Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review: Sound Quality Meets Connectivity

Audio

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6

Pros

  • Sound quality, which is pretty good
  • Quality of products, look and feel is great
  • Noise cancelling
  • Extra soft-tips to adjust it to your ear canal
  • App works great, lot’s of possibilities, and… all different devices can be controlled with one app

Cons

  • With 249,- euros it’s not the most cheap headphone. And comparing it to the Apple AirPods Pro 2, which have a better noise cancelling .. and wireless charging, it’s hard to make a choice
  • EQ for just treble and bass, not the more advanced EQ of the Pi8
Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review

After my last review of the (new) Bowers & Wilkins Pi8, we now dive into the new Bowers & Wilkins Pi6. Compared to the Pi8, which have 2x 12mm Carbon Cones, the Pi6 have 2x 12mm Biocellulose Drivers.
This review will tell you more about the Pi6, and why it’s a great product.

Bowers & Wilkins have send me a Pi6 for review – which I could keep (… also due to hygienic purposes). This review does not reflect any of it, since it’s my honest opinion which also will be read by Bowers & Wilkins, on the same day you are reading this article.

Enough mumbo-jumbo, let’s roll!

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review
Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review

Specifications

Let’s start off with the specifications:

  • Size & Weight
    • Earbuds: 7g (each)
    • Charging case: 46g
    • Dimensions (Charging Case)65 mm (w) x 29 mm (d) x 52 mm (h)
  • Technical Details
    • Wearing Style
      • In-Ear Noise-Cancelling True Wireless Earbuds
    • Technical Features
      • High-performance DSP
      • True 24-bit audio connection
      • 2-band customisable EQ
      • Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX™ Adaptive technology
      • Multipoint connectivity
      • Active Noise Cancellation (ANC)
      • USB-C charging
      • Fast charging support
      • Apple MFi Made for iPhone support
  • Bluetooth Codecs
    • aptX™ Adaptive
    • aptX™ Classic
    • AAC
    • SBC
  • Drive Units
    • 12 mm Bio-cellulose
  • Microphones
    • 3 per earbud for telephony and ANC
  • Battery Type
    • Rechargeable Lithium-ion (earbuds and charging case)
  • Battery Life & Charging
    • Up to 8 hours for earbuds (with ANC on)
    • Additional 16 hours from charging case
    • Charge time = 2 hours
    • 15-minute charge = 2 hours playback
    • Wireless Charging Support= No
  • Water Resistance
    • IP54 (earbuds)
  • Audio Inputs
    • Earbuds: Bluetooth
  • Accessories
    • Extra Small / Small / Medium / Large ear tips
    • 60 cm USB-C to USB-C charging cable
  • Finishes
    • Cloud Grey
    • Forest Green
    • Glacier Blue
    • Storm Grey

Unboxing

Time to unbox the Pi6.

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What else do we know Bowers & Wilkins from? I don’t know.. speakers maybe? 😛

To be honest. It’s pretty cool that Bowers & Wilkins gives 3 different tips (extra) with the package, so that you are able to find the correct ear-tip.

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Price & Availability

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 costs $249 in the U.S., €249,- in Europe, £187 in the UK, and AU$367 in Australia. And looking at this price it should compare to the premium wireless earbuds like the Apple AirPods Pro 2 or Sony WF-1000XM5.

Design: The Aesthetically Simple, But Is It Too Much?

Bowers & Wilkins has always carried the marque for elegant designs, and on a cursory glance, the Pi6 seems to stay true to that tradition. The earbuds add up to a swanlike minimalist look – understated rather than flashing.

While fully plastic in construction, the Pi6 earbuds do weigh very little which makes them a pleasure to wear all day.

Visually, the charging case is no more impressive than the earbuds themselves, looking quite minimalist, much like the look of the earbuds, but in a cleaner way. The Pi6 does not have the capability to retransmission audio received by the case. Where with the Pi6 you could actually use a USB-C to 3.5mm jack cable to listen to in-flight movies or even hooking it up to your device which does not have bluetooth.

Of course, the Pi6 does come with an IP54 rating for dust and water resistance. It feels well-suited for regular use in a variety of environments. Even going to the gym is well suited with this pair. Due to great sound quality and noise cancelling you can push yourself to new limits.

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review

Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review

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Comfort & Fit: Improved like crazy

The Pi5 and Pi7 S2 already looked pretty good. The Pi8 and this Pi6 may have taken a huge step forwards in design. The comfort of these in-ears are not just better, they sit great in the ear, which helps you work, play and use them for a longer time.

But fit security doesn’t necessarily follow comfort. The Pi6 ship with silicon ear-tips. 4 sizes even. When the seal doesn’t form as tightly as it should, the user can simply choose another silicon ear-tip which might suit better.

Features & Music App

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 can be controlled by the Bowers & Wilkins ‘Music’ app. The app works wonders in my opinion. It has all the capabilities to control your device. And the absolutely great thing of the Music app, is that it controls all Bowers & Wilkins devices. From headphone to in-ears.. The Formation series even..

In addition, it offers an app with basic ANC mode toggles, controls that can be customized, and shortcuts for services such as Tidal and Qobuz, yet it gives a very simple two-band EQ for managing bass and treble; this configuration is somewhat archaic in comparison with the advanced EQ settings available on the Pi8.

The Pi6 should come with a quite elegant and intuitive control system. Users can pause music, skip tracks, control volume, and answer calls through single-tap, double-tap, and long-hold gestures. However, a user has to set up what they want with their system. Or volume control, or Siri. Not both…

Another feature is the wear detection ability, which will pause music automatically should it find you are not wearing one of the earbuds individually. This works pretty good. During testing – and even with the Pi8 – I did not have any issues with it.

Multi-point audio is also a huge positive of these in-ears. It helps connecting with different devices, and even let’s you switch in between then.

Since my phone is set-up Dutch, the app also uses Dutch – I cannot change it in the app (at all).

Via the Music app the Pi6 was found easily. It ask you to press one of the eartips to start the set-up process.  After that you are ready to go!

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On the frontpage of the app the noise cancelling can be adjusted — and a shows the batterylife of the in ears.

The whole menu shows the possibilities of the in-ears.

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The app can be set up to change the touch on the right and left side. You can set it from volume control to ANC and assistant controls.

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I am impressed with the Music app that it can control different devices. From Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S2e to an Formation Duo set.

The EQ is different than the one of the Pi8! It can only change the bass and treble.

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Active Noise Cancellation & Transparency Mode

The ANC of the Pi6 works pretty good as well, but it has the same result as I mentioned with the Pi8.

Still, I have to admit that the ANC is quite good for in-ears. But in my opinion not as great as the Apple AirPods Pro 2. During the tests, they seem to be able to hide office noise (around) 10% more.
I mainly noticed this in a gym, the Pi8 covers well so that you really get into your own world, the AirPods Pro 2 does just a tad better (however the audio quality of the Pi8 is way better which compensates for the ANC, listening to music anyway…).

The transparency mode is very well done. This feature amplifies external sounds to help one have a conversation or be aware of the surroundings without having to take out the earbuds. Transparency feels very natural here, without the artificial amplification that plagues other earbuds’ transparency settings.

Sound: Still a Strong Suit

With new bio-cellulose drive units, the Pi6 delivers sound that is exceedingly rich in detail and well-balanced and free of distortion.

Be it acoustic tracks with so much layering or electronic ones that are too bass-heavy, the Pi6 will handle them all. The highs are crystal clear, the mids are distinct, and the bass-good enough to hit you without tearing your eardrums to pieces. If your choice is purely based on listening quality while taking the best wireless earbuds, then let me tell you, the Pi6 will not let you down.

The aptX Adaptive codec is one great new feature, which brings sound quality that adjusts based on your connection and device.

The Pi6 case is compared with the Perl Pro from Denon and the AirPods Pro 2. The Pi6 case falls just in the middle of these 3.

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Call Quality: Decent indeed

To be honest, having a chat during a meeting or a chat with friends does not have to fall under the flac audio quality. It should also not sound that you are shouting through a can and a string. The Pi6 does the job indeed and makes it sound pretty good. I cannot complain about it, at all. Teams meetings or even calls via the telephone sounds good. There is no difference in quality – mentioned by my friends – with the Apple’s AirPods Pro 2.

Battery Life: It absolutely gets you through the day! 

The Pi6 may safely be expected to run a decent battery life, though nothing outstanding in this increasingly busy market. It can deliver up to 8 hours of listening time on a full charge with ANC, while adding 16 hours in the charging case brings the total use time to a total of 24 hours.

While these numbers are respectable, they’re not remarkable. The AirPods Pro 2, for example, boast up to 30 hours of total battery life when ANC is enabled, and they also lead the Pi6. What’s more, it does not offer a wireless charging case, something that I’d reckon is verging on no-brainer territory at this cost.

Then there’s the Pi6’s quick charging. With 2 hours of playback time to its name for a 15-minute charge, which is quite impressive.

Verdict: More hits than misses

Bowers & Wilkins’ Pi6 are earbuds absolutely stand out in the market. Not only due to it’s new shape and form, but also due to their sound quality. Those new drivers actually do their absolute best to give you what you need. Great audio for a decent price. But.. yes, there is one. Even though the quality of the Pi6 is good. I would really go for the Pi8, because it even sounds better than that. If you are tied to a budget and you want great audio, then the Pi6 would suit you well. Would you have a wider budget. Absolutely take a closer look to the Pi8. It also enables audio streaming via an externa device via a 3.5 mm jack to usb-c – which lacks on the Pi6.

Compared to the AirPods Pro 2, they have more sound… and that.. that’s what really matters.

The Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 is on point and receives 4 out of 5 stars.

Get yours today! 🎉📦

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Bowers & Wilkins Pi6 Review

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