Skullcandy Ti Headphones

Skullcandy designers do everything in extremes – lots of color, lots of design patterns and even a pair of rhinestones in their latest Skullcandy Ti Headphones. Don’t like the standard black earpad color? Included with the this set of headphones is an extra set of earpads – in bright gold color.

But does sound quality take a back seat to design with this pair of cans? Read on for our take on this $79 set of headphones.

Design

Depending on your taste – the Ti’s are flashy looking with the wild graphics adorned on each earcup, or they are simply gaudy looking. If you are want to look trendy and stylish when you wear headphones, you’ll be able to find a color combination that suits your fancy. They come in a large selection of colors such as black and gold, basic black, brown and gold, black and green, "tokidoki", pink with fur, glen plaid, white with fur, and green and yellow. The "tokidoki" design will set you back an extra $10 for the additional set of graphics.

The Skullcandy Ti headphones are designed with a DJ in mind. Included is an extension cable, which is not a bad thing by any means, but may not be long enough if you want to actually move around a bit while DJ’ing or use the headphones with your desktop PC. If you are on the bus with your iPhone or iPod and want to use these headphones, the cable is plenty long. Also, one of the first things you notice is the fairly overstuffed pads for your ears. Some Ti models even come with fur around the earpads. Included with each Ti set is an extra set of interchangeable ear pads.

The cable is made braided aluminum and is quite flexible. Included in the extension cable is a built-in volume control, which is a nice touch to allow adjusting the volume on the fly. The 3.5 millimeter plug will fit many devices (including your iPhone) and is gold plated for a solid connection. In addition, a gold plated 6.3 millimeter adapter is included to hook these up to your stereo system.

Features

• Speaker Diameter: 40mm
• Magnet Type: NdFeB
• Frequency range: 16 -20K Hz
• Impedance: 32/50 ohms
• Max Input Power: 400mW
• Cable Type: Aluminum Braided
• Cable Length: 1.2m
• Plug Type: 3.5mm Gold Plated

In the Box

The test unit came in the brown-gold color combination and included the following:

• Ti headphones
• Satin travel bag
• Extender cable
• Interchangeable ear pads
• 6.3mm gold plated adapter

Sound Quality Performance Testing

The sound quality performance evaluation of the Skullcandy Asym earphones 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.

The listening tests revealed the sound quality of the Skullcandy Ti to be mediocre and what I would describe as “peaky”. The bass is not very punchy at normal volume levels, but as you turn up the volume or if you turn up the bass level on the equalizer, what you’ll hear can only be described as bloated. In all of the music that I listened to during my evaluation, the bass sound would bottom out with a hefty dose of bass guitar or bass drum.

The midrange is acceptable and vocals are clean, but high frequencies tend to come across as over pronounced. There is a good amount of midrange detail produced by these cans, but it easily gets lost by the overpowering high frequencies. Some people may like this sort of sound, but it does not translate well to my ears.

While the $79 price tag isn’t the most expensive in the world, there are other headphone options in this price range that will give you better overall sound quality.

Comfort

The place where skullcandy TI headphones really shine is in the area of comfort. All of these Ti models come with ample padding so that you can wear them literally all day. With the light weight of these headphones, your neck muscles will not get tired.

The ear cups are designed such that they are meant to sit around your ears, rather than on them. Whether they actually fit around your ears will depend on your ear size – in my case they were mostly on my ears. With the soft padding, though, they were very comfortable and did not give any pain around my ears.

Skullcandy Ti Headphones

Overall, the Skullcandy TI headphones are an average value at best. I would place them in the "second-tier" level of headphones – comfortable to wear, outrageous styling, an average price point but lacking in overall sound quality. The number one advantage of owning these headphones over others is the comfort factor.

What it boils down to is what’s more important to you: great design and outrageous coloring that will attract attention from your friends, or high quality sound. Unfortunately, with the Skullcandy Ti you don’t get the best of both worlds.

Pros: Lots of color combinations, flashy design, comfortable to ear, includes extra set of ear pads.

Cons: Sound quality is lacking.

Rating: 3.0 out of 5

www.skullcandy.com