What are the Skullcandy Crusher Wireless?

The Skullcandy Crusher Wireless are Bluetooth headphones with a special bass resonance chamber. Skullcandy made an older version of the Crusher, reviewed by Trusted Reviews back in 2013, and this new pair adds wireless connectivity, updated sound and a reworked design.

 

Skullcandy Crusher Wireless — Design

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.

Their outer parts are mostly soft touch matt black plastic, although there’s synthetic leather on top of the headband, and part of the steel headband will likely be exposed when worn. Unless you have a tiny head.

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.

The headband is chunkier, sticks our further from your head, and the skull logos on the sides are larger. They also feel better-made than the Hesh 3, although this may be partly a side effect of the bass resonance chambers. They add weight. However, the finish is a little different too. The soft touch outer is, well, softer here.

 


You get a bag: this bag

Skullcandy Crusher Wireless — Wireless and Bass Chamber

The Skullcandy Crusher Wireless are Bluetooth headphones, and we’ve had zero problems with their wireless reliability. Like most brand-new sets, their real-world performance is near-perfect. There are chunky playback controls on the right cup.

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.

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.

 

 


Behold, they fold

Skullcandy Crusher Wireless — Sound quality

These are perfectly satisfying wireless headphones that sound similar, but not identical, to the Hesh 3.

They are bassy even when the haptic dial is turned down completely. There’s some slightly clouding mid-bass but nothing that makes the Crusher sound murky. It’s enjoyable, just lacking a little control and sophistication.

The treble is very prominent too. When the haptic bass is used, it doesn’t get lost completely. This is likely the idea.

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.

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.

 

Why buy the Skullcandy Crusher Wireless?

The Skullcandy Crusher Wireless are solid mid-price wireless headphones.   Their haptic bass chamber sounds like loads of fun on paper. But in reality it’s a gimmick more likely to give you a headache than bass thrills. At a push it might work for explosions in a movie or game, but you’ll have to dial it back down again to be able to hear the dialogue clearly in-between.

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.