I always saw myself only ever using Sennheiser products. I had a nice pair of MOMENTUM 2.0 which I ended up selling for the Bowers and Wilkins pair. There’s a very simple reasonable reason on why I ended up buying into a new brand.
It all started with the ears hurting every time I used the MOMENTUM 2.0.
I was getting dead tired of dealing with the same problem. After a session of 3-4 hours my ears would hurt in two different ways. The first reason is that my ears were too big and the cans couldn’t help but to clamp hard on me poor ears. It was painful to the point I ended up giving hours of music because if I kept wearing them the pain would increase and I don’t think I signed up for that.
The second reason is harder to decipher. Sometimes when I listened for longer times and stopped momentarily for a few minutes my ears would be too overly sensitive. I couldn’t bare any sound without feeling disgusted or in pain. I had to stop as even listening to my coworkers was becoming a challenge.
So I set forth on looking for a new pair of cans thus, after hours of researching and hard work I found the Bowers and Wilkins PX.
If you thought of MOMENTUM as a dark and bassy headphone the Bowers and Wilkins has a slight more treble into it (not too much) and not overwhelmingly too light. It doesn’t shy out on the bass either but it’s obviously not a basshead’s go to for bassy headphones. (I wouldn’t know either, I don’t consider myself to be a bass or treble guy. I prefer a more well-balanced “jack of all trades” headphone)
I think what really surprised me about the headphones is how comfortable it is to wear. The build quality is great, sturdy even. I think they cheaped out on the buttons but it’s all forgiven at least from me… because for a product that’s ranged at $400 bucks at least they don’t have the audacity to sell you plastic like Sony or Bose does.
I find the pair to be well balanced. I read reviews that the sound was muddy or that the product felt low quality… and after using them I was having a hard time believing it. The thing about the “sound sounding muddy” is that if it’s a low quality audio it’s truly going to sound like crap. And I’ve experienced that myself with a few remastered songs, I don’t think all types of genres shines with the B&W PX.
I think the first song that I was just baffled on how amazing it sounded was this track below:
Listening to Lucid Dreams by Juice WRLD in Google Music (highest quality possible) made me realize that perhaps these were the headphones for me. I enjoyed listening to music so much to the point I would repeat tracks just to enjoy how they sounded and to this date I haven’t stopped doing that.
And it’s not just that genre. Anything acoustic sounds great on these cans. Electronic/Dance music is not inherently bad but I feel like other types of headphones may be more suitable. I just feel like anything electronic may not be best suited for the B&W PX.
Sennheiser still has my heart with the HD6XX series, but my soul belongs to Bowers and Wilkins.
All that said, give the Bowers and Wilkins a try. This is by no means a throughout review nor do I consider myself knowledgeable in audio. I think after hearing the differences in Sennheiser, AKG, and now Bowers and Wilkins I can only hope to have a modicum of experience when it comes to audio.
In conclusion, I am a very happy B&W user. My only complain is the sound leakage, it’s a bit of a problem in an office environment which is where I drive the cans. It’s not a deal breaker as I keep the volume around 60-70% but it also means I can’t fully blast it through at least in the office environment. But what I really gained back with the Bowers & Wilkins wasn’t just a good pair of cans I could go rock with everyday, it was restoring my desire to pursue different brands in audio and get to know them.
I was giving up. After my experience with AKG I just felt it was a letdown altogether. Sennheiser wasn’t providing anything new to the table when you started comparing MOMENTUM and some of the headphones in the HD series. AKG felt more like a downgrade to Sennheiser, but in terms of design I would choose AKG in a heartbeat because I dig their designs.
Then there’s Bowers and Wilkins which rocks in both design and audio. But don’t listen to me. If you have the opportunity, go try them out.