B&W cuts the cord with P7 Wireless headphones - and slashes prices

Further re-alignments in the company's headphone range see the price of the P5 Wireless model slashed from £330 to £230, the wired P5 Series 2s drop from £250 to £200 and the C5 Series 2 in-ears are down from £150 to £120.

Alexander van der Heijden, B&W's general manager for headphones, says: "Our aim was to further improve the performance of the original P7 with the new Wireless version, and to take it one step further. We looked again at the materials and components, and to reduce resonance inside the earcup - and help deliver tighter bass - we have used a new, stiffer memory foam for the earpads."

"Thanks to the acoustic advances made with the original P7 drive units, bass is tighter, vocals are more defined and there's a sense of space, balance and clarity across the whole frequency range," says B&W.

Battery life is also improved over the P5, with a claimed 17 hours maximum on a full charge (via USB) - enough for a week's worth of commuting, according to Van der Heijden.

MORE: Watch our B&W P7 unboxing video

A £50 price cut on the wired B&W P7 has allowed B&W to launch the Wireless model at the same price as the original P7s when they were first introduced.

B&W has stuck to its tried and tested formula of using aluminium and sheep's leather for the construction of the P7 Wireless, and connectivity is via aptX Bluetooth, with the pairing and volume controls on the right-hand earpiece. A cable with 3.5mm headphone jack is also included, as is a leather carry pouch.

Also on the horizon is a new Series 2 version of the smaller B&W P3 headphones. We hope to get more info on those next month.

Andy Clough

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.