Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 True Wireless Earbuds - Active Noise Cancellation, Qualcomm aptX Technology, Bluetooth, Crystal-Clear Calls, Wireless & 15-Minute Quick Charging, Midnight Blue

The sound quality is far superior to any other product on the market. No other earbud at this pricepoint even comes close. To realize how amazing these really are, I recommend you subscribe to hi-res music services like Qobuz or Tidal. These services offer hi-res music in 96/24 formats. With these hi-res formats (compared to CD quality or MP3) the music is equivalent to being in the studio in a live performance. Even the smallest details are reproduced with stunning detail and accuracy. You may hear the musician tapping his foot to the beat, of fingers sliding on the strings of a guitar. Vocals are seductive and luxurious. The bass is thunderous, and at the same time tight and detailed. The fit of the earbuds is excellent and critically important to get the deep bass these are capable of. Take your time to select the earbur tip which best fits your ear canal. The HD codec aptx is amazing and works flawlessly. LDAC is supposedly superior (not supported in these buds) but those differences in technology don't matter if the amplifiers and drivers can't reproduce all that goodness. Make sure your phone supports these hi-res formats. The Pi7 S2 meticulously reproduces the magic of hi-res music. If you are an audiophile, where the quality of music trumps every other consideration, the Pi7 S2 is a a good buy at $399. Note that you need to play these buds for at least a week before they reach their full potential. Like most any speaker driver - a mechanical component - they need some time to burn in, figuratively.The app doesn't have an equalizer or other frills you typically see at this pricepoint. A well designed earbud doesn't need an equalizer to force it to do something it can't do natively. That's the case here. The Pi7 is already perfect, and doesn't need artificial EQ tweaks. The app has a built in music player that connects to Tidal or Qobuz.In initially purchased this as a renewed product. Big mistake. The case was defective and caused connectivity issues. I recommend you purchase new, and get the 2 year BW warranty.Hi res music is more demanding of a good and fast bluetooth connection. So keep the phone close by for best results.The various other purchaser comments about the app are true. It's overly complicated and unreliable for installing and accessing the product. Problems installing and connecting get annoying fast. Easily installed on one phone, but same buds refuse to install on a secondary phone. I've also observed that the replacement for the defective buds does not have the pristine sound of the original ones.Highlights:1. beyond spectacular music reproduction2. considering audio quality only, worth every penny even at $3993. subscribe to Tidal of Qobuz. you can easily transfer your playlists from other music services.4. Expect some challenges with the app. Customer has been very helpful so far. Easy to reach on the phone and responsive to email.I initially tried 2 renewed products and often these are fully capable products. With these buds, I strongly suggest not. Spend a few extra bucks to buy new and avoid some of the issues reported by other buyers. For example, the buds are matched to the case. they are not interchangeable. products look identical, so used you may get Pi5 in a Pi7 case, or buds and case that are incompatible.So what about the BUT...1. While the app integrates nicely with Qobuz and TIDAL, during playback via the app, it decides that a non B&W bud is connected and stops working. Only solution I've found is back in the case for awhile despite that the battery is still charged.2. Without fail, after 1-2 hours the right buds stops working. Back in the case for awhile despite that the battery is still 50% charged. The app doesen't differentiate between left and right battery level, so it's almost like the right uses twice the power of the left.3. ANC feature is generally poor. If ANC is at the top of your priority list, and you are willing to sacrifice audio quality, then the Bose QC may be the better choice. Bose QC II does not support hi-res codecs so the music reproduction is worse in a quiet environment but better in a noisy environment.4. No firmware update since release, so not sure if these issues will be resolved by some future update.5. The buds fit tight initially, but after a few minutes they lose the seal and sound quality degrades. The Bose QCII stay tight in the canal. This problem contributes to the poor ANC of the B&W.Everything considered, despite the stellar sound engineering, the problems are just too annoying. Back in the case every hour to charge or reset or whatever. No...

I never write reviews but this product has given me so much trouble. Right out of the box, the earbuds entered Bluetooth/connection mode. I put both earbuds in and tried the touch controls to see if it was a “me” problem. The right one doesn’t even respond to touch, but the left one switched between noise cancelation and transparency mode. The app couldn’t find the earbuds for 5 minutes, even though the earbud case was laying on my phone. I also Tried to connect to them using the Bluetooth setting on my phone instead of the app, still nothing. Talked to Amazon customer service, they were very nice, but couldn’t help me solve my problem. Looked up the troubleshooting page on the B&W website, and learned how to hard reset, still nothing, except, now it doesn’t even enter Bluetooth mode anymore. I was very excited to use these earbuds, and was let down due to not even being able to connect to them. For a $400 dollar baseline, I would expect these to perform flawlessly. Will be taking my business to Bang and Olufsen now.

Tl/dr: I bought to use in office area for music and gaming, for those functions it is a killer product especially at 20% off!I will update when taking out and about but that use case is minimal, although plan to use on flights as well.Mic is fine not as good as airpods which are class leading IMO, not as good as Sony or Samsung Pro 2, but not bad. Mic 3/5Retransmission feature is a huge reason to buy as a gamer who has high expectations of audio experience. Gaming 5/5Music genres listened to: Thrash metal, Old school R&B, Alt Rock, EDM, Pop and some Classical and Opera, nails every genre but especially Thrash and EDM( not usually an EDM guy but like to have some tracks to test gear). Music 5/5I will update if connectivity issues arise in real world use as of now I can have them on all throughout my 1100 square foot apartment and it goes through most not all walls.1 last thing: have the black model and it is a fingerprint magnet, keep that in mind if that bothers you, hope this helps! I saw a lot of bad reviews and not all identified my particular use case.