My main pair of headphones are Audio Technica ATH-M30s. Awesome tracking headphones, very durable, long thick cord, great sound, but unfortunately fatiguing to wear for longer than 30 minutes, they really compress your cartilage. This makes them less than ideal for casual listening.
I’ve been interested in Skullcandy headphones since the first time I saw them in the trendy overpriced surf shop I sometimes go in. They look pretty cool, they are nicely packaged, the price however kept me from buying them. Until now.
Last weekend I finally broke down and bought the TI model headphones.
The Specs:
Driver: 40mm Titanium
Frequency Range: 100-18,000 Hz
Impedence: 32/50 ohms
Cable length: 1.2 M
Plug type: 3.5mm (1/8″) gold plated
Accessories: 3.5mm – 6.3 (1/4″) adapter, extra earpads, soft travel pouch, 5 stickers, stencil
Price: $89.99
The Good:
They look really cool, IMO. Skullcandy stitched on the top with a pyramid stud on each side.
They feel sturdy for the most part.
The cord seems to be a good length for using with an mp3 player, not too long, meaning no wrapping and less breakage. The cord is also split into two parts allowing you to use a longer cord if needed.
Handy volume control on the cord.
Black and Light Grey ear pads are included and are easy to swap. That is a great additional value as ear pads never last long enough, rendering perfectly good headphones unwearable.
Skullcandy has a cool logo, these headphones came with 5 stickers and a graffiti stencil. Cool little extras that help with brand loyalty.
The Bad:
Frequency response is pretty poor, the front of the package says “Monster Bass”, while the back says they only go down to 100Hz. The bass is very thin, the mids are detailed and the highs are nice, not tinny at all.
The cord is short, I know I said that was a good thing in the previous section, but too short means I’ll have to use an extension if I use these for recording.
The cord is thin, I have a feeling that will be the first thing to break on these as with most headphones that get a lot of mobile use.
Packaging is difficult to open neatly, which will likely make it hard to return.
The Verdict:
The primary purpose of these headphones is to have decent and durable headphones for mobile music enjoyment, meaning listening to my Sansa on the bus. The secondary use would be for comfortable tracking headphones, and third use would be for additional mix references.
The fit of these is just alright, could be better, they are fairly comfortable, but I’m not sure for how long.
The sound of these headphones is quite different from my ATH M30s, very detailed mids and highs on these, and those have tons of bass though it sounds mushy not punchy. I haven’t tested the noise reduction of these yet.
The Bottom Line:
For $89.99 I expected way better sound and will attempt to return them.