I picked these speakers up for 200 euro’s (second hand), a great deal because most pairs offered costed around 300-400 euro’s. When I first hooked them up at home I was not impressed, they sounded very dull especially voices sounded if they mouths of the singers were covered with a pillow. After a bit of research I found that the ferro fluid cooling the voice coil tends to dry causing the tweeter to only move a small amount resulting in dry and coloured treble.

I took the tweeter to an audio repair shop, they replaced the old dried ferrofluid for new ferrofluid. This costed me 35 euro’s, considering that a a pair of new tweeters would have costed me 260 euro’s I though that it was a pretty good deal.

Set up
After the repairs I can only describe these speakers as amazing, especially for the money. I am enjoying these for over a year know and I can say that there is nothing I heard (for the money) that sounds better. I use them in combination with my Rotel RSX-1057, and also a while with my Cyrus IIIi. I also tried them with an Pioneer amp wich didn't do these speakers justice, the bass was sloppy and mids were less dynamic. So skip the pioneer.

For the source I used the Cyrus Dad3 with built in DAC, a project turn table with project phono stage and for the rotel occasionaly used the built in DAC with my PC via optical.

Bass
With both these amps the speakers put out some serious ‘oompf’ thanks to the transmission line design. When you close your eyes you could be tricked in to thinking that you’re listening to much larger speakers. The bass extension goes down to about 35-30HZ. The bass is fast and tight (not as tight as a sealed enclosure due to the transmission line design.) but nevertheless very controlled a playful. The only down side to the bass is an mid-bass hump of +/- 5db at 100-150Hz wich can make them a little boomy sounding. However in a larger room this is less noticeable, and the deeper bass takes over.

Mid/high
The midrange is maybe one of its strongest points, it sounds very neutral and airy. When looking at some frequency response graphs it is easy to see why. The only deviation seen is about 1-2db from 150-20.000Hz. Compared to more modern B&W speaker’s like the cm8 (which my dad happens to own) the p4’s have a much better tonal balance. They might lack the tighter bass a slightly more detailed high’s but for me the P4’s are more enjoyable. The would even be sufficient for some amateur audio mixing in my opinion. The imaging is also spot on, ones you find the sweet spot (which isn’t very hard to find) you’ll be amazed by how well these small towers can suck you in to the music.

Verdict
I would describe these speakers as follows, a pair of small towers with enormous bass potential, neutral tonal balance and superb imaging. When coupled with a neutral amp like cyrus or Rotel these little miracles will come close or even beat speaker like CM8’s and the matrix 800 series, especially for the money.

The only downside might be the bass hump, which makes the overall presentation sound a tad warmer.

These speakers with a little tinkering with the crossover can sound superb, by removing the 2 electrolytic capacitors and replacing them with a 4.7 mfd. for more treble detail short the resistor this brings the treble forward slightly in my system they sound so much better the bass sounds better as a result also check out my youtube channel jonas dogue de bordeaux. There you will find lot's of modifactions to dacs cd player's & speakers
for ,,,,,as good as speakers costing 3 times the price when modified
Against ,,,,,,, tame tweeters lacking sparkle before modifications fault lies with crossover geat tweeter
can be had for as cheap as £200 on ebay bargain oh the better the amp and source the more music theys baby's let through

I've had these speakers since the late 90's in the UK and continue to enjoy them in the US. I do not feel the need to upgrade. i"m on my 3rd pair now :)

They have two very compelling features, the transmission line loaded design produces superbly tight and tuneful bass. The 1st order crossovers contribute to this naturalness. A rare combination.

Great value at used prices now.

I don't know what these reviewers are talking about. I was excited to get these speakers. They are very small. Like tiny towers. There is coloring in the tweeters. Vocals do not sound realistic. Vocals almost sound like they're coming thru some insulation, etc. The bass is very muddy. The mids need some work. They don't stand out. The speakers can fill an average size room pretty well. Using a powerful Sansui AU-517 60wpc integrated amp to power these. They did need some pushing, not like my Polk Monitor 10 or JBL L100. I had to get the volume up to 1/4 before they started to hit a moderate listening level. I am going to look for another pair of speakers. Very disappointed.

Last wk end me&my friend were traveling to Audio gold in Crouch end.I could not believe my eyes!Somebody left a pair of B&w p4 speakers,Audio lab 8000c amp,Marantz 63 ki cd player,Vandam hale d 103 mark 3 interconnects&speakers cables& a Yamaha k580 se Tape deck.A few hours after that i tested everything to make they work properly.The p4`s have a wide bandwidth on the midrange`but very lively when you hear that dome tweeter dance away!Need i say more!I feel like a little kid again who can`t get enough,christmas has come early for me. Whooooooooooo!

Having owned a lot of speakers (currently kef concerto one, mission 780se and some tdl rtl2's) and previously monitor audio s6, tdl rtl3's, monitor audio br2, epos es14's, kef q35i, I have to say these are running 3rd in this list.
I owned a pair for a couple of days a few years back when I had my monitor audio s6's and was then amazed at how similar they sounded, so when I ended up selling my monitor audio's for financial reasons I thought I'd invest in some P4's.
I got them from ebay for £82.00 and I can tell you all now that for less than £500 in todays money still nothing comes close to there sweet trable, wide soundstage and depth and speed of the bass.

And to add to an already good speaker apparently its not too difficult to upgrade the crossover to new levels.

In conclusion these are a bargain even now if you can find a pair.

They are heavy on the top. My wife dropped my right P4 twice :-(
Their tweeters are very sensitive. I've replaced them twice in each speaker.

I bought my P4's in 1995, together with a Cyrus 3 amp and a Pioneer cd703s. I was searching for speakers for almost six months then. When I heard the P4's playing, their sound made my chin drop. They were the best (Hi-Fi) speakers I had ever heard. I even had the chance of testing them together with B&W CDM1's, which were my choice after all these speakers i had heard. The P4's had the same clearness of sound as the CDM1's, but with such a punchy and tight bass, which made the CDM1's woofer disappear in my ears.
After all these years (13!!!!) I never thought of replacing them and who ever comes to my apartment, stays voiceless with the sound of my system.
My Pioneer cd703s is almost dead now and I want to replace it. Would you recommend Marantz (cd5003 or cd 6002) or Nad (c515bee or c542)?

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A friend bought 4 months ago the B&W 685's. He 'll come visiting me next week with his speakers, for a small test. I' ll come back to you with my verdict.

Great sound. Great looking. Great speakers.

I've had them now for nearly 10 years and haven't discovered any weaknesses.

I have these speakers bi amped with Arcams Alpha 8 and 8P with an Arcam 8 CD player up front. It is true, the P4's do require power to drive these speakers which is why I bi amped. The sound reproduction is fantastic, tight controlled base with a well balanced mid range and good top end. I would highly recommend these speakers and have no intention of changing them.

Build and sound quality.

A bit tippy and needs power to drive them.

Since I own B&W 805 for my fronts and wanting all my speakers from the same company I paid very little extra on a trade and now use them as my rear channel. Most impressed with sound and build quality of these speakers. Yes it's true you do require some extra power to drive these but then you need power to drive the 805's also. I'm lucky I stumbled across them and plan to keep them for quite some time.

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Paradigm Studio 20's

good, clear sound end good looking... even after 10 years...

dunno, best speakers ever owned

hmmmmm, what a nice pair of speakers.
Just got them a moth or so ago and they blew away my pioneer speakers with ease. All sounds so rich and full, simply amaizing.
Never knew speakers could be this good and for 150 euro i think i got a steal. (?)

Had some old Pioneer speakers hooked on my marantz pm4001 and cd5001 and after hooking up these babies, i cant stop listening...