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Bowers and Wilkins, the iconic high-end speaker manufacturer from England, just released a brand new special edition version of their top-of-the-line PX7 noise-cancelling headphones - the PX7 Carbon Edition, and wow this headphone is really beautiful. This is a special edition black & diamond-cut version of the highly successful PX-7 Noise-Cancelling headphones that was inspired by the designs of high-end race cars. Needless to say, we’re excited to be first to receive this just before the official release. We’ll tell you all about it and then we’ll compare it to the top-rated Sony WH-1000XM4 & the Bose 700s.
The headphones themselves have modern, high-end, designs. Of the three, the new Bowers and Wilkins PX 7 Carbon has the most striking appearance. It features a lightweight composite carbon fiber, and cloth aluminum construction. The new Carbon Edition has shiny diamond-cut edges that surround the ventilation ports on the sides of each ear cup. Since the diamond-cut edges affect how air flows around the drivers, the engineers at Bowers and Wilkins spent many months getting the new eye-catching diamond-cut design right while also preserving the iconic B&W sound signature that fans know and love from the original PX 7. The original edition PX7 is still available in space grey and silver color-options which are matched on the ear cups and the headband. We think the high-end look of the original edition PX7 is a step better than the competition, but the look B&W produced here with this new Carbon Edition takes the luxury high-performance look to a completely different level. Bose decided to stick with a traditional all black or all white plastic design. The new Sony WH 1000XM4 has the most understated design of the three with minimal accents. While the accents are small, they’re tasteful and they give the XM4 a sophisticated look that should remain fashionable for years down the road. Finally, all three headphones have a USB-C port on the right ear cup for charging the battery. However, Bowers and Wilkins is the only one to make the USB-C port capable of both charging and passing high res audio through its wired connection. Since most people will be working from home these days with a laptop that doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack anymore, we think the USB-C audio cable is a really nice touch for people wanting the best audio quality from their laptops. In terms of build-quality, each one features ear cups that swivel. This allows you to lay the headphones down flat on a desk whenever you don’t have a headphone stand nearby. The biggest difference here is the way Sony designed the XM4 to swivel and fold into the case. This foldable structure makes it easy to store or carry the Sony XM4’s even without a case. But, it can be a little challenging to figure out how it works at first. All three are well-crafted, but the Carbon Edition PX 7 comes up on top with its lightweight carbon fiber construction. Carbon fiber also has anti-resonance properties that have acoustic advantages as well, so it’s superior design and build quality doesn’t interfere with the headphone’s sound signature.
In terms of low-frequency cancellation like the low-end “hum” in a car or the sound of a train passing, the Bowers PX 7 Carbon performed about the same as the Bose. The Bose 700 blocked out more low-frequency content marginally better, but it was so hard to tell the difference here and it was nearly a tie between the two. There was, however, a clear difference when it came to noises in the higher frequencies. When we were walking on a busy street with the sounds of people talking, cars honking and sirens coming from all directions, we were impressed by how well the Sony XM4 canceled these types of sounds compared to the others. Wearing the Sony XM4 in this type of environment is like living in a private world. Overall, the active noise cancellation in the XM4 did the best job of cancelling out these types of higher frequencies. In terms of noise-canceling during phone calls, the PX7 Carbon had a slight advantage during calls when we were walking and talking in a crowded street. People on the other end told us the reduction of background noises was slightly better, and on conference calls, fewer people asked us to mute if there was wind or other background noises - but honestly, they’re all pretty good.
15 сен 2020
