Like the Hesh 3, the Crusher Wireless’s tone also tends to emphasise the high frequency noise introduced by the headphones’ electronics and/or wireless signal. However, it’s less noticeable here than in the Hesh 3, which is slightly surprising as these headphones have even more treble energy. Personal Sound: Tune your Crusher ANC, Crusher Evo, Indy ANC or Dime XT 2 to your unique hearing. Take a simple hearing assessment to generate your personalized sound profile. Hear your music like never before. Turning the slider up slightly (but no more than halfway) pushed low frequency sounds forward to a noticeable degree, and drum beats and bass had much more texture and punch that they would have otherwise. On the Weeknd's The Hills, for example, the song really benefited from a slight push of the bass slider as it gave the chorus more punch without distorting the high vocals. Too far, however, and the song became unpalatable.

Bassheads would be better off with the Urbanista New York, which have gut-punching sub-bass. Or you could just buy the Hesh 3, which are cheaper and leave out the haptic bass feature. Verdict Enhance and customize your listening experience with the Skullcandy App. Control product features and settings, access user guides, and update product firmware versions as Skullcandy releases updates to some products in market. Slappppy-almost assaultive-thump with evenly matched, richly clear high-tone vocals and energetically articulated mids The treble is very prominent too. When the haptic bass is used, it doesn’t get lost completely. This is likely the idea. Treble is a little brittle, a little unrefined, but not hugely sibilant or harsh. Despite being on the larger side, these headphones fold up into themselves fairly neatly, making them extremely convenient to carry around.

User reviews

Finding the ideal point to keep the bass slider is a process of trial and error but you're unlikely to move it past the halfway mark after the first attempt. Your natural instinct when putting the headphones on will be to play the song in your library with the most sub-bass (something like James Blake's Limit to Your Love) and turn the slider all the way up. If I touched my face and then put the headphones on, my makeup immediately left fingerprints and it was even worse if I took them off and they brushed my face as I did so. This is partly my fault, but even natural oils produced by your skin throughout the day leave their mark and I’d rather not have to use an alcohol-based hand gel every time I decide to listen to some music. The Skullcandy Crusher Wireless have plenty of energy, the soundstage is reasonably wide and there’s more to the mids than an amorphous mass. Although when rendering vocals, the treble does take on much of the responsibility for detail and texture thanks to their greater presence. Though comfortable, these headphones look and feel slightly cheap which isn’t ideal for something that will sit so prominently on your head. We also think the multi-function buttons could have been utilized and positioned in a way that was more intuitive and convenient to use. The cut-off point for the bass slider is too high as sliding it any more than halfway up made most songs hard to listen to. Final Verdict The Crusher Wireless aren’t close to “best in class” with their unadulterated sound, but I’ve enjoyed them, and they don’t have any glaring tonal issues.

Trust us when we say you’re not likely to slide it all the way up very often. Performance and features

HEADPHONES WILL NOT CHARGE

For some more specialist pairs, take a look at our guides to the best wireless headphones and the best noise-cancelling headphones. They’re not the most expensive looking headphones, but they feel sturdy enough for everyday use. We just wish the plastic wasn't as much of a fingerprint magnet as it is. Skullcandy's Crusher wireless headphones are comfortable, fun and offer an excellent battery life for a reasonable price. Though they’ll appeal most to bass-lovers who’ll enjoy playing with the haptic slider, they also offer fairly well-rounded if slightly bass-heavy sound for those looking for more balance. As long as you don't push it too far up the adjustable bass and vibrations also make these fun headphones for movie watching and playing action-oriented video games. We Disliked

I also find the Crusher more comfortable than the Hesh 3. Where the smaller pair has a tendency to clamp down on your earlobes, making them sore after a while, the Crusher have just slightly more room for your ears. The Skullcandy Crusher Wireless look more sophisticated than their predecessors. Where the old model looked like a pair of ear defenders, these are much closer to a standard pair of stylish street headphones. These aren’t noise cancelling headphones so do expect some sound leakage. The degree of noise isolation they offer is better than on-ears and about right for their over-ear design. You won’t experience too much embarrassment from others hearing your guilty-pleasure songs or too much irritation from external noise interrupting them. This criticism of the treble sums up the sound’s limitations. It’s not that subtle or refined, but does generally give you a good time.The bass feature is likely to decrease this longevity, but it’s hard to say by how much because I couldn’t stand to have it on for long at all.

First pair of headphones that have changed my perspective on the world and made me reconsider what I believed to be true since my first pair of Ink'd Wired ear buds about two decades ago! As Bluetooth requires a battery, this cell is also used to power the Crusher’s unusual “haptic bass” chamber. The original Crusher pair needed batteries to work. Without haptic bass engaged the Crusher last for up to 40 hours, which is fantastic. There are no numbers or indicators on this slider so you’ll have to experiment with it to find the perfect point for you, but from our experience the amount of bass sits between 'chunky' and 'outrageous'. The Crusher Wireless headphones are easy to pair to your device and once connected the Bluetooth connection remains strong. The sound quality via Bluetooth is good and consistent and you can move a reasonable distance from your device in an open space. Walls and doors will cause connection problems as they do with any pair of Bluetooth headphones. The Skullcandy Crusher Wireless base sound is much better than that of the bass chamber, though. These are perfectly satisfying wireless headphones that sound similar, but not identical, to the Hesh 3.From a glance the Skullcandy Crusher Wireless look similar to the Skull Candy Hesh 3. They are actually rather different, with a bulkier, brasher appearance that retains a little more of the classic Skullcandy design DNA. They still fold-up to take up less space, though. More often than not we kept the bass slider down low, sometimes off completely. When it was off we found the headphones had a reasonably well-rounded and rich sound that still favored bass but didn't drown out other frequencies across all genres. You're not going to get any excellent levels and detail or separation in the sound but for headphones in this price range it'd be ridiculous to expect that kind of depth. For the general listener they'll be more than enough. App and Product Upgrades: As they become available, we will release new and improved firmware to the earbuds or headphones you own to keep you with the latest greatest audio experience. Enable push notifications in the Skullcandy App to receive alerts for upgrades that are available to you. A fader on the side of the left cup lets you ramp the level of the haptic bass effect up and down. The aim is to make the Crusher the equivalent of a pair of headphones with a subwoofer attached. Battery life is definitely a strong point for these headphones, though, and you’re not likely to have to use this cable often. When we used them with volume ranging from average to high and haptic bass on the lower end we got around 40 hours out of them before they required another charge which is excellent. We imagine that if you lean heavier on the haptic features this may reduce battery life slightly but we can’t imagine that’s a problem many will face. We Liked