[blueangel2323]

  Just bought a pair of these for university after saving up for a while (and joined head-fi as a result!). I am no audio enthusiast but there is a huge amount of detail that I can suddenly hear over the XB500's they are replacing. I have a feeling that I am still used to the Sonys though as the P7's are sounding flat at times to me, is this expected or is that because I am only listening to music from youtube on a laptop and am used to heavy bass coming through my headphones? 

You're just used to the insane amount of bass from the XB500's. The P7's actually have emphasized bass, but nothing compared to XB500. Keep listening until your ears are used to the more balanced sound.

 

[KLJTech]

I plan on buying a pair of the Bowers & Wilkins P7's this weekend if I have time enough to get up to Best Buy...this is where I heard them a month ago on display and was truly impressed with their sound. I do realize that hearing them on a demo rack only tells you so much yet I liked them more than the several other pair that they had on hand. I haven't owned any closed back headphones in years yet I have a friend that loves his Denon can's that were popular a couple years ago (now discontinued...not sure of the exact model), and I wondered if anyone here knows if these are in the same ballpark sound quality wise as the Denon's, I believe his cost about $500 or so new. Thanks.

 

[reborn]

For those concerned about isolation, it's not bad at all.

My partner is very sensitive to sound leakage in bed. She couldn't handle the Shure 840s, but the P7s to her sound very similar to the Sennheiser HD 380 Pros, which in my opinion are great isolators. The P7s don't isolate as well, but they are close.

But to say they are completely silent, or that you can hear a pin drop in the same room is pretty silly. If you can't hear that someone wearing the P7s close to you in a quiet room is listening to music either you have very poor hearing, or they are listening to music at fairly low levels.

They isolate well enough to listen at good volume in bed with a sensitive partner. That should answer most of your questions. But they are not magical noise isolating cans.

 

[reborn]

KLJ,

It sounds like your buddy may have had the Denon AH D2000s, which are well regarded on here. Do some research on them.

The P7s are not easy cans to compare to many others. It's easy to compare studio cans, which are generally supposed to be flat and extremely transparent. The P7s are kind of in a league of their own.

They aren't flat, and are in my opinion sibilant and harsh at first. I'm pretty sensitive to upper frequency harshness. I wasn't a huge fan of the P7s at first, but they have started to really impress me.

They are impressively transparent. The drivers are very efficient, and they respond well to low output resistance amplification. They sound surprisingly open for closed cans!
They sound very good straight out of an iPhone or similar, but significantly better from a proper setup.

What's not debateable is how exceptionally well built they are. They are a VERY well made audio tool.

They need a lot of time to burn in in my opinion though. I've read 5-20 hours on here. Honestly, I wasn't happy with their performance until I got around 55 hours on mine. I'm at about 70 hours with mine, and I feel like they are still settling down. The highs I'd really like to compare to a brand new set. The differences are quite noticeable I'd bet!!

 

[KLJTech]

KLJ,

It sounds like your buddy may have had the Denon AH D2000s, which are well regarded on here. Do some research on them.

The P7s are not easy cans to compare to many others. It's easy to compare studio cans, which are generally supposed to be flat and extremely transparent. The P7s are kind of in a league of their own.

They aren't flat, and are in my opinion sibilant and harsh at first. I'm pretty sensitive to upper frequency harshness. I wasn't a huge fan of the P7s at first, but they have started to really impress me.

They are impressively transparent. The drivers are very efficient, and they respond well to low output resistance amplification. They sound surprisingly open for closed cans!
They sound very good straight out of an iPhone or similar, but significantly better from a proper setup.

What's not debateable is how exceptionally well built they are. They are a VERY well made audio tool.

They need a lot of time to burn in in my opinion though. I've read 5-20 hours on here. Honestly, I wasn't happy with their performance until I got around 55 hours on mine. I'm at about 70 hours with mine, and I feel like they are still settling down. The highs I'd really like to compare to a brand new set. The differences are quite noticeable I'd bet!!

 
I appreciate the feedback since I could only put so much weight in the 15-20 minutes that I listened to them at Best Buy yet over the years i have learned to trust my ears, and I liked/enjoyed them more than the other can's on display. Ya never know if they are only playing tracks to mean to make the headphones sound their very, very best. In the very short time I listened to them they sounded more open than closed can's I've heard in the past. The ones I heard had clean extended highs (not harsh at all) and vocals sounded incredible...we'll see, I'll grab a pair in the next couple/few days. 
 
It'll be nice to have a set of closed headphones that I can listen to in my office with a nice stand alone headphone amp yet sound still sound fun/enjoyable (that's really what this is suppose to be all about) with my portable players. The only portable amps I have on hand right now are the FiiO E11 (which is better than I expected) and the even less expensive FiiO Fujiyama (I forget what the model number is...6 maybe?), but I'm considering ordering the FiiO E12 Mont Blanc...I'm not married to FiiO yet I've had good luck wiht them thus far. 
 
Thanks again! I love B&W speakers (I use 805's and at time CDM-1NT's at my office, Magnepan 1.7's in my den) and have a lot of respect for how much they put into R&D. It's cool that rather than using a standard Mylar headphone driver in the P7 that flexes around the edges when driven they made one that resmebles a speaker driver with a surround. 

 

[Illustrator76]

For those concerned about isolation, it's not bad at all.

My partner is very sensitive to sound leakage in bed. She couldn't handle the Shure 840s, but the P7s to her sound very similar to the Sennheiser HD 380 Pros, which in my opinion are great isolators. The P7s don't isolate as well, but they are close.

But to say they are completely silent, or that you can hear a pin drop in the same room is pretty silly. If you can't hear that someone wearing the P7s close to you in a quiet room is listening to music either you have very poor hearing, or they are listening to music at fairly low levels.

They isolate well enough to listen at good volume in bed with a sensitive partner. That should answer most of your questions. But they are not magical noise isolating cans.

 
This sounds pretty realistic. I wasn't too sure what to think after reading the whole deal about hearing a pin drop while wearing the P7s as well, especially compared to reviews that state opinions quite the opposite. Sounds like what you are describing is reasonable and will work well enough for what I am looking to use the headphones for.
 
Thanks for the fair and balanced info!

 

[Romani]

Different topic. I don't think I've seen this mentioned once. The P7's are sufficiently padded on the headband but because it's firm, it is causing me some pain on top of my head. Has anyone else experienced this and if yes, how did you alleviate the problem. Take note that I have no issues with the ear pads themselves or the pressure they now apply.

 

[Oklahoma]

Different topic. I don't think I've seen this mentioned once. The P7's are sufficiently padded on the headband but because it's firm, it is causing me some pain on top of my head. Has anyone else experienced this and if yes, how did you alleviate the problem. Take note that I have no issues with the ear pads themselves or the pressure they now apply.

Try letting the earpieces go longer so the top band is barely touching your head it clamps fairly good so it still shouldn't slide around much.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

 

[Romani]

Try letting the earpieces go longer so the top band is barely touching your head it clamps fairly good so it still shouldn't slide around much.

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

I will give that a go, seems like a simple enough solution, was just worried about them sliding off my head. Still curious to see if anyone else feels this pain or whether I just have an extra sensitive head.

 

[jazzman7]

I don't have the P7, but from my experience with other headphones, one definitely wants to play with the earpiece extensions to adjust pressure points.  Generally:
 
1)  Lengthening the earpiece extensions puts more pressure on or around the ears, but can alleviate some of the top-head pressure on a heavy headphone.
2)  Shortening the earpiece extensions reduces ear pressure, but loads the top of the head with more weight.  
 
Also, one can play with lengthening the earpiece extensions and tilting the headphone slightly forward or backward to move the top pressure point to some other part of the head.  
 
Again, this pertains to all headphones, and is not really specific to the P7.  Just like ears, all heads are different.    

 

[Dratino]

I will give that a go, seems like a simple enough solution, was just worried about them sliding off my head. Still curious to see if anyone else feels this pain or whether I just have an extra sensitive head.

 
yea don't worry, I feel it too as well, as Oklahoma and jazzman suggested, lengthening the earpiece extension helps to prevent the pain on the head.

 

[JHC76]

Yup.  Took me a bit to find the ideal position for them, but now they're like sliding on an old pair of slippers.  I also like how supple the ear pieces have become with use.  

 

[Dratino]

  Yup.  Took me a bit to find the ideal position for them, but now they're like sliding on an old pair of slippers.  I also like how supple the ear pieces have become with use.  

 
yea I agree, the leather and memory foam in the earpads just get better with use.

 

[JHC76]

I am almost positive this isn't memory foam.  Whatever it is, I love it.

 

[KLJTech]

I bought these last Friday night and after running them for a few days while connected to either the built in amp on the Parasound Zdac or the Lyr I've gotta say that I'm very, very pleased. I don't own another pair of closed back can's as I've never been very impressed with the ones I've heard, but I love these...Hell they even sound nice with my Clip Zip and FiiO E11. After being use to the weight of the HE-400 and 500's these seem light and well worth the money.