Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought these based on reviews here and on Wirecutter making them seem too good to be true. Well, they are. Amazing ergonomics and decent noise-cancelling at this price means a huge tradeoff somewhere. In this case, frankly bad sound quality. The good: The buds fit entirely inside your ear, making them super comfortable. The noise-cancelling feature does work well, although it creates a surprising amount of audible high-frequency white noise. The bad: Unacceptably poor sound quality for this price. Actually, I would say “bad” rather than “poor,” since they commit a sin of commission rather than mere omission. The highs were shrill and piercing, regardless of EQ setting. I couldn’t physically listen to them for very long and they were essentially unusable. These are either tuned for baby boomers who have lost most of their high-frequency hearing, or they’re not tuned at all. It’s really disappointing for Plantronics, since their (now discontinued) BackBeat Fit Bluetooth exercise headphones were much more pleasant to listen to. I have no idea how any reviewer could possibly compare this new model to a Bose product—the sound quality here isn’t even close.