Bowers & Wilkins P5 On-Ear Headphones B&W - Black (discontinued by manufacturer)

Product Information

You'd think more manufacturers would make this feature standard, but a surprising number of high-end models don't have it. Mine worked pretty well for two years and I was delighted with the sound, and one day the left driver went out (not a cable issue). But there are so many competing products that can produce a smooth, non-fatigueing sound with more extension and detail across the frequencies IMO, but most of these off the top of my head are in-ears.

But if you want a "modern" audiophile fun sound when you are on the go or traveling - give them a serious consideration! Make no mistake, while pretty good too, they aren't in the same league as the P5 and aren't that much more portable given they don't fold flat like the P5s do. The Bowers and Wilkins P5 Wireless headphones iPod and iPhone headphones come with an Apple®-approved cable, for easy speech and device control. The second had improved clarity across the range by removing the foam that blocked part of the earpad canal.

Considering that this is still the audiophile approach, I sampled the P5 with MP3 files toward the end of my listening sessions to see if these phones made sense as an upgrade for the average listener. the imaging was not right, still a little muddy on all the frequencies, like if a veil was placed on the music.

Worth noting, the headphones drooped down the crown of my head a few times, but that wasn’t a major issue by any means—your mileage may vary. If I never went out in public I probably wouldn't use these, but for those of us that care, the sound compromise is not too great to outweigh how good these look IMO. That does seem to distort the overall rating somewhat since I think these are a headphone you have to have for a while to appreciate. It shows its weakness in tonal coherence when there was an upward swoosh in strings in an orchestral piece (forgot which one now) where the lower notes and the latter upper notes sound like they come from different instruments, which was not true. The bassline is deep and taut, the drums kick hard and there's enough texture easily to make out Matt Bellamy's laboured breathing.You can feel the body of instruments even if they could be more detailed, Grado's Hps on the contrary seems to loose some weight to instruments and voices even if they're perceived more detailed. It is small (relatively), extremely simple to handle, extremely intuitive in folding and storing (by contrast the T50p case, thought handsome, was HUGE and occupies too much space in my briefcase, while it's always a hassle to tug the cable of the ESW10 into the seperate cable pouch to protect the wood from scratch), great isolation making it usable in many difficult situations, the single-sided cable is very handy in everyday life situations, and the Apple-friendly remote/mic cable, if you can stand a very slight deterioration in sound, is again very handy if you use a iPhone. A blast of Muse's Psycho proves a rousing listen, the headphones maintaining the song's fist-pounding aggression.