As audio manufacturers shift their focus to true wireless earbuds, it's becoming rare to see new neckband-style wireless earphones, so we're happy that Bowers & Wilkins is keeping the category alive with the PI3 ($199.99). With two drivers per earpiece, they deliver a strong audio experience with rich bass and detailed highs, and they do so in a refined design with intuitive controls. If there's a complaint here, it's a familiar one in the Bowers & Wilkins realm: These earphones are expensive. That said, the high price gets you an elegant design with superior audio performance.

Design

Available in blue, cream, or gray models, the earphones have a matte rubber finish on the cable itself, and the eartips and fins have a similar look. The earpieces are metallic, with an eggshell-like finish that matches the look of the inline control compartments on both sides of the nackband. The earfins and eartips are separate, and can be mixed and matched to get an ideal in-ear fit. In all, there are three pairs of eartips and three pairs of earfins in small, medium, and large. There's no waterproof rating, so don't plan on using these earphones at the gym.

The inline control compartment on the right side of the neckband houses a three-button array. The central multifunction button controls playback, track navigation, and call management, depending on how many times you tap it. The outer two buttons are dedicated volume controls. This same compartment houses a USB-C port for the included charging cable. The left compartment holds the power button.

Bowers & Wilkins includes a small canvas pouch, and the earpieces have magnetic outer panels and snap together for stowing. Just keep in mind that snapping them together doesn't automatically power the earphones down.

The Bowers & Wilkins app (for Android and iOS) offers some tips to get started, as well as a modest settings menu that allows you to disable voice prompts, adjust the power-off timer (or disable it), and get software updates. There's also a soundscapes section, with relaxing sounds like campfires and waterfalls on loops to help you focus or zone out. What's missing? Plenty of apps for less expensive headphones include EQ, and the lack of adjustable EQ or EQ presets here feels like a missed opportunity.

Bowers & Wilkins rates battery life at 8 hours, but your results will vary with your volume levels.

Performance

The earphones supports AAC and AptX (Adaptive, Classic, and HD) Bluetooth codecs. Internally, there are two drivers per ear, which is quite impressive for a wireless model, even at $200. For the lows and mids, there's a 9.2mm full-range driver, while the high-mids and highs are handled by a smaller balanced armature driver. These are paired with two separate amplifiers and combine to deliver a frequency range of 10Hz to 30kHz.

On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife's "Silent Shout," the drivers deliver a robust low-frequency response. There's more of a focus on richness than heavily boosted thump, and there's also plenty of balance with the high-mids and highs, which sound sculpted to a degree, but not wildly so. At top, unwise listening levels, the bass on this track doesn't distort.

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Bill Callahan's "Drover," a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the PI3's general sound signature. The drums on this track receive some added bass depth, but nothing over the top. Callahan's baritone vocals receive a pleasant amount of low-mid richness, and the high-mids lend some added treble edge and contour. The acoustic strums and higher-register percussive hits also benefit from the sculpting in the high frequencies, yet things never sound overly bright. The balance here is ideal, as the lows never overshadow the highs, and the highs never sound too boosted.

On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop's attack receives enough high-mid presence to retain its punchiness, but it's the vinyl hiss and crackle that's usually relegated to background status that we notice the most at the outset. This tell us the highs are perhaps dialed up a bit more than the high-mids. The sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat are delivered with gusto—nothing that approaches the mega-bass sound signature that is prevalent in many models we test today, but the lows are also not ignored. Thus, bass lovers will not be disappointed, mainly because the lows are well-represented, and you do get a solid sense of the low-frequency depth on this track. The vocals are delivered with excellent clarity, though at times there seems to be a bit of added sibilance.

Orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound excellent through the PI3. The higher-register brass, strings, and vocals are delivered with bright detail, and beautifully anchored by the refined bass response, which pushes the lower-register instrumentation forward slightly in the mix, but in a way that sounds natural.

The mic offers solid intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone 8, we could understand every word we recorded, and there wasn't much in the way of Bluetooth distortion. The mic's signal sounded relatively strong, and not too distant from the mouth.

Conclusions

Bowers & Wilkins keeps it simple with the PI3 and gets just about everything right. The fit is secure, the design is handsome and easy to operate, and most of all, the audio performance is strong. As mentioned, most of the similarly priced competition we're seeing these days is in the true wireless realm. For $250, the Apple AirPods Pro offer a more seamless user experience and some impressive active noise cancellation, while the Beats Powerbeats Pro are ideal for the gym. And if you prefer a neckband design, the $250 RHA T20 Wireless earphones deliver an excellent audio experience with detachable earpieces that can be used with a standard cable, or you can save $50 by picking up the PI3.

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