YTread Logo
YTread Logo

Sony WH-1000XM5 vs. Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2 -- an AUDIOPHILE'S REVIEW!

Mar 12, 2024
Wilkins Foreign sent me a pair of their new px7s2 Bluetooth active noise canceling headphones. Here they are now so you can

review

them. I have to compare them to something correct, but there really was nothing new and I think most people will want to know that. how they compare to the

sony

wh-1000 xm5 so i had to go out and buy a couple of those so here they are. So today we're going to look at how the Sony compares to foreign shoes from Bowers and Wilkins, now the sound. Quality differences between these two headphones, yes, let's get straight to the sound quality with side by side comparisons, the differences in sound quality between these two headphones are, I would say, quite stark in terms of audio and people, yes , evaluate audio equipment like I do.
sony wh 1000xm5 vs bowers wilkins px7 s2    an audiophile s review
I know I magnify the differences and then put them in context. Maybe I'll do a bit of that later, but when I play something like the accelerator on Future Sound of London's debut album, I've noticed Bowers and Wilkins delve into the base and come back. of that kind of deep base mining and they give us more punch in the bass and if I play some of, say, those mind bombs, the original Master, not the Dreadful remaster from 2002. I realize that the bows and Wilkins have a lot better. I've said this before top to bottom Clarity in contrast to the Sony sound and there's a somewhat veiled

audiophile

cliché here - they sound a bit like that and you wouldn't really choose it in isolation, but then when you move on to Bowers and Wilkins. you say, oh yeah, that's a lot clearer, I won't say it's crunchy, it's just not a word that really influences the sound signature of Bowers and Wilkins, it does a little bit with Sony, maybe in the lower treble, but for me, Bowers and Wilkins.
sony wh 1000xm5 vs bowers wilkins px7 s2    an audiophile s review

More Interesting Facts About,

sony wh 1000xm5 vs bowers wilkins px7 s2 an audiophile s review...

It's not even close, but it is significantly better in terms of sound quality than the Sony, which surprised me quite a bit now, perhaps these differences are due to the fact that Bowers and Wilkins have a four centimeter driver while the Sony is only three centimeters or maybe it's because Bowers and Wilkins controller is at a certain angle towards the ear and I think that controller is made of a biocellulose material and yes, Sony comes with an equalizer in the app, just like the Bowers. We'll talk a little more about that later, but I want to be very clear that no, we can't EQ the Sony to make it sound more like Bowers and Wilkins, we can't add or we can't remove some of the opacity of the Sony with their EQ, so strictly in terms of sound quality.
sony wh 1000xm5 vs bowers wilkins px7 s2    an audiophile s review
I would say that the Sony fact, I surveyed. My YouTube audience, you guys on the Community page, I asked you to put aside sound quality, what is the most important factor for you when choosing a noise canceling Bluetooth headset and by far the number one choice It was comfort before reaching comfort. I think we should talk a little bit about the carrying cases that come inside the package, so this is Sony from different sides. It is a nice carrying case. The reason we have this now is because this Sony xm5 no longer folds like the XM one to four did.
sony wh 1000xm5 vs bowers wilkins px7 s2    an audiophile s review
It's a little annoying because I love being able to fold them up and just put them in a coat pocket. I can't do that with the xm5. I can't bend Bowers and Wilkins either. This is your carrying case a bit more. sort of a slightly more conservative classic look, I mean, the construction of each of these cases is totally fine and I assume they'll get the job done. I don't really use them, I'm just saying oh I shouldn't. Do this, but I just put my headphones in my bag. I just keep them around my neck or carry them in my hand.
This isn't really for me, but it might be for you. Now, the comfort factor of each headset is its own construction. The Sony quality is that it looks and feels quite plasticky, it looks and feels, I think it's a little cheap and if it didn't sound so good I might complain more about it having plastic here, the padding here is quite nice, the headphones. they are very pretty very soft I think this is vegan leather so yeah I mean they are well built don't get me wrong it's just that they look a little tacky compared to the bows and Wilkins now the bows and Wilkins .
To me, it looks and feels more like a luxury product than Sony. I think it's important to note because I did a video on the original px7 a couple of years ago and the arms were made of carbon fiber here I believe. I'm back to plastic again. The headphones are very nice, very soft, not as luxurious, I think, as the Sony ones, but yes, the look of these feels more like a gentleman's accessory than the Sony ones. The bows and Wilkins weigh about 307 grams. Sonia is a bit lighter at 250, that impacts Comfort, Comfort for head wear makes sense, Comfort for head wear anyway, the Bowers and Wilkins also have a much tighter lateral clamping force on the head, which eases over time.
I mean, I've had mine for about two months, they still hold on pretty tight, yes, pretty tightly now, that wouldn't bother me if I didn't wear glasses, but I do now. Lateral force after about an hour can get a little problematic with these. Glasses with my clear frame glasses which have a thinner arm on the side, not a big deal, however I definitely think the Sony are the most comfortable headphones in the long run and are the one I use if I go out. for several hours I don't wear the Bowers and Wilkins because I obviously need my glasses when I'm out and about, so I grab the Sony ones simply for their greater comfort factor.
Let's pause to talk about the codex because I think This is another important factor when people buy Bluetooth headphones with active noise cancellation. I think the conversation with the codec is too loud. I think modern and advanced Bluetooth codecs are very very good in fact they sound very close to the original because let's not forget that Bluetooth streaming almost like a newer headset I know is lossy so aptex aptx HD aptx adaptive that we find inside the px7s2 it is lossy and is only relevant for android phones because we don't get any kind of aptex on an iPhone if you move to Sony, there is no aptex there, they removed it a couple of generations ago, instead they specify their own ldac codec.
I can't tell you which one is better because I think it will be like splitting hairs and obviously to go from ldac to aptx in this situation I have to change the headphones and the hardware has a much bigger impact on the sound quality than the codec at play. I tested both earbuds using my Google Pixel 6, which obviously runs Android. I did, so I could get the best of both, the iPhone obviously forces the connection to AAC, which is on both. I noticed a difference between using an iPhone and using an Android, maybe, but it's too close to call with either type.
To be definitive, I couldn't say for sure, however, Sony is ahead of the arcs and Wilkins is on the stability of the Bluetooth connection. I had no problems with the iPhone connections, but I sometimes use the Google Pixel 6 when I keep it in my jeans pocket. the Bowers and Wilkins would cause interruptions and I would have to take my phone out of my pocket and show it to the receiver as if it were here and that would restore the connection correctly. It didn't happen often, but maybe like once. a week so that's enough to comment another important thing to consider is how we control the playback volume, the noise cancellation on each earbud now on the px7s2 they are all buttons so on the left earbud on the back there is a button that allows us to switch between transparency mode. noise canceling and then off and then on the right earbud there are buttons for play pause volume up volume down then on and off the headphones and Bluetooth pairing and I must admit I found it a bit complicated if I wanted to pause the music when I walked into a cafe I had to like it, I have the right button here to press pause because sometimes I press the volume up button by mistake, it is ribbed, the play pause button is broken, but it is not enough, whereas with a Sony it is I have a touch-sensitive right earbud, so all I have to do is tap twice and a pause appears, and the other great thing about Sony and this has been with us since the first generation of this product is if we keep our hand on right side.
The earbud, albeit momentarily, temporarily activates transparency mode, fantastic, so for me I think Sony wins hands down in terms of haptics and being able to control the earbuds with just your hands, there is a sensor aware mode for each earbud and that means when you take them. Take them off your head and say: Put them around your neck, the music should automatically pause and then when you put them back on your head, the music should automatically play again. Sony was impeccable in this regard, Bowers and Wilkins, however, sometimes the music just goes on. I was playing a game and I could hear it when I had the headphones around my neck, so I ended up turning it off in the app because I find it a little irritating when it doesn't work properly, but I've had several generations. of the Bowers and Wilkins PX series, the Bluetooth stuff and they have always seemed to be plagued by this little inconvenience, it's a little inconvenience, it's not a big problem, but I'm still very impressed with Sony because it works in all cases. time no exceptions foreign noise cancellation now that's why I call Bluetooth headphones futify for me, they are the future fight of the headphone world and they are analogous to streaming active speakers because they are effectively streaming active headphones like a transmitter, a Bluetooth transmitter inside the headset there is an amplifier that is tuned to the controller, so they are custom fit.
The DSP does some of that work, but the DSP also does noise cancellation and transparency mode and things like that, super super powerful, so in active speaker streaming we use. we get the DSP doing room correction on futify headphones on Bluetooth noise canceling headphones we get the DSP doing yes noise cancellation EQ transparency mode all the things we control with the app but when it comes to standard noise canceling fully activated yes comparing the Sony to the Bowers and Wilkins is tough, so when I was in line at the coffee shop waiting to order, I took both headphones one day and then both headphones another day and it was pretty close in terms of performance in terms of performance. how much noise each earbud would block out, I think maybe the Bowers and Wilkins just have it out of hand in the sense that they seem to block out more high frequency noise, more of the clutter of coffee sound like sort of cups. and the sources are taking a beating, however when I'm out walking I would definitely rate the Sony as the better of the two in terms of noise cancellation, it just seems to be better at handling traffic noise and in many ways better to block out some kind of unexpected and surprising noises, it seems to activate a little faster than the Bowers, but there is not a big difference here, we are not talking about night and day, this alone does not leave the Bowers and Wilkins out of the water when it comes to noise. cancel, so if you're sitting in an office all day, maybe the Bowers are the best option, but if you're out and about or traveling a lot and are going to use a pair of noise-canceling headphones, for example In a train, I would choose a Sony related to transparency mode, which is basically where you activate a setting that allows external sounds to be captured by the headphones and then passed to the ear, so it's like you're listening without taking them in. with the headphones off to allow conversations and such.
I think Sony is a little better here, but again, it's very close and I certainly wouldn't want to risk my reputation on it, so I would just say that in this case they are both very good, but as I mentioned above, Sony's transparency mode It's more easily accessible if you put your hand on the right earcup, so I guess yeah, I guess maybe from a functional standpoint it provides this kind of little separation piece. For Sony, one thing that I think doesn't get talked about enough is the quality of phone calls with, you know, big, full headphones.
I notice that when you're on the street and you have a phone call with a big pair. With headphones on you look a little crazy. I think it's acceptable now with airpods if people see that you're moving your mouth and you're talking and you have the airpods on, they understand what's going on, but I think with big headphones I think a lot of us still have to make that connection and we say, "This guy is either weird or on a phone call, it's hard to tell, but I took both headphones outside and called Janna in New York." and I didn't tell him which one I was using at any given time and I went back and forthbetween the Sony and the px7 for a phone call over a period of about half an hour.
I think we switched about four times and each time, Janna said she preferred the Sony, in fact, she said it was so good that she could hardly notice that I was outside on the side of a busy street, whereas with the Bowers and Wilkins said: Look, I really can't understand some of what you're saying. I say that because whatever is happening with the DSP is like truncating some of your words, obviously indoors it's a much closer thing, but I don't know, I don't think I would ever use a full size pair of headphones to make phone calls Not indoors, both headphones come with an app, the Bowers and Wilkins one is a bit annoying because it forces you to log in.
It's the first time I've used it and Sony doesn't. Sony's application is more advanced, it is more powerful. You can do more things, but it's also more messy. The visual aesthetic of the Bowers and Wilkins music app is much more beautiful. It just really looks. nice and it's also an app that I think Bowers and Wilkins are developing so that it can work with other Bowers and Wilkins products, so it's not just for those headphones, whereas the Sony headphones app is, I think, just for those headphones They both obviously run the firmware updates that arrive over the air from time to time.
I think Sony is a little more clunky in that regard, so the app is important. If you like a very nice and elegant app you probably want Bowers and Wilkins even though the EQ settings are more basic than those found on the Sony which does seem a bit busy and you wonder what this is and yes, It's something I've learned to have to live with. I don't use them that often because if I want to activate the noise cancellation. Yes, I can do it in either app, but I tend to use headphones to do it. Now I realize that some of you will want to know how these earbuds compare to Apple's Airpods Max and I don't.
I don't think Sony is really in the running here. I think Bowers and Wilkins is a little closer to Apple headphones. I still think these are some of the best active noise canceling Bluetooth headphones available, but let's not forget that they sell. because in Europe six I think cost 649 euros, while Sony, Bowers and Wilkins, both for the same price, I think 419 euros, so the apples are 50 more expensive if you want headphones with better sound, definitely choose Apple with difference. but if you want the most comfortable headphones, it's not the Apple, it's the Sony, if you want the kind of happy compromise, it's the Bowers and Wilkins, so I think it's very, very difficult to pick a winner among, I mean, a winner , which means, implies the best.
It's nothing more than a winner between Sony and Bowers and Wilkins that we are comparing here today. I find it very, very difficult because, as I said at the beginning of the video, in terms of sound quality, it is Bowers in every sense, but Sony is. so many other things so well, especially the tactile feel, especially the comfort as a glasses wearer, that generally speaking, over the last few weeks, while

review

ing these two headphones, I chose Sony more often than Bowers and Wilkins for those. The reasons are really just comfort factor, haptic noise cancellation, although they don't sound that good and that's really the message of this video is that when we choose to buy headphones or any equipment, it's not just about the sound quality with the speakers. its appearance with headphones is seen even more and the comfort even more because headphones are like audio clothing that we wear, so when someone asks me, John, should I buy the Bowser Wilkins px7s2 or the Sony wh-

1000xm5

?
The answer is that it is complicated because yes, if you want the best sound arcs and Wilkins, but you must take into account all the other features of the headphones to make a decision. I hope I have covered most of them today. What I love about these types of products is that they have actually come a long way in the last five years, since 2016 when Sony's first XM series of headphones came out and I think wired headphone manufacturers should be really concerned about what noise canceling headphones can do now, not only because of their innate sound quality, but because they can cancel out external noise, they reduce the noise level so we can listen to more music and at lower volumes we can't We need to use noise canceling headphones that hard, I don't think, and that's probably a good thing to hear.
Yeah, I'm very optimistic about the future, the future, the fight against the future of noise canceling headphones. I think we still have a long way to go, but I think there are some fantastic opportunities to be had in this particular product category. Bowers and Wilkins yesterday, at the time of recording, announced the px8. I think they are slightly larger noise canceling headphones. It has a different driver. I think they have modified the microphone array, so maybe the call quality of the headphones will be better on the px8 than the px7. It is certainly necessary. be in my book, so yes, if you call Quality is important to you, you want Sony anyway.
I'm retreading old ground. I need to close this video if you liked it, please give us a like below if you like my attitude. towards what is normally high-end audio, but today it is Bluetooth active noise canceling headphones Bluetooth, right, if you like the fact that I cover Bluetooth products that the man in the street would all buy and use, then consider subscribing to this channel and as always, thank you very much for watching. I did it deliberately. I purposely missed wired listening, that's not a factor for me with noise canceling Bluetooth headphones, so I'm not going to cover that even if you ask about it.
Very sorry. It could also be that no, there is no need to worry about that, now it feeds the comfort of each head, now the Sonys are a little lighter, no, and the hardware does a lot, what else was I going to say?

If you have any copyright issue, please Contact