Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-Ear Headphones  B&W - Black

The B&W C5 headphones are the newest addition to the headphone section of the company and what a great addition they are too.
Great sound with lovely response and great base define an innovative In Ear Monitor IEM.
Bowers and Wilkins are a company I have always highly respected. Even though I have never had the pleasure of owning any of their truly high end products, the ones I have owned have always been of great quality and design.
Last year I purchased the P5 Mobile Hi-Fi Concert for 1 Headphones - Black after deciding to replace my Shure SE420-K-EFS Sound Isolating Earphones - Black headphones which had gone missing.
As great as the P5's were, I took great issue with how warm my ears got when walking round London in the Summer. This led me to hastily offloading the - in my opinion - flawed product.
I went back to the Shure SE-420's once again and that was that.
Come late 2011 and once again I was without my 420's. This time I had been an idiot and had dropped them outside my car door whilst getting out and returned to find the headphones smashed to smithereens - not a pretty sight I assure you!
Whilst at the airport just a week ago I noticed that I had become fed up with Apples signature, crap, headphones and needed something else.

Surprisingly my choices were varied, even at the airport. I narrowed down my choices to Shure SE425-V-EFS Sound Isolating Earphones the Klipsch Image X10i Noise Isolating In-Ear Headset with 3-Button Mic for iPhone / iPod - Black and the Bowers and Wilkins C5's after discounting the Bose QC15 on the basis of not wanting noise cancelling technology destroying the music I listen to.

In the end I settled on the Bowers and Wilkins C5's. My reasons were the innovative design, and reputation of the firm for creating great musical listening devices.

I was not disappointed.

DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY

The design is something I have never seen before, the headphone, after being pushed into the ear uses the cable which is slightly rigid - although still adjustable - to slip inside a ridge of your ear to hold itself in place.
It is a much cleaner solution to the one employed by Shure and is leaps and bounds ahead of Klipsch.
Also the study metal construction is reassuring and the cable does not feel like it will fall apart. I must say I was most disappointed to find the cable non replaceable.
Other than this the design is a welcome refresh to the same old.
Also the inline controls - which only work with iDevices are very useful and work well.
The headphones feel well built, they should last at least a year or two.

SOUND QUALITY

Now here is of course what you have been waiting for.
Summed up in one sentence; The Bowers and Wilkins C5's deliver astonishingly good bass which can be too powerful whilst still providing the listener with a warm - although sometimes harshly bright mid and high range.
At high volumes on tracks with lots of bass the mid range can suffer although it handled Thom Yorke's 'Skip divided' with relative ease up until 3/4 volume. Villa Nah's 'Running on' did however suffer and i was forced to turn the bass down to FLAT on my iPod.
If not presented with heavy or overbearing bass such as in Interpol's 'Leif Erikson' the headphones truly shine.

SOUND ISOLATION

Of course chances are you want to shut out the outside world whilst commuting and the good news is that these headphones do a great job of shutting out the outside world.
Problem is that due to the 'micro porous' outside - which helps provide the great bass' most of your fellow commuters will probably be able to hear the music as well if you are listening above 2/3 volume.
It can be a little tricky to get a proper fit but you are rewarded with deep bass and lovely highs if you get it right!

SUPPLIED ACCESSORIES

The headphones come with a somewhat 'suave' suede case.
Personally I'd avoid it. My headphones didn't fit in them very well so I am continuing to use my Shure case as that is large enough to accommodate both my headphones and iPod Nano.
The 4 differently sized tips should accommodate most ear sizes.

VERDICT

I would say that the B&W C5's do represent good value for money.
Although not at the cheap end of the market they are definitely not at the top of the IEM market either. Innovative design and fantastic sound quality for the price make these a great buy.
The only downsides are the sound leakage and non replaceable cable.
To me these outperform the Shure SE-425's on sound quality and build in most respects. Perhaps the se-420's are cleaner when it comes to merging bass and mid range but at that stage it is purely a matter of personal preference.

One of the most important factors for me when choosing new earphones is how well they fit, not only for comfort but to ensure there is as little sound leakage as possible, in addition a better fit will determine the quality of sound you hear within, in particular bass levels.

Bowers & Wilkins are actually a brand I had known for years from their excellent speaker designs and this is their second entry into the headphone / earphone market. After reading many reviews I was sold on the "secure loop design" whereby an innovative, adjustable loop sits just under the ridge of your ear to ensure a secure and comfortable fit that doesn't cause any discomfort over time. Added to this, the weighty tungsten design of the earpiece helps to keep the earpiece well inside the ear.

The design is simply stunning, a real winner and like nothing else around.

Four soft rubber tips are available for you to wear to find the best size fit and as always its essential you do as it immediately becomes apparent which is the correct one as your head is filled with the booming low end that these phones emit, you may find it necessary to lower the equalizer settings on your player as some tracks may sound bloated on initial use.

The Bowers & Wilkins C5's have been designed to provide an open sound which may not feel right inside your head as with most earphones but rather a wide, natural sound stage, this for me actually gives it that bigger, concert like performance. Your head is filled with deep baselines, crisp highs and luscious tones, vocals are enriched and the whole sound stage is a joy to listen to.

The earphone cord contains controls for "i" products if this is your thing and a snazzy case is also thrown in for keeping the earphones safe.

Lets be honest the price you pay for these is premium, however these are by no means expensive compared to some available on the market BUT without doubt the research that has been done to come up with the design and sound reproduction is obvious upon opening up and experiencing the music that flows through, they really are a perfect fit.

What do you buy the man who has everything or can get anything? I bought these for my man for Christmas because I knew he would never have paid this for earphones himself. i'm not an expert however I know he loves music and has spent lots of money on expensive amps and speakers giving me chapter and verse on the various nuances of sound quality. He really rates these, wears them for cycling and in the gym and never complains that they fall out or hurt and i have recently caught him raving to a mate about them saying that the sound continues to improve.