Hi all. I'm reading elsewhere that Plantronics Backbeat Pro bass was toned down in firmware updates. Do they still deserve their place as 4th best headphones for bass in the OP?
https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/3llc2c/can_i_downgrade_plantronics_backbeat_pro_firmware/
Great info! Thanks, had no idea.
I should check which version I have.
Anyway, a firmware update cannot change the hardware, right?
So I do not understand the comment on that link, about the wheel being smoother???
I suppose the new firmware applies some EQ to limit the bass out of the box. What's the problem, just apply you some more EQ and end of the story.
The update could eventually introduce some kind of Impulse Response correction (it's a complicated thing, I was told it like this: a sound makes the membrane of the speaker vibrate, but when the sound stops, the membrane keeps vibrating. With Impulse Response correction a counter impulse is sent to compensate this and so the sound is more precise. This is a very basic explanation). If so, this is just great, it makes the bass more precise.
Do not pay much attention to my ratings. I have tested more than 100 Headphones in the last 2 months. My ratings here are outdated.
Apart for the fact that the WS99BT are still the ones I would take with me in a desert island. But I do not see them anymore as perfect. And surely not as the right choice for everybody.
There is a lot going on out there, so many wonderful headphones.
I will not use rating anymore.
I will eventually name a few models which are particularly good in this or that thing, but I will not organize them in a ranking. I will describe them.
Indeed, some people prefer the bass of the Fidelio, some of the Plantronics, some who do not use EQ (or who do, but who like another kind of bass) do not consider the WS99BT the best bassy. So, what's the point in making ranking? Headphones shall be described, not rated.
I received these headphones, originally at $499 but sold by Amazon at $347 (reduced further by a $20 credit from Amazon.com to assuage my pain at their hour-by-hour pricing volatility). Now back up to $480 for the ivory pair that I got.
They are indeed Rev. 2, as indicated next to the UPC code and by the fact that the Bluetooth works flawlessly so far.
They sound beautiful, entirely deserving of their Number 2 ranking in the OverEar Bluetooth headphone list on the first post of this thread. I plan to compare them, using my 10 acoustic features and three-way rankings, to my Parrot Zik 2.0 (#4 on that list) and my AKG K845 BT (#5 on that list, made special because I bought them from @giogio!).
Well, I have compared lately M2AEBT, K845, and a few more. Not the Zik, not side by side, because my aim in that moment was to find the most transparent models (we share a passion for transparency, although I disagree with you on it being achievable with EQ. May be improved on some headphones, but where there is a real veil, it stays).
I believe you should try the Sony MDR-100ABN, I think they may well be the most transparent and detailed BT HP on the market.
The four more transparent are 100ABN, M2AEBT, WS99BT, K845, probably in this order but I am not sure yet, and anyway I also see that the transparency, like everything else, is not 100% stable, it changes from song to song a bit, and so a given model can sound more transparent with a song, and another model more transparent with another song.
So between these 4 I would not pay too much attention to which one is the most transparent, I would choose basing on the rest of what they can offer.