SkullCandy Icon Soft
I’ve always wondered what it was that I didn’t like about SkullCandy: it wasn’t the build, sound quality, the extremely diverse color set, logo, or even the cost, I just couldn’t place it. So given years of widely scattered philosophical contemplation, I finally realized the problem I had with the Skull Candy brand. It’s the way they market themselves (or don’t). When the brand got dropped into outlet stores such as FYE and Zumiez, instead of being picked up by the intended market, SkullCandy was instead supplying very flashy headphones to angst filled teens. More recently, with some random product searching, I found my image of this brand to be mostly wrong. With some mild web surfing, I found that SkullCandy is actually trying to position themselves to athletic XGames/Winter games style sports, as a brand that can take a beating and look good with whatever skateboard/snowboard/ski/whatever design you happen to be rocking.
So with all that said, I picked up a pair of White/Green SkullCandy Icon Soft’s a few weeks ago from a ski shop and finally got a chance to take them snowboarding, here’s what I though.
amazon.com/skullcandy softs
Sound Quality: Nothing overly impressive, but it will gets the job done. They’re pretty even on the bass-to-treble ratio, and get loud enough to make you a safety hazard (remember styles such as this present a lot of external noise as well). While I didn’t actually turn the volume up more than 3/4ths the entire time, the speakers let off more crackling than I expected (any at all); though I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to sub-zero temps. Over-all, they were loud enough I needed to pull them off my ear to hear people talking, and gave more sound clarity than the built-in headphones I have in my helmet.
Build: They look and feel like they’re designed to take some heavy hits, and while I didn’t personally bail (to the extent they’d fly off), I did see someone else eat it with a pair, and they seemed just fine the remainder of the day.
Comfort/Wear: Not the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever had, but I also haven’t had a pair of over-the-head’s (other than my AKGs) since I owned a portable CD-player. My main complaints about the build is that they don’t seem like they’d stay with you through a hard fall and felt awkward on my head; I was able to remedy this by putting my goggles on over the headphones, and didn’t loose them all day. My secondary, smaller complaint is ear comfort. I often had to readjust them because they were squishing my ears, though as the day progressed it stopped bothering me. I fidgeted with them most of the day, but they eventually got comfortable, after what I’d say was a 3 hour break-in period.
Cost: 29.95+tax, probably cheaper online. SkullCandy typically has some pretty great pricing on their stuff (especially with the occasional FYE sale) so that pricing should be better than a comparable sport headphones.
In the end, I don’t regret the purchase, but am still curious what other options are available. It’s possible that the Icon 2s, or even the normal Icon headphones would fit me better than the softs. While I do recommend these headphones, I’d suggest trying them on/out first, as I don’t think I’m the only one they’d fit awkwardly.
The pair I have
Skullcandy.com
