Hello All,
I've been using the B+W P6 speakers for some years now. I bought a pair when they first came out. This was after spending some hours testing and comparing just about everything around the similar price point.
After listening to these for over 12 years now I still haven't heard anything out there that beats them in their price range area. I originally used all top level NAD gear with them but found despite the marvellous sound of NAD gear the reliability let the NAD gear down. I've since replaced all my equipment with Cambridge Audio and this is goin very well. The new Cmbridge DX series amps drive the B+W P6's very well. You do need a good high current amp to do justice to the B+W's.
Some have made the suggestion that the bass is a biy shy on these speakers. I do not know how that can be. I feel that their incredible bass is one of the great features of this model. Play the CD from the movie "Crimson Tide". This may depend on the room you are in; say carpet floors or polished cypress pine for instance. We have polished wooden floors and have no problems with the bass reponse. In fact I would suggest that a sub woofer would be quite a waste of time hooked up with these speakers unless it was a Valadyne and could produce to 18 cycles. This could have some thing to do with hearing ability as well.
The high frequencies are pretty much spot on I feel and have never experienced the high end fatigue as some have suggested. Keep in mind that as you age your high frequency hearing changes anyway. Just put on a frequency test disc and get some children around. They will continue to hear various frequencies long after us oldies cannot hear them at all.
From time to time I review new speakers just to see if I should update. So far I've heard nothing yet within the realms of financial common sense that would prompt me to do so. If I did I would probably go up the B+W food chain a bit into the Nutalis or Abbey road style; but then that meand new amps and so on. Where do you stop. Audvest cables (VERY PRICEY) can give your speakers an almost "Born Again" experience, worthwhile considering. Cheers.

Great bass ,mid clarity the whole package with nice looks,A good price now they are a few years old.

No weakness i can pin point.

Hi,I have ran these speakers for a month or so now,and will probaly never sell them,thats how much i like them.I am running them with a shanling cdt80 and a matching shanling amp,50 watts class a,straightwire stage cables,taralabs quantum 4 interconnects.Some music im playing now is nearly jaw dropping.

Customer Service

Im not sure being second hand

Similar Products Used:

Energy Rc 30,tannoy ,whafedale

lovely midrange,clear vocals.

bright fatiguing treble

These speakers really look stunning,I have the cherry finished model and really look beautiful with the usual B&W quality finish. The speakers have some very good qualities,are crystal clear in the midrange in the typical B&W fashion,for the size of them I was expecting more bass and was quite suprised at how low they didn't actually go!! I find them to be quite lean and this is in a small room, a result the quite suprised me. But my biggest niggle is that they sound bright bright bright,its quite relentless the extreme top end that can prove to be fatiguing over extended listening periods like it's trying too hard and giving too much detail,especially on pop music,on classical I didn't find it so noticable. They image reasonably well and can place the vocals in the centre of the mix and give of little hidden effects which ither speakers would probably miss. All in all a good speaker,brilliant?no,not in my opinion,the treble just lets it down a bit too much for me.

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM1,601, 301,SF concertino homes,

nice looks, good value, B&W quality build with impressive finishing.

dip between bass and mid, lacks soundstage

Very nice looking speaker, fits in almost any environment and is rather wife-friendly. Sounds a bit booming with a dip between bass and mid. Lacks precise soundstaging.

Similar Products Used:

CDM-9NT, Matrix 802S3, Mission 753

Marvellous mid-range clarity, tremendous volume (if you need it) from a slim box, great looks with no need to remove the grille cloth.

Slightly recessed extreme top-end; bass (ported) is full but lacks the bottom 20-40Hz.

Many years ago I had Spendor BC1s, with a wonderfully clear mid-range. Looking for better bass, I changed them for Epos ES14s - big mistake, with an edgy mid-range. As a pre-retirement present to myself I decided to upgrade most of the system and spent some time listining to floor-standing speakers. The (then discontinued) P6s were clearly the best, with Spendor-like clarity and really deep bass. I'm now moving to the latest Arcam amplification, which looks like allowing the P6s to give of their best - no plans to change them for the foreseeable future.

Imaging, smoothness, very natural sound, vocals, no listening fatique, deep bass, looks.

Long burn-in, needs 'warm' amplification, bass can be 'so-so' at times.

I have used this pair of P6's for almost five years now. They still amaze me with their capabilities. First of all, few points to consider:

B&W speakers need weeks or even months to burn-in properly. Only then will you get all the juices you can get out of the boxes. Have owned several B&W speakers and this is a fact. They are almost like a wine. They'll surely get better/warmer sounding, just give them time. Always bear this in mind when auditioning B&W speakers. A brand new pair you are hearing will not give the real picture what they will give you after few months!

B&W's are very clean and monitor-sounding speakers. This is the case with P6s also. If you don't pay attention with other components you can end up with a cold sounding system that makes enjoying the music a bit hard. Use a warm sounding amplification. Haven't tried tubes, but Electrocompaniet and I'd presume Classe should work very well, indeed. These are neutral sounding speakers, don't hook them up with too neutral sounding eq.

If you are a owner of the speaker and would like some improvement to the sound, before changing the speakers, try some other changes. These boxes can really match a top notch electronics with their sound, which is incredible at this price! I have kept steadily improving my system and still kept these speakers. Every time I upgrade something in my system I am amazed how these speakers still have something better to offer.

Be sure to give them current, they sure like it. Use good biwired cables, you will see the difference! Yes, I mean see, you can point at the instruments while listening. Put them on spikes to improve the lows. If you are having problems with the lows, you may not be giving them enough current. Also upgrading to serious biwires will drop most of the undesired 'slowness' of the bass. I gained a great deal of imaging in the lows by upgrading my cables. Now e.g. the bass guitars are better than ever!

I guess others have already told a great deal about the sound quality. It blows you away in this price range. And as someone already said there surely isn't a real difference to 802s. If you are into acoustic music and vocal rich good quality recordings, I would really recommend you to get a pair if you can!

These speakers playing your favourite vocalist can make you burst into tears. Detailed music is a challenge these beauties enjoy the most. As will you.


My current system:
Micromega Stage 3 cd
Electrocompaniet EC-1 pre
Electrocompaniet AW100 amp
Siltech and Taralabs Ref G2 interconnects
Taralabs Prime 500 biwired for speakers.

Similar Products Used:

B&W:640i,602,601,HTM. Listened to several others e.g. ML Aerius,B&W 802,Dali Grand&Coupe,etc..

Good depth and imaging. Airy smooth treble. Low bass.

Slightly sluggish bass.

Have used the P6s powered by Meridian pre and power amps (bi-wired). Very good imaging and depth with a nice smooth overall sound with good bass extension. The music really floats and hangs together well and it's easy to close your eyes and be absorbed in the performance. On the slightly negative side, the bass can be occasionally a little 'slow' or ponderous, but this can be cured to some extent by using foam bungs in the ports. I had to replace one of the low frequency woofers recently (after my blasted cat thought the speaker was a scratching post!) and I was a little surprised to see that the units were screwed directly to the wooden baffle with self-tapping screws and that the connectors were weedy push-on lug-type thingies - I thought that all high-end speakers had more 'serious' connectors. Nevertheless, the speakers are good value for money, look great (mine are cherry veneer) and sound generally very open.

Brought my P6's about 6 months ago. Am very impressed with them. currently am using them with Audio Aanalogue amplification and a wonderfull Nottingham Analogue turntable. These speakers really excell with vinyl. Well worth the money.

I picked up a pair of this 6 months ago and have not regret ever since.

I¡¯ve used a pair of rosewood P6 for two years. Before buying the P6, I¡¯ve auditioned others speakers , included 603, 604 , KEF,and Castles ,but bought the P6 at last. Mainly I used the P6 for listen music, there¡¯s good resolution of detail, fine sound imaging, nice midrange and controlled tight bass. But I found the P6 is more suited to pop musics,especilly on vocals. In my opinion, the P6 is a beautiful looking and sound good mid-priced speaker. But to my surprise, when once I removed the back panel and look to the inner side of the cabinet, the network¡¯s componets used seemed to be the cheapest one. it don¡¯t match to the P6¡¯s beautiful looking! So for the value rating, I give P6 only four stars. Associated Equp. Audiolab 8000B integrated amp, Maranz CD-63SE CD player Japanese made cables and Monster interconnects.