Macworld At a glanceExpert's Rating Pros  Excellent sound quality  Competitive price  Impressive battery life Cons Noise-cancellation could be stronger No spatial audio or Dolby Atmos Our Verdict The noise-cancellation could be a little more effective, but the Px7 S3 provides hi-fi sound quality, along with impressive 30-hour battery life at a much more competitive price than most of its high-end rivals. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Apple made some welcome updates to the AirPods Max in April 2025, finally bringing its (still) overpriced headphones into the era of high-res audio at long last. In the meanwhile, the Hi-Fi experts at Bowers & Wilkins have released the fourth-generation update for their over-ear Px7 headphones, which now come with the slightly ungainly title of the Px7 S3. The U.S. price of the S3 was up in the air because of that little kerfuffle with a worldwide trade war, but the U.K. price was £399 when they went on sale in the U.K. in May, and as of June 2025, you can now buy them on Amazon U.S. for $449. The S3 provides a serious rival to both the AirPods Max and B&W’s own flagship Px8. Unsurprisingly, the Px7 S3 looks quite similar to its predecessors, with the sleek lines and minimalist chic that is the trademark of B&W’s headphone range, along with a variety of tasteful pastel shades that you can choose from. The S3 is even more minimalist than usual, though, as B&W has managed to reduce the thickness of the earpieces for this new model, and has also reduced the weight to just 300g – compared to 386g for the AirPods Max. The earpieces are also padded with memory foam, so the S3 should be light and comfortable enough to wear for long periods of time – and for long journeys too, as it offers an impressive 30 hours of battery life even when using noise-cancellation. The Px7 S3 can work in both wired and wireless modes, supporting Bluetooth 5.3 and the AAC codec for Apple devices, as well as aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless for our Android friends. There’s no spatial audio at the moment, although B&W has said that it’s developing its own form of spatial audio that will be available via a software update in coming months. The PX range had the ability to use USB-C for charging and wired audio years before Apple added that ability to the AirPods Max, and the USB-C port of the Px7 S3 now supports high-res audio formats up to 24-bit/96KHz – slightly higher than the 24-bit/48KHz of the AirPods Max – so it can handle most of the high-res tracks available on Apple Music. There’s a USB-C cable included, along with a 3.5mm audio cable too, so you can use the wired connection with most computers and mobile devices, and there’s a hard-shell carrying case thrown in for good measure as well. Sound quality is excellent, and the Px7 S3 copes admirably with the heady cocktail of sounds on Ricky Martin’s She Bangs, streamed from Apple Music on my iPad Air. There’s a lot going on in this track with drums and percussion, guitars, horns and tinkling piano all competing for attention, but the Px7 S3 is able to make space so that each instrument remains clear and distinct. It shows a light touch on the rattling percussion that bounces all over the place, and there’s an infectious energy as the horns blare out while Ricky yells – “she looks like a flower, but she stings like a bee!”. The Px7 S3 can handle more delicate sounds too. A recent re-watch of The Last Of Us (episode 3) prompts me to go back to Max Richter’s sublime On The Nature Of Daylight. The cellos open the piece with a gentle, winding melody, but the tone of the strings is so sad and mournful that it’s an instant tear-jerker. The sharper tone of the violins and viola adds to the bittersweet mood, and the Px7 S3 creates a sense of space that allows the different strings to float gracefully through the air and weave a delicate dance around each other. The Px7 S3 is a winner on sound quality and value for money, but one area where more expensive rivals such as the AirPods Max and Bose QC Ultra do still have an edge is the effectiveness of their noise-cancellation features. The Px7 S3 does a good job at blocking low-frequency sounds, such as the drone of an aircraft engine, but higher frequencies, such as the chatter of voices in a busy airport, do still leak through a little. Should you buy the B&W Px7 S3? If you’re obsessive about noise-cancellation then there are more expensive headphones that can block out background noise more effectively. However, the excellent sound quality and impressive battery life of the Px7 S3, make it a great option for anyone that wants a really high-quality set of headphones at a competitive price. We have looked at a number of AirPods Max competitors, see our round up of the Best over-ear headphones.

With its gold accents, prominent control knobs, and guitar amp styling, Marshall’s hefty Heston 120 looks like no other soundbar on the planet. But what fascinates me about the company’s first TV speaker isn’t the styling (it looks exactly like I’d expect from a Marshall product), it’s how it’s been engineered to work with the company’s equally iconic portable Bluetooth speakers: It uses Bluetooth. Wait, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me because this is actually a new and intriguing change to the way soundbars work. Recommended Videos Marshall Heston 120 Marshall First, a quick 101 on the Heston 120. It’s priced at $1,000, which should tell you right away that Marshall isn’t messing around. That’s the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3, and only $100 more than the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar. It packs 11 drivers, including two dedicated subwoofers, and can process both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. It has onboard mics that are used for room calibration, and it supports a wide array of protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. On the back panel, you get an Ethernet jack, an HDMI passthrough input with 4K/120Hz/Dolby Vision support, stereo RCA analog jacks (for a turntable or other gear), and a dedicated subwoofer output — something you rarely find on soundbars.  Marshall has redesigned its mobile app to give people deep controls over the Heston as well as the company’s full range of existing headphones, earbuds, and speakers. Expansion via Bluetooth Marshall Where things get interesting is on the wireless side of the equation. The Heston 120 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not unusual — all three of its competitors I mentioned above have the same or similar specs. What *is* unusual is how it uses these connections, specifically Bluetooth. Marshall considers the Heston 120 an all-in-one speaker that’s designed to work equally well for movies and music. However, the company also recognizes that some people want even more immersion from their TV sound systems, so it offers expansion via wireless speakers. Normally, when a soundbar is expandable with additional speakers, those connections are made via Wi-Fi (Sonos, Bluesound, Denon) or dedicated onboard transmitter/receivers (Bose, Sony, Klipsch). Bluetooth has never been considered a viable option because of issues around latency and limitations on transmitting multiple audio channels (e.g. low frequency, surround left, surround right) simultaneously. However, the Heston 120 is Bluetooth Auracast compatible — as far as I know, that’s a first for a soundbar — a technology that overcomes traditional Bluetooth limitations. Unlike earlier Bluetooth standards, which could create audio lag of 100-300 milliseconds, Auracast can achieve a latency of as little as 30 milliseconds. That should be almost imperceptible for dialogue synchronization, and even less noticeable for low-frequency bass or surround sound effects. Moreover, an Auracast device, like a TV or soundbar, can transmit multiple discrete broadcasts. In theory, it could handle multiple wireless subwoofers, two or four surround speakers, plus one or more wireless headphones or hearing aids — each with a dedicated sound stream. More choice, more flexibility Marshall Emberton III Marshall So what does this mean? Marshall’s ultimate goal is to let you use any pair of Auracast-capable Bluetooth speakers as your Heston 120 left/right surrounds, and an additional Auracast subwoofer for low-frequency effects. Initially, however, the plan is more conservative. At launch, the Heston 120 will support a single Marshall-built wireless subwoofer and later in the year you’ll be able to add two Marshall Bluetooth speakers as left/right surrounds. You’ll have a lot of choice — all of Marshall’s third-gen Homeline Bluetooth speakers are Auracast-ready — from the small but mighty Emberton III to the 120-watt Woburn III. Once they receive a planned firmware update, you can expect them all to work with the Heston as satellite speakers via Bluetooth. Typically, wireless surround speakers and subwoofers need to be plugged into a wall at all times. That provides power to the built-in amplifiers and their Wi-Fi network connections. Bluetooth, as a wireless technology, requires way less power than Wi-Fi, so if your Marshall portable Bluetooth speaker has a 20-hour battery, that’s 20 hours of completely wire-free home theater listening. And if, for some reason, you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you can still assemble a multi-speaker system. Marshall points out that while Auracast is an open standard, each company can implement it as it sees fit, and that could mean that some Auracast speakers won’t work with the Heston 120. JBL Auracast speakers like the Charge 6 — for example — can only share and access audio from other JBL Auracast speakers. Still, Auracast-enabled soundbars like the Heston are opening up a new era in home theater technology; one where we’ll have a lot more freedom to choose the kind, number, and placement of speakers. It will also reduce the number of gadgets we buy. When your portable Bluetooth speaker can double as a surround speaker, that’s one less device in our ever-expanding world of tech. More options coming soon Auracast-enabled soundbars are the first step toward greater flexibility and choice in home theater. Soon, there will be more alternatives. Dolby has promised it will launch a soundbar alternative technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will let a compatible TV send multichannel audio to a variety of wireless speakers that you’ll be able to place almost anywhere in your room. Fraunhofer IIS, the entity that gave us the MP3 file format, has its own version of FlexConnect — the somewhat awkwardly named UpHear Flexible Rendering. We haven’t seen any commercially available systems based on either Dolby’s or Fraunhofer’s tech so far, but I expect that to change in 2025.

In the classic board game Betrayal at House on the Hill, a group of players explore a haunted house gathering useful items and leveling up their stats until the Haunt becomes active and one of the players switches sides and starts killing everyone else or performing some twisted ritual. Now Hasbro and Avalon Hill are adding fresh horror to the mix with the It: Chapter Two-themed expansion Betrayal at the Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise launching on Aug. 1. Priced at $24.99, the add-on casts three to six players as residents of Derry, wandering new locations to gather items inspired by the film before triggering one of five haunts. The group might have to fight Pennywise together — facing down some very creepy new minis — while the traitor could wind up controlling the Losers Club’s nemesis Henry Bowers. The game will be available to play and buy at the Avalon Hill booth at Gen Con later this summer. Avalon Hill will also be demoing Sanibel, the new game from Wingspan and The Fox Experiment designer Elizabeth Hargrave, which will launch in early 2026. Located along Florida’s Gulf Coast, Sanibel is well known for seashells that people will sometimes gather at sunrise with flashlights to have the first pick of what washed up on the shore. In the new game, players will move along a board representing the beach to pick up sets of shells and shark teeth, sometimes racing ahead to beat the competition and sometimes backtracking to snag what a wave has just deposited. The tiles are placed on a player mat representing a bag, and you’ll need to pay close attention to how each one is scored at the end of the game. During a press conference announcing the game, Hargrave says she used the crowdsourced biodiversity tracker iNaturalist to make sure the most popular shells of Sanibel were represented in the game while the shark teeth are a nod to her dad’s personal collection.

In the classic board game Betrayal at House on the Hill, a group of players explore a haunted house gathering useful items and leveling up their stats until the Haunt becomes active and one of the players switches sides and starts killing everyone else or performing some twisted ritual. Now Hasbro and Avalon Hill are adding fresh horror to the mix with the It: Chapter Two-themed expansion Betrayal at the Neibolt House: The Evil of Pennywise launching on Aug. 1. Priced at $24.99, the add-on casts three to six players as residents of Derry, wandering new locations to gather items inspired by the film before triggering one of five haunts. The group might have to fight Pennywise together — facing down some very creepy new minis — while the traitor could wind up controlling the Losers Club’s nemesis Henry Bowers. The game will be available to play and buy at the Avalon Hill booth at Gen Con later this summer. Avalon Hill will also be demoing Sanibel, the new game from Wingspan and The Fox Experiment designer Elizabeth Hargrave, which will launch in early 2026. Located along Florida’s Gulf Coast, Sanibel is well known for seashells that people will sometimes gather at sunrise with flashlights to have the first pick of what washed up on the shore. In the new game, players will move along a board representing the beach to pick up sets of shells and shark teeth, sometimes racing ahead to beat the competition and sometimes backtracking to snag what a wave has just deposited. The tiles are placed on a player mat representing a bag, and you’ll need to pay close attention to how each one is scored at the end of the game. During a press conference announcing the game, Hargrave says she used the crowdsourced biodiversity tracker iNaturalist to make sure the most popular shells of Sanibel were represented in the game while the shark teeth are a nod to her dad’s personal collection.

Saucycarpdog Member Oct 25, 2017 20,233 A dead MMO that launched with a now-cancelled TV show in 2013 is coming back 4 years after servers were shut down Defiance, indeed. www.pcgamer.com Trion Worlds' Defiance was an odd duck. It launched in 2013 alongside a TV show tie-in with the same name, set on a future Earth following an alien invasion—during which the planet was aggressively terraformed. Both the game and the show were a mix of grungy post-apocalyptic western and futuristic sci-fi. Only a couple of years later, the show was cancelled, but the MMO persevered. And it stuck around for a while, until 2021, when the servers were shut down. Defiance was never one of the heavy-hitters, and I haven't thought about it for a good long while, but it looks like it's been living in enough folks' heads that it's making a comeback. Fawkes, "an indie studio and publisher dedicated to reviving treasured titles", has decided that Defiance fits its brief, and has set itself the task of bringing the game back to life. It acquired the rights to both the original 2013 version of the game and the relaunched Defiance 2050 version that appeared in 2018. Defiance will make its comeback in April, with Fawkes launching the original 2013 version of the MMO. Its plan is to work with the community, starting small, with a PC launch, and then growing based on feedback. The return of the console version might be on the cards, too, but that ultimately depends on its reception on PC. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Not really sure who this is for but ok. I'm all for game preservation. Hopefully they can make an offline version of the game so people can always access it.   Slayven Never read a comic in his life Moderator Oct 25, 2017 102,176 Saucycarpdog said: A dead MMO that launched with a now-cancelled TV show in 2013 is coming back 4 years after servers were shut down Defiance, indeed. www.pcgamer.com Not really sure who this is for but ok. I'm all for game preservation. Hopefully they can make an offline version of the game so people can always access it. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah I be down for an offline version   IDontBeatGames ThreadMarksman - Saved Transistor's sanity twice Member Oct 29, 2017 20,996 New York YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, I have way too many fond memories of playing this game with Kaelan   Primus Member Oct 25, 2017 4,557 Well.....shit. From one of the first alphas all the way to server shutdown, I was in this game. I am more than happy to jump back in, especially if it's back to original launch version.  Haregan Member Aug 21, 2022 4,847 Serbia Had a lot of fun with it back in the day so I'll definitely check it out. Bring back MMO shooters.   masizzai Member Nov 28, 2017 2,340 Played this game at launch and jumped in and out of it through the years. Interesting to want to start with the 2013 version of the game though.   Kraken3dfx Member Oct 25, 2017 3,546 Denver, CO This is like the 3rd time they've tried to revive this I feel like. Having said that, as someone who bought it at launch and enjoyed it, sign me up  kurahador Member Oct 28, 2017 19,693 I actually followed the tv series, I thought it was pretty decent. Will def check this out.   Nax Hero of Bowerstone Member Oct 10, 2018 7,213 Oh damn. That'd be awesome. I got like 1 achievement on Xbox 360 and then forgot about it. Would be nice to get more time into it.   Shinobido Heart Member Dec 23, 2017 10,144 This sounds super familiar! I love seeing MMO's getting another chance. I'm watching some gameplay now.   Timu Member Oct 25, 2017 18,428 I almost forgot about it. Never played it so that is cool for them to try to bring it back.   TheBaldwin Member Feb 25, 2018 8,754 I was oddly enough just thinking about this game a few weeks back, so weird that it's poped up again. I watched the tv show and it was good for a nice little sci fi drama, but remember the game being quite mediocre. Odd that someone would try and bring it back  Beelzebufo Member Jun 1, 2022 5,819 Canada That's hilarious and pretty awesome. I remember my girlfriend at the time got weirdly invested in the show lol   bounchfx Member Oct 25, 2017 7,873 Muricas can't say I expected to read this headline Lol. worked on it for a bit and it was fun enough to play but certainly did not last long   EllaJay Member Dec 10, 2024 127 3rd time lucky? I remember playing it with some friends the first time it came out. It was a bit rubbish. The last time it came out it was still a bit rubbish. I expect it will a be a bit rubbish the next time it comes out too.   Kalentan Member Oct 25, 2017 50,562 I remember enjoying it, and I liked the show well enough, flawed as it was, but IIRC the game was pretty barebones and the 2050 launch was bad.   noodlesoup Member Feb 21, 2018 3,591 The world events in this game were so cool.   MerluzaSamus Member Dec 3, 2018 1,450 Argentina That game must have done something right.. This is like the third time it launches. Can't deny it has a fanbase.  Timu Member Oct 25, 2017 18,428 I totally forgot there was a TV show as well!   G-X Member Oct 28, 2017 1,565 Wasn't the original game director on this revealed to be highly toxic Edit i think i was incorrectly mixing up this and Firefall  Last edited: Mar 12, 2025 Bucca Member Oct 25, 2017 5,415 Never played the game but I remember binging the show lol   texhnolyze Shinra Employee Member Oct 25, 2017 26,286 Indonesia Just a re-release, not even adding anything substantial? What's the point then, third time is a charm?   TinTuba47 Member Nov 14, 2017 4,318 I remember kinda liking this back in the day   Charpunk Member Oct 25, 2017 12,499 This was actually not terrible but no one I knew played it.   Bansai Teyvat Traveler Member Oct 28, 2017 14,090 I remember fairly liking the show and having 0 interest in the MMO game. I doubt this is gonna work, but good luck to them nevertheless.  SCUMMbag Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser Member Oct 25, 2017 7,161 How many times does this game need to come back?   Mario_Bones Member Oct 31, 2017 3,755 Australia Hell yeah, it always bummed me out I didn't finish the story before it went kaput. The world events and PvP were a lot of fun   Vash Member Oct 28, 2017 2,446 I enjoyed it a lot when it came out, so I am definitely going to keep an eye on this.   DieH@rd Member Oct 26, 2017 11,998 The weirdest stuff is, the TV show Defiance ended up being really great. After OK s1, it really got much better in following seasons, which culminated in truly awesome ending.   MadMod Member Dec 4, 2017 4,771 Found it super bland and dropped it quick, even watched a few eps of the show too, good way to hype the IP at the time. Wild to bring it back tbh hahah.  GuitarGuruu Member Oct 26, 2017 7,652 I bought this on PS3, it was a really cool idea at the time but man that gameplay was extremely rough.   DocScroll Member May 25, 2021 706 I remember enjoying this! The public events were fun and the loot was pretty good for this sort of thing. PvP felt busted and the tie in the TV show felt cheesy despite enjoying the first season of the show at the time.   deadfolk Member Oct 25, 2017 6,471 Loved both the game and show. The game did a really good job of taking the rift mechanic from the Rift MMO (same dev) and applying it to a shooter.  LycanXIII The Fallen Oct 26, 2017 11,898 I played this on PS3, but I don't remember if I bought it, or if they gave it away with PS+. Edit: It could have been after it went F2P, but au feel like it was at launch with the show.  texhnolyze Shinra Employee Member Oct 25, 2017 26,286 Indonesia It's live now, by the way. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=defiance   Primus Member Oct 25, 2017 4,557 It was also laggy as hell when I popped in and went through the tutorial section this morning, so very much a Classic Defiance Experience(tm).   BizzyBum Member Oct 26, 2017 10,403 New York I was actually really into the 2013 MMO, never played the updated 2050 version. I even thought the show wasn't half bad. Maybe I'll give it a try again just for the nostalgia.  Shinobido Heart Member Dec 23, 2017 10,144 This came out already, right?   texhnolyze Shinra Employee Member Oct 25, 2017 26,286 Indonesia Shinobido Heart said: This came out already, right? Click to expand... Click to shrink... The launch was a mess lol, I was there. Never really pay attention to it after that. It's probably on its way back to the grave.  Shinobido Heart Member Dec 23, 2017 10,144 texhnolyze said: The launch was a mess lol, I was there. Never really pay attention to it after that. It's probably on its way back to the grave. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Damn, what happened? Too many people trying to get in?  SpellSwordFoxx Member Feb 27, 2025 305 I think my friend got me to try this with her once. I remember vaguely shooting something, and learning there was TV show tie in. I never got around to watching any of that lol  Primus Member Oct 25, 2017 4,557 Shinobido Heart said: Damn, what happened? Too many people trying to get in? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Servers were way overloaded and were more often down than up for the first couple weeks. It's fine now, no issues getting in and playing but I see very little population outside of major Arkfalls. Major Arkfalls which still have the same old problem of enemies or other players or both just vanishing constantly because the area's overloaded, thus making it impossible to do anything before getting blown up out of nowhere.  Shinobido Heart Member Dec 23, 2017 10,144 Primus said: Servers were way overloaded and were more often down than up for the first couple weeks. It's fine now, no issues getting in and playing but I see very little population outside of major Arkfalls. Major Arkfalls which still have the same old problem of enemies or other players or both just vanishing constantly because the area's overloaded, thus making it impossible to do anything before getting blown up out of nowhere. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I see, that's unfortunate to hear. I was checking out that Fawkes Games website, looks like they host other old games as well but most of the links don't work.  PLASTICA-MAN Member Oct 26, 2017 29,074 There was a TV series for this?   ReginaldXIV It's Pronounced "Aerith" Member Nov 4, 2017 9,768 Minnesota Season 1 of the show was pretty decent. But they never had the budget to really do what they wanted to do.