[ef2000]

I had a chance to try the wireless P7's and I was a little disappointed. I was expecting a little more from them given comments here that the wireless P7's and the P9's sounded very similar. At least one commenter said the sound difference wasn't enough to justify the price.

In my experience the P9's are a significant step up from the wireless P7's. The P9's just have a richer and fuller sound. I tried the P7's both wired and wireless.

In my opinion and had tried P7, P7 wireless and P9. P7 wireless seems a tap of upgrading over P7 but not the same as P9. Other than the sound different improve over the old P7, it is an wireless that make the major difference.
P7 wireless bass is slightly better in terms to P7, the rest of sound spectrum are very similar. So, I have not buy it due to the insignificant change. (Personally, l have P5 wireless, P7 and P9 and find that all produce differently but remain the B&W house signature). Unless, you want a Bluetooth headphone If you do not have one and more preference to B&W sound signature, then you could get yourself one. P7 wireless when wired thru amp/DAC, it is as good as any wired cans in it price range Or maybe better.. All depending in your sound preference.

 

[VoyagerDude]

Thanks loplop. If you had to pick one, what would you rather get?
Provided i already have a P7 wireless

They are vastly, vastly different headphones. I have both.

P9: warm, bass bloated on some songs, rich midrange, narrow soundstage placed forward of your head, easy to drive from a portable source, less leakage/better isolation
T1: huge soundstage, incredible inner detail, super articulate and open, ease/liquidity, treble peak can be an ice pick to the skull on many recordings, super comfortable to wear

Both are deeply flawed headphones that can absolutely sing on certain recordings. Definitely not all-rounders.

Edit: My T1 is v2, FWIW

 

[zeloutre]

I just impulse bought the P9 Signature, they were too beautiful.
 
I will let them warm up and post more detailed impressions later, but oh my god do these cans sound incredible. Plugged on a Burson Conductor these are an absolute joy. The bass goes so low on a slow electronica track it literally made me cry.

 

[jmills8]

I just impulse bought the P9 Signature, they were too beautiful.

I will let them warm up and post more detailed impressions later, but oh my god do these cans sound incredible. Plugged on a Burson Conductor these are an absolute joy. The bass goes so low on a slow electronica track it literally made me cry.

 

[loplop]

Thanks loplop. If you had to pick one, what would you rather get?
Provided i already have a P7 wireless

I assume you will be adding the new arrival to your stable, and not replacing a headphone? What will you drive them with? What music do you listen to?

If you give me a few examples of favorite albums (not necessarily best sounding, rather, your favorites), I'll do some comparative listening for you..

 

[Beagle]

  I just impulse bought the P9 Signature, they were too beautiful.
 
I will let them warm up and post more detailed impressions later, but oh my god do these cans sound incredible. Plugged on a Burson Conductor these are an absolute joy. The bass goes so low on a slow electronica track it literally made me cry.

 
Ahhhh yes

 

[CluelessAudio]

Does anyone know how the original wired P7 and P9 compare in terms of bass? I have the wired P7s and have no problem with the bass, and wondered if they were similar at all. Or, if i am happy with the P7s, does this mean I won't have an issue with the P9s? 
 
Thanks

 

[VoyagerDude]

I assume you will be adding the new arrival to your stable, and not replacing a headphone? What will you drive them with? What music do you listen to?

If you give me a few examples of favorite albums (not necessarily best sounding, rather, your favorites), I'll do some comparative listening for you..

Thanks very much for your offer! 
Right now I only have a DragonFLy Red that I use with the P7 wireless in wired mode as a DAC.
Also have a Marantz NA6005 with a headphone output, but it's used in my speaker setup with a Grant Fidelity W-30GT all tube amp and Morel Grant Fidelity RBS-1 reference monitors.
So for a mode demanding headphone I may need a better headphone DAC/amp.
 
As for type of music, my favourite albums include: 
 
Al De Meola:
World Sinfonia
Elegant Gypsy [DSD]
Di Meola Plays Piazzolla
Flesh on Flesh
The Grande Passion: World Sinfonia
This is Jazz
and many more
 
Chick Corea:
Rendezvous in New York
The Vigil
 
Astor Piazzolla:
Nuevo Tango: Hora Zero
 
Paco de Lucia:
Antologia
Concierto de Aranjuez
Cancion Andaluza
 
And more including 
 
Led Zeppelin
Beatles
Joe Pass
S-Tone Inc.
Santana
Pink Floyd
De-Phazz

 

[CluelessAudio]

Thanks very much for your offer! 
Right now I only have a DragonFLy Red that I use with the P7 wireless in wired mode as a DAC.
Also have a Marantz NA6005 with a headphone output, but it's used in my speaker setup with a Grant Fidelity W-30GT all tube amp and Morel Grant Fidelity RBS-1 reference monitors.
So for a mode demanding headphone I may need a better headphone DAC/amp.

As for type of music, my favourite albums include: 

Al De Meola:
World Sinfonia
Elegant Gypsy [DSD]
Di Meola Plays Piazzolla
Flesh on Flesh
The Grande Passion: World Sinfonia
This is Jazz
and many more

Chick Corea:
Rendezvous in New York
The Vigil

Astor Piazzolla:
Nuevo Tango: Hora Zero

Paco de Lucia:
Antologia
Concierto de Aranjuez
Cancion Andaluza

And more including 

Led Zeppelin
Beatles
Joe Pass
S-Tone Inc.
Santana
Pink Floyd
De-Phazz

How is the Dragonfly Red with the P7 wireless? Not sure if it's worth it with a macbook pro as it supposedly has a half decent dac already. What do you think?

 

[VoyagerDude]

How is the Dragonfly Red with the P7 wireless? Not sure if it's worth it with a macbook pro as it supposedly has a half decent dac already. What do you think?

I can hear a difference on the MacBook with DF Red vs the built-in DAC, I'll try some songs today with and w/o DF Red to refresh my memory and report back.
I also use the DF Red with my iPhone 7+ and there the difference between the DF and the $10 apple dongle is astounding.

 

[jmills8]

Does anyone know how the original wired P7 and P9 compare in terms of bass? I have the wired P7s and have no problem with the bass, and wondered if they were similar at all. Or, if i am happy with the P7s, does this mean I won't have an issue with the P9s? 

Thanks

P9 will have a bit stronger bass, and much better details in the treble.

 

[Freight Guy]

Hello everyone, a newbie here and audiophile want-to-be, I have really appreciated all the feedback and input found here on these boards!
 
So I originally targeted the B&W P7 Wireless as my next upgraded headphones to use primarily with my iPhone 7+, however I backed away since learning that Apple doesn't support APTX......started looking at the P9s as a possible option since I primarily listen when I'm at home and don't mind being wired to my Iphone - it didn't take long after testing and comparing the two that the P9s were the ones for me.....I love sound, the look and comfort  - and I find my iPhone alone does more than enough to push the P9s (or at least I thought).....and the more I listen to them the better they seem to get. I primarily get my music from iTunes and I enjoy listening to Sirius/XM via my iPhone app, though I do find my downloaded Itune songs sound better via my P9s than what streams via Sirius. 
 
So yesterday I came across Tidal Music and was intrigued that they stream "lossless" 1411kbps sound.....so I decided to do a trial one month premium subscription and dig deeper into the music they offer, and while lacking in the volume of songs and music I like, what a huge difference the music I streamed was that came across on my P9s....a huge jump in the quality and is was very very evident when comparing my downloaded iTunes songs. Again, the only thing I don's like about Tidal is their lack of music genres and groups that I prefer, and because of that I will probably cancel my subscription which runs $26 per month for high res quality.
 
So I'd like to lean on the good folks here to help me as I now feel like I'm not getting everything I can get out of my P9s via my iPhone and iTune music.....is there anything I can do to take my downloaded iTunes music and convert it to "lossless" 1411kbps equivalent quality? 
 
Thank you in advance for your input!

 

[buzzlulu]

Freight Guy
Just a side comment in reply to your discovery of TIDAL.  I have been a member here since 2003 however I have been absent these past 8 years and some research on wireless headphones led me to come back.  I currently have a P7 wireless and the B&O H9 in house (also wireless).  As we all know this place is addicting and I have been exploring other options since my return several weeks ago.
 
I would like to quote you - "newbie and audiophile want to be".  It seems like you just discovered on your own what so many here have yet to figure out.  I do not want to sound condescending to the other head fi'ers however it amazes me that the majority of users here seem to have forgotten the basic rules of audiophiles - rules which have been around forever.  I am a dedicated two channel user for decades with a full bore Naim/Linn system - vinyl, CD and streaming.
 
Just about everyone here seems to chase the latest and greatest headphone, DAC and amplifier and they appear to lose sight of the fundamental rule.  So many say they are listening to Spotify - Apple Music - MP3's etc through multi thousand dollar setups.
 
IT ALL STARTS WITH THE SOURCE!  If you are starting off with MP3's - Pandora or Spotify streams - no amount of money you spend on the most exotic headphone or amplifier will be able to polish a turd.  You need to start with full resolution uncompressed files.  Either rips from a CD or Tidal premium uncompressed streaming or FLAC downloads from someone like HDTracks.
 
If you compare a $300 headphone listening to an uncompressed CD rip against a $900 headphone listening to a MP3 - the cheaper headphone will win out (assuming it was a good headphone to start - and not a $300 BEATS headphone!)
 
To quote you once again"what a huge difference the music I streamed was that came across on my P9s....a huge jump in the quality and is was very very evident when comparing my downloaded iTunes songs."
 
Now you got it!!!

 

[netdog]

Actually as this is a MFi headset, I want to point out that many of us using it as such will have iTunes Match, which means that a fair amount of our listening on the go will be reduced to AAC 256k files.
 
While I listen to Hi-Res and 44.1 rips at home, I do find it remarkable how much better these headphones make my crappy compressed files sound.
 
They actually sound musical.  It's as if they can breathe in a way I've never heard on any other hardware.
 
I took a tour of the Linn factory in Glasgow, and one of the things that they are proudest of is their ability to also make crappy compressed files sound better on their equipment, so if you're a Linn man, perhaps you won't condescend to them.
 
No offence, and your point is well taken, but I can testify that the P9s do make rather lifeless 256k files sound pretty darn good, and often great.

 

[VoyagerDude]

+1000%

Completely agree. No point even ducussing differences in DACs or headphones without a quality source.
Which imho starts at 16bit 44KHz.
I mean I love Spotify for its selection and I do listen to it in the car. But for home use via quality gear it doesn't cut it.