Bowers & Wilkins PX7 vs Sennheiser PXC 550-II: Which to Buy?

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

This is the review of the comparison between two headphones from two popular brands in the market. The comparison here is between the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 and the Sennheiser PXC 550-II. There are day and night differences in their price range which brings the difference in their quality of performances. To know which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7Sennheiser PXC 550-II
Bowers & Wilkins PX7Sennheiser PXC 550-II
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PROSPROS
Effective noise canceling.
Comfortable.
Long battery life.
Wear sensor technology.
Great battery life.
Subtly premium looks.
Deft noise-canceling.
aptX Bluetooth.
CONSCONS
Expensive.
Flat-folding design rather than bend-in earcups.
No swipe/touch playback controls.
Intolerant of careless recordings.
Little heavy.
Competition from other Sennheiser cans.

SPECIFICATIONS:

MODELBOWERS & WILKINS PX7SENNHEISER PXC 550-II
BrandBowers & WilkinsSennheiser
SeriesPXSennheiser PXC 550
ModelPX7550-II
HEADPHONESBOWERS & WILKINS PX7SENNHEISER PXC 550-II
Connectivity TechnologyWirelessWireless
Sound Output ModeStereoStereo
Frequency Response10Hz17Hz
Sensitivity111 dB110 dB
Impedance20 ohm490 ohm
Diaphragm
REMOTE CONTROLSBOWERS & WILKINS PX7SENNHEISER PXC 550-II
Audio Controlson/off, play/pauseanswer/end, hold, mute, next/previous track, play/pause, volume
Controlson/off, play/pauseMute, volume, answer/end, hold, play/pause, next/previous track
CONNECTIONSBOWERS & WILKINS PX7SENNHEISER PXC 550-II
TypeheadphonesUSB, headphones
Connector Typemini-phone stereo 3.5 mmmini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTBOWERS & WILKINS PX7SENNHEISER PXC 550-II
Width6.9 in5.4 in
Depth3.1 in2.5 in
Height8.7 in6.9 in
Weight0.67 lb0.50 lb
FEATURESBOWERS & WILKINS PX7SENNHEISER PXC 550-II
FeaturesBuilt from Legend drivers that push the sound forward.

Cancels noise clean out adaptive noise cancelling that automatically Responds to your environment to keep the outside world out of the music.

30 hours of battery life.

Follow your lead the Px7 obeys your every move Lift an ear cup to hear what’s happening around you and the music automatically stops Put it back and the music plays on.

Your headphones can simultaneously connect to device and can remember up to eight paired Bluetooth devices.
Wireless premium headset created for the perfect travel experience.

Experience superior sound in any environment with adaptive noise cancellation.

Convenient, one touch access to virtual assistants such as Siri, Google and Alexa via Voice Assistant Button.

Bluetooth 5.0 compliant, supporting SBC, AAC, aptX, and aptX Low Latency codecs.

Triple microphone array for unrivalled speech clarity when giving voice commands or making calls.

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION: 

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 is an active noise-canceling premium headphone. They are a successor to the Bowers & Wilkins PX. These cost around three hundred and ninety-nine dollars and you can pick these headphones up in two different color variants which are space grey or silver. This headphone is retailing for around three hundred and seventy-seven dollars currently on Amazon.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

The Sennheiser PXC 550-II is an over-ear Bluetooth headphone and they’re really made by Sennheiser essentially to be travel headphones. So, they’re great for if you’re in flying somewhere, you’re just on public transit, really anywhere you’re going because they have active noise cancellation, they’re very light, very comfortable, and they have a pretty nice case that protects them when you have to throw them in your bag if you’re again traveling or somewhere on the go. The PXC 552-II is a pair of headphones that came out a couple of months ago, Sennheiser has released them in 2019 and I’ve been using them for a little while, and I really like using them. This headphone is retailing for around a hundred and eighty-six dollars currently on Amazon.

DESIGN:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

Its design is quite similar to the Bowers & Wilkins PX headphones but it’s got an overall less flashy and more refined look. The earpads and headband are made of real leather, and the headband and ear cups are covered with a fabric material. The sides of the ear cup are made of metal plates and then you have the Bowers & Wilkins logo crested on each. The headphone arms are made of carbon fiber which is supposed to make them lighter as opposed to the metal material on the Bowers and Wilkins PX. I also noticed that the carbon fiber arms and the metal plate scratch quite easily so you’ll want to always be careful when handling these.

The headphone arm still protrudes out a little bit, so some of you might not still like its design. I just think the head bumps take a little bit more effort than I expected but they move quite smoothly as expected from a pair of premium active noise-canceling headphones. Another thing to take note of is that these headphones don’t get run-up the battery like the 1000 XM3. I was really hoping Bowers & Wilkins would make this foldable for easier coverage.

For button placements, on the right ear cup, there is a power switch which is also used for Bluetooth pairing. Below that are the volume rocker buttons, then in the middle is a multi-function button for playing, pausing, skipping tracks, and answering calls. Below that is the USB-C port for charging it up, so these use USB-C just like the previous generation PX headphones. You can also use the USBC port for Wired listening and lastly there is the 3.5-millimeter auxiliary port. Then on the left ear cup, there is the active noise cancellation button, this same button is used to trigger up the ambient mood.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

On the right ear cup is where most of the magic happens here, so on the right side, we have three microphones. When you turn the cups inward, it turns them off and when I open it back up it turns them back on. So, the headphones can easily be turned on or off, there’s no button that you have to remember to do. Also, on the right ear cup then we have on the bottom we have our little jack right there for the included headphone cable, so if you want to plug this into a laptop or a phone that has a headphone jack if you still have one of those phones, you can use that right there.

They also have the active noise cancellation switch on the right side, there are different types of active noise cancellation on here. So, you can turn it on/off, if we flip the switch all the way over it goes to level 2 which is just max active noise cancellation, and if we go to level 1 we have two options within the app. Then next to that we have a button that is going to be your Alexa button or your summon whatever a voice assistant button by default the Alexa is on in the app and then we have a micro-USB port right there for charging this headphone. Also, when you fold the headphones in, at the very top you have a little tiny switch that’s hidden by the hinge right there and that is the switch to turn Bluetooth on or off.

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

COMFORT:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

I feel these are on the heavy side as these weigh over around 310 grams, so you have to be a lot in mind. Underneath the headband is padded but still doesn’t feel as soft and comfortable. They feel a little bit hard we wear them. Depending on the size of your head their headbands are solidly built and can withstand quite a lot of stress which is definitely expected at its price point. Getting these headphones to swivel is a little bit of a challenge as their joints are quite stiff compared to other headphones. They rotate inwards so you can place them around your neck, and they also rotate outwards so you can lay them flat on the table.

The earcups are well cushioned and more robust than those on the older PX headphones which makes them slightly more comfortable. Even though they are not the softest ear cups I’ve ever used but they wrap around the ears pretty well as they’ve got large ear cups, so these would definitely fit most ears. The clamping force is still quite similar to the Bowers & Wilkins PX as hard as them. After wearing these for about 10 to 15 minutes, I can’t help but notice the pressure beside my ears and underneath my jaw, so you may not be able to hear these for long periods of time.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

As far as the adjustability and comfort of these, they actually get fairly large they get way than I could possibly need them, and then they also get significantly smaller, so I think these are very comfortable. The pressure on your ears is really perfect, so I can wear them for several hours without any problems, it never creates the discomfort that makes me want to take them off instead.

The only reason I want to take these off after a long period of time is that my ears start to get a little hot, which is pretty standard from a pair of headphones that’s going to make a full seal around your ears like that. They do have a pretty good range of motion with turning the cups in and out, on the top the cushion again very comfortable doesn’t really pull my hair or anything, they’re very lightweight like 220 something grams, and they’re really a well-built pair of headphones.

FEATURES:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

In the box, you get a hard shell carrying case as opposed to the fabric carrying case on the Bowers & Wilkins PX. You get a quick start guide, and the safety and warranty booklet. The carrying case contains the headphones, an auxiliary cable for wired listening, and then you also get a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging these off. You can still detach and swap out the ear cups if you want but they are not as easy to take off like that on the PX, so you have to take note. I guess Bowers and Wilkins wanted to save some weight by removing those magnets.

These are Bluetooth 5.0, so you can expect solid Bluetooth connections to your device and I haven’t experienced any connectivity issues whatsoever. These headphones support aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Classic SBC, and AAC codex. Surprisingly, I didn’t experience any latency when watching videos online on my iPhone as the audio was always in sync. They support multi pairing, so you can connect two devices at a time and switch between them which is really good.

As far as the active noise cancellation, they are very good on these headphones. They are pretty strong but slightly lag behind when compared to that on the 1000 XM3 but they do a very good job of canceling low-frequency noise. But when it comes to canceling high-frequency sounds, the 1000 XM3 does a better job and I also noticed a slight pressure when you turn on the active noise cancellation as well. It’s not that much but you definitely notice it, I think the cabin pressure is slightly less on the PX7 than that on the PX.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

As far as the controls, the entire right side is a touchpad and it’s really nice, not only tapping but it also allows swiping. So, you can turn the volume up and down by swiping, you can skip songs by swiping forward or back. There are some more advanced ones like if you swipe forward and hold, it supposed to fast forward, it doesn’t work with Spotify but maybe if you’re using some other native music player that might work on there. If you swipe backward and hold it rewinds, if you swipe up and hold or swipe down and hold those can also do things, and if you’re in a phone call you have some really advanced options. I also found that it’s a pretty wide, a pretty generous range right there if you double-tap it’s going to turn on the transparency mode.

Unfortunately, you cannot have the transparency mode on while you’re listening to music so double tapping turns on transparency mode, pauses your music, so you can hear your surroundings you’re never gonna have a clear pass-through mode where you can hear your surroundings at the same time as your music. These do have SBC, AAC, they’ve aptX, and they have aptX low latency, so latency on these is not going to be an issue. As far as connection goes through these, you do have several ways to connect the devices, first of all, you do have the aux cable if you want to use that. You could instead use the micro USB cable or you could use Bluetooth 5.0 and pair with up to two different devices at the same time, doesn’t mean both will be playing music at the same time but if you hit play on one, it’ll pause the other automatically.

It has autoplay, an auto-pause feature that I always love to see in over-ear headphones like this, so it’s really impressive you just take them off your head and it pauses automatically. This headphone uses a micro USB for charging which is a negative here but still, it’s good that it can be used actually as your cable for playing audio. One thing I noticed is if I’m on my laptop and I’m trying to make like a zoom call, Skype call whatever the microphone doesn’t necessarily work by way of the auxiliary cable and instead if I plug in the micro USB to the USB port right there, the microphone on the headphones does work, so that’s actually nice that it works.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

Application:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

Inside the app itself, you can see the battery percentage that’s left for your device at the moment, and then you’ve got your noise cancellation settings which you can switch on the phone or you can use the device itself. You’ve got your ambient pass through, so you can turn that on, and you can adjust the sensitivity as well for that. If you swipe across, you got to the devices that are available for your device, so you can connect two devices at the same time which you can select. The one that automatically gets picked up whenever you switch your device on is really good because that’s an update before ease to just connect to both and this is the conflict at some point here in there which is pretty good.

Also, in the app, you can change that connection setting to your last connected device or pick the actual device. Then scrolling across I’ve got soundscapes this is something just an extra bit on there if you want to zone out or meditate or something you got examples of stuff that you can use to help you. Then you got your wear sensor setting, you can turn it on/off, you can change the sensitivity from less to normal or more it’s up to you, and then you have got the voice prompt setting. Then you have the standby time it means if you’re not using it like mine set for 15 minutes, we’re just going to stand by and save battery life. That can be changed up to one hour and as low as five minutes or you can turn it off completely. Then you got your software updates which are really easy to do.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

The Sennheiser app here is the same app you’re using for pretty much all of your Sennheiser devices. On the bottom, you have two options right there you can go and turn noise cancellation on or off. Because we have it set to level the max level as it is a mechanical switch, you can’t really change that in the app. If you’re wondering then why would they have it in the app, it’s because if you go down to level 1 right there, it allows you to go to either adaptive noise cancellation or anti-wind noise cancellation. So, both of them are adaptive and it’s really nice that you have that option there.

We do also have acoustical settings, it should be an EQ it’s not really an EQ so you have a couple of options here the first one is neutral which sounds pretty good, if we go over to club I found that the bass gets a little high movie again you have a lot of bass on there, then speech is not for music at all this is really for hearing voices if you are listening to a podcast you just really want to hear vocals very well then it’s gonna mute pretty much everything except a natural vocal range, and then lastly we have director right here which is not actually a normal EQ I wish it was a normal EQ but it does give you some pretty interesting controls. So, you can change like the bass, Rumble, or a voice which is gonna be just what part of the frequency is being boosted.

Then we have a spatial control if you want it to sound farther away, closer to you, or medium, you can adjust the reverb on there, and you can just do DLC on the bottom. In the app setting you have the smart pause, call enhancement settings, and the voice assistant if you turn this on, this turns on Alexa otherwise voice assistant still works with a button. But it’s just your native one on your phone, so it’ll be Google or Siri or whatever you’re using it out there.

MICROPHONE:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

The mic quality on the PX7 is about average from my testing, they are slightly better than that on the Sony 1000 XM3 but they are not as good as that on the Bose 700 headphones. The ambient mode is there on the PX7 which lets in some external noise from your environment. But it’s not as good as that on the 1000 XM3 because once you have no music playing you turn on the ambient mood and there is quite a bit of hissing sound but it’s still very usable.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

It works really well, I think that this call quality is definitely no problem when I’m talking to people, I think it sounds great. The call enhancement setting in the app can be used to get a clear sound of the other person on the line in the headphones. As far as the active noise cancellation goes on these, I found that the microphone has a very natural sound, there’s really almost no white noise at all, and it blocks out just a hundred percent of the Rumble around you. So, if you have like a washing machine if you’ve got traffic outside if you’re on a train if you’re on an airplane like it just suddenly gets completely dead and quiet when you use these. It is very powerful, very comparable to a lot of the other ones like the Bose out there. Bose might be slightly better with the act with the active noise cancellation but otherwise these sound really good. 

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

BATTERY:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

As far as the battery life on the Bowers & Wilkins PX7, you are going to get around thirty hours of battery life as the company claims. But if you use the ANC and play with high volume then you may get less battery out of this. You can use them as wired to save your battery but one thing I noticed is that once the headphones run out of battery, you cannot use them wired, so you have to keep that in mind. 

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

As far as the battery goes with these headphones, it’s supposed to last 30 hours but I think that is if you’re wired and active noise cancellation is on. I normally have active noise cancellation and Bluetooth on, so what I’ve been getting from my testing is somewhere in the low 21 to 22 hours something like that which is pretty long. It’s definitely not the longest I’ve ever seen but considering they have ANC that is definitely a pretty good battery life.

SOUND:

Bowers & Wilkins PX7

These sound very good, these headphones produce one of the best if not the best soundstage and instrument separation on a pair of active noise-canceling. They are more fun to listen to as they don’t sound as flat as the PX, so you are getting more bass on the PX7. The bass is still clean, rich, and punchy but it’s not over-emphasized. The vocalist sounds slightly wider than that on the sony 1000 XM3.

I think the sound profile on these headphones will appeal to more people than that on the PX. But what I noticed is that when listening to some specific tracks with high pitch instruments, the upper treble can sound a little bit harsh. You can’t still adjust the sound settings on these headphones, so you have to be alert in mind. I just wish there was an EQ on it to adjust the sound settings.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

As far as audio quality goes on these the EQ options do allow you to change like the closeness, the bass focus, or the reverb and stuff like that like. But otherwise, they’re very warm, and there’s definitely plenty of basses is present to listen to, and is really generally a very good sound quality for wireless headphones.

I found that there’s definitely plenty of rumbly or even thumpy bass depending on how you choose it in the EQ but when you turn the bass up, or when you have a song with a lot of basses, some of the higher instruments might be slightly drowned out, and you might lose a little bit of detail but otherwise, the bass sounds very good. The mids are definitely very clear and very warm, so I really like these headphones. I wish there was an EQ because I find that these are definitely a little bit bass-heavy as far as headphones go, which for a lot of music can be great but sometimes I just wish I could hear the high end a little bit better.

Sennheiser PXC 550-II

WHICH TO BUY?

I think the Sennheiser PXC 550-II is a great pair of headphones to buy if you want a nice headphone at a lower price range because they are very comfortable, very light, very good sound quality, and I really do like the touchpads on the side. I’m a big fan of having physical buttons because they’re easier but because these are kind of a larger surface area there and they’re really pretty generous with what they accept, I think that I have no problems with answering, rejecting calls, changing the volume, and just otherwise using the touchpads there aren’t quite a few controls and I don’t use all of them, but the ones that I do need are all right there.  If you can afford more than three hundred dollars, then you can buy the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 because even though its price is more it worth that price because of its quality.

Expert reviews of Bowers & Wilkins PX7:

By theguardian.com
The left earcup has a multi-function button that controls noise canceling. Press it to cycle between automatic, low, high, and noise-canceling off. Press and hold…

By PCMag
The Bowers & Wilkins PX7 headphones balance strong wireless noise cancellation with an excellent audio performance for a very high price.

By Pocket-lint
Bowers & Wilkins has been consistent over the years and, in the PX7 headphones, continues that trend. It has created another wireless pair that will undoubtedly get the stamp of approval from…

By Trusted Reviews
The audio performance of the PX7 is fabulous, but there are two mitigating factors against it, or perhaps just…

By TechRadar
If you’re looking for class-leading wireless, noise-canceling headphones and you’re not put off by a premium price tag, Bowers & Wilkins’ latest flagship pair…

Experts reviews of Sennheiser PXC 550-II:

By goodhousekeeping.com
While the Sennheiser PXC-550 doesn’t come cheap, they’re an extremely comfortable and excellent sounding pair of wireless over-ear headphones that are simple to use and boast…

By bcchardware.com
As I type this conclusion, Five Finger Death Punch “Gone Away” is pounding in my ears and it’s glorious. The opening piano is clean and clear, quickly being added to by a snare and…

By TechRadar
Build and materials quality, battery life and sound quality are all impressive. Only latent treble troubles prevent a wholehearted recommendation.

By Stuff
It’s not often big over-ear headphones can be described as ‘discreet’ – but that’s how the PXC 550-IIs look and sound…

By PCMag
The Sennheiser PXC 550-II headphones deliver excellent noise cancellation and strong audio performance in a user-friendly design.