Bowers & Wilkins’ P7 Wireless Are My New Favorite Headphones

Testing headphones is a fun job for a music buff . Even if they suckle , you get paid to listen to music . Yet sometimes , a set comes along that makes you require to heed because it ’s suddenly more fun . The Bowers & Wilkins P7 Wireless are those headphones for me .

Bowers & Wilkins is a half - 100 - one-time British sound recording society that rose to bulge during the hifi - possessed 70s . As my coworker Mario Aguilar severalize me when I was first reviewing the B&W P5 headphones : “ citizenry bed their shit . ” And it ’s easy to understand why at side economic value . The $ 400 P7 Wireless headphones , like the P5s before them , are wind in supple black leather and twisted chrome link up the earpieces to a fair but comfortable headband . I preferthe look of other headphonesa little bit more , but the P7 ’s are undeniably slick .

The audio quality is honestly jaw - dropping . That ’s a hyperbolic thing to say , but let me offer some context of use . The good headphones I ’ve ever tried were not wireless . antecedently , my favorite headphones were not necessarily the well - sounding . Yet , somehow the P7 ’s are both now the best and my favorite .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

The sheer grasp and contingent that the B&W driver pump out left me count for my favorite one-time songs so that I could hear them in a new way . A dumb exercise is the gamey , trebly texture of Diplo ’s “ Florida , ” something I ’d never heard before I tried the P7 ’s . ( I say dumb becauseDiplo is a dick . ) Let me propose an even dumber example . “ Doin’ It Right ” by Daft Punk and Panda Bear has inscrutable , larder bass voice line that I ’d only felt that time Ireviewed a subwoofer you hold out like a backpack . It ’s my favourite part of the song , and the P7 ’s deliver with wonderful clarity .

Of course , the real test of any headphones ( or speaker ) is the ability to deliver a full chain of mountains of speech sound with terrific accuracy , all at the same prison term . “ Shady Grove ” by Kentucky Thunder and Ricky Skaggs demands as much with the soft shuffle of cloggers in the ground and bluff banjo drowning out a fast catgut bass . I heard the whole detail through the P7 ’s . ditto mark for “ Take Five ” by the Dave Brubeck quartette and “ 3005 ” by Childish Gambino .

It sounds simplistic to say : these are very prissy headphones . But the P7 ’s are not complete . Once you wrest yourself from the sumptuousness of B&W ’s excellent audio engineering , some conversant earpiece complaint trim up .

William Duplessie

The connectivity quirks of the B&W headphones intercept me . For example , it was infuriating when the headphones would disconnect from my twist after five idle minutes . connect and reconnecting is promiscuous enough , but I do n’t want to do it multiple time a day . However , once connected , the P7 ’s are rock-steady and commonly interference - free . I ca n’t say the same about premium wireless headphones that cost $ 100 or $ 150 more than the P7 ’s . My previous favourite , the Sennheiser Momentum , for object lesson , cost $ 500 and do n’t sound as good .

I did have to reboot the P7 ’s a duet sentence in the yoke of a twosome weeks . This was a 10 - 2nd project : the magnetic ear pads bug out off and you stick a paperclip into a mess . Why I had to do this rest a mystery , but everything worked fine again after the reboot . I ’d also add that the telling 17 - hour battery life meant that they died only once when I was away from a battery charger .

Somehow , the extent to which the $ 400 P7s do n’t find like ultra fancy , feature - rich headphones is what made them such a thrill . ( They also sound awesome , but we ’ve been over that . ) The controls are visceral . The microphone works well . There are nice niggling audio queue that tell you when you ’re connected or low on bombardment — which is much nicer than the robot voices other brands use . The P7s lack touch - sensitive auricle - cups that let give you introductory dominance with the swipe of a finger as well as noise - cancelling . I did n’t really miss these feature . I also would n’t pay another $ 100 for them .

Starship Test 9

But boy , do I love listen to music with these B&W sound boxes . It really does feel like you ’re strapping mini hifi speakers to your head , and they just pump big sound into your ears . That ’s the bit one job of any pair of headphones . The P7s do that job admirably .