There was no issue, many others have noted the same thing, including in this thread; it's how the P9s are for some of us and it's measurable and I posted a graph comparing the P7s to the P9. There are other forums where this quality of the P9s is discussed in great detail with charts and graphs and interactive displays. Well, not that last part, but the other stuff.
There are two things happening: preferences, and biology.
I like the P7s way more than most, and I really like them wired. If it were a car, I'd compare the P7s to the Audi S4: fast, fun, elegant but ... if you like to fear your car, it's just not up to that task. I was hopeful the P9 would be the P7s successor, but B&W went in a different direction with it; the P9 has a totally different sound. The same is true with the B&W PX: it's not the successor to the P7, it's yet another new sound direction.
As for burn-in, I'm not a believer in this sense: I've yet to test any headphone whose sound I didn't like initially where, after burn-in, I liked it. If you like a 'phone sound, it'll get better, but it won't overcome dislikes.
I'm not a P9 hater, it's a beautiful HP with a lot to love, I only posted because I would've liked to have read my posts when I was considering what to get. Too many threads turn into love-it-or-we'll-shout-you-down threads.
Maybe this one has too.
You are of course entitled to your opinion. The problem is that every few posts going back several pages of this thread is a post from you stating the same thing over and over. There is no doubt in the mind of anyone reading this thread that you don't like the way the P9 sounds. We get it. The reason you feel "shouted down" is because, after a few pages of it...and well after the point has been made, it starts to get annoying.
Some of your comments come across as hyperbole. You say the P9 is VERY recessed in the mids. That is just not true...unless something is wrong somewhere in the chain. You've also said that the P9 mids are missing. Obviously not true. If you want to be taken seriously, don't exagerrate. If you aren't exagerrating, then something is wrong.
You also say that many others have stated that the P9 mids are very recessed or missing, including in this thread. I don't know about threads discussing this outside of head-fi...I haven't read them. But I do know that only a few people in this thread, including you, have complained about the P9's mids. The vast majority of complaints have been about the level of bass.
I owned the P7W for 8 days before returning them because the ear pad openings were too small for me. Other than that issue, and a soundstage quite a bit more intimate than I prefer, I liked the P7W. For me, the P9 were blatantly better in every way from the very first listen. Susbstantually wider soundstage. Better instrument separation, imaging, and layering. More realistic tonality....the P7's sound slightly metallic in comparison. More clarity, detail, and coherency in the highs and more clarity, detail, and coherency in the mids. Better dynamics and a more refined sound across the board.
The only issue I had, outside of the pads being a bit stiff (all B&W pads are this way), was with the bass. Sub bass was perfect, but mid and upper bass was a bit too much. On some of my music, the mids were being affected...and after spending $900, I didn't like this. But, I decided I'd let them burn in...even though, prior to, I'd never been able to detect any obvious difference in a pair of headphones after "burn in".
I'm not new to this hobby and have owned numerous quality headphones. I know what it sounds like when bass muddies up mids. After about 60 hours, the negative affect the P9 bass was having on the mids in some of my music went away. And no, it wasn't "mental burn in". I listen to my HE-400i almost as much as I listen to my P9's, and if the P9 bass was still misbehaving, it would be blatantly obvious after an extended listen of the same music over the 400i. The bass is still powerful though....full of impact, as bass should be. But it still manages to be very tight, fast, and quite detailed.
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