Apple AirPods Max 2 vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: two noise-cancelling flagship headphones, one winner for design, sound, ANC and value | Daily Reports Online

Even better ANC
Live Translation that’s easier to use than on Apple’s buds
Adaptive Audio for meatier, punchier sound
Head-tracked Spatial Audio feels more accurate and crisp

Cons

Poor battery life, comparatively
Flimsy case remains
Still very iOS-only
No wireless hi-res codec support still

Pros

Open, detailed and vaultingly dynamic sound
Great standard of build and finish
Very good control options and hi-res codec support

Cons

Can be bettered for noise-cancellation and ‘immersive’ profiles
Nappa leather won’t please vegans
Priced according to their talent – ie. really quite high

You’re here to see which flagship noise-cancelling headphones are best, and I get it. One way to deduce which is the better buy might traditionally be newness, right? Not so easy here. One set of headphones here has a September 2025 release, one boasts a newer March 2026 launch date — but that’s far from the whole story.

You see, on looks alone, the AirPods Max 2 could be a 2020 release, despite actually being the newer set of cans. Why? Oh, because the build looks exactly the same as the first-generation set, despite hiding newer H2 chips under the hood and upgraded amplification. Meanwhile, the B&W Px8 S2 has all the physical trappings of a generational upgrade as well as the sonic upticks to back it up.

When whittling down the best noise cancelling headphones of 2026 (or just the best over-ear headphones you can buy today) it will come as no surprise to learn that both of the products — and indeed manufacturers — in the title of this versus are in the picture for the win. Both firms are, make no mistake, excellent at what they do. And although one gained a five-star review and one a half-star off that, there’s very little in it.

Apple AirPods Max 2 vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: price & availability

As mentioned above, the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 are the older of the two in a ‘tale of the tape’ style side-by-side, but only by six months. The B&W cans arrived in September of last year (2025) while the AirPods Max 2 arrived in March 2026. That said, on looks alone you’d never be able to tell that the Max 2 are newer, because their actual design (read: looks, save for one or two new finishes) hasn’t changed since the original 2020-issue set. And that is a fact which left some fans disappointed…

And they’re like heavyweight boxers in terms of desirability as well as talent and fame: the B&W option will set you back a not-insignificant $799 / £629 (approx. AU$1,299) while the AirPods Max 2 cost $549 / £499 / AU$999.

You don’t need me to tell you that the AirPods Max 2 are the cheaper of the two here (and isn’t that an unusual position for Apple to find itself in?), but you also don’t need me to tell you that we really do have to go much deeper into the features, comfort, sound quality, ANC efficacy and overall user experience to see where the real value is. So come on then!

AirPods Max 2 vs B&W Px8 S2, side by side in the sun — (Image credit: Future)

Apple AirPods Max 2 vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: specs

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Header Cell – Column 0	Apple AirPods Max 2	Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2
Price	$549 / £499 AU$999	$799 / £629 / AU$1,299
Drivers	Apple-designed dynamic driver with new ‘custom high dynamic range amplifier’	2 x 40mm dynamic full-range carbon cone
Active noise cancellation	Yes	Yes
Battery life	Up to 20 hours (with ANC enabled) 5 mins of charging nets 1.5 hours of listening	30 hours (ANC on)
Weight	386.2g	310g
Connectivity	Bluetooth 5.3 (H2 chip) Lossless with USB-C	5.3 with SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless compatibility, USB-C audio
Waterproofing	None	None

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 vs Bose QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen): features

Apple’s cans are newer, so let’s kick off with them. The inclusion of newer H2 chips — yes, there’s actually one in each ear cup — add a swathe of new features, with one big caveat: you need an Apple iPhone that’s either the iPhone 15 Pro or newer to get at most of them.

Provided your source device is one of those though, new features abound, including Adaptive Audio (the Transparency mode can adjust itself to block some unnecessary sounds, and there’s an optional slider to tweak just how ‘adaptive’ you want it to get), Conversation Awareness (so the over-ears can automatically lower the volume of your music and filter external sounds should you start talking to someone, then put everything back again once you stop chatting), plus Loud Sound Reduction and Personalized Volume to help protect your hearing but keep the sonic profile how you like it.

There’s also Live Translation, which is for me the star of that Apple-Intelligence-and-iPhone ecosystem. I thoroughly enjoyed using it here over Apple’s AirPods Pro 3, because it’s so much easier to access via a long press of AirPods Max’s on-ear Listening Mode button.

Elsewhere, Head Gesture support means you can nod to accept a call or check a message, shake your head to dismiss a message or decline a call, or nod to Siri silently. You don’t have to perform these actions violently either. Also, the new Camera Remote feature means you can now take snaps on your iPhone camera using AirPods Max 2’s Digital Crown, and despite not being much of a photographer, I used that more than I thought I would.

Apple’s new Voice Isolation software also improves your call quality when it’s loud or windy around you — and thanks to some extra processing power afforded by that H2 chip, you get much better voice capture from the headphones’ three mics for voice pickup (two are shared with the ANC system, and one is an additional dedicated microphone) in the nine-mic total. If it’s a fight over which set of cans takes calls better, I’d hand it to Apple.

Of course I left the best for last: Apple says that the active noise cancellation is “up to 1.5x more effective than the previous generation” and when Tim Cook’s behemoth boasts, it’s best to listen. The noise-nixing here is honestly next-level — and I mean near-silent, cocooning, calming and enveloping. It’s like stillness as a backdrop to your music. If that’s what you need, these headphones win over the B&W buy, hands down.

Switching to the competing set in this particular bout, as we said in our Px8 S2 review, “When it comes to active noise-cancellation, Bowers & Wilkins must — just like every other brand — accept it’s competing for second place”. And in this particular battle against AirPods Max 2, B&W hasn’t won. The ANC is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not as good as Apple’s.

Now, let’s focus on the B&W option. Ever noticed how elite audiophile-adjacent headphones tend not to be, er… overburdened by features? B&W hasn’t changed the game here. That said, ‘elite’ is still great way to describe the Px8 S2 and while the feature-set here is 100% business, there is one relatively recent addition, in the form of a dedicated “True Immersion” spatial audio mode. It was listed as “coming following a software update” when the Px8 S2 launched, and it’s here now. It’s designed to widen the soundstage, but instead of of relying on traditional 3D head-tracking, the feature is meant to create a concert or club-like soundstage akin to attending live gigs.

Bowers & Wilkins has designed and implemented built-in digital processing to expand the spatial footprint of standard stereo tracks but, as you’d expect when your fanbase largely consists of audiophiles, user feedback is highly mixed. Yes, these immersive side-sauces can sound unnatural or over-processed, but for me that’s not an issue with the Px8 S2. I find the bass response decent and that ‘concert atmosphere’ idea has largely been achieved, but then again, this isn’t B&W’s forte. These are headphones one buys for a wire-free experience during critical listening, and so I think you’ll keep it switched off most of the time.

The Px8 S2 are compatible with SBC, AAC, aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless codecs — and you won’t find any aptX support in Apple’s cans. That said, I prefer Apple’s head-tracked Spatial Audio when it comes to immersive soundstages.

Wired listening can happen using the USB-C slot on one ear cup with either option — but while B&W supplies USB-C to USB-C, and USB-C to 3.5mm cables in the lovely semi-hard travel case, Apple only offers the former (and only gives you a minimal ‘headphone bra’ to carry the cans in, so be careful not to lose the cable!)

Battery life is one bone of contention: 30 hours in the B&W with ANC deployed, and a 15-minute jolt of juice will get you up to another seven hours’ playback. That drops to just 20 hours max (with ANC enabled) with the AirPods Max 2, where 5 minutes of charging nets 1.5 hours of listening. In 2026, this can easily be beaten and is one area Apple really does need to improve. That said, for the aforementioned features — and that excellent ANC performance — Apple edges it here.

(Image credit: Future)

Oh, one other thing: the companion apps. Bowers & Wilkins’ solution is far better here especially if you don’t own an iPhone, offering to round up your music streaming services as well as catering to the cans and providing a thoroughly comprehensive, intuitive experience. In direct comparison, Apple’s solution (that fits into your iPhone’s pull-down general and settings menus; there is no official AirPods app for Android) feels a tad bare-bones, but then again, it is intuitive — once you’ve downloaded those language modules you’ll need for translation…

Features winner: Apple AirPods Max 2

(Image credit: Future)

Apple AirPods Max 2 vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: sound quality

Ready for the indicator to swing back the other way, if only ever-so-slightly? You’re probably way ahead of me, but Bowers & Wilkins makes some of the best-sounding wireless headphones within the mass production consumer space, and the Px8 S2 are no exception.

The company deployed the amplification and DSP engine from its (also very good) Px7 S3 headphones here, but the bespoke tuning — plus a stiffer and more pricey driver chassis and upgraded motor system and voice coil — has ensured that the Px8 S2 do sound significantly better than their well-regarded (and, ahem, more affordable) siblings. Our review explains this succinctly: “Where out-and-out sound quality is concerned, it’s hard to lay a glove on the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2… where they really excel, they leave their nominal competition gasping.”

(Image credit: Future)

How do the Apple AirPods Max 2 compare for sound? It depends on how you like to listen — because while there’s no higher-resolution codec support, for oomph and head-tracked audio within Apple Music suite, I still find them hard to beat. But for critical, neutral, integrated listening? They’re still playing second fiddle to Bowers & Wilkins.

Apple hasn’t divulged the drivers under the hood, but did specify a new ‘custom high dynamic range amplifier’ which I truly believe has made for a punchier and more dynamically nuanced listen than in the first-generation set — yes, probably owing to the new H2 chips.

The head-tracked Spatial Audio support is not a new feature with this iteration, but it is so beautifully implemented here thanks to the new software that, as I said in my review, “you’ll find yourself whipping them off to check there’s no mini speaker under your chin or squirreled away at the back of the room”.

It’s a closer-run thing than I’d expected — and again, it depends on your source material and whether you want a more three-dimensional presentation — but I can’t hand the sound accolade to any product other than the B&W Px8 S2.

Sound quality winner: Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2

TechRadar's audio editor wearing AirPods Max 2 on a sunny day — (Image credit: Future)

Apple AirPods Max 2 vs Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2: design

Honestly, the sense of pride in ownership I feel wearing the Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 over my ears (or even around my neck, with the metallic accents catching the light) remains unmatched. Wearing them is like being a member of a very select group — the audiophile who knows where the best sound is and wasn’t scared of spending the cash.

You’ve got to give B&W the nod where looks are concerned. Over-ear headphones can look pretty generic, but somehow the Px8 S2 feel like an Aston Martin: luxurious yet demure, elite yet understated. They’re available in ‘Onyx Black’, ‘Warm Stone’, ‘Pearl Blue’, Midnight Blue’ and a special ‘McLaren Edition’ finish; all are quite splendid.

The arms and headband feature a recess that allows a portion of the cable to be exposed (a nod to the company’s very first headphones, the P5, which launched back in 2010) and at 310g, the Px8 S2 are actually just a fraction lighter and slimmer than the headphones they replace. Honestly, I can’t find anything to pick fault with — except that the real leather won’t appeal to vegans.

(Image credit: Future)

Do I get that same true pride in ownership with Apple’s newest cans? Not quite, in all honesty — but that doesn’t mean it’s a clear win for the B&W in this instance. How to score this category then? If you like dashing good looks, it’s got to be the B&W, but if you want supreme comfort and a design that helps promote a truly cocooned feel — with lovely on-ear controls — it’s Apple, for me.

They’re heavier than the Px8 S2, at 386.2g, but they don’t feel it. Because here’s the thing with AirPods Max 2: nothing about the design has been changed, because it doesn’t need to be. The huge ear cups, the meshy headband with its silent yokes, the mic placement? It was all so-designed because Apple threw out the rule book and just wanted to make the best ever headphones. So while we can argue the toss over how they look, I maintain that for comfort, they knock everything else out the park.

I also love the Digital Crown, which can handle playback and volume. OK, the case is odd and Apple hasn’t offered a proper one, which many users are crying out for. But I still reach for the AirPods Max 2 most days for the way they feel and the quiet, seemingly protected sonic spaces they take me to after a long day. So I can’t simply give the B&W the nod, you see…