This is a review and detailed measurements of the Bowers & Wilkins P5 portable headphone. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $385 on amazon.
The P5 has very unusual design showing innovation in how you build a lightweight headphone:
New Zealand lamb leather is used on the pads and headband providing very soft touch and feel. It is extremely comfortable when you wear it. After a couple of hours, I could feel a bit of discomfort but no more than any other headphone.
Innovations continue inside the headphone where a clever mechanism is used to hide the removable cable inside one of the cups (which are magnetically mounted):
Perhaps because of that, I found the cable to be more than usual microphonic.
This is a "sealed" headphone even though it sits on your ear. I found that this was enough to get rid of the high pitch whine of my computer fan but not the TV in the room next door. So good in this regrard.
Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.
Bowers & Wilkins P5 Measurements
Let's start with frequency response of P5 and comparison to our preference target to figure out tonality of the headphone:
As noted, optimally placing an on-ear headphone on the test fixture is an impossible task. I was pleasantly surprised though that I managed to get both channels to match each other almost perfectly despite this. Normally I set the reference level of 94 dB to 425 Hz but got unlucky in this case as the bass resonance is located at that very frequency. So I moved the reference to 600 Hz to get better matching.
We are clearly bass deficient although how much, we don't know due to fitment issues (and listener preference). We get decent tracking of our target past a few hundred hertz but then have another shortfall above 4 kHz. Without bass and treble, this is likely going to be a unexciting headphone to listen to:
I fell off my chair when I saw incredibly low distortion almost independent of level:
As noted the extremely low distortion means there are no nasty side-effects to using EQ to boost things. In absolute level, we see how incredibly low distortion is at higher frequencies relative to our target of 40 dB:
Bass distortion is also good but the level is very slow. Once we boost that in EQ, the advantage there gets erased.
Impedance is flat and low:
Sensitivity is excellent so you should be able to power the P5 with just about anything:
Finally, group delay shows the sane response of the driver above bass:
Bowers & Wilkins P5 Listening Tests and Equalization
The P5 sounds exactly as the measurements predict: too little bass and highs. As such, it is not offensive at all. Just dull and unexciting. If you want to use it for long term background music listening, it would be fine as is. That is not me though so I pulled out EQ tool and in just a couple minutes had a completely different headphone:
I quickly dialed in that bass boost to the tune of 8 dB and it was perfect. I then put in two filters to pull up the highs, adjusted them up and down a bit and I was done! Sure, you could mess with them more but there was no need in my book. Once there, the sound was very enjoyable. Combine that with the light weight of this headphone and feeling of luxury wearing it, it is hard to ask for a lot more.
Conclusions
The Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphone is a bit of sleeper as far as measurements and listening results. Dial in some EQ to taste though and it wakes up and becomes a contended for a very comfortable and lightweight headphone.
I can recommend the Bowers & Wilkins P5 with equalization. Without it, it is a pass.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The P5 has very unusual design showing innovation in how you build a lightweight headphone:
New Zealand lamb leather is used on the pads and headband providing very soft touch and feel. It is extremely comfortable when you wear it. After a couple of hours, I could feel a bit of discomfort but no more than any other headphone.
Innovations continue inside the headphone where a clever mechanism is used to hide the removable cable inside one of the cups (which are magnetically mounted):
Perhaps because of that, I found the cable to be more than usual microphonic.
This is a "sealed" headphone even though it sits on your ear. I found that this was enough to get rid of the high pitch whine of my computer fan but not the TV in the room next door. So good in this regrard.
Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.
Bowers & Wilkins P5 Measurements
Let's start with frequency response of P5 and comparison to our preference target to figure out tonality of the headphone:
As noted, optimally placing an on-ear headphone on the test fixture is an impossible task. I was pleasantly surprised though that I managed to get both channels to match each other almost perfectly despite this. Normally I set the reference level of 94 dB to 425 Hz but got unlucky in this case as the bass resonance is located at that very frequency. So I moved the reference to 600 Hz to get better matching.
We are clearly bass deficient although how much, we don't know due to fitment issues (and listener preference). We get decent tracking of our target past a few hundred hertz but then have another shortfall above 4 kHz. Without bass and treble, this is likely going to be a unexciting headphone to listen to:
I fell off my chair when I saw incredibly low distortion almost independent of level:
As noted the extremely low distortion means there are no nasty side-effects to using EQ to boost things. In absolute level, we see how incredibly low distortion is at higher frequencies relative to our target of 40 dB:
Bass distortion is also good but the level is very slow. Once we boost that in EQ, the advantage there gets erased.
Impedance is flat and low:
Sensitivity is excellent so you should be able to power the P5 with just about anything:
Finally, group delay shows the sane response of the driver above bass:
Bowers & Wilkins P5 Listening Tests and Equalization
The P5 sounds exactly as the measurements predict: too little bass and highs. As such, it is not offensive at all. Just dull and unexciting. If you want to use it for long term background music listening, it would be fine as is. That is not me though so I pulled out EQ tool and in just a couple minutes had a completely different headphone:
I quickly dialed in that bass boost to the tune of 8 dB and it was perfect. I then put in two filters to pull up the highs, adjusted them up and down a bit and I was done! Sure, you could mess with them more but there was no need in my book. Once there, the sound was very enjoyable. Combine that with the light weight of this headphone and feeling of luxury wearing it, it is hard to ask for a lot more.
Conclusions
The Bowers & Wilkins P5 headphone is a bit of sleeper as far as measurements and listening results. Dial in some EQ to taste though and it wakes up and becomes a contended for a very comfortable and lightweight headphone.
I can recommend the Bowers & Wilkins P5 with equalization. Without it, it is a pass.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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