Skip to main content

Review: Bowers & Wilkins’ P5 Wireless hits new highs in Bluetooth headphone luxury

Back when white earbuds dominated the market, Beats by Dre proved that mainstream customers were willing to pay $300 for large wired headphones and nearly $400 for wireless versions — even plasticky, overly bassy ones. The subsequent shift towards big headphones nearly killed makers of premium in-ear models, leading many audio companies to mimic Beats’ formula. But there were holdouts: iconic audio companies including Bowers & Wilkins refused to compromise their materials or change their sonic signatures to match Beats. Instead, B&W offered premium-priced headphones made from premium-quality materials, and let customers pick between plastic Beats or metal and leather alternatives.

Today, Bowers & Wilkins is debuting P5 Wireless ($400), a Bluetooth version of last year’s luxurious P5 Series 2 (and the since-discontinued original P5). Mixing chrome, brushed aluminum, and ultra-soft sheep’s leather, P5 Wireless is virtually indistinguishable from P5 Series 2 apart from its ability to operate with or without a 3.5mm audio cable. Classy in ways that even the top-of-line Beats Pro can’t match, P5 Wireless is the first Bluetooth headphone I would recommend to fans of classic premium audio gear…

Key Details:

  • Bluetooth wireless version of B&W’s deluxe, sheep’s leather and metal on-ear headphones
  • Includes 17-hour rechargeable battery, dual-mic audio
  • Elegantly integrated controls
  • No compromises from prior P5
  • Incredible comfort, great looks

It’s fair to describe P5 Wireless as a dead ringer for P5 Series 2, since almost every detail from the wired headphone has been kept intact for the wireless model. You still get the black brushed aluminum, diamond-cut silver bezeled ear cups, adjustable chrome arms, and padded jet black leather inside the headband and ear cups.

B&W’s materials look and feel truly deluxe: it’s easy to picture using P5 Wireless alongside an Apple Watch with a black Classic Buckle, a space gray iPhone 6, an iPad Air 2, a 12″ Retina MacBook… or all of the above. These are executive-class, executive-style headphones.

You also benefit from executive-level comfort. P5 Wireless is an on-ear design, which in the hands of less capable designers can lead to aching ears or skull-crushing headband tension. To avoid issues, B&W picked the softest leather and pads I’ve ever felt — genuine sheep leather with a truly incomparable texture. It feels like an expensive sofa or sports car seat, but plush on your ears rather than your back and legs.

B&W has made subtle tweaks to P5 Series 2’s other features for P5 Wireless. The speakers are P5 Series 2’s 40mm drivers, housed under detachable, replaceable ear pads, and you still get a three-button remote and microphone, plus a quilted fabric carrying case. But the new carrying case has gained an internal pocket to hold the optional 3.5mm headphone and mandatory micro-USB recharging cables. A 17-hour rechargeable battery has been added to power P5 Wireless’s Bluetooth 3.0 wireless audio capabilities; the headphones notably continue to work fully (and sound like P5 Series 2) in wired mode even if the battery is depleted. You just have to attach an included 3.5mm audio cable to a connector inside the left ear cup.

If you look closely, you’ll see that P5 Wireless is missing P5 Series 2’s chrome stripe between the front and back of the headphones. In its place is a black plastic housing roughly twice as thick — 5mm versus 2.5mm — which is the only adjustment B&W made to accommodate P5 Wireless’s added electronics. The right ear cup’s back hides the relocated three-button remote control and one microphone of a dual-mic system; the right bottom has a micro-USB port, the second microphone, a power/Bluetooth pairing light, and a nifty power switch that hides a pressable Bluetooth pairing button.

I don’t often praise control designs — particularly on wireless headphones, which have long suffered from gawdy buttons and ill-conceived gimmickry such as touch surfaces — but P5 Wireless gets everything right in both tactility and subtlety. The volume, track, play-pause, power, and pairing controls hide in places that are easy to reach, and function exactly as they should when you want to use them. There’s no need to jab towards your skull to press a button, or rub a secret touch surface like you’re scratching your earphones. B&W’s button design is as elegant as the rest of P5 Wireless.

Sonically, the P5 Wireless continues the P5 Series 2’s sound signature and overall performance, which is a generally good thing, particularly given the shift from purely wired to wireless Bluetooth technology. Amplifier noise — often an issue with wireless headphones — is generally not detectable, and there were no audio hiccups or dropouts during my testing. The sonic balance skews towards mid-treble, with reasonable highs, strong mids, and good lows, lacking only in the lowest bass notes. If you love bass (and a clubby echo to go along with it), you’ll find more of it in a pair of Beats Solo 2 Wireless headphones; that’s P5 Wireless’s only obvious deficiency, but made up for with a little added clarity across the rest of the audio spectrum. On a related note, phone callers told me that B&W’s new dual-microphone system sounded excellent, rendering my voice as clearly as the iPhone in handset mode — no easy feat.

Having tested literally all of B&W’s headphones over the years, I’ve been consistently impressed by the high-quality design and materials, as well as improvements introduced in new models. Each of the company’s first outings in a given headphone category has been strong, most notably its fantastic first in-ear headphones (C5, replaced by C5S2), its jaw-droppingly gorgeous original on-ears (P5), and its even more opulent over-ears (P7). Similarly, P5 Wireless roars out of the gate as a sophisticated Bluetooth wireless headphone — so premium that people will justifiably dream of receiving a pair as a gift. While it compares in price to the P7, the wireless functionality has been executed very well, and the overall experience feels deluxe enough to justify the cost. If you’ve been thinking of investing in a really nice set of wireless headphones, P5 Wireless offers the most compelling reason yet to take the plunge.

Manufacturer:
Bowers & Wilkins
Price:
$400
Compatibility:
Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, Bluetooth iPods, Mac

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

You’re reading 9to5Mac — experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel

Comments

  1. Radosław Wiankowski - 9 years ago

    Any info how they compare to Beoplay H8?

    • Jeremy Horwitz - 9 years ago

      No, but I’ve never found a B&O audio product worthy of the asking prices (in this particular case $100 more than P5 Wireless). Personal preference, though.

      • Radosław Wiankowski - 9 years ago

        The H8 include active noise cancellig, run BT 4.0 and have a replaceable battery (the P5 don’t?). So you do get some more value for the extra 100 USD. And truth be told if you’re gonna sped 400, 500 won’t suddenly be too much. Then again, specs are just specs and a product that seems better “on paper” might not actually be better at the end of the day. That’s why I’d really like to see a in-depth comparison of the two.

      • Brandon Hicks - 9 years ago

        I don’t have the P5 wireless version, but I do have the wired P5’s, B&O H6’s, B&O H8’s and a pair of H3’s. I am a huge fan of B&W, owning their CM9, 805 and 804 Diamond floor speakers and an A5 Wireless System. Not a big fan of B&O’s hi-fi systems in terms of sound but they are beautifully designed. That said I do own the B&O Beloit 15. I would say that for me the B&O BeoPlay product line is really good and is a better value to me than their main hi-fi offerings when it comes to sound/price. B&W is still my choice for hi-fi sound, but I can’t rave enough about my H8’s. Have put about 1000 hours on them since I bought them and most of that was during flight. They are very light and the noise canceling works pretty well (although could be a little better). They have a better low-end response than the H6’s but not as much as my wired P5’s. The only nuance I have found is that they play at a lower volume than my wired H6’s and that maybe be due to the Bluetooth limitations. All-in-all, based on the wired P5’s, I don’t think you could go wrong with either.

  2. I’ve used – and loved – a pair of P5s (first edition) for years. I’m excited about the prospect of a wireless set that are as good. However, I’m not that familiar with the differences between my P51s and the P52s. And why Bluetooth 3 rather than 4LE, I wonder? There are other headphones – usually the tiny in-ear ones – that support 4LE, and sound pretty good.

    • Jeremy Horwitz - 9 years ago

      The P5 Series 2 improved the audio over the P5 Series 1. From discussions I’ve had with headphone and earphone companies over the past few years, BT4LE doesn’t improve music streaming quality versus BT3, or offer other performance gains (such as reduced power drain under normal listening conditions). But BT3 dramatically improved pairing speeds over BT2.1, and had a few other nice user-facing benefits, which is why most headphones have shifted away from BT2.1.

  3. crichton007 - 9 years ago

    I own the B&W earbuds and they are fantastic. I’d love to own a pair of their over-the-ear headphones too but that’s kind of out of my price range right now.

    • Jeremy Horwitz - 9 years ago

      The ear stabilizer design of the C5/C5 Series 2 is quite possibly the best I’ve ever tested, and I’ve tested a lot.

  4. Why does this use Bluetooth 3.0 and not 4.0? That seems odd. 4.0 has been out for ages and is much more energy efficient.

    • Jeremy Horwitz - 9 years ago

      See above. The power efficiency applies mostly to IoT-style accessories with relatively modest data transmission needs. BT4 is ideal for maintaining intermittent communication with low-bandwidth devices over long periods of time, but comparable to BT3 when being used for streaming of audio.

  5. PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

    That is one neat headline! Must feel good to be able to write like that.

    And there it is again: “”…sonic signatures…”, and
    “…plush on your ears rather than your back and legs..” and

    “…or rub a secret touch surface like you’re scratching your earphones…” Pfew. For a moment there I thought you were getting nasty on us…

  6. Ben Dodson (@bendodson) - 9 years ago

    What are your thoughts on the lack of noise cancelling? I’ve had two sets of over-ear noise cancelling headphones (Bose and Beats) and I’m reluctant to lose that feature…

    • Jeremy Horwitz - 9 years ago

      It’s a dicey feature for on-ear headphones. Because the seal with your ears isn’t the same as with an over-ear cup design, you won’t achieve much active noise-cancelling even if you add the circuitry. If the feature is important to you, a pair of over-ear headphones will do a lot more passive and active noise reduction.

  7. Christopher DeHarde - 9 years ago

    It never fails me. I bought C5s last year in Iowa, three months later the C5 Series 2s came out. This year I bought P5 Series 2 headphones, three weeks later P5 Wireless is out. Gaaah! Oh well, I now know what to tell my family to get me for Birthday/Christmas!

    • Pat - 9 years ago

      Yeah, a subscription to “What HiFi” so you can read the upcoming release dates. ;-)

  8. Any idea how these stack up against the all-so-popular Audio technica ath m50x?