Skullcandy Crusher Over-Ear Headphones Review

Editor rating

4.6/5 on December 7, 2016 Reviewed by: Peter Alexander

User’s rating

708 reviews

PROS

  • Comfortable
  • Massive bass
  • Adjustable bass
  • Look great

CONS

  • Feel plasticky

VERDICT

The Skullcandy Crusher are fun headphones for everyone who revels in an absurdly bass-heavy sound that would make the average listener run away screaming. We dig how they look and appreciate the option to tame the monstrous bass down to a level more suitable for human ears. Overall, a good product with a few minor flaws that likely won’t matter at all to those who like Skullcandy’s products.

It’s no secret that true bass-lovers want to not only hear the bass, but also feel it. The Crusher from Skullcandy have a haptic bass response and adjustable bass slider, empowering you, the listener, to make the lows as devastating as you wish. But are the headphones really worth the cost? Isn’t it just a gimmick from yet another company that prefers style over function? The answer might surprise you.

Build and Design

The Skullcandy Crusher are a fantastic example of well-executed contemporary urban design. The sharp angles of the headband and the earcups are reminiscent of tall skyscrapers, and the matte black exterior makes the headphones look as if they were spray-painted by Banksy on a rundown building.

At first, we were skeptical about the headband padding, which bears an uncanny similarity to one particularly nasty medieval torture device. To our surprise, the experience turned out to be the exact opposite of torture. Even though the padding is limited in size, the material is sufficiently rigid to help your head maintain a safe distance from the hard plastic above it. The large, oval earcups feature thick earpads that stand miles above many other headphones in the price range. Our only complaint is that the headphones feel somewhat hollow, almost as if there was nothing inside.

The Crusher can be folded to 40 percent of their original size and tossed into the included microfiber travel bag. The included cable with a built-in microphone and a single-button remote can be removed as well, allowing you to replace it with a different cable, depending on your needs and preferences.

Sound Quality

To produce the jaw-breaking bass the company advertises in their promotional materials, Skullcandy has developed a new bass extension driver, the Sensation55, which can deliver a powerful and realistic bass experience. The new driver is paired with another driver, the REX40, which takes care of other parts of the frequency spectrum.

Since almost no ordinary smartphone or audio player would have enough power to bring the pair of drivers to life, the Crusher feature a built-in amplifier powered by a single AA battery hidden in one of the earcups. To top it all off, you can adjust the bass using a dedicated slider located on the left earcup.

The resulting sound can either be utterly devastating or relatively well-mannered, depending on your preferences. But if brutal drops and punchy kicks are your thing, the Skullcandy Crusher are the most recommendable headphones on the market. No other product is able to turn your brain into jelly and shoot it out your nose—all on the medium bass setting.

What’s in the Box?

Included with the headphones is a microfiber travel bag and a 3.5mm cable with a built-in microphone and an in-line remote.

Leave a Reply