Skullcandy is a purveyor of consumer, audiophile, and DJ-quality headphones. The company healthily mixes style with substance to create headphones which not only sound amazing, but exercise the user’s freedom of expression. Skullycandy showed off three of its four newly announced products: Mixmaster Mike and Aviator headphones, and 50/50 and Heavy Metal earbuds.
Headphones
The Aviator headphones are styled after the famous sunglasses of the same name. They’re sleek yet classy. The sides of the earphones are made from the same polycarbonate from which sunglasses are made, and are thus slightly transparent. They fold for portability and will have a microphone in line for use with mobile phones. The Aviator will be available in the second quarter for $149 in two styles: silver with black pleather, or golden with brown pleather.
Listening to hip hop on the Aviator headphones was a pleasure. The bass tones are deep and audible, while the high tones are certainly present and accurate. ThinkComputers looks forward to trying out the Aviator with some classical, alternative, and classic rock to see how those sound, too.
The Mixmaster Mike headphones are named for their designer, Mixmaster Mike of the Beastie Boys. Both of the earpieces feature an input jack, so the user can decide on which side he or she wants the cord. The jack locks when the earpiece is turned past a certain position so that the cord can’t accidentally be removed. It will have two cords available, too: one is a typical spiral DJ cord, while the other is suitable for use with mobile devices and includes an iPod control. When an earpiece is swiveled, all of the audio from both channels is rerouted so that the user can hear all if just holding the headphones to an ear. Lastly, it features a convenient mute button.
The Mixmaster Mike headphones will be available later this year for $250 in grey, black, and green. No working demo was available.
Earbuds
The 50/50 earbuds are Skullcandy’s newest low-end earbuds. They’ll be available with inline mic for $49 soon.
Skullcandy’s high-end earbuds have gotten rave reviews. Consumer Reports rated them higher than Bose and Sony’s offerings at a similar level. The new high-end unit is the Heavy Metal. It will allow more airflow into the ear canal to improve the bass quality, plus feature the standard mic and such for mobile phones. No demo was available, nor has the design been finalized. Look for the Heavy Metal earbuds in the fourth quarter for $98.
Booth experience
For at least the past two years, Skullcandy has had quite an awesome booth at CES. Their headphones have been customized by well-known modern artists throughout the world and Skullycandy loves to show off their work.
Skullcandy is also a big fan of racing, apparently, bringing in a full size stock car with an arcade driving game installed in it.
