By Sophia Agathangelou: As far as we're concerned, there are headphones and there are Stax, having said that, all Stax are open backed and we've yet to find an able portable 'energiser', so there's still a place in the world for closed back headphones e.g. on an aeroplane or in any other environment were you don't wish to disturb others. So to our Bowers & Wilkins P9 Signature review.
Our hunt for closed backs is about convenience or portability, hardware quality that is able to withstand travel and acceptable sound quality.
What's that, acceptable sound quality? Let me explain that statement. Having searched far and wide and reviewed the top Audeze [very heavy and not in our opinion ideal for travel] and the much awarded and similarly exorbitantly priced Focal Utopia headphones and having done so with good gear of Chord Dave quality and above, in our opinion, Dad and I both say that no commercially available headphones today warrant more than a 6/10 when set against our well sorted listening room and reference system 'The Bunker'. Even the extraordinary Stax 'ear speakers' only warrant an 8/10 at best in our current configuration that we rate as the ultimate Stax system available today and it's not the combination you might think... [Click here for our first Stax review].
It was a lovely day, so Dad and I decided to drop the roof and go for a nice cruise down to, ...sunny Swindon? Well the good folks at Audio T had a pair of B&W P9 available along with a Chord Mojo and Hugo2, so off we went.
Our hunt for closed backs is about convenience or portability, hardware quality that is able to withstand travel and acceptable sound quality.What's that, acceptable sound quality? Let me explain that statement. Having searched far and wide and reviewed the top Audeze [very heavy and not in our opinion ideal for travel] and the much awarded and similarly exorbitantly priced Focal Utopia headphones and having done so with good gear of Chord Dave quality and above, in our opinion, Dad and I both say that no commercially available headphones today warrant more than a 6/10 when set against our well sorted listening room and reference system 'The Bunker'. Even the extraordinary Stax 'ear speakers' only warrant an 8/10 at best in our current configuration that we rate as the ultimate Stax system available today and it's not the combination you might think... [Click here for our first Stax review].
It was a lovely day, so Dad and I decided to drop the roof and go for a nice cruise down to, ...sunny Swindon? Well the good folks at Audio T had a pair of B&W P9 available along with a Chord Mojo and Hugo2, so off we went.
