Bowers & Wilkins P7 Wireless

Bowers & Wilkins is the manufacturer extremely high quality audio equipment known. The B&W P7 Wireless is accordingly the most expensive Bluetooth headset in our Bluetooth Headset Test. What's behind the price? Is that only for professionals and everyone who has too much money loose or also something for everyone?

Outstanding sound quality meets an appearance that takes some getting used to, but is well made.

Everything gucci?

The high quality that is the general image of Bowers & Wilkins is evident from the first moment. Even the packaging of the over-ear headphones is of high quality and makes unpacking an experience. Here you can already guess what kind of wireless headphones will appear here.

But first, let's take a look at the classy handbag that Bowers & Wilkins supplies in addition to the headphones. What? We asked ourselves the same thing when we first held the carrying case of the B&W P7 Wireless in our hands. Versace, Gucci, and Prada can clear the market, because at B&W you can get Bluetooth headphones for the same price as a handbag. Joking aside, the B&W P7 Wireless case is of ridiculously high quality and actually looks like a small luxury handbag, at least to the untrained eye. Whether the whole thing is externally appealing and whether the design doesn't fall into the "too much" category is another matter. However, one can only praise this effort and the quality work down to the last detail.

But now to the handbag accessories: Bluetooth headphones. And not just any one, but a damn good sounding one. A little ahead of the normal course of headphone reviews, it only makes sense to cover the sound of the B&W P7 Wireless first. Why? Because he is outstanding. Highs, lows and mids are perfectly balanced and yet the B&W P7 Wireless Wireless shines with sound volume and power in the bass. Of course, it was to be expected that headphones from B&W would not be particularly disappointing in terms of sound. However, we did not expect - and thus a small foretaste of the comparison item in our test series - that the B&W P7 Wireless would be our sound winner. Especially since the competition is like that Sennheiser PXC550 is very strong in terms of noise canceling and Bowers & Wilkins has relied on memory foam instead of sophisticated microtechnology for this model. While the difference in noise canceling doesn't go unnoticed, it doesn't really affect the actual sound quality at its core.

In addition to the Bluetooth headphones, the usual cables are included in the accessories. However, using the B&W P7 Wireless via the jack cable is less common. To be more precise, it is the connection that caused us headaches in the test. Since looking at the instructions is of course not an option for a man of honor, it took some time to find out: in order to expose the connection on the headphones, the left earcup has to be removed. This is magnetically connected to the rest of the headphones.

The headphones with inner values

Now that we've looked at the carrying case of the B&W P7 Wireless a little too extensively, the question now arises: do the headphones that go with it look just as good? The answer to that is not an easy one. Without a doubt, the headphones are extremely well made. Whether it's the ear cups, the buttons or the leather upholstery on the headband - B&W leaves nothing to chance. The special solution for the size controls, which often represent unstable points, has also been successful. Here, too, the P7 Wireless relies on the high quality of the materials. Two metal rods enable a stability that no plastic design could ever match. In addition, this construction allows an extremely precise size adjustment. There are practically no steps, but the setting can be freely selected continuously. The usability benefits of this are somewhat offset by the design drawbacks. The cable to the handset is visible through the open metal rods and winds its way through the two struts in a somewhat strange and misplaced manner.

Another special feature for a foldable Bluetooth headset is the lack of a joint on the handset. These are usually there to turn the earphones inwards and thus save space when folding. In this case, this joint is omitted.
All in all, outstanding workmanship and the focus on elegance of the B&W P7 Wireless leaves no doubt about the actually successful design. And now comes the subjective part: somehow the P7 Wireless still looks weird. While the individual aspects don't all deserve a bad rating, the overall concept is still not coherent.
Luckily there is a pretty handbag to compensate.

Overall, the B&W P7 Wireless is a high-quality Bluetooth headphone. Audiophiles will get relatively close to the maximum sound quality of Bluetooth headphones and enjoy the high-quality workmanship. If you don't have very experienced ears and buy headphones for everyday use, you might be annoyed by the somewhat uneven design and the high weight of the Bluetooth headphones. While the B&W P7N Wireless delivers the highest sound quality, and that clearly seems to be Bowers&Wilkins' focus, we think that given the high price, one could have expected a little more perfection in the less important areas.