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I know some people can’t afford to spend too much on a pair of headphones, but I also know that there are some people out there who just want to get a pair of really cheap headphones they can throw around or use them at the gym without having to worry or care about them. So thats why I wanted to checkout the Skullcandy Riff. Personally, skull candy has been very hit or miss for me lately, So lets see how the skullcandy Riff stack up.
The Skullcandy Riff retail for $50, but there’s also a wired version that can be had for as little as 20 Bucks. Now given that these headphones are only $50 I’m not going to be going super hard on these headphones because they pretty much hit the basics pretty well. So if you want to pick these headphones up I’ll have them linked down below.
The Skullcandy Riff are pretty much all plastic, but Skullcandy did take some extra steps to make them feel a little more premium. The ear cups them selves have a somewhat soft touch feel to them similar to what you would find on the $300 Crusher 360’s and the leatherette used on the ear pads themselves doesn’t feel half bad. When you adjust the headband there’s a very sturdy click to it and there’s minimal cracking or squeaking when you flex them. But I would take it easy and not flex them too much cause you could snap them.
Now when it comes to fit, these headphones are on ear headphones… but thanks to their super soft ear cushions and the surprisingly nice feeling leatherette that I mentioned earlier, these headphones are fairly comfortable. But it is important to note that these headphones have a snug fit and order for me to actually wear them I have to extend their headband all the way out. I feel that if a larger adult were to try these on they wouldn’t fit them. So for those reasons I have to say these headphones are not big head approved. But since these headphones have a snug fit I think they would be good for working out. Personally I feel that loose fitting headphones like the Bose QC35’s aren’t ideal for working out cause they’ll move around very easily. Thats why whenever I’m looking for work out headphones I look for something with a snug fit cause they’ll stay in place better.
But something to keep in mind about these headphones is that they don’t have an audio jack. So you can only use them wirelessly. Now these headphones are using bluetooth 4.1 and I found they’re perfectly fine for watching movies or videos on your phone cause they don’t have any latency. The only time I noticed any latency was when I was watching youtube videos with any of my apple devices. But if you have an android device you’ll be fine. So even though not having an audio jack on these headphones shouldn’t be a big deal, it should be something to keep in mind.
Now when it comes to battery life on these headphones its not amazing, but it is fairly decent considering their price and size. They have an advertised battery life of 12 hours and if you charge them up for ten minutes from a dead battery they’ll get you 2 hours of playback time. The fast charging on these headphones is actually battery than the fast charging on the new Sony XB700’s. But again keep in mind… the Riff charge via a micro USB port instead of a USB C Port.
Now when it comes to sound quality, the soundstage and instrument separation on these headphones isn’t all that great. Everything does sound very close together and its very easy for subtle details to get lost in the mix. But again these are $50 headphones. They do how ever put an emphasis on the mids so vocalists are very front and center and they also have very punch bass. For the most part the bass does a very good job of staying put together and not muddling out the mids, but there have been rare instances where the bass did bottom out during bass heavy songs. But over all for working out I think these headphones sound decent enough cause they have those prominent mids, and then there’s that deep punchy bass for when the bass drops. And regarding the control buttons found on the right ear cup… I don’t have any problems with them. They’re very easy to find, they’re very easy to tell apart, you have full control over your music, and they have very good tactile feed back. Again, skull candy did a very good job of covering the basics with these headphones.
And when it comes to the microphone on the skullcandy riff, I think it sounds a little better than expected. Even though there’s a little bit of static going on, I think these are decent for brief phone calls. But this audio clip is being recorded by the microphone found on the skull candy riff, so you can be the judge of that.
But over all like I said at the beginning of this video. I think the Skullcandy Riff do a very good job of covering the basics. They fit well, but remember they do have a snug fit… they have a decent battery life of 12 hours with fairly useful fast charging. Even though they don’t have an audio jack I found them to be decent for videos cause they don’t have any latency issues, and they sound fairly decent. Even though all the stuff I just mentioned sounds obvious, there are plenty over headphones on the market that don’t hit all of these basic pillars. Now I’m not saying that you should run out and get the skull candy riff, but if you’re considering getting them for what ever reason, just know they’ll get the job done.