Skullcandy Crusher Evo Review: Absolutely Insane Bass Thanks to the Adjustable Bass Slider!

After trying out the Skullcandy Indy Evo, I was pretty impressed with the direction that the company was taking with their products. The Skullcandy Crusher Evo headphones are yet another great product in the lineup.

Let’s talk about how they look first. One thing I really like is that there’s a soft-touch rubber-like material that covers the earcups and sides of the headband. It makes the headphones look a bit more premium and not like cheap plastic. There’s a strip of suede-like material at the top of the headband, which isn’t too bad, although it has the propensity to attract fluff and lint, so it does require cleaning from time to time.

The headphones also come with a soft fabric carrying bag that doesn’t use zippers, with the top of the bag meant to be folded down and buckled, similar to how a drybag works. It doesn’t keep the headphones dry though, and there’s no crush protection, but it’s definitely a pretty cute bag and something out of the ordinary.

Instead of padding, there’s this rubber cushion on the underside of the headband, which is pretty smooth to the touch, although I can see this being a problem with hair tugging from time to time. There’s also a small cut out in the middle, which I assume is to help alleviate pinching at the crown. While the headphones are generally quite comfortable, they are heavy, at slightly over 300 grams. This means that you will definitely feel it on your head.

Another point is that the earcups are actually kind of small, so if you have bigger ears, the padding will sit on your ears or the sides of your ears might rub against the inside of the earcups.

There are buttons on each earcup, with three buttons on the right earcup controlling play/pause, volume control as well as track skipping when the top or bottom buttons are held down. On the left side, you get a brightly coloured orange button which is the power and pairing button as well as a slider that controls the amount of bass.

I really do like the orange button, I find it makes the headphones more visually interesting and provides a fun pop of colour. The slider also has a nice amount of tension, although this might get looser in time with frequent use. Typically, I would find the right amount of bass for the genre of music I was listening to and generally left the slider there for that listening session.

There’s also the USB-C port for charging as well as a 3.5mm headphone port that allows you to plug in a cable and use the headphones wired.

Now, let’s move on to how the headphones sound. With the bass slider in the off position (all the way to the bottom), I was pleasantly surprised by how flat the frequency response was. It’s actually very balanced with the bass having an ever-so-slight emphasis. Granted, it’s not the most detailed, but I actually quite enjoyed it. You get pretty good air in the vocals as well.

I would typically listen to most mainstream pop with the bass slider at the bottom, or very near the bottom, with the occasional tweak when I wanted more bass. Turning up the bass slider when I was listening to Taylor Swift’s lover just completely transformed the song into something foreign, so I mostly stuck to keeping the slider in the off position for songs like that.

When I was listening to rock or R&B though, I would keep the slider in the middle. This resulted in a pretty noticeable bump in the bass, which definitely is a plus point for people who enjoy bass, but I did notice that the bass got a bit muddier and the mids also started to get a bit affected.

And at the other end of the spectrum with the bass slider fully turned up, I think the bass gets so boosted that even bassheads might do a second take. It really gets the bass booming, and everything else takes a backseat. This level of bass boost might be tolerable if you’re listening to a song that’s not as complex, but otherwise, you’ll notice plenty of detail being covered up, with the midrange being rather suppressed.

The only genre of music that I can see the bass slider being fully turned up as a plus was house music. It almost felt like I was back in a club on the dancefloor with the speakers booming, and it was a pretty interesting experience. I do want to just point out that the drivers in the headphones actually vibrate a lot more with the bass slider turned up, and you can actually feel it when you’re wearing the headphones and sitting still, so if you’re not a fan of the sensation, it might get very annoying.

There’s a slight tactile bump in the middle of the slider when you’re adjusting it, which makes it easier to note where you’re adjusting the slider to, instead of having to take off the headphones every time.

The microphones in the headphone work fine for calls as well, and the headphones run on Bluetooth 5.0 and support SBC and AAC. There’s no aptX unfortunately, but I reckon not many people would be using these for gaming since they really are quite heavy and not all that suitable for long periods of wearing.

Skullcandy claims 40 hours of battery life, which is definitely one of the highest we’ve seen so far. There’s no ANC or touch controls though, so maybe that’s one of the reasons why the Crusher Evo are able to last for that long.

There’s also the Skullcandy app, but it’s not necessary to have the app to use the headphones unless you want to use the Personal Sound feature that allows you to tune the headphones to match your hearing by doing a test.

Overall? These are definitely impressive. I found myself actually really enjoying the bass slider and the versatility it provided. The sound quality is good too, and the 40-hour battery life is a big plus. The only downside I can see is the weight. It’s really not meant to be worn for a long time, so you’ll find yourself adjusting the headphones or even just taking them off completely once in a while to give yourself a break.

More information about the Skullcandy Crusher Evo (S$309) and purchase options can be found on Skullcandy’s website.

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Written by Cheryl Tan