Bowers & Wilkins P3

General Information

P3 combines pristine audio performance with maximum wearability. These slimline headphones fit lightly and snugly on your head, and fold up to stow away in your pocket or their own hard-shell carry case. And they produce a remarkably natural, detailed sound on the move, thanks to some major technological innovations that reduce distortion to a minimum.

Latest reviews

foobar2015

New Head-Fier
Pros: warm, comfortable and stylish looking
Cons: too warm and only good for pop
Background:
 
I own Sennheiser HD600 and Fiio X3II. I love HD600 because it is comfortable and also works well for my classical music and vocal music. But it doesn't play well with any pop music on my iPhone. I got a decent portable amp. I have tried several different brand of amp. HD600 just doesn't play well with any pop music on iPhone w/wo amp. I'm always looking for a alternative headphone for pop music.
 
Review:
 
I bought B&W P3 for less than $200 from bestbuy because I have $120 rewards expires very soon. Bestbuy provides a testing setup for P3, P5 and P7. I plug in my iPhone to test all three of them. P3 has the warmest sound among all of them. But it is the only one that plays well with my pop music on my iPhone. In addition, the warm sound sometimes may have muffled feeling. But it doesn't last for long. Unlike classical music, all pop music only last for less than 5 minutes. So the muffled feeling is quite transient. 
 
It is not as comfortable as HD 600. But it is acceptable for an hour wearing. It is very convenient to carry it around compared to HD600. What's more important is that it doesn't need an ugly amp for iPhone. My setup for HD600 only suits for desktop use. 
 
The design of P3 is stylish. It comes with a sturdy case. 
 
So if you need a portable headphone on the go and love to play some pop music occasionally, I'd recommend this.
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AlanChi607

New Head-Fier
Pros: It looks expensive. It looks nice. Sound? Bassy and mid-focused. Good for casual listening and nothing more.
Cons: Horrible, flimsy, creaking build. Terrible clarity, bass covers and muffles up the treble. Extremely uncomfortable.
I definitely won't be buying another Bowers & Wilkins product. That's for sure. After THIS headphone, no. I've had it with the fancy British design which achieves NOTHING in practicality.
 
The P3 is a small on-ear headphone, the cheapest of all B&W headphones (excluding the C5 Series 2, which is an in-ear headphone). It costs $199. It looks extremely nice, with soft-touch rubber and aluminium faceplates and chrome hinges.
 
Sound? Sound is, in my opinion, probably on par with a Beats product. Beats is probably even better. The sound on the P3 is a mess: muddy, unclear, but somewhat pleasant for casual listening. Yes, it has a good soundstage, yes it has good bass, but it's just like someone not putting their glasses on-->blurry, unclear. Extremely disappointed with sound on the P3. Terrible value for money.
 
Even if the sound was good enough for an average consumer, the design is horrible, the comfort is even worse. The design certainly looks appealing, what with the fancy chrome hinges and whatnot. However, when you touch it, it just reeks flimsyness. Extremely poor build. One of my ear cups makes a disgusting creaking sound whenever I press it. As for comfort, the two earcups sort of "eat" your ears like a hungry crocodile. No. Just no. Smaller ear cups=higher pressure exerted on ears. Design fail. Also small, thin headband also=higher pressure on top of head. Another design fail.
 
In conclusion, your $199 is better spent somewhere else. Bowers & Wilkins is a failure in both design and sound, at least for this product. I'm never buying a B&W product again.
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judges
judges
Yes it looks expensive, it looks nice, advertised as, enhanced based response on series 2. Build is solid, its certainly not flimsy. Small on the ear compared to those that cover the ear - as advertised, pitched forward slightly, I feel they very comfortable. If you wear glasses the glasses need to be raised above the ears as the headphones exert a light pressure on the ear ( sound isolation is great ) . I was worried initially that sound quality was poor, for the price paid for these headphones. However after a few days, as I broke in these headphones, I noted the sound quality improved significantly, through low, mid and high ranges. They became much more crisp and clear as the drivers were worked.. After 3 weeks of use, I believe, these are definately worth the money - I can't call them a budget buy - because the are cheaper out there, but they are a great buy. Would definately recommend.
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goodyfresh

Headphoneus Supremus
Pros: Very comfortable, great bass I suppose if you're a hardcore basshead
Cons: Bloated, muffled sounding, flimsy build
A friend of mine has these, he received them as a gift from someone who purchased them for 200 dollars without any proper research first, which was probably a big mistake on their part.  I've had quite extensive chances to listen to these and compare them to my V-Moda M-80s, and can honestly say that as far as closed-back on-ears for under 200 go, the sound on these doesn't come CLOSE to teh quality of the M-80s, and these cost 50 dollars more!  The only way these beat the M-80s is in terms of comfort. . .the one thing I can say with the utmost positivity about the P3's is that they are SUPREMELY comfortable for a pair of on-ear cans.  The fabric on the earpads is nice and soft and comfortable, and breathable to the extent that it doesn't make your ears hot and sweaty even outside in warm weather.  Despite that, they provide quite good isolation for a pair of on-ears!  Nice.

Now for the sort-of bad part, guys.  These cans were a big miss on Bowers and Wilkins' part, in my opinion.  There is a massive amount of bass-bloat. . .the bass, I will say, is almost completely lacking in distortion, unlike what you hear in most bass-bloated cans (eg. Beats or Skullcandy), but is simply overwhelming and drowns out the mids.  The mids and highs DO have decent detail, but this is mostly hidden by the bass.  Also, there is a strange somewhat "muffled" quality to the sound, which I suspect is due to the design/engineering of the earpads, perhaps the material used in them, combined with the overall bass-bloat.  These have quite good soundstage and imaging for a pair of closed-back on-ears, but this is basically ruined, at least for me, by the loss of detail resolution due to bass-bloat.  I would be happy to listen to these for Rap and Hip-Hop, but not for much else, really.
 
Finally, the build quality of these is seriously questionable.  These cans retail for 200 dollars, and yet have a non-detachable, thin and flimsy cable which splits-off and connects to both ears rather than just one side.  If a company is going to make a pair of headphones with a non-detachable cable (which is a pet peeve of mine, anyway) they should at least make the included cable nice and sturdy, but in this case, it seems only slightly better quality than what you get with someth8ing like stock Apple Earbuds that come with an iPod, which on a pair of 200 dollar cans is, in my opinion, unacceptable.  The build of the rest of the cans is quite nice. . .metal frame, teh fabric earpads, reliable folding hinges. . .but is ruined by the flimsy cable.  In fact, my friend, who certainly is not an audiophile and thus does not mind the bass-bloat on these at all, is wanting to get new cans now because the cable is shorting-out and has become temperamental, after only about eleven months of use!  I think that for 200 dollars, Bowers and Wilkins could have put a lot more effort into the quality-control for teh build of these things.
 
Overall, I'd say you can do much better than these for the price that they go for, or really, can do much better than them for a little over HALF their price.
Geralt
Geralt
I'm pretty sure cable is detachable, underneath magnetically detachable earpads look for ejecting cable.

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