Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Headphones

I owned a pair of the beats studio and they do not compare to the P5's. The P5 headphones offer a much wider range of sound than the beats offer in my opinion. Great buy!

Look I'm not an audiophile...and really if you are, why are you bothering auditioning these since you're just going to bash any "mainstream" product anyway.
All I know is for 299, these are some really good cans. I've tried Senns, Grados, Beats, Denons, etc. and have sold or returned most of them But paired up w/ an iphone; nothing can beat these BW's. They have a short flexible cord w/ mic, comfortable earpads, great sound quality, and so far excellent durability and construction.
At this price point, it's the best headphones for use with an iPhone. I don't care if I could spend $XXX less on Brand X and add a headphone amp and it will sound amazing or that the P5's don't reproduce music accurately enough to make my dog wet himself. These make me happy when I use em.

I exchanged some rubbish Dre headphones for these
(BTW NEVER buy those Dre Tour headphones you will regret it)

These P5 are astonishing, nearly as good as 800 dollar Grados

Beautiful clarity , bass, mellowness
They swamp you in beautiful sound
10 times better in every way than those Dr Dre headphones

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.

Now, I'm no audiophile but I had a pair of Sony Studio Monitoring headphones ($300) that lasted me for about 8 years, it was time to replace them. I read several reviews about the Studio Monster Beats by Dr. Dre and the Bose QC15's. After much testing I found the Dr. Dre Beats to have way too much bass and virtually non-existent highs and the mids were sorta drowned out by the overpowering bass. The Bose QC15's had excellent sound with great mids and excellent highs. Bass on the QC15's was "OK" but not very deep and unfortunately it caused distortion on any music that I listened to that had a beat to it. The biggest problem I had with the Bose QC15's was the noise canceling feature. Now, don't misunderstand me, the QC15's have the best active noise canceling in the industry but unfortunately it put a lot of pressure on my ear drums causing me constant headaches so I returned them.

Someone recommended that I try out the B&W P5's. I never heard of them but after so many good reviews on the web I tried them out at the Apple store. Fell in love with the extra soft calve's leather ear pads and the all-metal construction that's barely found on either the Bose QC15's or the Beats by Dre. There's NO PLASTIC on the B&W's and the build quality is amazing. The sound is what made me take them home. They had the perfect amount of bass missing from the QC15's and the perfect amount of mids and highs missing from the Studio Beats by Dr Dre. Even at the highest volumes the low frequencies never produced any distortion especially when listening to rap music. I can go from listening to Eminem to Jason Mraz and these headphones sound great and there's no sound leakage thanks to the closed-back design. How can B&W charge the same amount for these cans as the Bose QC15's and the Monster Beats and have better build quality and sound than both of them? I would've paid more than $300 if B&W charged more because they are worth it. I also like the fact that the B&W's have noise isolation to dampen outside noises instead of electronically canceling noise which reduces sound quality and which caused me headaches.

All I can say is these headphones exude class, royalty, style and quality all in one $300 package. Well worth it!!! Thank you, somebody cares about how good music should sound!!!

This review based on Monster Beat Studio and B&W P5. If you are looking for a comparison between these two headphones you shouldn't be, both of them are amazingly good but in a different way.

Sound wise Beats by Dre has a much much better bass and is very suitable for House, Electronic, Hip Hop, and all other similar type of music. Although when use for movies (HD quality) much of the sound will be muffled and you can't really hear the words.

B&W P5 is better if you prefer real music!!! music with actual instrument like blues, jazz, rock, live concert and etc. sound is much better in mid and high end and also plenty of bass. As for movies, it's unbelievable good, very clear, sound like a good set of home theatre

So choose the headphone by the type of music you like and also the application you use. I personally recommend both if you can afford it. But one thing that the P5 is significantly better, The LOOKS its so much stylish all round.

I'm not an audiophile I just like my music and movies and I use it like every day so that me and my girlfriend won't fight and really if you looking to buy only one buy B&W P5 its much better and it won't bleed your ear

Just got the B&W P5's today. After throughly researching, testing and comparing Bose, Crossfade and the P5's I can say without a doubt that the P5's are the perfect fit and finish I was looking for. Someone once said beauty is in the eye of the beholder ....to me these are beautiful. If the noise isolating worked a little better then they would be just about perfect. Let me explain: on my iPod the volume level is 0 to 16 dashes...in order to completely drown out the volume of the TV I have to have the volume up to 8-10 dashes. So that's a little over half volume which isn't bad but I like to listen to my tunes at around 5-7 dashes (more comfortable to me). I tested the Bose QC15, Crossfade LP, and with out a dought the P5's were a perfect match between sound, beauty, portability, and build quality. I almost opted for the Crossfade LP's but the P5's won out in the end. As fas as sound quality all 3 were pretty close but the P5's were the best, a very close second was the Crossfade LP, and way behind in third place were the QC15's. As stated everywhere the QC15's were hands down the best at noise canceling. But then again the P5's and Crossfade LP's are only noise isolating. I would highly recommend the P5's but if you want to save $50 and only have a 1 year warranty then I would highly recommend the Crossfade LP's.

My ratings

Bose QC15- 8.2 plastic feel, nice $299
Crossfade LP- 9.5 pretty cool, very nice $249
B&W P5- 9.7 work of art, 2 year warranty, very nice $299

take some time with these...like all great audio gear, the sound field first seems quieter, wider, apparently slower and, at first listen, somewhat dull. You're just hearing more information, and a soundstage that is far more faithful to the music and the musicianship. With high res music files the level of definition is beguiling and seductive. I am using them with my new iPad (which I believe has a better D to A than earlier iPods) and am very pleased. They really do block out extraneous sounds as I've missed a few phone calls from a phone two feet away.

These Bowers & Wilkins headphones are definitely worth the price! Amazing sound quality, beautiful, comfortable & stylish design, comes with its own storing/carrying case and is a definite steal at this price!!

No cheap but well worth the price. Indeed, a deal. I'm sure there are better sets out there but at a higher price. I would buy them again at the same price with out hesitating.