However, many more functions can be controlled with the app: For example, the level in the bass and treble range can be influenced. Software updates can be initiated and the connection quality can be adjusted. On the left ear cup is a button that either controls the noise cancelling functions or activates the voice assistant of the controlling device. Just as the user wishes. Despite all the clarity and the self-explanatory structure of the app, there is also the option of organising product support by e-mail or telephone. Other manufacturers are welcome to take a leaf out of Bowers & Wilkins' book.

The small difference

Unlike the paper diaphragm in the Px7 S2, the Px8 uses a carbon fibre diaphragm with a diameter of four centimetres. The lower weight and higher stiffness should be noticeable in the sound. Let's put it to the test and let the Px7 S2 transmit "Two Tribes" from Frankie Goes To Hollywood. As usual, it reproduces the track powerfully and with control, and also simply better than many other wireless headphones can. When switching to the Px8, the virtues of the PX7 S2 remain, but its resolving power can no longer keep up. The bigger brother also reproduces a wide stage, but fills the axis between the left and right ear with clearer detail. What was hardly imaginable before is now reality, because the Px8 actually manages to go one step further in terms of agility.

What these headphones are capable of is demonstrated with "Here And Now" from the current Wolfgang Haffner album "Silent World". Because things are not as quiet as the album name suggests. The title was supplied by the streaming provider Qobuz, and what was initially astonishing was the precise energy of Haffner's drumming. This is characterised by incredible clarity and offers a rarely heard tautness under the umbrella of a resolution that sets standards. This becomes especially clear in the quieter passages, where acoustic details are lost or become quieter in the smaller brother. In terms of control, too, it lags behind the Px8, which really is of outstanding quality in this respect. Listening to András Schiff's recording of "J. S. Bach: Clavichord" in contemplative silence is almost surreal, while the landscape passes by at 300 km/h at the train window. Only a few wired models achieve this sound quality, which means that the question of compromise due to wireless transmission no longer arises with this Bowers & Wilkins, which offers the highest sound culture without cables.