McLaren F1 livery for year's most luxury headphones are a race fan's dream

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 McLaren Edition are stunners

Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 McLaren Edition headphones
(Image credit: Bowers & Wilkins)
Quick Summary

Following on from Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 headphones release earlier this year, the British audio brand has revealed its special McLaren Edition version.

The headphones' design "connects fans of McLaren cars and the McLaren Formula 1 Team to the visual identity of the McLaren brand", with the addition of classic papaya orange as part of the visual make-up.

For the last decade Bowers & Wilkins has held a partnership with McLaren, more recently bringing special edition versions of its headphones to the market, complete with an added visual twist.

The Px8 S2 are among the most luxury headphones released this year, earning a through-and-through 5-star review.

Praised for their sound quality being "second to none" and the design being "confident", the exposed cabling and aluminium arms give a real point of difference to your average.

In the McLaren Edition version these are further highlighted, as you can see from the distinct gallery of images below:

The Px8 S2 McLaren Edition is the third pair of headphones to bring this partnership to the fore, following on from the Pi8 and original Px8 collaborations. Prior, the two brands worked on in-car systems for McLaren cars and special edition audio systems.

The Px8 S2 headphones themselves, however, do not differ sonically from the 'standard' version. That means impeccable audio, though, thanks to 40mm Carbon Cone drivers and High-Res Audio output at up to 24-bit/96kHz.

There's active noise-cancelling (ANC) on board, too, if you want to turn down the outside world's distractions. Even with this switched on, there's up to 30 hours of battery life per charge.

The Bowers & Wilkins Px8 S2 McLaren Edition are available now, having released on 19 November on the brand's website, priced at £729 / €829 / $899 / AU$1499 – a mark up over the standard pair's £629 / €729 / $799 / AU$1,299 asking price.

Mike Lowe
Tech Editor

Mike is T3's Tech Editor. He's been writing about consumer technology for 15 years and his beat covers phones – of which he's seen hundreds of handsets over the years – laptops, gaming, TV & audio, and more. There's little consumer tech he's not had a hand at trying, and with extensive commissioning and editing experience, he knows the industry inside out. As the former Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint for 10 years where he furthered his knowledge and expertise, whilst writing about literally thousands of products, he's also provided work for publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Metro, and more.

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