigree, the challenge was to translate their loudspeaker sound into a closed-back, compact format without compromising fidelity.
The P5 over-ear headphone was the company’s first entry. Designed with real leather, brushed metal, and magnetically attached ear pads, it stood apart from the plastic-heavy consumer models of the time. The tuning of the P5 leaned toward warmth and musicality—a sound signature familiar to fans of the 600 and 700 Series loudspeakers. It was successful enough to justify further development, and over the next few years, the lineup expanded.
The P3, a smaller, more affordable on-ear headphone, was introduced as a portable alternative with a similar sonic DNA. Later came the P7, which upped the ante with larger drivers and a more immersive listening experience, putting it more firmly in the audiophile headphone camp. Many listeners noted that the P7 offered a fuller, more refined take on the Bowers & Wilkins “house sound”—tight bass, rich mids, and clear but controlled highs.
By the mid-2010s, B&W started embracing wireless and active noise cancellation technology to keep up with changes in how people listened to music. The PX wireless headphone, introduced in 2017, marked a significant shift in the product strategy. This model offered adaptive noise cancellation, USB-C charging, and firmware-updatable tuning—all while retaining the design language and materials that had become a hallmark of B&W headphones. Sound-wise, the PX leaned slightly more analytical than its predecessors, with an emphasis on spatial presentation and bass control.
In 2020, Bowers & Wilkins launched the PX7, which featured larger 43mm drivers, a carbon fiber composite arm structure, and Qualcomm’s latest wireless codecs. The PX7 received praise for its combination of high-end materials, comfort, and noise-canceling performance, positioning it as a serious contender against premium wireless models from brands like Sony and Bose.
Around the same time, B&W released the PI3 and PI4 in-ear headphones, aimed at users who wanted B&W sound on the go without the bulk of over-ear cans. These models focused more on convenience and daily use but still carried a degree of sonic refinement not always found in wireless earbuds. While they didn’t redefine the segment, they were consistent with Bowers & Wilkins’ approach: thoughtful design, premium materials, and sound quality as a priority.
In recent years, the company introduced the Px8, a luxury headphone aimed squarely at the premium end of the wireless ANC market. With Nappa leather finishes, updated drivers, and improved DSP tuning, the Px8 is considered the flagship of B&W’s headphone range. It sits above the Px7 S2, a more affordable model that shares much of the same architecture and tuning, minus some of the luxury appointments.
It’s worth noting that throughout its headphone development, Bowers & Wilkins stayed true to its identity. Where some brands chased consumer trends with flashy tuning or oversized bass, B&W focused on balance and detail. The tuning across the product line, especially in the Px7 and Px8, draws clear inspiration from the voicing found in their 800 Series Diamond speakers—controlled, resolving, and emotionally engaging without being overly bright or fatiguing.
The company’s headphone division has also benefited from broader corporate support. Bowers & Wilkins has undergone several ownership changes in the past decade, including a period under the EVA Automation group and later acquisition by Sound United (now part of Masimo Consumer). These moves helped give the headphone product line more development resources and allowed B&W to remain competitive in an increasingly crowded category.
From the first P5 to the Px8, Bowers & Wilkins has taken a long-view approach to headphones. Rather than flooding the market with endless iterations, they’ve carefully released a small but focused lineup—each model serving a specific purpose in the personal listening space. While the company is still best known for its loudspeakers, it has carved out a serious and respected presence in the headphone world—one built on the same principles that made its speakers a staple in both studios and living rooms.
