Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Headphones

I've enjoyed owning many different pairs of Sennheiser headphones over the years, but, I've always been partial to B&W's. Bought a pair of floor standing B&W's over 30 years ago and still enjoy listening to them on a daily basis. When I heard they were producing their first pair of headphones I had to go and give them a listen. I wasn't disappointed. Clear, crisp sound emanates from these beauties and that's all I hear-no white noise! And they truly are a work of art. They're expensive but worth every penny. Nicest headphones I've ever listend to.

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.

Bought these during the Black Friday sale and used them for a few weeks. Here's a candid real world usage report.

Build Quality
Simply amazing piece of metal and leather, this is one of the most beautiful looking piece of tech I've owned. Truly ingenious industrial design. Other headphones may provide better sound quality for the price, but this is simply worth getting just for the build quality alone.

Sound Quality
Excellent as advertised. Very true to the original sound of music. Straightforward mids with clear highs, and a strong bass that doesn't intrude more than it should. The noise isolation is just right so you could hear every instrument that's recorded.

Great for indoors and trains,
Mostly use this at the office and home, this almost completely blocks off the white nose system and chatter at the office and can help in giving a nice quiet time at home. I commute via train and I can say this blocks surrounding noise well enough to still enjoy the audio.

But not on a plane
Last week I took this on a trip from JFK to LAX. Unfortunately this didn't come close in terms of noise cancellation compared to a Bose QC2. Airplane noise was very noticeable and I had to turn up the volume to get the music to an audible level. Understandable since it's not noise-canceling, but if it would have, the Bose would have become a Christmas gift. In a quiet environment I'll use the P5 than the Bose, but I'll continue to carry the Bose on the plane.

Even though, this still deserves 5 stars with the excellent build and sound quality. Not a whole lot more gadgets under $300 will make you happier than owning a pair of P5s.

I researched my new pair of headphones relentlessly for the last month, and as a frequent traveller, wanted something that I could use on a plane, something that would help with the noise, and something that was also high quality.
I very quickly got it down to the P5 and the Bose QC15. I tried both a number of times in the UK, but due to the pricing, held off on my purchase until a recent trip to the States. On 'Black Friday' I was able to snap these up at $228, which taking into account the exchange rate, was an amazing saving (there was zero discount same day in the UK).
So despite feeling a little disappointed that I have to travel to the States to buy a British product at a great price, how do I feel about the product. In a word, amazing.

The headphones are much smaller than I had originally envisioned. Anyone considering a purchase should really try before you buy, as I had it in my head that these were 'over the ear' headphones like the QC15. They aren't, and actually sit on your ear. Here is the first issue, you have to make sure they are really well positioned to get the best audio, and unfortunately, because they are so comfortable, you can't always tell. You soon get used to this though.

The noise isolation is very good. It isn't as good as the Bose QC15, and from what I tested, nothing beats those for getting rid of plane noise, however I found (on my recent 747 ride back from JFK) that when playing music or watching a movie, the P5's are really very good indeed.

As for audio quality, these are much better than the QC15's in my opinion, and they were good in themselves. I tried the 'Dr Dre Beats' which were just over bassy and artificial sounding.

So in summary, if you want great headphone sound that you can wear all day long (very comfy) then the P5's are your headphones of choice. If you really do value the noise 'isolation' side of things, then the QC15's may be the better option, but either way, if you can buy in the States, you will save money.... and not just a small amount.

Excellent product as you'd expect from B&W.

So I've had the headphones for a week or two and I think I'm finally ready to write a proper review.

Build:
Very sturdy. You wont be worried about these headphones breaking any time soon. I love the fact that these are only leather and metal. The headphones rotate flat for safe and easy storage. The metal it's self is very sturdy and the leather and memory foam are very soft and plush. They don't hurt my ears at all but then again I have a smaller head. The design is very well engineered. For many of the parts, if they break there is an easy way to remove/replace them. One thing that I'm a bit worried about is the fact that there is a cord covered in cloth out in the open right in-between the speaker and the head rest. It doesn't seem like a big problem but just giving a heads up.

Sound:
At first they don't seem like they are all they are made out to be but do not fear, they started sounding better and better with usage. I recommend to keep using them and listen to all your favourite artists/songs and you'll start to head just how amazing they are. The other good thing about these unlike the beats, the sound doesn't leak like crazy. If you have your music up really load then people directly next to you will hear music but theres no need to have your music up that loud because these headphones are fairly good at keeping noise out. By no means are they amazing but they do a satisfactory job. The headphones hit the notes nicely and there isn't any trembling with the volume up high. By the way. The base is rather good. Its not as strong as the Beats by Dr. Dre but you still get more with these headphones overall in my opinion.

The case:
Its nice, not great though. Doesn't offer any protection to the headphones but thats not a huge deal because the headphones are pretty tough.

Some other things to know:
The headphone jack is very small and will fit into most iPhone 4 cases. I have a Elementcase Vapor Nickle case and they fit like a charm and that was one of my main concerns because my iPhone is my iPod too. Last thing, the remote and mic on the cord works rather nicely unlike the one on the beats which broke for me almost right away. The remote also has a rewind feature via 3 presses of the centre button which is something I've wanted for a while.

Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. Definitely recommend these to everyone if you have the money. Sorry about the long review but hey, If your spending this much money, you need the info!

Stunning look and incredible sound. If you can afford £250 on a pair of headphones, these should be your only choice. Only slight downside, the pressure from the magnets on each ear do cause some discomfort if you wear glasses.

I've had these headphones going on several months now. The sound quality is amazing considering you can use these without a headphone amp. Since I got these, I've been rediscovering my music collection and can vouch that they work in all genre's. However, if you want excessive and unnatural booming bass, look elsewhere. Not that the bass on the B&W's isn't powerful (it is), but don't expect bass bloat. This is an accurate and musical audiophile device - not prone to altering the character of the music it's being fed. The build quality is superb and the aesthetics are impressive. Even the storage pouch they come in reeks class. If there is one drawback, it's that they tend to move when eating. The chewing motion of your jaw tends to move them off your ears, requiring periodic adjustment. A small nit to pick for sure. While $300. is not chump-change, particularly in this economic climate, it's a very inexpensive way to enter the world of high-end audio. Highly recommended. Enjoy!

I have tried various types of earphones/headphones with iPod & iPhone & was never really completely with the sound quality, so I decided to splash out & go for real quality. I read all reviews & finally settled on the Bowers & Wilkins P5's. These are fantastic & I would really recommend them if you want to hear your music the way it was intended. They take a while to break in, but after a short while they settle & I found myself listening to music I had not played for years, finally found what I was looking for.

If you’re going to listen to headphones without a headphone amp, these are without doubt the best there is. They are very low ohm load, which is crucial if you want accurate sound, with a device like iPod, iPad, or any computer. I have far too many high costly headphones such as Sennheiser 650, top of the line AKG’s, Beyerdynamics, amongst others. Yes these expensive headphones sound better with an $1000 amp. They are designed to be used with an expensive amp. However if you care to move around, or don’t plan on investing in VERY expensive headphones and an expensive amp, you’d be insane not to grab these incredible B&W’s, nothing comes even close!