'An All-Round Fantastic Package'

FOR Detailed sound; decent noise-cancelling; battery life

AGAINST Nothing significant

Bowers & Wilkins' performance in the headphone market is the sporting equivalent of a Gaelic footballer arriving in the Premier League and picking up the Golden Boot in their first season. Sure, there are similarities between the two sports, but essentially it’s a different game with different opposition, different rules and different demands.

But ever since B&W’s first pair of headphones arrived on the scene in 2009, the company hasn’t looked back. Some of its models have had as much impact as B&W’s traditional loudspeakers did in that market, and the new Bowers & Wilkins PX – the company’s first wireless headphones with built-in noise-cancelling – are the latest in a long line of impressive products.

Going ballistic

To anyone acquainted with B&W’s line of on- and over-ear headphones, the PXs will look familiar. But while they share some of their predecessors' DNA, they’re also quite distinct in their own right.

The Space Grey finish of our review sample may look like an attempt to appeal to Apple fans, but it also highlights the PXs’ more industrial design. That’s not to say the headphones don’t have shelf-appeal, but the optional (and much more flamboyant) Soft Gold finish shows off your PXs better.

The headphones are constructed predominantly from lightweight aluminium and use what B&W refers to as “ballistic nylon shell” to cover the outer earpads and the top of the headband. This means the PXs feel both reassuringly solid yet perfectly portable.

Subtle details, such as the way the headphone cables run down their carefully machined channels and into each earpiece, the smoothness with which the earpads rotate, and even the texture of the Bowers & Wilkins logos, all give the impression of a quality product.