You know what FeedYourHead, I think you may actually be right. So I went out to Best Buy on Friday, seeing that they had the Backbeat Pro in stock and hoping to test it out. What I didn't think about was that they wouldn't actually have it on display. I also didn't consider their very forgiving 15-day return policy. So I bought them ($250) just to try em out for a few days, with the intention of returning them either way, and if I liked them, I'll sit on ebay waiting for a deal, since the prices regularly go as low as ~$180 on there as well as Amazon.
Now like I said, I'm not exactly a long-time resident of the inner sanctum of audiophile city, more like I just started renting a townhouse in one of the middle-class suburbs on the outskirts of the area. But I gotta say, I do see exactly what everyone means now when they talk about the Plantronics' sound profile and quirks. The first thing that struck me was the highs, they are indeed REALLY pronounced, I'd probably agree with some of the people that go so far as to use the word "harsh". Sounds like my solid-state guitar amp when I switch it to the 6505 tube amp, crank the highs and lows to the max and then break the mids knob as I turn it so low as to obliterate any trace of them.
Despite that though my second impression was that the bass doesn't quite deliver to the extent I thought it would, considering all the praises that it's up there with the more bassy BT headphones. So yeah...in that sense FYH you were dead on. I mean it's definitely not bad at all - Skrillex and other newer wub-wub-wub sub-bassy tracks all do thump, to some degree, but I guess I was looking for the music to really *move* me, and it just, quite, doesn't, do that!
Other than that, wired and APTX bluetooth sound great overall. It's interesting to note the difference between APTX and no APTX - it's palpable on my rooted android phone (where I used the terminal to manually set APTX on or off), and I don't think my Lenovo ultrabook has APTX at all - wired seems to deliver MUCH more smooth and pronounced mids than when it's on bluetooth. Anyway... I guess to get even better sound, I'll have to shell out some more cash after all. And everyone pretty much universally seems to love the ATH-WS99BT sound, so I'm starting to turn my gaze towards those. I think I'll wait around and see if I can snag a real deal on those... around $200 and I'd be sold. If not, and a steal for the BBP comes around, I might just jump on that.