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.