Plantronics BackBeat Go 810 - review

Wireless headphones with active noise reduction can cost well over 1200-1500 PLN. Fortunately, there are more and more designs on the market like Plantronics BackBeat Go 810 that offer ANC at a more affordable price. Are 2x cheaper headphones 2x worse?

Let's take a look at the prices of the most desirable ANC headphone models:

• Sony WH-1000XM3 : 1399 PLN
• Bose 700: PLN 1799
• Bose QC35 II : PLN 1299
• B&O H9i: 1699 PLN
• Sennheiser PXC 550 : PLN 1099

Meanwhile, the Plantronics BackBeat Go 810 headphones I have recently tested will buy for PLN 730. In return, we get headphones with active noise reduction, over 20 hours of work time (with ANC on!, With off work time nearly 28 hours), very good sound quality and interesting appearance.

Where is the compromise? And are we buying headphones twice as expensive when buying twice cheaper headphones than the best models? I checked it out.

In terms of quality of workmanship, I have only one complaint to Plantronics BackBeat Go 810.

In general terms, this model is exemplary. Nothing creaks, nothing creaks, the design is well designed and well thought out.

When it comes to high-end headphones, the biggest difference is the use of a series of physical buttons instead of clever touch panels on the earphone cans. We operate everything here with a physical switch, but I dare say that it is even better - the buttons are easily felt and we do not have to worry about whether we are sure to touch the housing in the right place. Even rubberized buttons on the can are easy to feel, so control over music playback is really simple.

As for headphones, for 730 PLN there is more than good - it is a very solid construction, with one BUT. Well, the rubber coating of the right can is cruelly dirty. I do not understand why headphone manufacturers still insist on this material, which attracts all dust, dust and sediment like a magnet, and wipe it off afterwards. Wiping with a damp cloth is enough for about 10 minutes of cleanliness - then the headphones look not very aesthetic again.

It is a pity that the headphones are charged via microUSB, not via USB-C, but this is an understandable cut in costs that probably will not hurt anyone in the long run.

I can also stick to the bag included in the set. It is a pity that this is not a hardened case like the one we get in the set e.g. with the Sennheiser HD 4.50 BTNC and it is a pity that it does not protect the headphones a bit better. It's just a thin storage bag.

Comfort for five with a plus.

I can't fault the convenience offered by Plantronics BackBeat Go 810 headphones. I tested them for several weeks, using them 2-3 hours a day and I never felt that I had to take them off, otherwise my skull would explode.

Some may be disturbed by the quite strong pressure of the headband, but personally I didn't have a problem with that. Be careful of "sweating" earmuffs, which after sliding the headphones around the neck can dirty our elegant shirt (this is a note mainly to korpo employees who would like to stock up on this model).

In addition, BackBeat Go 810 adheres perfectly to the head and is flat enough to not look like a newcomer from another planet. Big plus!

Sounds for five with a downside.

In terms of sound quality, Plantronics are neither surprising nor disappointing. Transducers with a diameter of 40 mm and a frequency range of 50-20000 KHz cope with any genre of music and are neither overly prominent nor overly heavy.

The sound is clearly "digital", it lacks organism and a bit better instrument separation could be needed. However, I can't complain about the clarity of the bass, the detail of the midrange or the high frequency singing. The more so because BackBeat Go does not favor any of the bands - in a neutral setting they are very balanced, and if it does not suit us, the headphones respond perfectly to playing with the graphic equalizer in the application. A few minor changes and the nature of the headphones can be completely different.

I have to point out here that the sound quality depends to a large extent on whether ANC is turned on - noise reduction drastically changes the emitted sound, flattening it and removing detail. This is not a drama, but certainly a trait that is worth keeping in mind.

The codec that transmits audio to these headphones is a much bigger problem - we don't have any aptX or aptX HD here, only the SBC codec. The manufacturer claims that it has adapted the codec to compensate for delays, but these, unfortunately, continue to occur. It does not bother listening to music, but when we watch video on a smartphone or laptop, the lag is quite clear and may irritate.

Active noise reduction at most on 4-.

The biggest compromise in inexpensive ANC headphones is the quality of this technology. When buying expensive models from Sony or Bose, we pay, among others for man-hours that consumed the creation of effective noise reduction technology.

The BackBeat Go 810 ANC is, works well, but you can not count on a complete break with the world, as in Sony WH-1000XM3 or Bose 700. In addition, the more active the noise reduction, the more it affects the sound. The Lo setting is optimal, as it does not exaggerate the sound and still significantly reduces the noise of the surroundings. In the Hi setting, the noise reduction is only slightly higher, at a significant cost to the audio quality.

Plantronics serves us a very good sounding microphone for conversations. Here, the reduction of ambient sounds works great and transmits our voice to the interlocutor as clean as possible, regardless of how noisy the conversation is.

Is it worth buying Plantronics BackBeat Go 810 headphones?

Simply put - yes. Their biggest problems, i.e. a noticeable delay when watching video and the impact of ANC on the sound quality can be overcome, because in total for PLN 730 we get headphones that only slightly stand out from the top, and cost much less.

At a similar price, we can only find Sennheisers HD 4.50 BTNC , but their Achilles heel, on the other hand, is not very friendly to public places appearance and housing, which is dirty even more than BackBeat Go 810. Plantronics, despite the rubber coating of the right can, look much better, and they do not play worse than Sennheisers (although they cut out the sounds of the surroundings worse).

These are very solid headphones, fully worth the price.

Plantronics BackBeat Go 810 - review