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Fancy a mile-high earjob? We've had five!
Our correspondent gives five noise-cancelling headphones a flight test
Plantronics Backbeat Pro
I am not Spock. My ears are a rather oval-ish shape. So why does Plantronics want me to shove my oval ears into a round hole?
It's a question worth asking given the Backbeat Pro's round earpieces that left rather more earlobe dangling than any of the other sets tested. And those earlobes got cold in the air.
The Backbeats talk to you: turn them on and a female voice will inform you of the battery's status. Twist the volume control mounted on the left earpiece a little too far and she'll pipe up again, telling you the phones are at maximum and your ears cannae take it any more.
I liked the noise-cancellation on this product. Sitting at home, they erased household hums and even dispelled the sound of passing traffic, wheeled and aerial. I enjoyed some lovely Hammond organ tones on the ground but in the air had to crank up the sound to make movies comfortably audible. Once I got the volume cranked, the headset provided a nice little bubble while aloft but needed careful adjustment to avoid headache-inducing pinches.
The earpiece-mounted controls were handy in the air, but you'll do well to familiarise yourself with them before you fly so you can use them.
The Backbeat Pros ships with a combined audio/telephony cable, plus a USB cord. The headphones fold flat so they fit nicely into a burgundy-velvet-lined nylon pouch that seems just a little bit brothel wallpaper in hue. There's no airplane adapter.
This is a nice product, but not a great one. The pouch won't inspire confidence as a protector if you use them mostly on the ground, but is handy enough in the air. On the upside, the product feels sturdy if only because its rotating earpiece mechanism is nicely simple.
Did we mention they're also Bluetooth-capable? That's handy in the air if you're accessing media on your own device even if it depletes battery life. And with not every aircraft offering a USB port to pump power into this product's built-in battery, wireless might not help this product go the distance when you need it to. That said, Plantronics claims up to 24-hours continuous streaming power for these cans which puts it at the top of the rechargeable league in this selection.
Despite its shortcomings, there's something pleasing about this product even if it feels a little less flashily-engineered than its pricier rivals. The design is also a little less slick; the flat panel where the USB and audio jack live looks angular and odd. It's on my shopping list principally for the compactness of the pouch, but didn't inspire admiration for looks or sound.
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