Bowers & Wilkins has launched a McLaren Edition of its flagship wireless headphone, the Px8 with luxury British supercar maker McLaren Automotive. The partnership is built on firm technical foundations which has already been recognised for three iF design awards for the system integrations of Bowers & Wilkins in the McLaren Speedtail, McLaren GT, and most recently, the McLaren Artura.
The Px8 McLaren Edition features a Galvanic grey finish and Papaya orange highlights, the latter inspired by the famous Papaya orange which originated on founder Bruce McLaren’s early racing cars.
The heart of the McLaren Edition Px8 is a pair of bespoke 40mm Carbon Cone drive units, these are angled inside each earcup to ensure a consistent distance relative to the listener’s ears. The Px8 uses Qualcomm’s aptX Adaptive wireless technology to ensure the best possible sound quality from compatible phones, tablets and computers. USB-C and 3.5mm analogue cable connections are also supported with both cable types included in the matching carry case that accompanies the product.
Whether using wireless or wired connections, the Px8 combines its drive unit configuration with Bowers & Wilkins-developed digital signal processing (DSP) to deliver, 24-bit high-resolution sound quality from leading streaming services.
The Px8 uses proprietary noise cancellation technology to “effectively shut out unwanted noise – crucially, without harming musicality in the process”. Six microphones work together to deliver the best results: two measure the output of each drive unit, two react to ambient noise from the outside world and two capture speech with enhanced noise suppression. The Px8 McLaren Edition is available now priced at £699 / $799 / €799.