In the Black Friday - Cyber Monday chaos I spotted these going for a not-unreasonable price and grabbed them on a whim. Liked the black-leather-and-steel-look, these things are really smart. Turned out to be a very pleasant impulse buy.
Bowers and Wilkins have been slowly edging their way into the headphone market with the on-ear P5 getting good reviews and the new P9 flagship model also gaining praise. The P7 sits in-between and is a smallish, over-ear, closed-back design meant for on-the-move or listening in noisy environments (In quiet surroundings it sounds pretty good as well). Fit is snug, they are relatively small for an over-ear design, but very comfortable in longer listening sessions. Oh yes - and these cans do benefit from a burn-in period.
Built like the proverbial tank, they are a real ear-speaker as you see when you pull off the magnetically-attached earpads the drivers are revealed...
... along with the socket for the detachable cord. Soundwise these are a real joy to use. Punchy bass, full and rounded mids, sweet detailed highs with excellent placement and that out-of-the-ear spaciousness. Comparable in price are the also closed Meze 99 Classics with walnut cups with a drier, crisper sound, more like Grado's and my reference AQ NightHawks have far more in terms of space and extended, enveloping bass. But they cost more so I'm not complaining.
My mobile cans have been, for quite a while, the Sony MDR100AAP which have a clear and dynamic character without the excessive boom-bass that many 'commercial' headphones are cursed with. However they become brash and coarse when compared to the audiophile-pleasing smoothness of the P7.
Not cheap - but worth every penny!
