Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review

Imagine the AirPods case fattened up for a Christmas feast and dressed in a black tux. That’s the Pi8’s work look and it works. There is a good reason for the case to be thicker around the waist too; the unique retransmission mode allows the case to be plugged into any legacy entertainment source via the supplied USB-C to 3.5mm cable and retransmit that signal wirelessly to the Pi8 buds in Bluetooth aptX Adaptive format (up to 96/24). Extremely convenient if you’re stuck in a long-haul flight or driving around in a classic convertible (lucky you, in that case), it is a very effective solution. 

Its clean surfacing is devoid of any buttons whatsoever. Just a tiny recessed reset switch next to the USB-C port so pairing with devices happens by tapping the earbud tops tapped for a couple of seconds. Clever.

Soundcloud, TuneIn and NTS apps are supported via the partnering Bowers & Wilkins Music app, but the chances of anyone in India using these apps are slimmer than TikTok coming back to India. Customisation too is rudimentary, with options to map the touch controls on the earbuds to either ANC/Passthrough toggle or volume up/down for the left and right buds. There’s no ear tip fit test nor levels of ANC that you can fiddle around with to suit personal taste. The focus is clearly on getting a much better passive seal than before and using an upgraded DSP and DAC to extract maximum detail from your tunes.

An instant sense of gravitas takes over the same music you’ve heard before on other TWS earbuds. The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 captures your attention at once and doesn’t let go with its ability to dig deep for detail, resolution and air. Atmosphere by James Blake is reproduced with a lot more of the piano reverb and the actual recording space being captured than on the AirPods Pro 2, our usual gold standard when it comes to pricey TWS buds. Soundstage is always difficult for TWS type earbuds to create but the Pi8 manages to capture the space of the recording as was demonstrated vividly by playing Harry Belafonte’s Live at Carnegie Hall. A1959 recording that was in the first wave of “stereo” recordings, manages to sound natural and take you back to the time and space with the Pi8. On the other end of the spectrum, complex tracks like The National Anthem by Radiohead doesn’t rip your ears off with its brass cacophony towards the crescendo, which on lesser earbuds just becomes a stew of instruments in a tinny broth. The 12mm carbon cone is similar to the material used in Bowers & Wilkins high-end 700 series of home loudspeakers and there clearly seems to be a resulting benefit. They add weight without heaviness to the sound and ensure that the out of the box sound won’t require any tweaking of the EQ. In fact, there is a TrueSound mode in the app that bypasses the 5-band EQ altogether for a more direct signal path. The 32-bit internal DSP controlling the DAC and amp can be attributed to making low-level listening as revealing without having to crank up the volume to hear everything.

The three-mic per earbud array provides decent call quality but it’s the ANC that hits the nail on the head. Even without the granular control of adaptive ANC, the on, off or passthrough modes seem sufficient to get the best performance out of the Pi8. Along with the much improved profiling and passive seal, the ANC works wonders in cutting off a large part of external noises across the frequency range. It blocks unwanted noise without sacrificing on the delicate and nuanced delivery of its sound and that is no mean feat.

Battery life is as expected but not class leading. That distinction would go to Sony, Sennheiser, Campfire and the likes, but the Bowers & Wilkins still gets a satisfactory 6 hours or so with ANC on. Another 13 hours are offered from the case, so that’s two additional cycles and when you’re all out, a couple of hours is what it takes to juice them back to a 100%. Given the efficacy of the passive seal, you could also get by with keeping the ANC off for most indoor listening, extending actual useable playtime.

Rest assured, if you’re trying to equate the Pi8’s high price tag with formats supported, it really doesn’t matter when it comes to wireless transmission on phones if the inherent headphone design is good. And the Pi8 is a fine acoustic design indeed, extracting the best out of iPhones with AAC and aptX Lossless from Androids over Bluetooth 5.4. Remember, it’s more important how the recording or the mix is than the transmission method and given how far BT audio has come, the lack of LDAC or SSC. The Pi8 is worth every bit of its asking price if you want to bring a high-end home audio listening experience with you on your travels. Convenience with comfort has never sounded better!