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Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 hands-down Best wireless earbuds I heard this year—and for $400, they’re even better. These premium earbuds are compact and durable, with all the good looks and comfort one would expect from a flagship product. The companion app is easy to use, and the Buds have powerful ANC.
But the Pi8’s claim to fame lies entirely in its reference-grade sound quality. No matter what you’re listening to, it’ll sound fantastic — even podcasts. Highs, mids and lows are well balanced with a wide soundstage. Earbuds are a must-have for the audiophile in your life
That’s not to say the Pi8 is without its flaws. Call quality could be better, and battery life isn’t as long as its competitors. But if you’re looking for earbuds designed to let you listen to music the way music producers and sound engineers do, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earbuds can make it happen.
Bowers and Wilkins Pi8 earbuds
The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 earbuds offer excellent audio at a premium price
professional
- Excellent audio quality
- Compact, comfortable, durable design
- Easy-to-use controls and apps
- Solid battery life
cons
- Poor call quality
- Lack find features in my bud
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Design and Fit
Despite its charging case (1.6 ounces, 2.6 x 1.1 x 2 inches), which is a bit larger than other premium earbuds, the Pi8 earbuds are on the small side. At 0.24 ounces, they’re almost as light as some of my all-time favorites Sony WF-1000XM5 (0.21 oz.), and about as compact.
The Pi8 is a nice pair of earbuds that mix glossy and matte plastic with a thin vent separating the two. The Pi8 tops are glossy and has Bowers & Wilkins in the middle, while the rest of the housing is matte black with four gold-colored connectors, a sensor and a mic vent. It ends with one of the smallest silicone ear tips I’ve ever seen. Bowers & Wilkins packages three additional tips to ensure a proper fit. My review pair of Pi8s came in Anthracite Black, which is nice, but man, I’d love to get the Jade Green or Midnight Blue versions, because they look stunning. And for white gadget lovers, the earbuds are also available in Dove White.
Not only are the Pi8 pretty, they’ve got some durability with an IP54 rating, which means the earbuds have ingress protection against dust and water. And by water, I mean a light spray or some sweat. Do not submerge them in water; You will be miserable and $400 poorer. The Pi8 is more durable than the XM5, which is only rated IP4 (light water spray).
Back to the charging case. Like the earbuds, the Pi8’s case is made of matte anthracite black plastic with a thick band stamped with Bowers and Wilkins. A status light sits directly below. A USB-C charging port sits directly under the case The case accommodates the XM5, which weighs 1.4 ounces and measures 2.5 x 1.8 x 1.04 inches.
With my weird, tiny ears, I never thought I’d see the day when I’d have to swap ear tips for bigger ones, but here we are. The Pi8 ships with extra short ear tips by default. They were too small, forcing me to change the small tips. From there I was golden. The seal was secure enough that I tackled the beast, my elliptical machine, and they stayed put. I ended up wearing the Pi8 for six hours comfortably.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: Controls
Unlike other flagship earbuds, the Pi8 has just a few tap controls to learn. Play/pause and answering calls are performed with a quick single tap while advancing a track, and a double tap is required to end a call. You need to press and hold the right bud to access the voice assistant. To switch between passthrough and ANC, press and hold the left bud.
My only objection is that you must use the app for initial pairing. Once the Free Music|Bowers & Wilkins app is installed, you need to hold down either button for three seconds. It’s a minor quibble, but sometimes people want to dive into listening instead of dealing with a companion app. But as far as companion apps go, it’s not a bad one.
The interface is clean, with an adjustable equalizer with a passthrough and active noise-cancellation mode. The app lets you integrate several streaming services, including Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, NTS, and SoundCloud, providing access and control over the services through the app. You can also get a free two-month trial of Kobuzz. While the Find My Buds feature would be nice for such expensive earbuds, Bowers and Wilkins will replace lost buds if one gets lost.
Photo: Bowers & Wilkins
Regarding connectivity, the Bluetooth 5.4-compatible earbuds have multipoint capability and can connect to two separate devices.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: ANC
Bowers & Wilkins has integrated three microphones into each earbud. Two mics are designed to cancel ambient noise, while the other one is there to amplify voice for conversation. Combined with a good seal, the mics can implement some powerful active noise cancellation. It’s as good as what it is Bose quiet comfort buds Or the Sony WF-1000XM5? No, but the Pi8’s ANC still does a bang-up job of avoiding New York City noise.
I walked around my neighborhood with ANC enabled. I could hear most of the conversations around me without any music, just at a muted volume. And as the train passed overhead, I heard every creak, crack and thump. Turning on the music immediately immerses anyone outside of NYC din. Back home, the Pi8’s ANC could only drown out my television if the volume was set to four. Compare with XM5 (Volume 6) and QC Ultra (Volume 7). Overall, you can use the Pi8’s ANC to muffle sound rather than completely silent surround sound. However, there are very few earbuds that can claim that feat
The Pi8 has a passthrough mode to let the outside world in This is useful when exercising outdoors or when you want to stay ahead of your surroundings
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Performance
Reference earbuds? Huey, Bowers and Wilkins, that’s a big claim. The company says it’s unlikely a studio engineer will grab a pair of wireless buds to master the work. However, these earbuds bring the most accurate performance Bowers and Wilkins can squeeze out of a wireless device. That means fans of extended bass and treble needn’t appeal. I like a flat tuning because it lends itself better to skipping genres at will. And since I shuffle my playlists, these earbuds were seemingly made for me.
So, how does Bowers and Wilkins do it? The answer lies in cone drivers. The company makes mini versions of its carbon cone drivers, usually in loudspeakers or headphones. The carbon cone drive unit is stiffer and therefore behaves more accurately at higher frequencies as it cannot bend like a conventional cone. Also, the cone driver with its lightness can respond quickly to dynamic changes in your music resulting in a more powerful and realistic sound. I quickly learned that the resulting 12mm carbon cone drivers are impressive, delivering a warm, balanced performance regardless of genre. As with all my tests, I used Tidal with Hi-Fi and Master quality tracks.
To kick things off, I started with Jamirquy’s “Time Won’t Wait” and immediately jumped into the powerful bass, a soulful guitar, silky horns and fiddle percussion. The soundstage is spacious, everything has a place, even the hollow sound effects that occasionally play. After all, I don’t need to push the volume more than 50-60% depending on the environment to achieve a total New York City shutout.
Doechii’s vocals sounded absolutely ethereal on “Alligator Bite Never Heals,” a lilting soprano balanced by a spunky alto and a spirited tenor. And I have to say, I was so impressed with Snoh Allegra’s “DO 4 LOVE” that I listened to the track four times before giving up. The strings sounded so full, building to a gorgeous crescendo that supported a forward-facing keyboard and a strong, plaintive voice with a beautiful choral background. These are easily one of the best wireless earbuds I’ve heard this year
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Call quality
While the Pi8 earbuds excel in music and podcast audio quality, their call quality needs improvement. I called several people in the bud and even participated in a few video conferences. However, out of three calls and two video conferences, only one yielded good results. My callers were quick to comment that I was caught up in all the other calls and conferences.
This was my main complaint, as I sometimes had to strain to hear people clearly. However, after a software update, I got better results, but not by much.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Battery life
Bowers and Wilkins estimates the Pi8 will last 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. The company doesn’t list an estimate for using the earbuds without ANC. However, I hit 8 hours without noise cancellation. The charging case brings an additional 13.5 hours of battery life into the mix, making the total battery life 19.5 hours with ANC and 21.5 hours without. As a staunch proponent of active noise cancellation, I got 6 hours and 35 minutes out of the Pi8 streaming music, watching episodes of “Invincible Fight Girl,” and taking calls before getting a low-battery warning.
That’s not terrible, but it can’t match the staying power of the WF-1000XM5, which lasted 8 hours with ANC enabled and 12 hours without. The charging case adds another 24 hours, for a total of 32 hours with ANC and 36 hours without noise cancellation.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 review: Verdict
The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 has its faults – poor call quality, lack of Find My Buds features and good, but not great, active noise cancellation. But the Pi8 has few rivals for stellar musical audio quality with reference-grade drivers. Plus, they’re durable, compact and sleek looking, just what you’d expect from a pair of flagship earbuds. As a reviewer, I can say that these will be my main earbuds for at least the first quarter of 2025. It depends on the other flagships that I put them down
