Rating:

Previous portable headphones: Sennheiser CX300, Sony MDR-EX51, before that dozens and dozens of Sony “vertical in-the-ear” types, and: JVC “Marshmallow” (because I accidentally severed my Sennheiser cable and needed a pair of headphones cheap and quick; they’re not horrible for $15),

Playback: iPod Classic, library mostly ripped from CD using Apple Lossless

Content: rock, pop, dance, classical, etc.

These headphones aren’t for everyone. If you want something that you can plug in and stop thinking about, look elsewhere. What these appear to strive for is more along the lines of true studio monitors that do not color the output of your device. Compared to my home Sennheisers, I see where they’re going with that concept, but being tiny little relatively-inexpensive portables they miss the mark a bit.

That said, they are very good headphones. As another reviewer commented there is an articulation to the sound that was missing with every previous pair of portables I have owned. There is not the hair-trigger overloading that plagued the CX300s. Highs are nicely defined without being screechy. They have a very well-formed low-end, and no, they don’t have SupaBaBoomyBass – if that’s what you’re after, there are plenty of other options. Yes, the midrange is pronounced. But thus far I haven’t seen that as being a bad thing. For tracks that do warrant a pronounced low end, these actually do quite well – songs with busy bass lines sound clear and don’t get lost in a quagmire of rumbles.

As an iPod-EQ fusser I will note that all my setting have had to change. Yes, I will agree with the displeased reviewer that these sounded awkward right out of the box with EQ that had been set up for headphones with a dramatically different purpose. But I do not agree that there is nothing that can be done to fit your preferences to what these headphones have to offer.

With all my old headphones tracks primarily sounded good with the Classical or R&B EQ, though other tracks were spread over Electronic or, in the case of a few dreadfully loud and compressed mastering jobs – no EQ at all. With these headphones I have taken the Loudness EQ setting as my starting point, which works for a lot of what I’m listening to (these tracks sounded great on my way to work this morning: Hüsker Dü, “Games”‘; Fleetwood Mac, “Love In Store”; Front 242, “Masterhit”; Rod Stewart, “Every Picture Tells A Story”; Tears For Fears, “Sowing the Seeds of Love”; Shudder To Think, “Love Catastrophe”). Other bits – notably classical – will require different settings. More experimentation necessary, which is fine by me: any excuse to listen to more music is a bonus in my book.

The highlight is clearly the comfort. They feel very good in my ears, come with 4 different types (not just sizes) of tips to match your preferences, and the cord is not as prone to transmitting vibration as others (the severe drawback of the otherwise-OK “Marsmallows”). The default tips feel great to me and are much more effective as outside-sound-blocking than any of my previous purchases.

A good choice for me.

Rating:

Note that during listening sessions with the UHP606′s I compared them with a set of Altec Lansing UHP326 Backbeat Titanium Earphones (one step below the Pros in the Backbeat series) and more expensive Ultimate Ears 700 Noise Isolating Earphones. When appropriate below I will note comparisons to these competing earphones.

Build quality – Good. The phones are made of plastic, mainly black except for gold trim around the tips. The cord is covered in a standard “plastic-y” substance, which is preferable to the sticky rubber covering on some IEM cords. The cords for the left and right ears are symmetrical with a total cord length of about 51″.

Sound – The Backbeat Pros feature a single balance armature driver, which typically provides better highs than cheaper dynamic earphones. And in fact I was happy with the treble response, which was natural and clean. However, the midrange and lower midrange seemed too emphasized or “forward” for my taste. In addition, there seemed to be significant emphasis in the mid-bass (causing some boominess) but not much deep bass. In this respect the bass was not as balanced or accurate as the UE 700s, but more surprisingly I preferred the bass response of the less expensive Backbeat Titaniums to these. Note that I tried foam Comply tips (not supplied) with the Backbeat Pros, but these did not significantly alter the sound.

Fit / Accessories – The Backbeat Pros come with four sets of neoprene tips (S, M, L, dual flange). I was able to use the medium or large tips without problem, but wasn’t able to get a good seal with the dual flange tips. The Backbeat Pros come with a small zippered case to store your IEMs and extra tips.

Other stuff – One issue I have with the Backbeat Pros is that they are a “open” ported design. Because of this a fair amount of sound leaks out of the earphones to bother others around you, and sound isolation is greatly reduced. In home headphones this may be an acceptable tradeoff – but for IEMs an open design seems a peculiar choice. Microphonics are present but can be reduced dramatically by looping the cord over your ear or clipping the cord to your collar.

Conclusion – My feelings on the Altec Lansing UHP606 Backbeat Pro Earphones are mixed. The treble response is very good, but the mediocre bass and poor sound isolation make these a questionable upgrade over less expensive Backbeat series earphones.

Rating:

But this review is about the Altec Lansings. In comparison to my favorites, these earphones seem to have more emphasis on the midrange band, around 1000-5000 Hz. Vocals and instruments in that range seem to stand out, with less emphasis on higher range stuff like cymbals and overtones on piano, drums, etc. — sounding to me almost ‘muted’ a bit. In fact, in the A:B comparison with the Sennheisers, I actually felt like the Sennheisers were tinny and thin sounding after switching from the Altec Lansings. The bass end of the earphones is fine, no difference really from the Sennheisers or Radius I have reviewed. Less bass than the boomy JBud J2s. Otherwise, though, these Backbeat Pro earphones seem to be pretty accurate, so I would say that with some equalizer tweaking for your musical taste, these earphones would sound great. This testing was right out of the box with no burn-in time. After about 4 hours of burn-in, the results are pretty much the same – maybe a little better clarity in the high range; it’s hard to tell.

Another plus with these earphones is the comfort. I would say that these are the most comfortable in-ear earphones I have tried. They give you several different sizes of ear tips like most others, plus add a pair of dual-flange tips for even more noise isolation. The neoprene tips fit very well in the ear canal – more comfortable the my Sennheisers.

So I would recommend these for the comfort and the apparently flat response. I’m still going to go with my Sennheisers for every day listening, but maybe for long trips or high-noise situations (airplanes, work zones, etc) these Altec Lansings will work nicely. Of course this is all subjective, so your ears and music may vary.

Rating:

Pros:

Very good audio quality

4 different ear tips

Right angle 3.5mm plug

Cons:

Cheaper UHP326 Earphones sound just as good.

Rating:

Pros:

Decent bass once they are broken in.

Cord doesn’t stick to itself and tangle easily (like many others).

Nice looking, well built

Nice cushioned, zippered case.

Great set of ear cushions for custom fit

Plug has been trimmed to fit iPod, iPhone but NOT clear it will fit iPhone in a case

** It’s a right angle plug with a few mm of relief for iPhone access.

Sound isolation is good – tested while a household vacuum was in use and it blocked enough of the noise to listen to music at comfortable levels – on par with others compared below.

Cons:

Needs to be broken in before use or they sound REALLY tinny

Even after breaking in, the high end is slightly muted

Back ports leak sound to those around you

Better choices exist for the price

Comparisons: My picks out of earbuds I’ve reviewed

#1 Woodees IESW101B Inner-ear Stereo Earphone – My favorite to date. These have a lot better high end than the BBpros. The midrange blows away the BBpro for acoustic and vocals. If you are listening to classic, jazz, electronic, pop or vocal music this is the one for you. Additionally, they are about $38 on Amazon at the time of this writing, which is significantly less than the BBpro. Finally, although the BBpro looks good, the Woodies look really great. In fact, they actually LOOK like they might be expensive. Finally, the Woodies plug is straight instead of right angle so it is guaranteed to fit an iPhone in a case.

#2 Backbeat Pro: From a listening standpoint, I like the bass. Others have commented negatively on the bass sound from these, but I suspect they didn’t break them in first. If I was a big Hip-Hop fan (I’m not, even though I use some hh for checkout) these would work for me. Otherwise, they don’t annoy me, they just sound a bit muted in the highs, which is unsatisfactory for classical, jazz, acoustic, etc.

#3 JBuds J2 Premium Hi-FI Noise Isolating Earbuds – Overall, a decent economy headphone. In some cases, I might pick these over the BBpro. For instance, they better balance bass and treble capability so perhaps some pop would sound better on these than the BBpro. Certainly, at less than half the price, these are a winner when value comes into play vs. the BBpro. That said, I would not take these over my Woodees.

Conclusion:

The BBpro is not a general purpose headphone. It is pretty high priced for what it is and much higher value options exist. If they were half the price I would have added a star for four total.

NOTE: Break in process

My break in process is simple. I just plug them into a source for six to eight hours and play music that has some bass in it and crank up the volume to a fairly high level (say 80% of max) and leave them that way under a pillow or something to keep the sound from being annoying (it’s too loud for me to keep them on my head t his way, anyways).

NOTE: Equipment used

I bias my test to use equipment that one would actually tend to hook up to these kinds of earbuds. So, instead of my extremely nice multi-$k equipment, I use my iPod and MacBook to play a variety of music from my library. Additionally, I modify the equalizer to see if I can successfully “fix” the sound of each earphone for my ears. This is my idea of duplicating “real” listening circumstances.