Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Headphones

I bought these last september, it is now march and now my second pair have broken, same problem both time, left speaker stops working, although the remote still works, you could say use the replacement cable but why pay £250 to have a pair of headphone (in this case for 7 weeks) for them to break. My £20 sony in-ear still work great, sound is nothing in comparison, but for the cash i question the value if they break after 7 weeks? No water damage, no loud levels, barely used!

23 of 29 people found this useful

The phones are good, but the build quality i expected from a B&W branded product is lacking. The headband wrapped in leather hides a cheap piece of plastic where a full metal frame should have been.

The biggest disappointment is the cable: it is cheap, like airplane free headphones cheap, and really contrasts the phones it's attached to. The build quality of the cable is terrible: after only 2 months of use, the inline mic and controls no longer work, and the jack, if moved around a bit, creates wild variation in volume.

Basically the cable has to be replaced after just 2 months of use. Not acceptable for a product with a $300 price tag. Curious how fast this "premium" product will fall apart.

17 of 39 people found this useful

Dropped the headphones on floor once (1m height, wood laminate floor), lost left channel. No warranty. There is no repair offered to these headphones, no spare parts available apart from the cords and earpads. Great sound quality, against popular belief of full metal/leather construction, P5 has a plastic frame under the leather on the outside.

35 of 54 people found this useful

They have tremendous difficulty reproducing mid range and perform only moderately well with vocal. Exceptionally poor reproduction of Muddy Waters... Also, the volume control failed after one week.

11 of 25 people found this useful

Pros: great sound, even better looks, phone call clarity due to both ears getting pumped with sound unreal.
Cons: I've gotten complaints that I don't sound like myself, when speaking through mic. I believe wire to be too frail, and placed on wrong side, when driving it's easy to get wire caught on steering wheel. Wire needs strain reliefs at both ends and a break away plug at end so as to protect phone jack from damage when being pulled to hard

10 of 39 people found this useful

I just picked up the P5's for a trail run. With a 14 day return policy, I figured I would give it a shot. I a bit of headphone elitist so this is more a review for those in the "know". I currently have Westone 3s, Shure 530s (broken, stupid cable) Grados i60's and ATH-A700 to compare. I was looking for a portable closed back can as my Westones can start to hurt the ears after a few hours. I wont reiterate what has already been said, build quality (incredible) and price (high), but will chime in with my 2 cents. First I dont have a iphone (broken) listen to them on my HTC HD2 (better music player in my opinion). Overall impressions have been, average. Comfort for me have not been a problem. I can wear glasses, no problems. They do heat the ears a bit, but does not bother me. I wont even compare them to Westones, but will say I do like them better than the grados. I feel there is a better overall richness than the grados, but still think the ATHs have a better soundstage.That being said, the ATHs are HUGE, so not a really option to commute with. Like previous comments, the seem to be lacking a bit of highs, or for that matter, the lows I think are a bit overpowering. I tried a variety of music, and depending on the bit rate and style, it varies. Listened to Pink Floyd on a loseless codec and it lacked the depth that should be there. On the other hand, Blackroc incoded at 192k, sounded really good. Social Distortion sounded good, but vocals seemed distance and not up front. Basement Jaxx at 320k, sounded better than my Westones, so go figure.

I tried them both amped and no amp, and its very clear these are made for a DAP with NO amp.

I think if you are thinking about Monster Beats, or Bose, then these are a great option. I hate active nosie cancelling, so these are better than the Bose, but still have the heavy bass signature sound like the UGLY beats.

24 of 56 people found this useful

When you pick the P5's up, they feel like nothing less than $299 headphones. The leather and metal have a really solid quality feel to them. But take a listen to some quality music and you'll hear a lot of range missing. In comparison to my day to day headphones, Bang & Olufsen EarSet 3, you can easily perceive the range difference. Had I looked at the specs ore carefully before heading to the store I would have known what I was going to get. EarSet 3 has a range of 50Hz - 20kHz while the P5's live in 10Hz - 20kHz. I was expecting better from B&W especially for the price and size. They also feel like they a had a touch too much bass. I checked my iPod to see if I had the equalizer on. (I never do.) EarSet 3's come in at $100 less, additional year of warranty, and fit in my pocket. Check them out as an alternative.

10 of 45 people found this useful