Monoprice Monolith M565C (2018) vs Plantronics BackBeat 500

The Monoprice Monolith M565C (2018) and Plantronics BackBeat 500 make for very strong choices and are great Closed-Back Headphones for their respective $169 and $39 asking prices. Depending on how much you're willing to spend, either of these options will serve you well.

The Monoprice Monolith M565C (2018) was loved by reviewers at Wirecutter (NYTimes), a highly trusted source that performs reliable in-depth testing. It did great in its "The Best Headphones" roundup where it was named its "Top Pick", which, in itself, makes it a product worth considering.

As for the Plantronics BackBeat 500 - it was really well-received by reviewers at SoundGuys, a great source that's known for conducting high-quality in-depth testing. It performed great in its "Best Headphones For Back To School 2017" roundup and was named its "Best Comfort", which, on its own, makes it a product that warrants a closer look.

We couldn't find any sources that tested both of these Closed-Back Headphones, so we only analyzed how they performed in reviews from different sites.

We first examined which sources rated each of these best and found that the Monoprice Monolith M565C (2018) got its highest, 9, rating from Head-fi, while the Plantronics BackBeat 500 earned its best, 8, score from PCmag.

Lastly, we averaged out all of their review ratings and observed that the Monoprice Monolith M565C (2018), with its 9.0 average, performed considerably better than most Closed-Back Headphones - the mean score for the product category being 7.4 out of 10 - while the Plantronics BackBeat 500 managed an average of 7.1.

There's one caveat here - it might not be entirely justifiable to do a direct Monoprice Monolith M565C (2018) vs. Plantronics BackBeat 500 review average comparison since they aren't priced the same and more expensive products tend to get higher review scores from some sources.