![]() ![]() Whatever the case, I think they made an excellent decision. Either I got lucky with the P3 or B&W planned the sound the way they did on purpose. The B&W P5 by default sounds somewhat hollow and weaker than the P3 in the bass and treble, but I was not able to find an EQ setting for Apple i-devices that improved the P5's sound without making it worse in other ways. ![]() This review then is based entirely on that EQ'd sound. Without the treble boost the P3 would not have a typical high fidelity sound, in which case I would have to pass on the review. The EQ'd P3's treble is nearly as strong as those other headphones, but not strong enough to make sibilants or other high frequency irritations a problem. ![]() ![]() The details: Using the iPhone4, iPod Touch or iPad, the Treble Booster EQ setting was necessary to bring the P3's treble nearer to the level found in typical hi-fi headphones such as the Sennheiser 600/650/800, Shure 940/1440/1840, Audio-Technica M50, various Beyerdynamics, AKG's etc. When played with a desktop or laptop computer using Foobar2000 or similar software, the P5 may be EQ'd to approximate or better the sound of the EQ'd P3, but I didn't try to find an ideal EQ setting for the P5 with desktop or laptop computers, as explained below. The bottom line: The B&W P3 sounds much better than the B&W P5 when played with Apple i-devices using the best EQ setting for each headphone. I also used the iPhone4 and iPod Touch without an additional amp to make sure the P3 could play at a reasonable volume level with those devices, and that the bass, mids and treble had the same approximate balance as heard with the desktop/laptop computers. The FLAC tracks range from 44 to 96 khz depending on their source. Gear note: For this review I used an Audioengine D1 DAC/Amp connected to a PC using Foobar2000 to play FLAC-format music tracks, and also an iStreamer DAC connected to an iPhone4s and pre-assembled Objective2 by JDS headphone amp to play 320k CBR MP3 conversions of my FLAC tracks. ![]()
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