Skullcandy Crusher ANC Headphones Review
My search for the best headphones presses on, as we turn our attention back to Skullcandy.
Cast your mind back a few months, I went to this brand with a slight nervousness and tested their Crusher 360 headphones. Much to my pleasant surprise, give or take a few gripes, they’re a good pair of cans.
What happens when you add Active Noise Cancellation into the mix? You get the (rather logically named Crusher ANC. But there’s more to it than that, dear reader.
Cracking open the box, you get a tale of two sides. In some ways, they are better than the Crusher 360s. The plastic construction doesn't make them feel like a clamp during longer listening sessions, and the plush cushioning is more firmly secured in (the leather came unglued rather easily on my 360). Also, I do like the fabric finish on the case over the leather of the 360.
On the flip side, that plastic construction doesn’t feel as premium. Any contact (even the gentlest button push) sounds all the more louder because of it.
Rather than the touch sensitive surfaces for the sensory bass on the Crusher 360, you’ve got a moveable lever on the left ear. Personally, I appreciate this physical level of control, but I can see how that adds another cluttering detail onto what was originally a clean design.
Under the bonnet, you’ve got a beasty battery for 24-hours of power, Bluetooth 5.0 and a built-in tile tracker for finding your Crushers if you lose them - a great little addition of convenience. And the built-in microphone for phone calls works perfectly well, even in the most windswept of circumstances.
But, of course, this is just half the story. When it comes to any headphones (especially those that cost £250), crystal clear sound is critical.
The odd thing here is that on paper, the sound should be worse compared to what you get from the slightly pricier Crusher 360 headphones. 40mm diameter drivers push out 32 Ohms of audio punch with 20Hz - 20KHz frequency response (for context, the 360s went from 5Hz). However, things feel a little more balanced here. More refined in the subtly tweaked levels, improving standard audio quality exponentially to the point that bass doesn’t steamroll the whole listening experience.
If you want that to happen, you could switch on the sensory bass and whack it up to full. Same as the Crusher 360s, these are the best way to listen to mid 2000s metalcore. Beyond that, for all other genres, make sure you really reign in that bass boost otherwise it can get a little disorientating.
Now, if you remember my previous Skullcandy review, the sensory bass was a great little USP - making them perfect for anybody who loved mid 2000s metalcore. But beyond that, they weren’t really able to provide a clearly defined sound profile for any other purpose. It was just a mixed mess. Now, however, things seem to sound a lot clearer - they’ve paid attention to the audio levels and the whole experience is much nicer.
Don’t get me wrong, if you want the bass to vibrate your cranium and overwhelm everything, you can increase it to full (recommend only doing this for a laugh for a few seconds). But in every other listening case, you’ll want to level this more appropriately for the genre.
Included with these, too, is a paired Skullcandy app that runs an audio test on you - to see what frequencies you can/can’t hear and create a personalised soundscape. Does it make a difference? It’s negligible. There are tiny alterations that only the most advanced of audiophiles will pick up on, but to many it’s not essential.
One thing comes close to spoiling the party though... ANC is a little ropey - a slight electronic fuzz runs through the headphones, you should crank the volume up to overwhelm this sound.
So, what are we left with? With all the changes and tweaks, Skullcandy have once again created the perfect headphones for anyone with a music taste that starts and ends at Parkway Drive.
But with subtle sound profile adjustments, the looser (more comfortable) wearing experience, the beasty battery and the nifty tech implementations like Tile, they can now be accessible to all.
Warts and all, these are definitely worth popping on your list of high end headphone options.
