Reviews for Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Headphones

I was looking for an alternative to the bulky Monster Beats. I've owned the monster beats ever since they first came out and although the sound is very good, i found them really large and disliked the fact it required batteries. I picked these up to try out because I was very impressed with the slim size and industrial design (they are built with metal and leather).

I am a huge fan of these Bowers & Wilkins P5 Headphones. I’m no audiophile but these headphones deliver the whole package - best sound I’ve ever heard and an amazing retro design. I was a bit worried about the discomfort of the pads pressing on my ears but after about 3 days of use, the high quality leather pads “break in” and they are really comfortable.

I found these to be worth every penny. However, if you have a music collection with lower bitrate (under 256 kbps) I wouldn’t advise investing in high-end audio equipment.

307 of 355 people found this useful

As anybody who's worked in audio production and engineering will tell you, 99% of the audio products on the market are junk. Instead of concentrating on accurate reproduction of the midtones: the vast spectrum of sound where most of the audio information is contained, everything gets thrown into the bass to make it seem "fat and wet" and most of the midrange - if discernible - is just there as a skeleton to hold together a piece of music.

B&W is does not qualify for the junk-box test. These are reference grade headphones: flat tonal response up and down the curve, a beautiful, natural decay (something very difficult for closed headphones; the sound energy has to go somewhere!

Put these on, and you'll realize that you've been missing 70% of the acoustic data from your audio products. Sure, they may not be as amazing as a handmade open-back, wooden-framed set from Brooklyn, but for cans that fit wonderfully, are designed for all-day comfort, never get slimy, sound amazing and have an inline mic AND audio controls — well, there's really not much more to ask for. Thank you B&W for creating a product that is worthy of it's price point, that is functional to boot, and is a beautifully designed piece of gear. I will never leave home without 'em.

43 of 46 people found this useful

By way of comparison, I previously had Grado SR225's as my office headphones. I loved the sound quality, but the foam seamed to deteriorate pretty quickly for a $$250 purchase. I bought the P5's after reading numerous glowing reviews, and I'd have to say that each one of those was pretty much spot on.

These are perfect for the workplace, due to the noise isolation qualities. This pertains to both blocking out the environmental sounds around you, but also music escaping your headphones and bothering others. The Grado's are an open design, which means that your neighbors get to share whatever it is that you are listening to as well.

The P5's are incredibly comfortable to wear, and I've not had the "hot ears" issue that others mentioned. Granted I'm in a nice air conditioned office in Boulder, CO, but I am usually susceptible to things like that. No problems whatsoever.

The design is the most gorgeous one out there, and certainly puts the Grado's "Radar O'Reily" look to shame. They are sleek, unobtrusive, and just ooze quality. Better yet, I don't look like a wanna-be rapper or hip hop star sporting Dre's Beats.

Sound quality is simply amazing, and I have actually detected certain parts of tracks that I never noticed before. This is a really cool comparison to run these through... pick a song that you know inside and out, and then listen to it with your old cans and the P5's. Crazy, right?!?!

Anyhow, they are super spendy at $300, but they are truly worth every penny. I splurged on these for my new job, and I'm sure that I'm amortizing the cost daily thanks to increased productivity and happiness. Sure they don't do my work for me, but they make it a heck of a lot more fun to do!

Buy em... you'll love em...

40 of 41 people found this useful

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!!!

38 of 41 people found this useful

Held out from getting these headphones for about a year since I already have the Bose OE and IE2 (which, by the way sound great, much more after a year of regular use).

Love the looks and the entire feel of it. So much sleeker and more premium looking than the Bose OE.
First week of limited use of maybe an hour a day was terrible. Although the treble was clear, there was no bass. Voices had great detail, but they were piercingly uncomfortable. Almost gave up and was ready to go back to the shop to return it. Thought there was something wrong. For 300 bucks, not worth the money.

Until I remembered reading reviews which said to 'break it in' or do a 'burn in'. So I did. After about 10hrs of playing a wide range of music in moderate volume, it now sounds great!
Different sound characteristic than the Bose. Comparatively, the P5 has a 'gentler but firmer' bass and voices are more defined. I believe this is important for extended listening. Too much bass can get tiring after a while.

If you're thinking of getting it, please do. If you are choosing between this and the Bose OE, either is fine sound-wise. But the P5 gives you a more premium feel and a perception that you're buying something which will last, say 5yrs at least. Hopefully it exceeds that time.

34 of 37 people found this useful

Since most people don't know this, I wish that B+W had said this in the manual included in the box, but just like any great speakers and headphones, these do need about 10 hours or so of break-in. Just figured I'd post a review to help people out who may not be blown away at first listen.

All great speakers and headphones need to be "broken in," where the rubber and cones and parts get a little more flexible and ready to perform. From the factory, the parts are stiff and don't move as easily to reproduce sound. A simple 10-15 hour break-in fixes all of that, though. Just leave them playing through the night when you first get them at a moderate volume. Try to use a mix of music (bass-heavy, jazz, classical, heavy vocals, techno is great if you have it - to "exercise" the drivers and everything).

I've owned Grado 225s, Sennheiser HD 650's, and an assortment of incredible headphones, and while an open-air set of cans will always sound a little more "free" (think spacious), these are hands-down the best pair of closed phones I've ever heard. Although, I'll admit to a bias with B+W at home...

Absolutely recommended headphones, but do remember to break them in.

35 of 39 people found this useful

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

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!

30 of 32 people found this useful

I was looking for a pair of headphones to replace a set of Sennheisers for my daily commute. I tried these and some Grado iGr8, and these blew the Grados away. The Grados sound really good, but the bass the P5s produce is unbelievable. These headphones are small enough to carry in a back pack or laptop case, super comfortable (downright luxurious) and the sound is fantastic. I've heard things on recordings I didn't now were there, so much so that I converted all my iTunes to 256K, as the quality can now be appreciated on the P5s. Highly recommended.

34 of 42 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