There are as many types of headphones as there are types of people out there. Some like a lot of bright treble, some hate it, some adore a clear midrange, some just like muddy bass all over the frequency curve.
This review is dedicated specifically to those people that call themselves bass heads and like as much muddy bass as possible to fit in a pair of headphones.
If you want the experience of a live concert or movie theatre while sitting in your living room the Skullcandy Crusher headphones are the choice for you.
You need to be honest with yourself when you are purchasing the Skullcandy Crusher headphones. These are not budget headphones, nor do they sound bad, but they definitely do not sound anything close to a proper studio headphone.
The main thing is that the Crushers never claimed to be a studio headphone – it presents itself as what it is, a pair of what feels like subwoofers on your head that will rattle your brain inside of your skull with bass.
From a pure spec perspective, these operate at an impedance of 33 Ohms for the acoustic driver and 13 Ohms for the Crusher bass driver. Yes, you heard it right, the Skullcandy Crusher headphones have a dedicated driver that makes sure the bass is as heavy as possible.
The Crushers have a sound pressure level of 90.39±5dB (1mW/1KHz) and a frequency response of 20Hz – 20KHz. Once again, not necessarily impressive, but not too shabby either.
If we had to describe these headphones in one term without using technical specs it would be “muddy”. Wow, what a surprise, we know…
The natural sound of the headphone without adjusting the bass slider (we will talk about it later) is already plenty bassy. In fact, the bass already carries over to the midrange making it hard to distinguish much of the high frequencies.
This once again is exactly what you paid for. You can’t expect to buy a bass head Skullcandy Crusher headphones and hear a balanced/neutral performance of sounds like from a pair of Sennheisers.
From that perspective, the headphones sound phenomenally bassy to the point that sometimes it is even too much!
The headphones we are reviewing today have been used for 2 years already therefore we can really dig into that build quality performance.
There is good news and bad news regarding the durability of the Skullcandy Crushers. On the bright side, after 2 years of use, the headphones have no problems at all and work properly.
The earpads are still soft and did not need any replacement (although you can easily swap them out as per usual), the rubber headband (rubber is a weird choice of material for a headband) is still plush, and the headband adjustments are still operating fine (although a little bit wobbly).
The comfort overall is not the best since the ear cups move only to a limited degree and even after 2 years, the clamping force of the Crushers will *pun intended* crush your head (a very fitting name in more than one way).
There were initial concerns regarding the build quality of the headphones since this is a mostly plastic build with a metal headband but aside from getting scratched on the outside surface, no other notable deterioration has happened aesthetically.
The one single thing that is somewhat bothersome after 2 years is the aforementioned bass slider on the Skullcandy Crushers. After a lot of use, the slider feels wobbly and is not very useful at telling you what level of bass you are experiencing.
This is of course a small inconvenience considering these headphones have been abused for 2 years, but still should be mentioned. Aside from that all other buttons work properly and are clicky and snappy like on day 1.
Unsurprisingly the extra features of the Skullcandy Crushers relate to their ability to produce a lot of bass. This can be controlled by the bass slider present on the left ear cup.
The higher you turn up the slider, the higher your chances of feeling like you are putting your head against a subwoofer at a rock concert. The music becomes muddy at half power on the slider and anything beyond that reminds you of a cheap car bass system that is attached to your head.
To some that experience might be what they want though so go and experiment with the slider.
The catchphrase “bass you can feel” lives up to its name since once turned up, the haptic motors in the Skullcandy Crushers vibrate and make you “feel” the bass in its full glory.
The headphones use Bluetooth for connectivity but also offer a 3.5mm cable that you can use if needed (comes with a neat carrying pouch as well). Notably, the microphone when using the cable is a lot better on the Crushers.
Another cool feature of using the cable with the Crushers is the fact that you can still control your bass with the bass slider!
You won’t be needing that 3.5mm cable much though because the battery life on the Crushers is 40 hours, and they support rapid charge where 10 minutes of charging will result in 3 hours of listening.
The charging cable is not USB type C but since the Skullcandy Crushers were released in 2016, they get a free pass on this one.
Back when they were released the Crushers were a bit expensive, but currently, they retail for 99 Euros, which is a decent price for this product. You are paying exactly for what you get and the entire brand of the Crushers tells you what you are getting yourself into.
Do not expect analytic listening capabilities from a pair of headphones designed to vibrate on your head along the bass to make you feel like you are at a cinema.
The Skullcandy Crusher headphones are a compelling product for those people who are truly passionate about bass. These will work well for movie watching and are fine for gaming but are most suited for music listening.
You should also be fair to the headphones and not try to play something like Bach – let it shine in its natural habitat with some rap or EDM music where it can flex its big bassy muscles.
The Skullcandy Crusher headphones are as transparent as they can be about the experience you will get upon purchasing this product. Would you like to strap your head to subwoofers and run around your house happily? Then purchase the Skullcandy Crushers because at least those come with ear cushions.