Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 review: Great sounding headphones at a good price

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399

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Apple made some welcome updates to the AirPods Max in April 2025, finally bringing its (still) overpriced headphones into the era of high-res audio at long last. In the meanwhile, the Hi-Fi experts at Bowers & Wilkins have released the fourth-generation update for their over-ear Px7 headphones, which now come with the slightly ungainly title of the Px7 S3.

The U.S. price of the S3 was up in the air because of that little kerfuffle with a worldwide trade war, but the U.K. price was £399 when they went on sale in the U.K. in May, and as of June 2025, you can now buy them on Amazon U.S. for $449. The S3 provides a serious rival to both the AirPods Max and B&W’s own flagship Px8.

Unsurprisingly, the Px7 S3 looks quite similar to its predecessors, with the sleek lines and minimalist chic that is the trademark of B&W’s headphone range, along with a variety of tasteful pastel shades that you can choose from.

The S3 is even more minimalist than usual, though, as B&W has managed to reduce the thickness of the earpieces for this new model, and has also reduced the weight to just 300g – compared to 386g for the AirPods Max.

The earpieces are also padded with memory foam, so the S3 should be light and comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time – and for long journeys too, as it offers an impressive 30 hours of battery life even when using noise-cancellation.

The Px7 S3 can work in both wired and wireless modes, supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and the AAC codec for Apple devices, as well as aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for our Android friends. There’s no spatial audio at the moment, although B&W has said that it’s developing its own form of spatial audio that will be available via a software update in coming months.

The PX range had the ability to use USB-C for charging and wired audio years before Apple added that ability to the AirPods Max, and the USB-C port of the Px7 S3 now supports high-res audio formats up to 24-bit/96KHz – slightly higher than the 24-bit/48KHz of the AirPods Max – so it can handle most of the high-res tracks available on Apple Music.

There’s a USB-C cable included, along with a 3.5mm audio cable too, so you can use the wired connection with most computers and mobile devices, and there’s a hard-shell carrying case thrown in for good measure as well.

Sound quality is excellent, and the Px7 S3 copes admirably with the heady cocktail of sounds on Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, streamed from Apple Music on my iPad Air. There’s a lot going on in this track with drums and percussion, guitars, horns and tinkling piano all competing for attention, but the Px7 S3 is able to make space so that each instrument remains clear and distinct. It shows a light touch on the rattling percussion that bounces all over the place, and there’s an infectious energy as the horns blare out while Ricky yells – “she looks like a flower, but she stings like a bee!”.

The Px7 S3 can handle more delicate sounds too. A recent re-watch of The Last Of Us (episode 3) prompts me to go back to Max Richter’s sublime On The Nature Of Daylight. The cellos open the piece with a gentle, winding melody, but the tone of the strings is so sad and mournful that it’s an instant tear-jerker. The sharper tone of the violins and viola adds to the bittersweet mood, and the Px7 S3 creates a sense of space that allows the different strings to float gracefully through the air and weave a delicate dance around each other.

The Px7 S3 is a winner on sound quality and value for money, but one area where more expensive rivals such as the AirPods Max and Bose QC Ultra do still have an edge is the effectiveness of their noise-cancellation features. The Px7 S3 does a good job at blocking low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an aircraft engine, but higher frequencies, such as the chatter of voices in a busy airport, do still leak through a little.

Should you buy the B&W Px7 S3?

If you’re obsessive about noise-cancellation then there are more expensive headphones that can block out background noise more effectively. However, the excellent sound quality and impressive battery life of the Px7 S3, make it a great option for anyone that wants a really high-quality set of headphones at a competitive price.

We have looked at a number of AirPods Max competitors, see our round up of the Best over-ear headphones.