Plantronics BackBeat PRO Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones

I've had these for over a year now and use them primarily while traveling.  I've used Bose and lots of in-ear earphones before.  As far as sound goes, these are my favorite, but I don't have a lot of over-the-ear experience to compare with.  I like a nice rounded sound without a lot of bass and these do that well in my opinion.  They do a great job of subtracting out background airplane noise and because of their size, other random noise as well. These headphones have NFC, which I have used on a limited basis, but it works the way you expect it with audio cues telling you everything is connected. When you turn the set on, a voice tells you the battery level.  You can adjust the volume on the right side by turning a dial which is nice if your player is not easily accessible, but part of the reason behind the large size.  I use them on my Samsung Note 4 and 5 with great sound, but tend to be at the higher end of the volume for the phone.  Would like to try them with a headphone amp. The headphones turn off as soon as you take them off which has saved me several times because I forget to turn them off and I'm relieved to see that there is plenty of battery for noise-cancelling on my trip home.  
 
My main gripe is that the top of my head hurts after a long flight.  It's probably a combination of weight and the fact that I wear glasses.  They don't seem to compress against my head too hard and the padding is soft enough, so I think it is the weight pushing down on my head, that after a while begins to hurt after about 45 minutes to an hour.  The over-the-ear headphones I have used before have been smaller, so not much of an issue with comfort, but also much less sound. So, the little comfort issue is not major for me because they are a great all-around headphone.  Comes with a purple-lined case that is nice and purple cord with volume controls and a purple USB cord for charging / updating. 
 
If you need a utility headphone with bluetooth and noise canceling, these are definitely worth the money and provide awesome sound.  

I bought these to be able to listen to at least some music while still being able to answer my incoming calls (of which I get way too much). I ordered these without much planning, just thought I'd see what they are. I'm blown away by almost every single thing they do for me. 
 
The sound quality is out of this world. To give you some perspective my highest cost stereo set (2 main speakers, amp and sub) has been around 4ke so I'm not an audiophile. If you are, you probably want to stay as far away from bluetooth headphones as you can, though. Compared to that stereo set this one matches it easily. Bass goes low, it's responsive enough for me. Mids, highs, they're all there. The stereo imageworks  for me. 
 
I listen to all kinds of music from classical to pop to rock to heavy metal to rap to bachata/kizomba/etc. (of which most of my music consists of, kizomba being rather bass heavy, check Elizio - Make Love on Tempo to see what I mean, available on Spotify). Anything I listen to I've no complaints on the sound quality over bluetooth. It plays all effortlessly, loud enough (should I want it to) and everything just sounds wonderful to me.
 
There's plenty of buttons/dials on the headphones. Push left side to pause/play, roll left to next/prevous track, push at the bottom to enable "talk mode" to discuss with people while wearing phones, push right to answer/end a call, roll right to adjust volume, etc. Plenty of options available right from the phones. Negative: sometimes (with iphone 6+) next/prev and volume stop responding, all others work. 
 
The battery easily survives all through the day no matter how much music you listen to. There are leds to show the battery level should you need them. I've never been able to run it down during the day, my phone runs out of battery much sooner. I've charged the phones (using microusb) maybe once every 3 days and never had real issues. The headphones talk to you, tellling connections, battery level etc eery time you turn them on. 
 
Very useful feature - drop phones from head to your neck (you can turn the cups facing down, making it easier to keep there) and it stops a phone call or pauses music. Raise them up to your head, it answers an incoming call or resumes the music. Can't love that feature enough. 
 
If you want to listen to music, you want it to be wireless from you phone and you want quality, you don't really have other options. You WILL love this one.

When I think Plantronics I think, headsets, call centers, skype, perhaps some gaming. But generally: phone calls. Who knew this company can deliver an excellent sounding headphone for listening to music!
 
This is one of those headphones where everything sounds accentuated, the backbeat pro never sounds dull or boring, they are energetic, spicy-poised in the upper mids, treble has sparkle, it sounds detailed for a wireless noise canceler. Bass is punchy, extends down low, and has authority but never bleeds into the mids, for HiFi purists it might be a touch boomy and not super fast enough, but only on select tracks and only when it hits. Nevertheless this is a very CLEAR sounding headphone, nothing ever gets muffled, smokey or dark. Vocals are forward and rendered very naturally. However the treble can be a little splashy when the track gets busy, on those occasions it sounds a hair, and really just a hair artificial. Overall balance is excellent to my ears. Imaging is slightly above average for a closed headphone, at least compared to those I owned.
 
For 155€ from Amazon germany these are a real winner!
 
I can't say much about the active noise cancelling, the only comparison I have would be the Bose QC25 I had before, and I recall the QC25 being  better in that department. The Backbeat Pro does a good job with the lowest frequencies, but the Bose was able to cancel noise a touch higher up the spectrum as well as to a greater extent in general. HOWEVER the Backbeat Pro mops the floor with the QC25 in terms of sound quality!
 
the only real con I found is the call quality, for reasons I dont know the call quality with whatsapp is horrible, tinny, distorted. Didn't test other programs yet. It is listenable, but nothing for hour long conversattions.
 
another cool feature is that the music is muted if you put the headphones around your neck or take them off and put them on the desk, and then resumes playback when you put them back on your head.
 
There is some nice quality pleather on the earpads and headband, otherwise the plastic is okay, it doesn't scream high end but it also doesn't feel cheap. They do come with a serial number printed on the inner hinge as well as the box.
 
I think the carrying bag should get a special mention, it is no hardcase, but the outer material seems durable, and the inner material is a really soft velour type material.