[SergioLeone]

Got mine two days ago Long overdue purchase from my side, have been dreaming about a good pair of headphones for years
How should I burn-in these? Any specific track/sound works best for burning in headphones? Does volume matter?

Thanks.

Upd: after some reading I can see many controversial thoughts on actual benefits of burning in headphones. I think I'll just use them as is.

 

[Roderick]

Deleted

 

[Slammintone]

My barely used 3yr old P7s look great and physically are in well cared for state of being. However they have mostly sat unused for the last two years. Now they've developed a harsh clipping sound on cymbal crashes and musical peaks. It's terrible. It sounds like clipping or mistracking and I hate them. I emailed Bowers and Wilkins and they told me ship them back plus $200 and I'd get a replacement. Ya right! Now I know why the 2yr warranty. Too bad for B&W as I am about to spring over 7k for speakers and it's not going to be thieirs. I have 10 yr old Senheisers that cost me $50 that still sound great.

Just went back and read my initial comments on this forum from when I got the P7s. They sounded very refined, Bass was tremendous, cymbals were smooth and extended and warm. I well remember the sound I'd gotten from them. They don't sound like that now. The bass has dried up quite a bit too. They're defective somewhere in materials or construction and B&W won't stand behind them at all. These were not abused. I only ever used them with my Ipod and up until I quit using them as much they still sounded fine.

 

[Mikey99]

My barely used 3yr old P7s look great and physically are in well cared for state of being. However they have mostly sat unused for the last two years. Now they've developed a harsh clipping sound on cymbal crashes and musical peaks. It's terrible. It sounds like clipping or mistracking and I hate them. I emailed Bowers and Wilkins and they told me ship them back plus $200 and I'd get a replacement. Ya right! Now I know why the 2yr warranty. Too bad for B&W as I am about to spring over 7k for speakers and it's not going to be thieirs. I have 10 yr old Senheisers that cost me $50 that still sound great.

Just went back and read my initial comments on this forum from when I got the P7s. They sounded very refined, Bass was tremendous, cymbals were smooth and extended and warm. I well remember the sound I'd gotten from them. They don't sound like that now. The bass has dried up quite a bit too. They're defective somewhere in materials or construction and B&W won't stand behind them at all. These were not abused. I only ever used them with my Ipod and up until I quit using them as much they still sounded fine.

Mine are about 4 years old. They also sat unused for a few years until I listened to them for some time recently. I did not notice any issues, no clipping or other sign of deterioration. Still quite a bit better than my Momentums which also sat unused for a while. That being said, I have moved on from both, now using IEMs for travel and office.

 

[Havre]

I have replaced mine twice. Thankfully I got a 6 year warranty through the shop - so no extra cost related to the replacements, but quite disappointing in terms of the quality of the product. It might be just me being unlucky of course.

 

[redrich2000]

Anyone know whether it's possible to get a very short P7 cable, like 10cm long? Or a short 2.5 to 3.5mm adapter?
I want to use them with BT receiver clipped to the frame.

 

[Chimichanga]

(Someone out there still uses these, right?)

Several years ago I discovered that my P7 ear pads were ruined by glue seeping from the wall behind the ear pieces. I wouldn't have sent them in if I had known what was behind them textured material surrounding the small woofer: a metal plate obscured by bad tape.

My $35 (now they charge $53) ear pads were ruined by a few cents of tape. The same thing has happened to my refurbished unit (which I left unused for several years).

The good news is that there is a metal plate behind the adhesive tape. The bad news is that removing the glue residue is nightmarish, but the adhesive tape came clean off with a few tugs.

*Given the way that this is put together, it's not out of the question that the ear pad construction itself is leaking glue.

 

[Roderick]

Interesting observation considering the long term durability. I've lost few eBay bids on P7 recently. I've developed an urge to test P7 again after being disappointed with P9.

 

[Chimichanga]

@Roderick , I think they're otherwise well built headphones. Steel and leather, and if there's any plastic it's in the interior cavity of the drivers. Why they would corrupt good construction with tacked on tape is beyond me.

I think I one Amazon reviewer of the wireless version reported the same thing, but otherwise people don't seem to check the interior or many of these haven't been sold.

 

[Chimichanga]

It took me longer than I liked, but I got most of the adhesive off with rubbing alcohol, though there's probably something stronger you could use, like WD-40 (careful with the leather). I removed the metal plate and considered taking a picture, but there's not much to see. There's a plastic core which is angled for the speaker to sit in and some acoustic damping material behind the woofer magnet; and to keep up appearances, a small braided cable is tucked around a plastic lip surrounding the speaker. It's farcical to have my second pair of headphones become almost ruined for the same reason, but oh well, at least I got an extra pair of accessories from the last time I sent my headphones to B&W.

Since I'm already well acquainted with the V-shaped sound signature, I'll try the AutoEq equalizer values to see what a neutral P7 sounds like.

 

[Havre]

Interesting observation considering the long term durability. I've lost few eBay bids on P7 recently. I've developed an urge to test P7 again after being disappointed with P9.

I guess they can be had fairly cheaply these days?

Got 6 years warranty on mine through the store I bought them at and I am now on my third pair. Doesn't prove anything of course, but these are the first headsets to ever fail on me.

Busted driver twice. Not the same type of fault.

Still love the sound though. Been looking to replace them lately, but not found any that are significantly better.

 

[revolutionz]

Just wanted to pop in here...Has anyone done any cable mod to their P7 and made it 2 sided/directly wired to the drivers? Was thinking these things might shine with a decent silver cable vs the tiny stock thing they use.

I've had my P7 for about 6 years now, have never had the glue issue, though I did have them replaced under warranty once after 3 or 4 years due to one side (I don't remember which) cutting out.

Their customer service was excellent and just sent me a brand new P7 similar to the person a few pages back.

I don't move around with them at all, they stay on my desk at work, and are driven by a CEntrance HIFI-M8, which I'm quite happy with the pairing.

 

[Chimichanga]

I've flip-flopped between liking and disliking what the P7's sound like when properly equalized. The RTINGS measurements stored by AutoEQ aren't perfect, but I tweaked them a little because the treble range sounded brittle and piercing at times. Now they sound very different and I think I like it. If anyone is interested I pasted the GraphicEQ settings, which you can simply paste into EqualizerAPO.

 

[meraxx]

Hello,
I've recently bought a pair of second hand P7 and found out having the "glue issue" too.
Decided making a try before buying replacement pads.
Removed the sticky pads and realized that glue was coming from under the black "faceplate" of the pad, at the opposite side of the ear cup.
Cautiously managed to remove it:

as you can see on the removed "faceplate", its gluing to the body of the earpad is granted via a layer of double sided adhesive tape, who is the responsible for the "glue issue".

In the unlucky event that the "faceplate" might get damaged or broken for some reasons, it might be replaced by a 1 mm thick layer of black leather: it would therefore be a good idea, when removing the "faceplate" to make a "template" out of it, just in case
Something like this:

With the help of some WD40 (let the sticky side of the "faceplate" soak with WD40) I managed to remove the adhesive tape:

One BIG WARNING: don't you use alcohol as a solvent or the "leatherish" coat of the "faceplate" (the one which will get in contact with the driver) will fall apart in pieces from its rubber support (the side which will be glued to the pad).

Then cautiously cleaned all traces of glue from "faceplate" and earpad, obtaining something like that:

then applied a thin layer of glue to the back of the "faceplate" and put it back in place.
Let the glue do its job, and the result is as follows:

not aesthetically perfect, but the important was to remove once and forever the source of the "glue issue".
And then, when the earpads are back in place, the earphone looks just like before the intervention.

Less than one hour work isn't it worth the 53 (+Shipping) UKP of the replacements?


I am a happier fellow now
Vincenzo

 

[Chimichanga]

I always figured only the speaker-side had glue on it; eventually I noticed the pad-side also had glue. It may have just been the pad-side glue that made the mess.

Like you I completely tore out the little surround padding from the ear-pads when I noticed the speaker-side felt tape thing hadn't put a stop to the problem (accidentally scratched the polished metal plate first time I did that, oops). Ear-pad magnets were a little discolored, but at least I know the ear-pads weren't affected by the glue since there's a plastic back behind the mushy surround.

I never found the P7 remarkable, but now I'm only keeping it around because B&W (and a few others of this price segment) have abandoned traditional wired headphones for trendy, disposable wireless headphones.