So these are the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2… and if you’re a bass head these are going to more than satisfy you, cause they have a lot of bass… and if this is your first time getting a pair of Crushers from skullcandy… then you’re in for a big surprise. So today we’re going to checkout the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2’s cause these are packed with a lot of new features.

Regarding pricing, the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 have a retail price of $230… making these pair of mid tier ANC headphones… now personally I recommend that you wait for these to go on sale… and I think these are better off as a pair of secondary headphones… not daily drivers. Nonetheless if you want to pick these headphones up they’ll be linked down below, or you can press on the YouTube shopping button.

Now first lets talk about the included case… now the Crusher ANC 2’s come included with a decent hardshell case… so your headphones are going to stay well protected even if they’re in a cramped backpack. And this case is decently sized… its not as small as Bose’s cases but at least its not as large as the 1000XM5’s case or sennheiser Momentum 4’s case. And more importantly, its not as soft shell case like with what you get with the Beats Studio Pro… overall the Crusher ANC 2’s come included with a decently sized hardshell case… which is what we expect from a pair of mid tier ANC headphones.

But with the cases out of the way, lets talk about the headphones themselves. Now the Crusher ANC 2’s have a mostly plastic body… but the majority of these headphones have soft touch feel to them… making them feel more premium. The ear cups pivot and swivel a good amount, this headband clicks very gently, and up top we have like a velvet on the top of the headband and underneath we have fairly padded fabric. Overall these headphones are very sturdy… but then theres the leatherette on these headphones… now this leatherette doesn’t feel plastic or synthetic… but it also doesn’t feel soft or supple like with the leather that you’ll find on Bose’s headphones… this leatherette feels ridged like the leather that you will find on a new leather seat… and then there’s the padding in this ear pads… its a little stiff when compared to other headphones. So overall, the Crusher ANC 2’s have solid build quality… but these do feel rather different from other headphones out there.

But then theres the fit of these headphones and they are a bit of a mixed bag. Regarding clamping force, these headphones are big head approved because they dont have all that much clamping force… so if you have a big head and or if you like to wear hats these should have you covered and these have a neutral fit to them. However, the padding on this headband is a little stiff… so after an hour or so it can create a hot spot on the top of your head. And then there are the ear pads on these headphones… now these earpads are very spacious and they will have no problem accomodating most ear types and even if you have very large ears or ear that stick out a lot, they should have you covered. And since these ear pads have so little surface area coming in contact with your skin, they do a good job of staying cooler for longer. But also, since the padding in these ear pads is so stiff, they just dont feel as comfortable as other ear pads out there with softer cushioning. But then theres their weight… the Crusher ANC 2’s weigh in at 332 grams, which is up there when compared to other headphones out there cause the Momentum 4’s weigh in at 295 grams, the beats studio pro weigh in at 260 grams, the Bose QC Ultra and Sony 1000XM4’s weigh in at 255 grams, the Sony 1000XM5’s weigh in at 250 grams and then there are the Bose QC’s which weigh in at 235 grams… So with the Crusher ANC 2’s these are a lot more noticeable when they are on your head… and you really feel these shifting around when you’re walking around with them on. And since a lot of this weigh in found in the ear cups themselves… when you turn your head with these headphones they have a lot of inertia to them. So fit wise, these headphones fit ok cause they are big head approved and they have spacious ear cups… but their headband can create a hotspot on the top of your head and these are fairly noticeable when they are on your head cause they are pretty heavy. But at least they aren’t as heavy as the AirPods Max which weigh in at 384 grams.

But now lets talk about tech specs, regarding battery life, the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 has an advertised battery life of 50 hours with their active noise cancelation turned off… which is very impressive and above average… and if you were to use them with their ANC turned off then they can go for as long as 60 hours… so this is part of the reason why these headphones are so heavy.

And inorder to charge these headphones, they charge via a USB C port as they should, and when it comes to the fast chargning numbers on these headphones, if you were to charge them up for 10 minutes from a dead battery they are going to get you 4 hours of playback time… which is okay.

And when it comes to connectivity, these headphones can be connected two any two bluetooth devices at the same time which is good if youre a power user with devices from different eco systems cause you can easily hot swap from one device to another.

And when it comes to overall performance, these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… and when it comes to audio codecs, these headphones have support for SBC and AAC which is perfectly fine.

But if you want to you can always just use a wired connection with these headphones cause they still have an audio jack… and they come included with an audio cable… however, you can not use the USB C port on these headphones as a wired connection, the USB C port on these headphones is strictly used for charging.

But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now there are two parts to these headphones… there are your standard 40 millimeter drivers and theres also your sensory bass. Now if you were to use these headphones with their Crusher feature turned off… then these headphones aren’t going to sound all that great. Their instrument separation isn’t all that great, so they can sound a little narrow… theres a lot of emphasis on the mids and vocals… and the highs can sound a little harsh at times and the instrumentals are very difficult to point out. But also, these headphones do have an adjustable EQ so you can go in and make them sound however you want and they also do the whole personalized sound thing… but the short of it is… the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2’s don't have the best instrument separation or detail…

However, you’re not getting these because you’re looking for the best insutemnet separation or detail… if that was the case then you should be looking at a pair of sennheisers… but what the Crusher ANC 2’s do have is bass. And these things have a lot of it. Basically these headphones have so much bass that they will make your teeth chatter. And all of this bass is just a lot of dumb fun… and this bass adds an extra level of immersiveness when you’re watching a movie with them cause its like you have a subwoofer strapped onto your head. So with all of this bass, it wont really matter than these dont have the best instrument separation because you’re not going to be able to hear it over all of the bass, and more importantly the Crusher ANC 2’s put an emphasis on the vocals so that you can still hear the lyrics overall all of the bass. And if you were to crank the bass all the way up on these headphones, its like you’re listening to music in your older brother’s Riced up civic with an after market sound system where they cranked the bass all the way up cause for some reason, unless your car’s body panels are rattling… there isn’t enough bass. Basically you’re not getting the Crusher ANC 2’s cause youre looking for the best detail in your music, these are all about bass… and since these are all about bass… this is why I say that these are better suited as a pair of secondary headphones… not daily drivers… cause all of this bass can get tiring after awhile.

But then there are the media controls on these headphones. The Crusher ANC 2’s are using physical buttons… and these buttons are easy to find, they’re easy enough to tell apart and they have a decent click to them… but also, the Crusher ANC 2’s have their own voice assistant, Skull IQ and baiscly if you say, Hey Skullcandy you’ll be able to control your music playback, but you’ll also be able to do thing like adjust your bass level, or turn your active noise cancelation or ambient mode on or off. And you can also ask skullcandy to activate your voice assistant, and you can also use it as a shutter button on your camera. The thing about Skull IQ is that you have to have their app running in the background… But also Skullcandy claims that more features will be coming to the Skull IQ app, but we will see if that happens… but more importantly, the Crusher 2’s still have tile support, so you’ll still be able to track these headphones down if you lose them.

But now lets talk about the active noise cancelation on these headphones… and basically, the ANC ON these headphones is a bit of a disappointment. But so that you can see for yourself we’re going to jump into an ANC test.

ANC Test

So like you may have just seen, the ANC ON these headphones isn’t all the impressive. They block out a little more noise than the Sony WH-CH720N… but these are a pair of entry level ANC Headphones… and they block out less noise than the Beats Studio Pro… which aren’t a good pair of ANC headphones to begin with. Overall if active noise cancellation is very important to you, I wouldn’t recommend the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2.

And then theres the ambient mode on these headphones… now the ambient mode on the Crusher ANC 2’s is good enough to get the job done… but it does sound rather artificial and their microphone array is a little fast to pick up wind noise when walking out doors… but at least you can adjust how much noise these headphones let in which is nice.

Mic ANC Quite

But finally heres the microphone test, and overall these headphones have a decent sounding microphone on them to take phone calls with while in a quite room.

Mic ANC Road Noise

However, when it comes to blocking out noise pollution, things get a little tricky here. Now this microphone does a decent job of blocking out constant lower frequency sounds like road noise. Because for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you can clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to switch back over to the Skullcandy crusher ANC 2’s… it is slightly reduced… but theres also some interference going on with my voice.

Mic ANC Chatter

But when it comes to blocking out chatter… this microphone is a disaster…

Mic ANC Quite

So overall, the skullcandy crusher ANC 2 have a decent enough sounding microphone on them to take phone calls with while in a quiet room… but when it comes to blocking out chatter, these really struggle.

So with all of that being said… the skullcandy crusher ANC 2 certainly deliver because they have a lot of bass… the bass on these headphones will literally rattle your head so much that your teeth will chatter… and all of this bass adds an extra level of immersivenss when you watch movies with these headphones… however, all of this bass can get a little tiring after while… now you can use these headphones with their Crusher feature turned off… but then they aren’t going to sound all that good cause they dont have the best instrument separation. And regarding their Active Noise Cancelation… its not all that impressive especially for a pair of headphones of this price point. And the fit of these headphones isn’t the greatest cause of their weight and stiff padding. But something that they do have going for them is their battery life. But overall, I would mainly recommend these as a pair of secondary headphones.