Surprised this speaker gets a high rating. It is boomy bass (totally unrealistic), harsh (some records are impossible to listen with them) and extremely focal. Just get away 20 cms off the sweet spot and they sound awful. No depth also.
What's good: detail (given the price), impact, and aesthetics. I had them for some months and replaced for a Castle Howard II. What a difference!, for not too much money.

I home demoed a pair of rosewood P 5's as fronts to my 603's and cc-6 center.I was running the system off a B&K AVR 202( AN AMAZING PIECE). The person selling the 5's said they were too bright and when hooked up they sounded very,very,bright which to my ears is not what I want;!! at all ! I love B&W's and these 5's are georgeous,so I took a chance and a flyer on a NIB Mcintosh mc 7100 solid state amp ( 7100 discontinued in 1997) and ran the 5's off of that and the cc6 and the 603's off of the B&K.
And I've been running and running eversince.The Mc fleshed out the 5's
so well it's like night and day.The 5's have become the sweet,warm,detailed speakers that B&W is famous for,and(the reason I like B&W).Enthusiasts;just like everyone else need to pay critical attention to matching their speaker(s) of choice with the proper amp source,and not buy into the latest flavor of the month. Many truely great products have been under-appreciated and have gone virtually unknown because people Read TOO MUCH!! and don't take the time to listen.
This time I lucked out;and Hey! we all should catch a break once in a while.Now I'm looking for my second 7100 so I can go 300w mono on each P 5 at a full range THD of MAX .005!!!!!! The P5 is not only a beautiful looking speaker
it's a beautiful sounding speaker.

I have a pair of P5s for three months. P5 can sound very good if it is matched with the right equipments. I agree that P5 can sound slightly dry and lack of upper base, especially when these speakers are matched with low-output power amp. Right now I use Aronov LS9000/Audible Illusion 120, this combination of tube pre-amp/solid state amp (120wpc) overcome the difficult impedence problem at upper bass and produced lush and pretty sound. Good cables are a must for this speaker. My P5s now give me sweet grainless tremble, rich mid range, and solid bass. Resolution and soundstage outperform most speakers below US$1800. They are especially good for vocal.

Everything

Nothing

I was impressed with these B&W speakers and I have to agree with Rusel Barroso from Brazil. This audiophile is really an expert in loudspeakers. He knows everything about the P5s. These babies can really rock us in the room. The sensation we feel is that music is "live" in front of us.

Excellent!

Similar Products Used:

Dynaudio Contour

Bought these as B-Stock for $800 in 1997 and never looked back. These are very flexible and satisfying speakers; you can play almost any sort of music and it is involving and clean.
Please note that like other B&W speakers, the P5 is a little laid-back and dry, so it will sound better with lush electronics. Also, it has a somewhat punishing impedance, bottoming out at 3.5 ohms in the upper bass region.

The P5 responds well to tweaks and improvements to source components. Over time, I've found they sound best bi-amped (or at least bi-wired), and need aggressive toe-in to produce a deep soundstage. I built a set of custom stands to raise the tweeters to ear level and better match the B&W HTM center channel speaker on top of the television in home theater mode (about 6 inches high), but this could also be done by raising the front to angle the tweeters back, which would also possible improve the time alignment slightly. The spikes attach via metal inserts in the 4 corners of the bottom. Construction is first rate -- the cherry veneer is soooo tasty I've never been able to keep the grilles on the P5s!

Using a Parasound HCA-806 to bi-amp the front 3 channels fed from an Angstrom 100 preamp and Acurus CD transport, and hooking up the speakers with a double run of Goertz MI 2 speaker cable, the P5 really comes alive on female vocals like Diana Krall and Holly Cole. Orchestral works, pop, blues, acid jazz, and classic rock are all served up hot and tasty as well.

Everyone loves their own equipment in these reviews, but I have to give the P5 five stars for their price, craftsmanship, sound, and tweakability.

I've had the P5 for a year and I love them. Vocals especially sound very, very good. The treble is airy and very, very crisp. The bass is tight. They are also beautiful to look at! Other speakers I auditioned included Paradigm reference 80, B&W 603, 604, Cambridge Soundworks Tower, ... In my opinion, the P5 was by far the best of the ones I heard. Associated equip: Rotel 985 integrated, Audioquest 4+ speaker cable, XLO interconnects, and Sony mass-fi CD player.

Vocals-Horns

Big Punch in Bass

The P5. I looked for over a year at every stoer I could. I demo'd many different speaks and brought the P5's home. The speaks that came in second were the Vandersteens--different sound.

I run the 5's off an Rotel amp (120/ch) and use Kimber. The only issue I have with the 5's is deep bass in todays pop music. I don't listen to that, so not much of a concern there (plus I have the ASW2000 for a sub). My biggest complaint with 5's is that I don't like some of the music I have always liked. The clarity and definition of these speakers is such that you hear your music in a new way. You start to be disappointed in production of music because there is depth and imaging brought to life with these speakers. I knew the second I heard them--they are awesome.

Crystal clear sound and detail.

Mid-bass

These were discontinued, but I found a brand new pair at a dealer in my childhood home in Northampton, Massachusetts; who bought out the remaining B&W stock in Boston by special purchase.
I paid $999. They were $1500.

I at first experience the same brightness problem; the same as the other reviewers mentioned. However, my solution is different. It was not the equipment matching, it was power conditioning. I was originally using an entry level $200 conditioner. The sound was bright and the bass on the light side and uneven.

When I tried out a better VansEvers conditioner the change was substantial and immediate. The brightness and glare were gone and the bass cleared up and went a lot deeper and fuller. The tonal balance is now perfect, while retaining the sweet sound B&W is famous for.

I am sure an expensive amp has better electric power handling which solved the other reviewers problems.
But before you upgrade your whole system, borrow and try out a high end power conditioner first.

Too bad the P5s were discontinued. Mainly because they no longer make the the tweeter, mid and bass drivers which were exactly the same as in the Matrix series.

Hopefully for the rest of you they will come out with a P5 series II using the Nautilus tweeter or something, but I have been told the CDM-7SE is the one now being sold at this price point. Glad I got the P5s instead. I heard the CDM-7 SE and thought is was nice but not worth the price.

Similar Products Used:

Matrix 804, 805, HTM, DM602, DM601, DM600i,