Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) vs Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8 (2018)

The Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) makes for a good, if unremarkable, Closed-Back Headphone for people with a $230 budget.

The Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, is merely mediocre at its $258 asking price, when compared to similarly priced products, and won't satisfy the needs of most people.

In either case, we suggest that you first take a look at some other options at the $230 and $370 price points before committing to one of these - it's likely that you'll be able to find some better alternatives.

If you're still interested in learning more about the Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) and Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), however, we wrote a summary of what we could find about them:

The Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) has managed to impress reviewers from two reliable and objective sources that conduct their own testing, namely What Hi-Fi? and Expert Reviews. It did great in their roundups - it earned the "Excellent sound quality, successful noise-cancelling and a smart design." title from What Hi-Fi?, and "Stylish, portable and excellent sound" from Expert Reviews, which marks it as a product that's worth considering.

As for the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018), it wasn't able to earn a top spot in any roundups from trusted sources that conduct their own hands-on testing. Nevertheless, it managed to impress reviewers at Techradar, PCmag, and Wirecutter (NYTimes) enough to make it onto their respective shortlists.

We conducted an analysis of all of the review data that we could find on these two products. First, we focused on sources that tested and rated both of them, like PCmag, and learned that they all showed a preference for the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018).

Then we took a look at the highest review scores that these two Closed-Back Headphones received. We found that the Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) managed to earn a rating of 10 from Pocket-lint, whereas the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) got its highest, 9.4, score from reviewers at Lifewire.

Lastly, we averaged out all of the reviews scores that we could find on these two products and compared them to other Closed-Back Headphones on the market. We learned that both of them performed far better than most of their competitors - the overall review average earned by Closed-Back Headphones being 7.4 out of 10, whereas the Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) and Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) managed averages of 8.3 and 8.5 points, respectively.

Due to the difference in their prices, however, it's important to keep in mind that a direct Bowers & Wilkins PX (2017) vs. Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H8i (2018) comparison might not be entirely fair - some sources don't take value for money into account when assigning their scores and therefore have a tendency to rate more premium products better.