Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Headphones

My headphones of choice for the past 3 years were the wildly popular Sennheiser 555. I decided i wanted to try something new. Something without an amp, smaller, closed headphone, and amazing sound!

I Because I didn't want to make a mistake and buy a pair of headphones online relying only through reading reviews, I decided to check out the Apple Store and do some demoing of headphones there. I ended up buying the Bose On Ear's. While I am aware of the Bose hate, I was impressed by the power that came out of such a small headphone. So i bought it . Needless to say, Bose lived up to their "live sound" signature, because no matter what i played was excessive with bass. It worked well on harder songs, or hip hop, but when i played a mellow song, the bass would drowned out everything. Sounded muddy. I returned it to buy the Bose Around Ear. While these definitely had more clarity, and very comfortable, but they had very little low end, very bright and hollow sounding. My 555's sounded better. Back to the drawing board..

Enter the Bowers and Wilkins P5'S

I came across these gorgeous headphones. The P5's are made out of aluminum, metal, and authentic sheep leather. These scream class. They can scream anything but do they scream good sound? Lets just say, when I listen to music with the P5's they transport me into a wooden cottage in the woods listening to music plugged into a turn table. They sound very warm, almost the warmth you would get from beautiful vintage analog.Sounds very full, not hollow. Its hard to put into words. I am definitely not an audiophile, the bass these provide are not the over exaggerated bass you would get from Dr Dre's Beats or the On Ear Bose but provide a very audible punchy bass. Authentic natural sound all around. These are the only headphones I have listened to that sounds like the headphones are adapting to the music, rather than the music adapting to the headphones. Meaning that the headphones generally stay out of the way, and you get to hear the music as is. Not with extra bass, or power boost or what ever else headphones usually EQ into its signature sound. Its hard to believe that when I play Nick Drake, these are the same headphones that just blasted me out of the room playing Meshuggah. They adapt that well. No amp needed on these, just plug and play! The sound isolation on the P5's are quite good, you don't hear much of the outside world. The built in iPod volume works as advertised. Because they are on the ear designed, they did take a bit of adjusting for me because my Senn's were around the ears. Because they are on ears they employ a closed design.

Rating these headphones I give them a solid 4 out of 5.

Why not a 5 out of 5? Well lets just say I will be using these for many years as my headphones of choice, they are seriously a work of modern art. I love the industrial design, I love the size, I love the warm sound, I love that they sound this good without any amplification. I am going to be a real and say there is more than likely better headphones out there, ones that sound better or do something specifically better than the P5's. Personally I do wish they were more comfortable, but I think I feel that way because I am not used to on the ear type of headphone. However when you look at the sound, size, design, and price the P5's are unmatched.. For that reason is why I rate them a very solid 4 out of 5.

33 of 37 people found this useful

I bought these cans as soon as they came out. A bit pricey, but I was hoping for the B&W standard of sound... They don't disappoint in that area.

My only "complaint" is that the over the ear design gets a tad uncomfortable after long listening... and that may be due to the shape of my own ears, but something to consider.

Using them on the iPhone when a call comes in is a tad strange too, cause the mic is excellent, but you can't hear your own voice through the phones... making it hard to hear yourself talk.

26 of 27 people found this useful

I love these headphones, the sound quality is great. I apparently do not have the most sophisticated hearing. From what I am reading, one reviewer wrote that the headphones are best for Classical, Jazz. I listen to everything from Pop, R&B, Country and most everything but heavy metal or death metal. From what I have heard from my P5's, I think the headphones can handle and provide great listening for anything I throw its way.

Yes, the price is steep but, I buy quality not quantity and if you are good at keeping things and not destroying them quickly, I would say spend the money for a quality listening experience. If you have the money and want to purchase quality headphones, I don't think you can go wrong with the P5's.

Here is where I want to submit my lack of providing a fifth star. My single gripe is that I caught the cord to many times on things and my control cord no longer works correctly. I have to push the one end of the cord in to get hearing in the right ear. This was my fault, nothing B&W did however, I can't find a control cord out there on the web for under $60 to save my life, to be honest, I haven't even found 1 pair even over $60. I did hear through the internet of a pair on B&W website for $60 (or close to) but, I wasn't able to link to the B&W page to look at it.

So my gripe is that if they (B&W) want to sell great headphones, make the availability of the replacement parts available to purchase as well. The best way I can think of is to do this through the Apple Store which I purchased the headphones through.

19 of 19 people found this useful

I have owned the B&W p5's for about a month now, and i have to say that they have OUTSTANDING SOUND QUALITY. I own a pair of $500 Sony's which sound more or less the same as these headphones. However the main reason that I purchased these headphones was for comfort and leisure, which these headphones did not deliver. They feel wonderful over your ears for the first 5~8 minuets then become tiresome and you ears begin to hurt. B&W offers a year long free membership to their Society of Sound( a free program which allows the download of FLAC or lossless( super high quality)files.) which I believe was a nice inclusion from B&W.

15 of 18 people found this useful

I picked these up from the Apple Store and I must say, I am very impressed. The P5's produce a very rich and solid sound.

I am not an audiophile by any means, but I do enjoy good headphones and earbuds and have invested in a few different "higher-end" pairs. For the "average" music listener, these headphones are worth the money, if you have it to spend.

However, I have been testing them all day, and I'm not sure why, but, the P5's do not seem to re-produce the same sound from the iPhone/iPad on a MacBook Pro. I've tried a number of different genre's of music, and tested them from iPhone to MBP and iPad to MBP using the same song, and they sound different. The mid's seem really loud and the bass seems to be flat. But, switching them back to the iPhone or iPad and the sound is once again rich and full.

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the different power output that each device can produce and how it works with the impedance of the P5's, but there is a difference.

All-in-all, a good investment for the right device.

13 of 15 people found this useful

First of all, the primary areas I had in mind when purchasing headphones was audio quality, design/build quality, ergonomics/portability and cost. I tested every headphone throughout my local Apple store as well as the one's Bestbuy had on display and in my opinion the P5's were the clear winner. The design/build quality is typical B&W. The looks are very elegant and will appeal to anyone that likes the finer things in life. The build quality is very good and should last for years as long as you maintain the fine leather. Ergonomically, I love the feel of the pads and the fit is very comfortable. The cord being on one side is a plus but I do think the controls could have been lowered about two inches but I'm sure I will get use to it. As for the sound, I find them to sound very warm with a good smooth bass. The mid's are warm as well as the highs but it could be a bit more detailed. Controls work great on the iPhone.

Overall, it will be hard to find a better headphone for $300 that will give you quality sound, comfort and the look of elegance. I had the P3's for a few days and realized for a price tag of $200 they just weren't cutting it that's why I stepped up to the P5's.

8 of 8 people found this useful

I tried these and i have to say, they sound like pure awesome, but if you listen to hard rock/metal i wouldn't recommend them, becuase they lack punch/bass to heavy guitar riffs and the drums, for Jazz, classic ans son on they shold be pure awesome

10 of 12 people found this useful

Having owned many "studio" headphones, I have been pleased with the sound, construction quality and overall comfort of the P5s. On my MacBook Pro, they sound pretty good connected directly, but using a dedicated USB audio device like the Griffin iMic makes a dramatic improvement in definition and low end punch.

On my iMac based home system, I use an M-Audio Transit that completely isolates the audio from computer power supply noise when you use the fiber-optic output connected to a DAC or receiver. You won't realize how much a computer contributes to the noise floor until it is gone.

If you want even more improvement, try a small headphone amplifier. I would recommend the P5s to anyone who enjoys headphone listening and can hear the difference between OK and exceptional sound.

12 of 17 people found this useful

The performance of these headphones is stunning. I've heard better but that was in Sennheiser's costing over 450 quid. For the money this is the best on ear cans on the market. These have so much more sonic subtlety compared with the Dre Beats. There are 2 flaws however and how much of a problem they are will depend on your headphone requirements. 1) these are quite tight. I believe they've redesigned the ear pieces but there's not escaping the fact that these are a much tighter fit than Bose, for example, and you have to wear them for a few days before they start to get comfortable for extended listening. I stretched mine out a bit by leaving them on the top of a conveniently head sized chair back :) 2) the cable is thin and feels flimsy. B&W's C5s have an astonishingly well made and tough cable that appears from some angles like it could be carbon fibre. Something similar would be great on the P5s as the existing cabling feels insubstantial and lets down an otherwise ultra high quality product. Would I recommend them? You betcha. If I lost these I'd buy another pair immediately.

8 of 11 people found this useful