Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-Ear Headphones

The idea of the cord that wraps to fit in your ear is an interesting idea - but I couldn't adjust them to make them comfortable. As a result - I find them to be unusable. I have tried every adjustment and angle possible and they hurt my ear after 10 minutes and my wife had the same issue. Sound is good - noise cancellation is not so good. Horrible customer service. I would NOT recommend these.

5 of 7 people found this useful

Used them for a few months before the right side stopped working entirely. Hopefully B&W will warranty these things.

9 of 13 people found this useful

After reading so many positive reviews, I thought these were the perfect choice to support my inner audiophile. I excitedly opened the box (needlessly complicated) and plugged them right in to my iPhone. To my extreme disappointment, they sounded like Apple Headphones! Argh!

I thought these would be better than Bose MIE2I but NO! They sounded terrible. The left ear crackled at low volume and the much vaunted loop design did not stay in my ears. The huge "Made in China" tag said it all.

I am definitely returning these and going back to my MIT-Boffin Designed Bose Earphones.

33 of 71 people found this useful

First of all the sound quality is very good, which is expected from a product at this price point. However past that there is very little to give praise about. The earpieces are not comfortable after a brief period of time your ear becomes sore from the wire which is used to hold the earpieces in place. Also, the mic/remote combination is awful - from the first time to the last the in-wire remote was almost impossible to use with out irritation. I would not recommend this product.

17 of 20 people found this useful

I got these earphones for christmas, and I have to say that they have a terrible overall design. They are not very comfortable in the ear for long periods of time, and tend to fall out of your ear if your working out and sweating. They also stick out of your ear a lot more than you would think, so it looks funny.

The worst part is that with normal use, these earphones only lasted 6 weeks until the wire got disconnected from the left earbud. Not too happy about these earphones considering they cost almost 200 bucks.

14 of 19 people found this useful

After lots of tryouts - to find the right fit - the headphone provide good sound. That's everything positive about them.

- The fit is globally not good, the headphones hurt your ears after wearing for more then 15minutes. Their system to make them stay in your ear is not convincing and they are also too heavy for in-ear headphones.

- The cables are very stiff; i.e. it's not really possible to wind them up to store them.

- The remote is really badly designed - it is cylindrical!! - but you can only push the cylinder in one way - i.e. you have to perfectly turn it each time you want to press - plus the button doesn't work well - so most of the time it just doesn't work

- The included pouch is ridiculous - there is just no way to put the headphone nicely in it. Seriously there is no way.

- Really bad price/quality value on this product. It feels a lot like "Made in china".

I own other B&W Products and really love them - actually I'm quite a fan of the brand - but the C5 are seriously disappointing. The sound is good but all the rest makes them unusable, just for being badly designed. I strongly recommend you take them in your hands once before buying them. I'm now back using the ones included with my iPod, despite the better sound of the B&W's.

12 of 17 people found this useful

I got this B&W to replace my Bose IE2 due to the cable falling apart and I must say the sound is not even close to Bose, not to mention the bass sounds like a $20 headseat. The only thing that I find better than Bose is the cable having a plastic cover, which will protect it more.
Will change them to a Bose and hope they will last me more than a year :)

9 of 30 people found this useful

These headphones provide great sound, unfortunately they aren't particularly durable.

15 of 21 people found this useful

Ok before i say anything else i want to say first that i am not some other company leaving a bad review i am an honest consumer and i thought that i could share with you how i feel about these headphones. i am by no means an audiophile just your average consumer. So first off i could not get these to fit into my ears no matter what i did. i switched out earbuds and tried different positions but nothing worked. i also ripped two of the earbuds in half because they are attached so tightly to the headphones and the earbuds are poorly constructed. Finally after i thought i got the best fit possible the pain in my ears was terrible it feels like someone is taking a pen and pushing it into your ear canal. Even more the sound quality is not that great because i have to keep them loose in my ears otherwise it feels like someone is trying to stab out my eardrums with a pen. My choice would be to go with the Bose Mie2i they are much more comfortable and have great bass. thanks for taking the time to read this.

9 of 17 people found this useful

I bought them after my Beats by Dre died on me (for sports). I'm not a fan of an in-ear headphones and I wanted to be sweat proof as well.

First of all, these looked fragile and for the price you would expect it to be durable or at least take really good care of them. But let's be real I live in NYC - 1 point.

After figuring it out how to put them on (it comes with instructions) fumbling with it maybe 20 minutes or at least that's what it felt like, in the rain it came off. -1

Needless to say, I returned these headphones and I'm still searching for the 'one'

13 of 27 people found this useful