01/27/2011
Written by: DL
I’ve been on the prowl for a new set of headphones and have been pretty budget conscious. Currently, I’ve been rocking a set of Grado SR60’s with use of CMoy headphone amp and they’ve been great. Beautiful mid-tones and crisp highs but a little lacking in the low end. The next model up in Grado’s line is the SR80 which has better lows but for $100 it’s at the top of my budget not mention the Grado’s are an open-back design (so, if you’re blasting music, others can hear what you’re listening to with ease).
Grado SR60
The criteria I was looking for was a set of over the ear headphones with a good dynamic range as I listen to a few different genres of music, but mostly rock. I’ve tried the Beats Solo by Monster (Dr. Dre’s signature line) but found them to have way too much bass for certain types of music. However, the Beats Solo’s definitely get points for style and function with their built in iPod controls.
Written by: DL
I’ve been on the prowl for a new set of headphones and have been pretty budget conscious. Currently, I’ve been rocking a set of Grado SR60’s with use of CMoy headphone amp and they’ve been great. Beautiful mid-tones and crisp highs but a little lacking in the low end. The next model up in Grado’s line is the SR80 which has better lows but for $100 it’s at the top of my budget not mention the Grado’s are an open-back design (so, if you’re blasting music, others can hear what you’re listening to with ease).
Grado SR60
The criteria I was looking for was a set of over the ear headphones with a good dynamic range as I listen to a few different genres of music, but mostly rock. I’ve tried the Beats Solo by Monster (Dr. Dre’s signature line) but found them to have way too much bass for certain types of music. However, the Beats Solo’s definitely get points for style and function with their built in iPod controls.
I then stumbled across the Skullcandy SkullCrushers which apparently have been available since 2008. Now, my previous experience with Skullcandy headphones have been with their ear buds and a set of the over ear model called the Agent. Needless-to-say, I wasn’t very impressed with their sound quality as they lacked really any clear definition for high-tones. & had muddy mids.
Skullcandy SkullCrushers
Skullcandy SkullCrushers
The Skullcandy SkullCrusher’s are unique in that have an adjustable built in subwoofer amp. The headphones when cranked literally rattle your ears! Again though, I was looking for something with good dynamic range and was a bit leery of what I was going to get with my previous experience with Skullcandy.
The built in subwoofer amp requires a single AA battery to power it and has an on/off switch. The headphones are for the most part worthless without the subwoofer. Though you can still get audio through the headphones with it off, it just sounds like pure highs. But, once I turn on the sub I was pleasantly surprised! I tend to listen to A LOT of punk and wanted to see how the SkullCrushers would handle it and I was pretty impressed. For punk music I LOVE hearing the crunch of guitars and the poignant thump of the kick drum and the crack of the snare drum… With a little tweaking of the dial on the subwoofer I got what I was looking for! The natural high and mid tones of the SkullCrushers were good and combined with an adjustable subwoofer you can set how much bass you wanted to blast into ears. It was simple to adjust while switching genres of music.
Most rock music I found that if you kept the dial for the subwoofer around 30% it was great! Guitars sounded crunchy, you could literally feel the kick drum, and the bass guitar was driving. With acoustic based music I more or less pushed the subwoofer down just a little and got great performance. I don’t listen to a lot of rap but I was curious how the headphones would do with some classic NWA and I have to say they did pretty damn good. At one point I did max out the subwoofer to see the results... They ended up sounding something of that of a rumbly mess. Everything became pretty muddled sounding, but if you’re going for rattling headphones you definitely will get that. For the most part there really is no reason to ever have the subwoofer turned up to the max.
The SkullCrushers are pretty comfortable which with a few adjustments (I have a big head). I found the padding to more than adequate and comfortable on the ears. Style wise they are typical Skullcandy with flashy graphics and all. I chose to go with the subtle pin stripe design but more ostentatious designs are offered. I suppose my real only complain with the headphones is the plastic used in the construction. It feels a bit flimsy but I’m sure with proper care the headphones will hold up pretty well.
Sitting at a price point of $70 you get the SkullCrusher headphones that come with a satin headphone bag, quarter inch and air-line adapter and a AA battery. In my opinion you get a very diverse sounding set of headphones that won’t necessarily break the bank. I found that having to adjust the subwoofer from genre to genre or even album to album to be a very minor annoyance if even really any annoyance. Once you get the SkullCrushers dialed in they are a rocking set of headphones worth your money!
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