December 7, 2022 – Bowers & Wilkins, the renowned British premium audio brand, has launched a McLaren Edition of its newest flagship wireless headphone, the Px8 with luxury British supercar maker McLaren Automotive.
The Px8 McLaren Edition is built on the reference-standard sound quality of the new Px8, while the premium design honours the partnership with the luxury supercar maker, which has generated ground- breaking innovations for in-car audio.
Introducing the Px8 McLaren Edition
To celebrate the McLaren and Bowers & Wilkins partnership and the high-performance hybrid McLaren Artura supercar in which the two companies’ award-winning collaboration features, Bowers & Wilkins has created a specially-designed version of its Px8 wireless headphones, the Px8 McLaren Edition.
Since 2015, Bowers & Wilkins has been responsible for the development of the high-performance audio systems found in McLaren’s supercars and hypercars.
One of the world’s most respected audio brands, Bowers & Wilkins is famed for pushing the boundaries of loudspeaker capability, with the goal of revealing as much of the original recording as possible – without ever changing or distorting that sound. This pursuit of perfection, instilled by founder John Bowers, is still evident today.
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.
Bowers & Wilkins has worked closely with McLaren’s design and engineering teams to create and optimise the audio system found in the company’s first series production high-performance hybrid supercar - the McLaren Artura.
Like its McLaren predecessors, the Artura features the very latest speaker technologies, which are developed in Southwater, home to the Bowers & Wilkins research and development team since 2019 and only 30 miles away from the McLaren global HQ in Surrey, where its supercars and hypercars are hand-built.
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.
Sharing McLaren’s obsession with technical and performance-led aesthetics, the Px8 McLaren Edition headphones offer wireless sound quality synonymous with Bowers & Wilkins.
The heart of the McLaren Edition Px8 is stellar performance with outstanding detail, resolution and spaciousness thanks to all-new bespoke 40mm Carbon Cone drive units, inspired by technology used in Bowers & Wilkins reference-quality loudspeakers.
The Carbon Cone drive units in the Px8 McLaren Edition are carefully angled inside each earcup to ensure a consistent distance relative to the listener’s ears from every point across the surface of each driver, to produce a more immersive and highly accurate soundstage.
The result is the best sound quality Bowers & Wilkins has ever delivered from a pair of wireless headphones.
Unparalleled high-resolution sound and noise cancellation
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 specially matching carry case that accompanies the product.
Whether using wireless or wired connections, the Px8 combines its ultra-high-performance drive unit configuration with powerful Bowers & Wilkins-developed Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to deliver outstanding, 24-bit high-resolution sound quality from leading streaming services.
The Px8 uses proprietary Bowers & Wilkins-optimised noise cancellation technology to effectively shut out unwanted noise – crucially, without harming musicality in the process.
Six high-performance 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 provide outstanding voice clarity with enhanced noise suppression.
A breakthrough in user experience
The Px8 McLaren Edition will use the same recently upgraded Bowers & Wilkins Music App for set-up and use. The Music App allows Px8 users to stream their chosen music directly from their mobile device to their headphones, with Deezer, Qobuz and TIDAL all supported.
As before, the Music App also simplifies connection of the Px8 to a mobile device, supports fine-tuning of the sound through adjustable EQ, and allows owners to configure their preferred noise-cancelling mode, all while monitoring the headphone’s charge level.
Dan Shepherd, Vice President, Licensing & Partnerships commented: “We are tremendously proud of our long-standing relationship with McLaren Automotive, which is rooted in a shared desire to lead in performance. The Px8 McLaren Edition celebrates this partnership, extending the appeal of our industry- leading sound performance and McLaren’s DNA to outside the car.”
“We are delighted to unveil the Px8 McLaren Edition, which builds on the award-winning and long-standing collaboration between McLaren and Bowers & Wilkins. The shared ethos of pushing the boundaries, innovation and the pursuit for perfection is apparent in all products that both brands have collaborated on to-date. With the new headphones, the immersive audio experience that all receive in our supercars can now go beyond the road.” George Biggs, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, McLaren Automotive.
The new Px8 McLaren Edition will be available from the Bowers & Wilkins website, mclarenstore.com and select retailers from December 7th priced at £699 / $799 / €799.
About Bowers & Wilkins
Bowers & Wilkins, founded in the U.K. in 1966, has been at the forefront of high-performance audio technology for more than 50 years. It designs and manufactures precision home speakers, headphones, custom installation and performance car audio products that set new standards for innovation and sound quality, earning countless awards and accolades from the world’s leading recording studios and musicians. Bowers & Wilkins’ reputation is based on the unwavering pursuit of the best possible sound and an unsurpassable music listening experience. Learn more at www.bowerswilkins.com.
About McLaren Automotive
McLaren Automotive is a creator of luxury, high-performance supercars. Every vehicle is hand-assembled at the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in Woking, Surrey, England.
Launched in 2010, the company is now the largest part of the McLaren Group.
The company’s product portfolio of GT, supercar, Motorsport and Ultimate models are retailed through over 100 retailers in over 40 markets around the world.
McLaren is a pioneer that continuously pushes the boundaries. In 1981, it introduced lightweight and strong carbon fibre chassis into Formula 1 with the McLaren MP4/1.
Then in 1993 it designed and built the McLaren F1 road car - the company has not built a car without a carbon fibre chassis since. As part of the Ultimate Series, McLaren was the first to deliver a hybrid hypercar, the McLaren P1™. In 2016, it announced a new hybrid hyper-GT and confirmed in 2018 that the next Ultimate car would be the Speedtail.
2019 saw McLaren launch the 600LT Spider, the new GT and the track-only McLaren Senna GTR. It also unveiled the 620R and McLaren Elva before launching the 765LT the following year.
Most recently, the company unveiled its all-new high-performance hybrid supercar, the McLaren Artura.
The Artura is the first McLaren to benefit from the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA). The MCLA is designed, developed and manufactured at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre in the Sheffield region of England using world-first processes and will spearhead the brand’s electrified future.
McLaren Automotive also chooses to partner with like-minded, world-leading companies and organisations who push the boundaries in their respective fields. These include AkzoNobel, Ashurst, Bowers & Wilkins, Dell Technologies, Gulf, InfiniteWorld, Pirelli, Richard Mille, Plan International and Tumi.