A Must-Have for Any Music Lover

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 are nearly as light as some of my all-time favorites, the Sony WF-1000XM5 (0.21 ounces), and almost as compact.

The Pi8 is a pretty pair of earbuds mixing glossy and matte plastics with a thin vent separating the two. The tops of the Pi8 are shiny and have Bowers & Wilkins in the center, 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 seen. Bowers & Wilkins packages three additional tips to ensure a proper fit. My review pair of the Pi8 came in Anthracite Black, which is lovely, but man, I wish I got either the Jade Green or Midnight Blue editions, as they look stunning. And for fans of white gadgets, the earbuds are also available in Dove White.

The Pi8 aren’t just pretty, they’ve got a bit of durability built in with an IP54 rating, which means the earbuds have ingress protection against dust and water. And by water, I mean light sprays or maybe some sweat. Don’t go dunking these in water; you’ll be sad and $400 poorer. The Pi8 is more durable than the XM5, which is only rated IP4 (light water sprays).

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 & Wilkins. A status light sits directly below. A USB-C charging port is directly at the bottom of the case. The case eclipses 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 I’d have to swap out ear tips for larger ones, but here we are. The Pi8 ships with the extra small ear tips on default. They were too small, forcing me to shift to 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 comfortably wearing the Pi8 for six hours straight.

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 by a quick single tap while skipping forward on a track, and ending a call requires a double tap. 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 gripe is that you must use the app for the initial pairing. Once the free Music|Bowers & Wilkins app is installed, you need to hold either bud for three seconds. It’s a small quibble, but sometimes folks want to dive into listening instead of dealing with a companion app. But as far as companion apps go, this isn’t a bad one.

The interface is clean, with an adjustable equalizer with a Passthrough and active noise-cancelling modes. The app also lets you aggregate several streaming services, including Tidal, Deezer, Pandora, TuneIn, NTS, and Soundcloud, granting access and control to the services via the app. You can also get a two-month free trial of Qobuz. Although it would be nice to have a find my buds feature for such an expensive pair of earbuds, Bowers & Wilkins will replace lost buds if one goes missing.

Photo: Bowers & Wilkins

Regarding connectivity, the Bluetooth 5.4-compatible earbuds also have multipoint capabilities and can connect with two separate devices.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8: ANC

Bowers & Wilkins integrated three microphones into each earbud. Two of the mics are designed to cancel out ambient noise, while the remaining one is there to amplify voice for conversation. Combined with a good seal, the mics can implement some powerful active noise cancellation. Is it as good as the Bose QuietComfort Buds or the Sony WF-1000XM5? No, but the Pi8’s ANC still does a bang-up job of keeping the noise of New York City at bay.

I walked around my neighborhood with ANC enabled. I could hear most of the conversations around me without any music playing, just at a muted volume. And when the train passed overhead, I heard every crick, crack, and bump. Turning on the music immediately drowned out any outside NYC din. Back home, the Pi8’s ANC could only drown out my television if the volume was set to four. Compare that to the XM5 (volume 6) and the QC Ultra (volume 7). Overall, you can use the Pi8’s ANC to dull noise rather than completely mute ambient noise. However, there are very few earbuds that can claim that feat.

The Pi8 has a passthrough mode for letting the outside world in. This is handy when exercising outdoors or when you want to stay ahead of your surroundings.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Performance

Reference earbuds? Whew, Bowers & Wilkins, that’s a big claim. The company says that while it’s unlikely a studio engineer would grab a pair of wireless buds to master work. However, these earbuds bring the most accurate performance Bowers & Wilkins can squeeze from a wireless device. That means fans of enhanced bass and treble need not apply. I prefer a flat tuning as it lends itself better to skipping genres at will. And since I keep my playlists on shuffle, these earbuds were seemingly made for me.

So, how does Bowers & Wilkins do it? The answer lies in the cone drivers. The company has created mini versions of its carbon cone drivers, typically in loudspeakers or headphones. The Carbon Cone drive unit is stiffer and therefore behaves more accurately at higher frequencies because it doesn’t bend as much as a conventional cone would. Plus, with its lightness the cone driver can respond faster 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, offering a warm, balanced performance regardless of genre. As with all my testing, I used Tidal with Hi-Fi and Master quality tracks.

To kick things off, I started with Jamirquoi’s “Time Won’t Wait” and was immediately grooving to robust bass, a lively guitar, silky horns, and perky percussion. The soundstage is spacious, with everything having its space, even the spacey sound effects that ring out occasionally. Best of all, I didn’t need to push the volume higher than 50-60%, depending on the environment, to achieve a total shutout of New York City.

The vocals on Doechii’s “ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL” sounded downright ethereal, the lilting soprano balanced by a spunky alto and a fervent tenor. And I have to say, I was so taken with how Snoh Aalegra’s “DO 4 LOVE” that I listened to the track four times before I let it go. The strings sounded so full, building into a gorgeous crescendo that gives way to a forward-facing keyboard and a strong, plaintive vocal backed with beautiful choral backgrounds. These are easily one of the best wireless earbuds I’ve listened to 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 with the buds and even participated in a few video conferences. However, out of three calls and two video conferences, only one produced good results. My callers quickly remarked that I sounded muffled in all the other calls and conferences.

It was my major complaint, as I sometimes had to strain to hear people clearly. However, after a software update, I got better results, but not much.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Battery Life

Bowers & Wilkins estimate the Pi8 will last 6.5 hours with ANC enabled. The company doesn’t list an estimate for using the earbuds sans ANC. However, I hit 8 hours without noise canceling. The charging case brings an additional 13.5 hours of battery life to the mix, bringing total battery life to 19.5 hours with ANC and 21.5 hours without. As a staunch supporter of active noise canceling, I squeezed 6 hours and 35 minutes out of the Pi8 streaming music, watching episodes of “Invincible Fight Girl,” and taking calls before I got the low-battery warning.

That’s not too shabby, but it can’t match the WF-1000XM5’s staying power, which lasts 8 hours with ANC enabled and 12 hours without. The charging case adds another 24 hours, for a total of 32 hours of ANC and 36 hours without noise canceling.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 Review: Verdict

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 has flaws – poor call quality, lack of find my buds feature, and good, but not great, active noise cancellation. But the Pi8 has few rivals with its reference-grade drivers for stellar musical audio quality. Plus, they’re durable, compact, and sleek-looking, exactly 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’s up to the other flagships to make me put them down.