Bowers & Wilkins P5 Mobile Headphones Review - Page 5

Great review. I owned a pair for 13 days and returned them. I really loved the build on these but they were lacking something sound-wise. I didn't understand all the rave reviews elsewhere. This review nailed it. There is a slight loss of detail, particularly at the high end of the spectrum. I hated taking them back, but they just didn't quite make the cut for me. 

Just bought the P5's and absolutely love the warm, neutral sound. They take the edge off of the sound coming out of my iPad. Traditionally harsh sounding tunes are pleasant to listen to. I agree with most of you, some treble detail is softened but I prefer that. Very happy so far!

Each to his own :)

 

I'm afraid your description puts me off them.

 

But I hope you continue to enjoy them.

Thanks, I hope I do continue to like them for the price I paid!  :)

 

The sound is very warm, but I find that my head seems to like that. I don't get any treble fatigue, I think that is the best part. When I listen to my 595's for an extended period of time (even at a medium volume) the treble detail ends up hurting my ears after a while. Don't know if I have a physiological problem, but it is what it is. Warm = good to my head.

For sitting down for critical listening, this sounds awful. 

 

For being out and about and enjoying the tunes, this sounds wonderful. One of these days I'll have to give them a go.

I come from a somewhat different angle than a lot of the people on here...I'm more of an audiophile used to listening to full-range speakers, than a head-fi'er.  When I listen to headphones, it's exclusively on my portable, unamped iPod/iPad/iPhone.  So, I'm generally looking for closed-back, easy-to-drive headphones that do the best job of emulating the experience of listening to my HiFi as possible, given those limitations.

 

About B&W...first off, while I respect B&W speakers and acknowledge that they are a true speaker manufacturer and not an imposter, I have never found any of their speakers to be quite to my taste in any given price range.  I'll frequently listen to B&W's and enjoy them, but not in the context of the price that is charged - there's always something I like better.  This applies to the 800 Diamond series as much as the lower end stuff.  That being said, I was very open to the idea of the P5's since the wide-open, relaxed tonality that I associate with B&W would have been ideal for headphones, and the price isn't outrageous.  Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed - these headphones sound nothing like B&W to me.  They're congested in the midrange and bandwidth-limited at the frequency extremes.  There's no subtlety, just a kind of slodginess to the sound.  This is all coming out of my iPhone, with uncompressed ALAC files playing...compared to the Bose and Beats headphones that also grace the Apple Store floor, the P5's were clearly worse than either of those headphones, and it wasn't close to me (and Bose & Beats aren't exactly HD-800's).  I suspect that the P5's, despite their being designed for portable players, really need an amp to sound better, as they exhibit symptoms I'd usually associate with under-driven speakers.

 

The p5 has in common with my B&W 603's that it's not even a little bit transparent, lows are pretty decent, but mid and high suffers.

 

These words would perfectly describe the 603's I have. Nice on the lows, but in it's price range just lacking transparency, detail etc.

Something of that dark veiled ''blanket' sound I hear back in their headphones.

 

There were times I really enjoyed the 603's, but that was before I listened to decent headphones.

I'm sure higher models have better sound offcourse.

 

(I do think p5 sounds better then Beats though)

I am actually enjoying these phones quite a bit. I received these as a Christmas present and am kinda enjoying the change from years of IEM. Don't get me wrong, I still love my Westone W3, but these p5 are still pretty enjoyable. I think some of the love and hate they receive are both a, little extreme.

I was one of the first to have bought these when they first came out (that I was aware of on Head-Fi). I absolutely adored them EXCEPT for one personal issue I had with them. It might be the shape of my ears or the type of glasses I wear but the pressure exerted on the top of my ear caused the top of my hear to ache. I can't really blame the P5s for this, it's just what comes with the territory with these types of headphones and my ears+glasses combination (these are certainly not the first pair of headphones that has caused this ache).

Tried them on my Maverick D1. No improvement. Still as congested as ever.

 

Female vocals sound good off the amp, but as soon as any low frequency sound enters the equation, it just muffles everything.
 

i would definitely want to try this...

Thanks Jude,

What must be said is the product design of the unit. 1st Class. Perhaps they are not suitable for Audiophile, more for the general mass who loves good design (Pls include me...)

i bought my gf a pair of these for her birthday. needless to say she loves the design, as do i, but the sound quality was just, meh. not saying i'm qualified as an audiofile or anything, but for a $300 pair of headphones I expected a lot more. the sennheiser HD 25-1 ii's i use for DJing sound way better than these. bass is too heavy and the rest of the frequencies, while clean, are not precise & crisp. 

 

maybe i just need a few more listens. and while they're nice to look at, the sound quality was lower than expected; i definitely won't be buying myself a pair of these for myself. 

 

excellent review though. thank you!

I had them but found them near-useless for out and about, since they don't stay put when my head moves around.

Jude, a terrifically written review, and your comments about the sound basically mirror my feelings about them, although you were a bit nicer about it that I was . I was just so disappointed that they were not better. Maybe this comes from the great love I have for my various B&W speakers. I think of myself and a B&W guy. And as a headphone lover, I wanted to love me some B&W headphones! But I was not able to love the P5, sadly. Maybe at some point, B&W will design a high-end headphone. THAT would be something for me to get excited about!

Anyway, again, this was a fun review to read, thanks.