Bowers & Wilkins P9 Signature review: Expensive headphones with premium sound

A Great British audio company is 50 years old and to celebrate that anniversary it’s releasing another of its Signature products. Since the last big anniversary 10 years ago was marked by a set of Signature speakers called 800 D3 that sold for £11,000 a pair, you might imagine this new release, a pair of deluxe headphones, will be proper pricey, too.

But the company has changed a lot over the last decade, developing more affordable audio gear that has been very favourably received. There was the Zeppelin speaker which remains the most immediately recognisable standalone audio product of recent years and has developed from being an iPod-only system into an accomplished digital music speaker.

And the company’s portable Bluetooth speaker, the T7, remains one of the most attractive (visually and sonically) of its kind. There are plenty of well-loved headphones in the B&W range, so what makes the new ones, called the Bowers & Wilkins P9 Signature, special?

Andy Kerr, Senior Product Manager at Bowers & Wilkins, told the Independent last week that the decision to make the latest anniversary product a set of headphones was to create something that was more democratic, while still sticking to the no-holds-barred ethos of the company’s Signature items. “Every component is custom, from the cross-hatch finish on the Italian Safiano leather to the drive unit which is angled instead of flat, to complement the angle of the human ear. That gives the impression the sound is slightly in front of you, as though you’re listening to a speaker. With Signature products we have no constraints on the engineering process, every aspect is investigated. We’re a personal company – with Signature we try to please ourselves.”

There’s also a gimbal mount for the ear pads to separate them from other vibrations and influences like, you know, the real world. There’s a new memory foam in the ear pads for a better seal that aims to be comfortable and noise-isolating.

All of which should contribute to what Andy Kerr describes as the house sound which is based on the principle of “losing the least of the audio signal”.

So what are they like? Well, they certainly look the part with a striking design that’s classy and original – the quality of the leather and aluminium components is evident at first glance. Pick them up and they’re reassuringly heavy, though they don’t weigh you down when you put them on. The angled drive units feel great, fitting your ears differently from regular cans. The leather cups and headband are comfy and pleasantly close-fitting.

Cables in the box include one with an inline remote, one without. And in the coming months B&W will supply a Lightning cable for customers who have registered, so iPhone 7 users are catered for.

All of which would mean nothing without decent sound. Connected to an iPhone 6s, the playback was extraordinary: rich in that I’ve-never-heard-that-detail-before way, with wide, beefy power that didn’t drown out gentler notes.

There’s a spacious feel to the music and a bright, deep clarity to the sound across different music genres and styles. Voices were potent and intimate, down to the breaths, even the mouth-noises of Lou Reed at his throatiest in Vanishing Act from the album The Raven.

Signature products are premium-priced but the £699.99 ticket on these headphones seems pretty keen to me – the build quality, high-end materials and spectacular sound should justify this to audiophiles.