Bowers and Wilkins P3 review

Where to start with these headphones and this company. As you know Bowers and Wilkins are world renowned for making incredible quality products.
However the now incredible company had quite humble beginnings.
Bowers and Wilkins started life in 1965 as a small business, with John Bowers making hand crafted speakers for customers in the back of his friends electrical store. This friend was none other than Roy Wilkins.
In 1966 B&W Electronics Ltd was formed and in that same year saw the birth of the P1, a speaker that's cabinet and filter was made by Bowers and Wilkins, with the drivers being sourced from elsewhere.
Fast forward a few years to 1974 and B&W started trails with Kevlar®, which would later become a Bowers & Wilkins patent and a characteristic of the natural sound of its speakers. Go forward again to 1979 and B&W's 801which was seen of as being to create unrivaled realism at the time.
1986 saw B&W turn its attention to creating and evolving the interiors of speakers. B&W thus created the Matrix™, which not only increased the rigidity of the cabinet but also improved the speakers bass performance. On a roll B&W took a massive hit when in 1987 John Bowers an icon of the industry passes. A truly saddening time for his family, friends and fans of his amazing work. 1988 sees the iconic Abbey Road studios adopt the B&W 801 for use in its studios (A partnership that still thrives today).
1993 saw B&W create the Nautilus™. Which is still being manufactured today for customers all over the globe.
Fast forward to 2007 and B&W creates the massively successful Zeppelin™, to meet the demand for the ever so popular iPod®.
2010 was a great year for B&W as it saw them create their first headphones, the P5. Which not only looked amazing, but allowed everyone to experience B&W on the move. 2010 also saw B&W create its first computer speakers. The MM-1, which brought B&W quality to your PC by utilising USB technology and a high quality DAC.
Which then brings us to the subject of this review. The Bowers and Wilkins P3.

Inside the box

You are greeted with a hard carry case. That looks and feels really well made and very high quality (which I would expect nothing less). The case will make an ideal travel companion and make light work of protecting its precious cargo.
Also in the box you get an array of leaflets, which include a quick start guide, safety and warranty and a registration booklet. You also get a choice of two cables. One with controls for Apple products and one for use on Android, Windows etc...
Then you get the headphones. Now available for £169.99 in a choice of four colours. You get the conservative and stylish black, the cool and trendy white and the striking blue or red. All the choices look amazing but colour choice is down to personal preference.

Aesthetics

Well where to begin. These are in my opinion some of the best looking headphones on sale today. The first thing that really grabs the attention is the beautifully curvy aluminium bracing that swoops down from the headband and is gracefully joined to the driver enclosure. This really adds a touch of class and elegance to the headphones design. The headphones are mostly finished in a matt soft touch material. It feels really nice in the hand and doesn't attract too many fingerprints.
The driver enclosure is again finished in the lovely soft touch material, but it adds an extruded aluminium housing for the driver. This is finished off in a brushed style with "Bowers and Wilkins" engraved into the oval shaped faceplate. Around which features a shiny aluminium accent that really adds to the overall look of the headphones.
The headband padding and ear pad is finished in a bespoke acoustic fabric, that is very soft to the touch and is colour matched to the headphone. This again just further enhances the premium feel of these headphones. The ear pad and enclosure are separated by another aluminium accent, which ties the colour scheme and makes for a very beautifully coherent design.

Build quality

Now to the build quality, which is top notch. All the materials feel very expensive and the headphones feel reassuringly solid. The headband has a nice amount of tension, but not too much to make it stiff. The finish of the headphones is simply magnitudes above its price tag. From the soft touch material, the flourishes of aluminium, the memory foam (for the padding) and the acoustic fabric these headphones just radiate quality. 
The headphones are very lightweight but that doesn't detract from the quality and just somehow makes the headphones even more impressive.
Now to the downsides, of which there are two.
The first being the cable. Although the cable looks very nice and is finished off in a lovely feeling material, its a quite flimsy and could easily break. Actually during testing it did break, luckily though you get two. However that isn't the point, the cable shouldn't be this bad.
Next is the detachable cable which is hidden behind the removable pads. Sounds cool right? You would think the cables would be secure? Well during tests I found that one of the connections kept coming loose, this wasn't just once it happened on a few occasions which was more than annoying. I found myself having to stop what I was doing to reattach the cable.
Although some people may not experience this I found it happened on more than a few occasions. That being said they still are amazingly built headphones even with those minor design flaws.

Comfort

The headphones are quite comfortable, well at least after a few days of wearing. I found that the headphones were a little uncomfortable to begin with but gradually the memory foam began to mould to the shape of my ears and they became very comfortable. However after prolonged use I found that the tops of my ears were getting a bit sore, but this was easily solved by adjusting the headband to find a better position. The headband padding is a little on the hard side which would be a massive negative if the headphones were heavy. However the headphones are very light thus the padding really isn't an issue at all. The one thing to note is that if your on the move a lot the headphones aren't exactly the most secure. I found whilst walking the headband sometimes moved backwards and the ear pads sometimes slipped off my ears. A little bit of an issue, but if you spend a bit of time and adjust the headphones you can get them to sit and stay in place.

Design Features

Like previously mentioned the ear pads are removable, which suits more than one purpose. The first and foremost is that fact that the P3's features swappable cables, these can only be accessed by removing the ear pads. The second use is that the removable pads can be easily cleaned if necessary. I however never found myself having to do this but I guess its useful if you have owned the headphones for a long time.
The P3's like I also mentioned have swappable cables of which you get two. Switching them is a bit of a annoyance as you have to remove the ear cups, then unplug the cables from the interior connection, then place the new cable in, ensure its securely installed and then slotted into the channel for the wire. I understand that it adds to the securement aspect of the cable, but I don't think I can ever recall having any issues with the traditional style removable cable.
The P3's also include the use a memory foam padding in the ear cups. Its very soft and forms to the ear the more you wear them. The P3 additionally feature a folding mechanism that makes the headphones very small, when I say small they easily fit into the hand. This is very ideal for those people who like to travel and have to commute on a daily basis.
The P3's like aforementioned come with two cables. The cable with the Apple control feature couldn't be tested as I do not own Apple products. That being said I found the play and pause worked for Android, but only to play / pause and answer calls. These are very basic functions but I suppose its better than nothing.   

Noise leak and Isolation

Now I will talk a bit about noise leak. With the P3s close back you would expect noise leakage to be kept at a minimum, which is true for the most part. Now they do leak a bit, I think its down to the design of the ear pad. The ear pad sits on your ear rather than around, this leaves a small air gap around the top and bottom of the headphone. This means noise leaks slightly but not as bad as you would expect. The leak wouldn't be loud enough to bother other passengers on the train or bus, unless they are sat right up next to you.
As for isolation they again do a fairly good job. They isolate noise fairly well and perform better than expected. However again because of their design they do allow background noise in, especially on a noisy bus of train. This some what detracts from their sound quality and thus means you have to turn it louder to block out more of the noise. 
Overall though in both noise leak and isolation they perform better than I would have expected.

Sound quality

If I had just one word to describe how the P3's sound that would be "Astonishing". Luckily I don't so why don't I tell you how good they are.
They are surprisingly punchy and energetic. Given their impressive 10Hz drop the bass frequencies are deep yet are full of detail and are very poised and never lose control. Even on very bass heavy music the P3 simply take it all in their stride and produce natural sounding bass rather than artificial afterthought.
The mid range again is superb, accurate and very authentic by that I mean the sound produced are just natural and very realistic. Vocal reproduction is among the best I have ever heard and at this price point beats most rivals hands down. Its full of emotion and really draws you into the listening experience even more.
The mid range is also very controlled and blends seamlessly with the bass and higher frequencies. The mids don't detract from the higher range or the lower range and just makes for a very genuine listening experience. The highs again are excellent and don't lose any composure even when the volumes turned up and again B&W have just excelled.
For example some headphones highlight one feature more than another and that becomes its main focus. B&W have avoided this as just created a perfect balance of amazing sound.
All this bare in mind is just from a phone. Pair the P3 with a high quality DAC and higher quality music and well WOW, is all that can be said.  

Specifications

Description - Mobile supra aural headphone
Technical Features - Dynamic drivers, Mylar damped laminate diaphragm, Neodymium magnets, Apple compatible remote control cable, Universal cable, Changeable ear cushions, Protective hard case.
Drive units 2x Ø30mm
Impedance 34 ohms
Frequency range 10Hz to 20kHz
Distortion (THD) 1mW <1% for 20Hz-20KHz <0.1% for 1KHz
Max. input power 50mW
Sensitivity 111dB/V at 1kHz
Inputs 3.5mm stereo mini jack (on cable) 2.5mm mini jack (on Headphone)  
(Height) 165mm folded out, 105mm folded in (Width) 150mm (Depth) 48mm
Cable length 1.2m
Weight 130g Finish
Enclosure: Custom fabric and aluminium
2 Year Bowers and Wilkins warranty

Overview

The P3 for a long time have been my headphones of choice under £200. With their classy styling, amazing build (well apart from the few issues), their design features and incredible sound quality.  With a price tag of £169 from Bowers and Wilkins direct and a 2 year guarantee thrown in for good measure I mean what more could you want from a pair of headphones.
However that being said with rivals such as the Philips Fidelio M1 and Sennheiser Momentum on ear can the Bowers and Wilkins remain my favourite headphones under £200, I guess I will have to get my hands on some to find out.

To watch the unboxing and review head over to my channel AcousticAppraisal to watch.

Thanks for taking your time to read this review.