How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want serious wired audiophile listening at home with a closed-back design that isolates you from the room, choose Focal Elegia High-Fidelity Closed-Back; if you need wireless freedom, active noise cancellation and all-day battery for commuting and travel, choose Bowers & Wilkins Px7.
• Focal Elegia – biggest strength: a wired, closed-back audiophile design built around a 40mm dynamic driver with Focal's exclusive 'M'-shape aluminium/magnesium dome, tuned for tonal balance and detail at both frequency extremes (5 Hz–23 kHz).
• Focal Elegia – biggest trade-off: it's wired only, with no active noise cancellation and no battery — the isolation comes from the sealed earcups, not from electronics.
• Bowers & Wilkins Px7 – biggest strength: a wireless over-ear with active noise cancellation, six microphones, Bluetooth 5.2, aptX Adaptive and up to 30 hours of playback.
• Bowers & Wilkins Px7 – biggest trade-off: it's a battery-powered Bluetooth headphone, so it depends on charging and its own internal DSP rather than a pure analogue signal path.
• Pick the Focal Elegia if you listen at a desk or in a quiet room with a portable audiophile player or DAC and care most about a wired, detail-focused sound.
• Pick the Bowers & Wilkins Px7 if you need one pair for trains, planes, offices and calls, and you want noise cancelling without cables.
The Elegia is Focal's take on a closed-back audiophile headphone you can also take with you. The core of it is that patent-pending full-range driver with the 'M'-shape aluminium/magnesium dome, a 40mm dynamic unit with 35-ohm impedance and a 5 Hz–23 kHz frequency range. Focal's pitch is tonal balance — the ability to hold onto the smallest details at both very high and very low frequencies. In practice, that describes a headphone aimed at people who listen analytically: acoustic recordings, jazz, classical, well-mastered electronic music, anything where you want to hear the room, the decay and the small stuff.
The closed-back, circum-aural design matters here. Because the cups seal around your ears, you get very good ambient noise soundproofing without any electronics involved — useful if you share a home or work in a room that isn't silent. Focal also put real effort into fit: the headband moulds to the head, the yoke follows the shape of your face, and the 20mm memory foam microfibre earpads are there for long sessions. Materials are leather, solid aluminium and microfibre, in a Black/Silver finish with a dedicated carrying case, so it reads as a home headphone that can travel rather than a rugged commuter tool.
Who should skip it? Anyone who wants wireless. Connectivity is a 3.5mm wired jack, full stop — no Bluetooth, no active noise cancellation, no battery. It's also the kind of headphone that rewards a decent source; Focal explicitly calls out excellent performance with a portable audiophile player, so if you're plugging straight into a basic phone dongle and expecting magic, you're not buying into the design's intent.
The Px7 S2e is the opposite philosophy: a wireless, noise-cancelling over-ear built to disappear into your day. It runs Bluetooth 5.2 with Qualcomm aptX Adaptive, a 24-bit DSP and custom-designed 40mm drive units angled inside each earcup. That angled-driver geometry is a deliberate acoustic choice — it's there to give a more natural, speaker-like presentation rather than sound fired straight into your ear canal. Frequency response is listed at 20 Hz–20,000 Hz with 8-ohm impedance and 111 dB sensitivity.
The headline feature for most buyers is the noise cancellation. Six microphones handle both ANC and voice pickup, and Bowers & Wilkins frames it as shutting out intrusions without degrading audio quality — plus crystal-clear calls. That's the commuting and open-office use case solved. Battery is quoted at 30 hours of playback with quick-charge support, and charging is done over USB-C, which also doubles as the wired path via the included USB-C to 3.5mm cable.
Comfort is pitched at extended listening: foam earpads with a fabric finish and metal detailing, in a Forest Green colourway with a matching protective case. The Bowers & Wilkins music app adds direct streaming and voice assistant support, so you can tune the sound and control the headphones by voice. Weight is 307 g.
Who should skip it? If you want a pure analogue wired signal with no DSP in the chain, this isn't that — the Px7 is a Bluetooth-first product, and the wired mode exists as a convenience. And if you already own a dedicated audiophile rig and want a second, reference-grade wired pair, the Px7's battery and processing are features you'd be paying for and not using.
• Best for pure wired sound quality → Focal Elegia. A 3.5mm wired connection into a dedicated player means no compression, no DSP and no charging.
• Best for noise cancelling → Bowers & Wilkins Px7. Active noise cancellation with six microphones versus the Elegia's passive soundproofing only.
• Best for commuting and travel → Bowers & Wilkins Px7. Bluetooth 5.2, 10m wireless range and a protective case make it the grab-and-go pair.
• Best for long listening sessions at a desk → Focal Elegia. The moulded headband, shaped yoke and 20mm memory foam microfibre pads are designed around marathon sessions.
• Best for calls and voice control → Bowers & Wilkins Px7. Six-mic call handling, voice assistant support and app control versus the Elegia's simple remote.
• Best for battery-free ownership → Focal Elegia. Nothing to charge, nothing to run flat mid-album.
• Best for highest-resolution frequency extension → Focal Elegia. 5 Hz–23 kHz versus the Px7's 20 Hz–20,000 Hz.
• Best for a one-headphone-does-everything setup → Bowers & Wilkins Px7. Wireless, wired-via-USB-C, ANC, calls and 30 hours of playback in one package.
In my opinion, these two aren't really competing for the same buyer, so the answer depends entirely on your listening habit. If your music happens at a desk, at home, through a proper player or DAC, and you want a sealed headphone that gets out of the way and lets the recording speak, I'd buy the Focal Elegia — the wired, closed-back, detail-first design is exactly that brief. If your music happens on trains, in cafés, on planes and in offices, and you want one pair that cancels the world out, takes calls and lasts a full day, I'd buy the Bowers & Wilkins Px7. If you can only own one and you're honest about where you actually listen, the Px7 covers more of real life; the Elegia covers one part of it better.
FAQ
No. It's a wired headphone with a 3.5mm jack and no Bluetooth, no battery and no active noise cancellation. Its isolation comes from the closed-back, circum-aural seal.
Yes, in a limited sense. It ships with a 1.2m USB-C to 3.5mm stereo cable, so you can plug in when you want — but it's fundamentally a Bluetooth headphone, not a pure analogue design.
The Px7, by design. It uses active noise cancellation with six microphones, while the Elegia relies on passive soundproofing from its sealed earcups. Passive sealing helps, but ANC handles engine rumble and constant drone differently.
The Px7 is rated at 30 hours of playback with quick charge support. The Elegia has no battery at all — with a wired headphone, listening time is limited only by your source device. Check the current price on Amazon before deciding, since the two sit in different spending brackets.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
When you buy through links on this page, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon or its affiliates. This site is an independent third-party review and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon or the product brands mentioned.