Bowers & Wilkins has recently refreshed its wireless earbuds range with the Pi6 and the flagship Pi8, which replace the 2023-released Pi5 S2 and Pi7 S2 respectively. Our in-house reviews team has already tested the more premium pair, the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8, and awarded them the full five-stars, but with a more affordable set on the books you might be wondering what the differences are and whether it is indeed worth forking out extra for the flagship pair.
As we haven’t yet tested the newly launched Pi6, we can't make any definitive judgements on their sound quality, an aspect we highly prioritise in our testing process. What we can tell you, however, are the differences between the two models' specs and features, and what we would at least expect of the Pi6's performance, given our time with the Pi8 and contextual knowledge of their predecessors.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: price
As anyone familiar with Bowers & Wilkins products would expect, neither the Pi8 nor the Pi6 are gunning for a spot on our list of the best cheap wireless earbuds. The hi-fi brand's headphones have always sat at the more premium end of the market.
The flagship Pi8 cost £349 / $399 / AU$599, making them some of the priciest wireless earbuds you can buy, so it would be understandable if you were looking for a cheaper option.
That is exactly what the Pi6 is, coming in at £219 / $249 / AU$449. That still puts them in the premium wireless earbuds space, mind you, and in the ballpark of several five-star competitors such as the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (£219 / $299 / AU$350), Apple AirPods Pro 2 (£230 / $190 / AU$335), and the Sony WF-1000XM5, which launched at £259 / $299 / AU$419 last year but nowadays can be picked up for significantly less.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: design and build
At a glance, it’s not particularly easy to tell the Pi8 (above) and Pi6 apart.
In fact, both sets of buds weigh exactly the same (7g per earpiece), so the only real way to tell them apart without sticking them in your ears and listening to their sonic differences is by colour. The Pi8 are available in Anthracite Black, Dove White, Jade Green and Midnight Blue, while the Pi6 come in Cloud Grey, Storm Grey, Glacier Blue and Forest Green. We welcome the colour options, not least as Sony, Bose, Apple and Sennheiser tend to stick to more muted tones for their earbud finishes.
Both sets of buds have IP54 ratings for water and dust resistance, which means you don’t have to worry if you get particularly sweaty ears or are caught in an unexpected rain shower while wearing them.
Both charging cases are also identical in looks, which is good news considering we remarked on how nice it feels in the hand in our Pi8 review. It’s relatively compact and lightweight at 46g, with a smooth, matte finish.
The key design differences are on the inside. While the drivers inside both pairs of buds are the same size (12mm), the materials used for each differ. The Pi8 use a carbon cone, whereas the Pi6's drivers are made of bio-cellulose. Considering the price difference, it is fair to assume the Pi6's drivers aren't as high-performing as those inside the Pi8, although we’ll have to wait until we get ears-on with a pair before confirming that.
B&W products tend to go the extra mile when it comes to aesthetics and build quality, and the Pi8 certainly look and feel reassuringly expensive – as you might hope for the price. That bodes well for the Pi6 considering their similarity. And while we haven't had the cheaper pair in our testing rooms yet, we have held them at a demo event and were pleased with the seeming quality of their design. We expect they will give a similar pride of ownership.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: features
While no longer unique to B&W (JBL, Jabra and LG all offer earbuds that do the same thing), the feature that predominantly sets the Pi8 apart from the Pi6 is their case’s ability to wirelessly re-transmit an audio signal.
Using the USB-C port on the bottom (either directly or with the bundled 3.5mm adaptor), you can hook up the Pi8 case to an audio source and the buds will then be able to wirelessly receive audio from it. It comes in pretty handy on long-haul flights and even supports aptX Adaptive Bluetooth codec transmission quality at up to 24-bit/96kHz quality.
Elsewhere, the Pi6 has a 24-bit DSP, whereas the Pi8 has a 32-bit DSP. This means the two pairs will likely have different digital-to-analogue conversion qualities that will affect their sound performance. Both support aptX Adaptive, aptX, AAC and SBC codecs, which is welcome at this price level, although the Pi8 also supports aptX Lossless, which, theoretically anyway, is the highest-quality Bluetooth codec. Bear in mind that your source device (phone) needs to also support the codec to benefit from its peak potential. Both models support Bluetooth Multipoint.
Both pairs offer active noise cancellation, but there is a difference in their implementations of the sound-blocking functionality. The Pi8's ANC tech is derived from the company's flagship Px8 over-ear headphones, while the Pi6's platform is a tweaked version of the one found in the outgoing Pi7 S2 earbuds.
As our in-house reviewers noted, the Pi8 aren't a million miles off the class leaders, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, in the noise-cancelling department. They do "a very good job with the low-frequency rumbles generated by roadworks and traffic," our review reads. As for the Pi7 S2 earbuds, we called their noise-cancelling "good, not excellent. A decent level of surrounding noise is dampened, but it isn’t anywhere near as convincing as the advanced ANC you get on the terrific Bose and Apple rivals". We would therefore expect the Pi8 to reduce environmental noise more effectively.
There are minimal discrepancies in the features department beyond that, although you do get a five-band equaliser with the Pi8 and just two bands when using the Pi6. The Pi8 also has TrueSound mode, which bypasses the EQ entirely and allows for a purer delivery of the audio signal, unharmed by that extra processing.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: battery life
Perhaps the only area where the Pi6 claim a clear advantage over the Pi8 is with battery life.
The Pi8 offers six-and-a-half hours from the earbuds themselves with ANC switched on, plus an extra 13.5 hours from the case, for a total of 20 hours. From the Pi6, however, there are up to eight in the earbuds and an additional 16 hours in the case, making for 24 hours in total – about what we would expect for premium wireless earbuds.
We doubt the battery in the Pi8 is inferior; their extra features and more sophisticated ANC system likely take more of a toll on their juicepack. Still, for earbuds that cost as much as they do, falling short of the 24-hour average in the premium market is a shame.
The two models' charging times are identical at two hours, and both can offer two hours of playback from just a 15-minute 'quick' charge. If you want to use wireless charging, though, you’ll need the Pi8 – it’s tethered cable charging only on the Pi6.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: sound quality
Again, we are yet to get the Pi6 into our review team’s collective ears, but we would expect the aforementioned differences between them and the higher-priced Pi8 to have an impact on audio performance.
Our five-star review of the Pi8 noted that their "wonderfully sophisticated, balanced and transparent sound delivers a level of insight that’s rare in wireless earbuds", and that overall it is "a really sophisticated, polished performance that’s overflowing with detail". It isn't often our reviews team hears earbuds more insightful than the Sony WF-1000XM5, which are current What Hi-Fi? Award winners in the field, but they concluded that the Pi8 are "clearly the best wireless earbuds we’ve heard from the brand and real contenders for class-leading status".
Indeed, that sets quite a high bar for the Pi6. Given they cost less and have slightly different internals, such as a different driver cone material, we wouldn't expect them to reach the Pi8's level exactly. But the shared elements of their DNA certainly mean we have high hopes for their sound quality. In our initial demo session, Bowers & Wilkins told us that the Pi6 perform better than the previous flagship Pi7 S2, which again bodes well. Of course, we cannot vouch for them without having gone 12 rounds with them. Stay tuned for our full review.
Bowers & Wilkins Pi8 vs Pi6: early verdict
The Pi6 aren’t just the Pi8 with a couple of fancier features removed, so there’s more to this decision than just how fussed you are about wireless charging and being able to use the case as a Bluetooth transmitter. Let's be honest, first and foremost it will likely come down to your budget – we're talking a £130 / $150 / AU$150 price difference between the two, after all – and then how much you value tried-and-tested, top-notch sound and ANC quality.
If the Pi6 do indeed turn out to be less sonically capable, it still makes sense for B&W to have a premium pair of earbuds aimed at people who would never dream of shelling out for the Pi8. They could even tempt people away from buying one of the best alternatives from the likes of Sony, Apple or Bose.
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