GYMCADDY

View Original

Skullcandy Crusher Evo Review

See this content in the original post

Over the last few years Skullcandy has been taking some major strides when it came to their Bass Head Headphones which truly deliver bone rattling bass. Now personally im not the biggest fan of the original Skullcandy Crushers cause they aren’t big head approved and the bass on those headphones just sounded like someone was flicking a rubber band next to your ears. But then we saw some major improvements with the Skullcandy Crusher 360’s which had better build quality, better fit, and most importantly way better bass. 

Then a year later we got the Skullcandy Crusher ANC’s which added active noise cancellation and an ambient mode to these headphones and now we’ve got the Skullcandy Crusher Evo which I feel has better build quality than the Skullcandy Crusher ANC’s but at a more affordable price point. So if you’re a bass head and you think that you can handle all of this bass lets check out the Skullcandy Crusher Evo. 

Now when it comes to price. The Crusher Evo’s have a retail price of $200 which is not bad especially if you plan on picking these up as a pair of secondary headphones. Now even though the Crusher Evo’s are a lot of fun… I wouldn’t recommend them as daily drivers just like how I wouldn’t recommend the Crusher ANC’s as a pair of daily driver headphones either. But for comparison the Crusher ANC’s retail for $320. So I feel the Crusher Evo’s are a lot easier to justify. But nonetheless if you want to pick these headphones up they’ll be linked down below.

Now first off lets address the carrying pouch here. Now the Crusher Evo’s come included with a very high quality carrying pouch. Its thick and durable on the outside and on the inside its lined with fake fur and there are pockets for your cables. Now Skullcandy has always out done themselves when it came to carrying pouches… but just for comparison sake, the entry level Skullcandy Venues come included with a hardshell carrying case. Now personally I think Skullcandy went with a carrying pouch on the Crusher Evo to keep costs down cause these headphones have way better build quality than the Venues. But nonetheless if you do plan on traveling a lot with these headphones then I would recommend that you invest in a hardshell carrying case. 

But when it comes to the headphones themselves like I just mentioned these headphones have amazing build quality. Now these headphones feel very sturdy when they’re in your hands and they have zero cracking or squeaking whenever you handle them. But what really makes these headphones feel amazing is that they are using multiple materials here. Now the majority of these headphones has a soft touch feeling to them. When you extend their headband there’s a tactile click, the outer portion of the headband has a hit of alcantara and underneath the headband there’s padded silicon. And then when we get to the ear pads themselves… this leatherette feels amazing. Its soft and supple but then there’s also a slight grain to it. So I gotta say build quality wise these are the best built headphones Skullcandy has ever made and I also feel these headphones have better build quality then the more premium Skullcandy Crusher ANC’s. 

But when it comes to fit… these headphones are a mixed bad. Now first off these headphones are big head approved cause they don’t have so much clamping force where they feel like they’re squeezing your head like the Beats Solo Pro do. But these headphones do have a slightly firm fit to them. These headphones have very similar clamping force to the Surface Headphones 2. But these headphones do have a few things going against them when it comes to comfort, first of which is their weight. These headphones weigh in at 310 grams which is a little hefty cause most comparable headphones weigh in between 270 to 290 grams. So these are a pair of headphones you don’t really forget that youre wearing and these headphones are fairly noticeable when you’re walking around with them on. But the biggest thing about these headphones is their padding. Now these headphones do have a decent amount of padding underneath their headband… but I’ve noticed that at the one hour mark this headband does develop a hot spot on the top of your head. You can muscle through it, but at the hour and a half mark thats when I just start shifting this headband back and fourth a lot or I’ll just have to take these headphones off and take a 5 minute break. And then there’s the ear pads on these headphones… even though these ear pads are deep, they aren’t super spacious. So my average sized ears do feel a little cramped. I can make it work… but I wish these ear pads had more room. So definitely if you’re someone with larger ears or ears that stick out a lot then these might not work for you. Now even though these aren’t the best fitting headphones you can definitely wear these headphones for at least an hour long listening session. 

Now when it comes to tech specs these headphones charge via a USB C port as they should and when it comes to battery life these headphones have an advertised battery life of 40 hours. But that depends on how high you have the bass slider on these headphones set. More bass means less battery life and less bass means longer battery life. But the good thing about these headphones is that they do have rapid charging. So if you plug these headphones in for 10 minutes from a dead battery they’re going to get you 4 hours of battery life. 

Now when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, these headphones are using bluetooth 5.0 but these headphones can only be connected to one device at a time meaning that you can’t hot swap from one device to another which can be important for power users. Now ultimately its not a huge deal if your headphones have simulations multi device connectivity but it is nice. 

But more importantly, when it comes to watching movies or videos on your phone these headphones have zero latency across the board whether youre using an iPhone or android device. And when it comes to audio codecs these headphones have support for SBC and AAC. But if you want to you can always just use a wired connection with these headphones cause they have an easy to reach 3.5 millimeter audio jack. 

But now lets talk about listening to music with these headphones… Now these headphones are all about bass. The Crusher Evo will literally rattle your skull, you will see double and its like having explosions going off on your head. The bass on these headphones is like nothing else on the market. Now these headphones have your standard 40 millimeter drivers like most headphones do that handles all of the sound but what makes these headphones special is that they have a separate vibrating motor in them that handles all of the head rattling bass. So when it comes to sound quality, the head rattling bass and sound on these headphones are two separate entities. But in general these headphones are mostly all about bass and vocals. If you’ve got the bass turned up even a little bit on these headphones you’re not really going to hear all that much detail in the mids and highs mainly cause you’re going to be distracted and over whelmed by the bass and the same thing can be said for the instrument separation and sound stage on these headphones. These headphones are the antithesis for any audiophile, but thats okay cause these headphones are all about fun. 

Now out the box these headphones do have a bass heavy stock EQ even with their bass slider set to off which is expected for Skullcandy products. But these headphones do have a few other EQ settings to choose from. Now the Music EQ has that bass heavy sound signature to it that I just mentioned. But personally I prefer to listen to music with these headphones while in their movie EQ cause with their movie EQ the mids and highs are turned up a little bit. So when you listen to music with these headphones with their movie EQ you can hear the vocals better over all of that head rattling bass. But then there’s the podcast EQ which completely turns off the bass on these headphones. Even if you have the bass slider turned up on these headphones these headphones won’t have any bass to them, they’re completely flat. So in general I just keep these headphones set to their movie EQ cause when you’re going to listen to music with them you can hear the vocals better over all of that bass… and if you’re going to listen to a podcast then you can just slide the bass slider all the way down and these headphones will sound just fine for podcasts. 

But one last thing to mention here when it comes to sound. These headphones also have personalized sound where you go through a hearing test and they’ll give you optimized EQ that specific to you. Personally im not a fan when headphones have this… just give a fully customizable EQ that I can set. Cause for me I just keeping getting this bright EQ that I don’t like. So for me I just keep the personal sound setting turned off and just use these headphones while in the movie EQ and I like to keep bass slider on these headphones a little bellow half way. But nonetheless I can’t stress enough that these headphones are all about fun. 

Now even though the Crusher Evo’s are a lot of fun to listen to… like ive said with past Skullcandy Crusher headphones these headphones are better suited as a pair of secondary headphones. Since these headphones don’t have active noise cancelation or an ambient mode they aren’t the best for commuting… and there are plenty of other headphones out there in this price range that have active noise cancelation and or an ambient mode making them more versatile. 

However the Crusher Evo’s do have tile support which is a little rare and could always come in handy if you ever lose your bag either while you’re commuting or at school. But personally I would rather have Active noise cancellation or an ambient mode on my headphones than tile support. 

And when it comes to the microphone on these headphones for phone calls it’s not the best. First this microphone doesn’t do all that great of a job blocking out ambient noise cause you can clearly hear that AC unit in the back ground. 

And even if you were to take phone calls with these headphones in a quite room its still not good cause you can still hear this white noise in the back ground. 

So with all that being said, the Skullcandy Crusher Evo are a pair of super fun headphones to use. The bass on these headphones is like nothing else out there. And build quality wise these headphones are very well built and they come included with a high quality carrying pouch. But I wouldn’t recommend that you get these headphones as your daily drivers. Fit wise these headphones are good for like an hour cause their headband does create a hot spot and their ear pads are a little cramped. They aren’t the best for commuting cause of their lack of active noise cancelation and an ambient mode and they also weigh in at 310 grams making them fairly noticeable when you’re walking around with them on. And I wouldn’t take phone calls with these headphones either. But I think thats perfectly okay, the Crusher Evo is your Sunday sports car that after you’re done driving your back is killing you and you really can’t fit anything in the trunk, and you gotta be careful anytime there’s a speed bump, but you’re okay with it cause you were grinning the whole time you were behind the wheel… And come Monday you can take little Timmy to school in your 4 Runner. So what im getting at here is that the Skullcandy Crusher Evo are the sports cars of headphones… they aren’t logical, and they aren’t the most comfortable but they sure are a lot of fun.