B&W P3

lovely set of cans as good as the p5 id say, a little tip ive found and its against the grain i know but when using with a i pod in the eq settings use the extra reble setting, it balances the strong bass these cans produce try it!! , in truth though the akg k450 at half the price will beat the lot, wonderfull headphones for on the move.

I disagree with what hi fi's review of these headphones.

They have a dreadfully compressed dull sound. The bass is far to overwhelming and swamps the midrange, the treble is non existent. They are designed to be used with the iphone, for which they do it no justice at all.

I bought these hoping they would inprove over time but alas they do not very much. I am very dissapointed with them and consider them a total waste of money and would  not reccommend them to my worst enemy (not that I have any). It is interesting how what hifi gave them 5 stars, surely not on sound quality, this is 90% of the reason for buying them as far as I'm concerned.

Does what hi fi have some mates at B&W, they must be endorsing these cans for some reason? It was published in your mag the same week they became available in the UK!

The review is not in the interests of the headphone buying public. Do B&W support What hi fi in any commercial way at all?

Following the review as well as my experience with these P3's my belief in the impartiality of what hifi's reviews has gone down the can.

I was waiting for these headphones to buy a pair of nice b&w. Loving my b&w speakers, I was hoping the same satisfaction with this new P3 and what a shock after buying them!

The design and the confort are both great but sound quality it s an absolute disaster !

The bass are muddy, the medium inexistant and massive lack of details!

Conclusion, I returned them to the shop after two days, I even listened to the marshall headphones that sounds a lot better and are 100€ cheaper (but not confortable)

What a shame for this famous brand to release such low quality product!

I own the B&W P5's and C5's and absolutley love them, so after reading that B&W was releasing a more portable sibling to the P5 headphone I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Reading the review on this site only solidified my decision to purchase the P3, so I went to my local Apple store and bought myself a set.

After unboxing the headset I was very impressed with the looks/build of the headset, what you got here is just top of the class (just like my other B&W products).

But then I tried listening to a couple of songs and the sound quality was very dissapointg, bassy very muddy and lack of detail, it actually reminded to the beats solo hd but with a bit less bass, why would B&W release a product with such low quality sound? then I tried them on without the earpads.. well.. they sound fantastic withouth them very detailed crisp highs and clear mids added to the punchy lows, it seems that the earpads muffle the sound, I don't know if it has to do with the fabric they decided to use .. how this issue got passed testing?.

If B&W address the earpad issue then I will buy these again, for now.. I returned them and sticking to my P5's.

Sorry about the double post

I am sorry to say that I am very disappointed with the P3 and kind of disagree with this review. I have the P5, they are very comfortable even for long wearing time, although the sound is a bit warm for my taste, it is still good and fit many genre. I have countless enjoyable listening hours with the P5.

I was really excited when B&W announced P3, and I rushed to the showroom to try them out. While the built and finish is nice on P3, I just could not believe it is a sibling of P5, as the P3 sounds totally different from its big brother... in a bad way. The bass is boomy and diffused, and the sound is not detail at all.

IMO, go for the P5 if you have the money.

One of the worst cans I demoed in this price range, muddy bass , shrill highs.

If money is not the deciding factor, which ones are better, the P5 or P3? I was looking at buying the P5's, and then the P3's came out. Should I reconsider, or does the size of the P5 provide a better all round sound? I do tend to perfer the leather on the P5, but the P3 fold for easy transport... Decisions! 

Appreciate any words of wisdom. Cheers. 

Why do your Tech Specs not have the usual important info like frequency response range, harmonic distortion and SNR? These 'specs' are hardly 'tech' at all!

The length of the cable has some bearing on design, but it's not really 'Tech spec', same with types of connector. Please report more meaningful specs, these are headphones and same as speakers, we need to have proper ''tech specs' for both these. Not this waffle you use.

Do they sound as good as the P5s? 

Now that would be a fascinating comparison! All in good time

Hi WHF

Do you think the B&W P3's either run the Beyerdynamic T50P's close, or pip them, for best portable headphone over 150 pounds?