In all my experience of owning and reviewing headphones and other audio gear, I’ve come to find that some of the best gaming headphones weren’t designed with gaming in mind at all. Some of the best quality headphones from brands dedicated to music listening serve as excellent listening devices for playing video games.
Bowers & Wilkins’ flagship headphone, the P7, is one such headphone. Designed for all around high-fidelity audio with audiophiles in mind, the P7 is fantastic for gaming. The P7 is Bowers & Wilkins’ full sized headphone. It was released in late 2013, and follows the smaller P3 and P5 in B&W’s lineup of audiophile-grade cans.
Said to be the best in class of its price range (it retails for $399), I was very excited to review the P7.
Having removed it from its packaging, the first thing I noticed about the P7 was the ear cups, which are covered in high quality sheepskin leather. They feel extremely comfortable on the skin and don’t pick up gunk from behind your ears or cause you to perspire. It’s quite the contrast to the cheap protein leather-like material you might find on other pairs of high-end headphones. Given the quality, I don’t expect the material to tear apart after six months.
The P7 comes with removable ear cushions that stick to the drivers with strong magnets keeping them firmly in place. Should you ever damage the cushions, you can always purchase a replacement for $22. They are designed to be easy to replace. I had no problem pulling them off to replace the cables underneath. Speaking of which, the P7 comes with two cables—one with a microphone and volume controller that works with the PlayStation 4, Apple and mobile devices, and another without.
The first thing I did after taking it out of the box was plug it into my gaming PC, which is equipped with a Creative Sound Blaster Zx. Any music I listened to with the P7 sounded lush and inviting, with pronounced mids and highs, and solid, clear bass. Likewise, the games I played sounded extremely satisfying on the headphones. Explosions and gunfire in games like Battlefield 4 had a proper kick to their sounds.
I also took the opportunity to use the P7 with the PlayStation 4. In contrast to other audiophile headphones I’ve worn, the P7 has no problem being driven by the DualShock 4 controller on the PS4. I’m happy to report that the quality of the sound was crisp and clear, and the volume loud. Many other headphones require a dedicated headphone amp to power the speakers, but the P7 is capable of running just fine on low powered devices—which should come as no surprise, given that it was designed to work with mobile and handheld devices like the iPhone and iPad without amplification.
With its rounded rectangle shaped ear cups, the B&W P7 is comfortable to wear (even with a pair of glasses on) for extended periods of time and its clear audio doesn’t sound fatiguing—so I had no problem listening to music or playing Dragon Age: Inquisition on the PS4 for hours without taking it off.
More than just a dedicated pair of high quality cans, the P7 comes equipped with a microphone, which is intended for Skyping on a MacBook or answering phone calls, allowing it to serve as a proper gaming headset—at least on the PlayStation 4 where it can plug straight into the DualShock 4 controller. I tested the microphone in multiplayer games like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Far Cry 4 and Destiny and came in loud and clear. It sounded as good as any high-end dedicated gaming headset would. Using it as a PC headset requires a Y-splitter that you can pick up from any number of online retailers or audio specialists—such as these or these. Unfortunately, there is no active noise cancellation on the P7’s, so you might have trouble being heard by your friends and opponents if you’re situated in a loud environment.
Ultimately, if you have a few hundred dollars to spend on a pair of headphones and want a top of the line pair that works for both music listening and playing video games, the Bowers & Wilkins P7 won’t let you down.
