Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket Earbuds

Skullcandy gets a lot of points for their style, and their hope is that using their earphones will net you the same. It’s safe to say that Skullcandy has never met a color combination that they didn’t like. Hot pink and white, canary yellow and blue or apple green and jet black – you name it, they got it. The company offers a wide range of in-ear headphones, headsets and over-the-ear headphones for style aficionados who scoff at the traditional black or white headphone designs.

We take a listen to the $69.95 Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket model today – billed as no-holds-barred ear buds with an attitude to match. Read on for our listening results.

Design

True to its name, a metal alloy casing gives the Full Metal Jacket ear buds a solid, weighty feel that appears to be much sturdier than the typical plastic ear bud casing material. The metal makes the ear buds a bit heavier than other models, but not so much heavier that they fall out of your ears.

The design of the ear buds is similar to other in-ear models, with a straight ear tip that fits directly into your ear canal. The Full Metal Jacket is available in no less than 12 different color combinations, and each choice is highlighted by the Skullcandy logo adorned on the back of the ear bud as well as on the side.

The Full Metal Jacket utilizes 11mm neodymium magnet drivers, which is a standard size for in ear models. The 1.2m (4 ft.) cord length is sufficient for using the earbuds with an MP3 player, but is a tad too short to use as headphones for listening to music on a PC.

Features

• Speaker Diameter: 11mm
• Magnet Type: NdFeB
• Frequency range: 16 -20K Hz
• Impedance: 16 ohms
• Max Input Power: 500mW
• Cable Type: Aluminum Braided
• Cable Length: 1.2m
• Plug Type: 3.5mm Gold Plated

In the Box

The test unit came in the MICD-Gold color combination and included the following:

• Full Metal Jacket ear buds
• Satin Carry Pouch
• Comply Foam Tips (S/M/L sizes)
• Silicon ear tips (S/M/L sizes)

Sound Quality Performance Testing

The sound quality performance evaluation of the Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket ear buds was performed exclusively by listening to MP3s and FLAC music stored on my Sansa Fuze MP3 player. I listened to a number MP3s with bit rates of 128kbps and 320kbps, as well as lossless audio tracks in FLAC format. A wide selection of classical, rock, alternative and hip-hop music was used in the evaluation.

Breaking down my listening impressions, the FMJ earbuds started off by revealing a much more balanced sound reproduction than the previous set of Skullcandy earphones I had tested – the Asym earphones. The bottom end bass frequencies of the FMJ sounded tight and did not sound boomy, which was a pleasant surprise for me after my experience with the Asym earphones. Additionally, I was very happy to hear that the bottom end did not obfuscate the rest of the sound spectrum – rather it complemented the rest of the sound very nicely.

The mid-level frequencies including vocals were smooth sounding and fairly neutral. I enjoyed listening to both male and female vocals and did not hear any tonal imbalance. High frequencies were not harsh sounding and after dialing back the treble a bit on the EQ, I really enjoyed the top end of these ear buds. There was no lack of detail from the FMJ’s, and I was hard pressed to find any real faults during my listening sessions. Probably the only nitpick is that the sound was not as warm as I have heard from other earbud models, but this is a minor point.

Microphone / Voice Calls

The Full Metal Jacket also includes a built-in microphone to use with an iPhone, BlackBerry or other similarly equipped phone. I tested it with my BlackBerry and found that it works easily and as advertised. My testing showed that callers could be heard very clearly, and that the built-in microphone picked up my voice without any trouble. Background noise was not a problem for the receivers listening to me on the other end, although background noise was picked up by the mic during a few of my conversations.

Portability

The Full Metal Jacket earbuds are similar in size to other earphone models, and with the included carrying case they are easily portable. Both the earphones and the cable easily fit inside the pouch, and the pouch is small enough to fit easily in your computer bag or gym bag. You could also easily fit the pouch in a pants pocket or a backpack pocket, so whenever you are out and about there is really no reason to keep these earbuds separate from your MP3 / portable media player.

Comfort

Comfort-wise, the FMJ is a mixed bag. The included ear tips give you a wide variety of choices to try out in order to find what fits your ears the best. I found the silicon ear tips to fit fairly well during normal use, but during exercise they fell out of my ears very easily. I had the best results using the comply foam ear tips. These are made of a soft, spongy foam material that is similar to what you will find in ear plugs. The key is to squish the foam down to a small size and then place the ear tips in your ears. The foam will expand and fill in the space in your ear canal, which results in a snug fit that worked well for my extended 1+ hour listening sessions.

The snug fit also does a good job in keeping external environment noise out, although not much more so than other in-ear earbud models. Road noise from cars can still be heard if you use these outdoors, however most indoor environmental noises are blocked out.

Skullcandy Full Metal Jacket Earbuds

A flashy design isn’t the only thing that the Full Metal Jacket earbuds have going for them – they are an overall excellent sounding set of earbuds that are available for a reasonable $69.95 price. They also double as a nice headset to use for iPhone and BlackBerry phone calls.

Don’t try to blend into the crowd while wearing these, though, as any of the 12 available color combinations will make you stick out from the masses of white colored earbud wearers. But I have a feeling that anyone wearing the Full Metal Jacket earbuds will be happy to show off their own unique style.

Pros: Color choices galore, flashy design, overall excellent sound quality.

Cons: Average comfort, somewhat short 1.2m cable, no inline volume control.

Rating: 4.0 out of 5

www.skullcandy.com