American audio and personal electronics company Skullcandy is yet to hit the teens. Yet, during the last year or so, it has rapidly graduated to becoming a maker of quality headphones.
For nearly a decade Skullcandy was known more for affordability than the fidelity of its audio products. But, after churning out many forgetful, lifestyle-focused, middling earphones, Skullcandy has recently been creating some really capable cans. One example of this renaissance is the Grind, which landed on our test bench last week. Sporting a matt royal blue finish this looked like a pair of on-ear headphones that should really be wearing a different logo and not the skull.
The Grind, however, is a big departure from this past. Featuring a faux leather headband with contrast stitching and a padded underside, the Grind has a certain upmarket appeal. The cans housing the speakers are also padded and covered with a perforated, soft nappa leather-like covering.
The primary headband material seems to be coated aluminium. For adjustments, the earcups slide up and down the metal band, rather than the metal arms retracting into a larger headband, as is the case with many other on-ear headphones. This leads to a piece of wire sticking out on either side to allow for adjustments while finding the right fit. This is the only unsightly looking part of the headset.
The Grind also comes with a metre-long connector cable which has gold-plated 3.5mm jacks on either end. This is another feature that shows that Skullcandy has become more serious about the finesse and performance of its audio products. The cable connects into a socket in the left earcup. With a cable that is detachable, winging it through to your iPod or smartphone in the backpack should be easy.
Performance The Grind is a fairly light-weight pair of headphones. The memory foam (we are guessing) padding in the cups adds to the comfort factor, making these on-ears very comfy to wear over a long duration. Combined with this, the metal headband affords a snug, assuring fit. These are not active noise-cancelling headphones, so there is a fair bit of leak both inwards of ambient noise and outwards of the music you are listening to. But, neither gets too disturbing, on average.
Packed into the earcups are Skullcandy’s REX40 drivers (again we are guessing). We tried the Grind and compared its overall volume levels with some of the cans we had, including ones that are priced much higher, and this pair from Skullcandy comes through as surprisingly more powerful. Reproduction is also very real and rich for the price segment the Grind belongs to. Mid and high frequencies are opened up and clear, while the lows don’t overwhelm and drown out the rest of the track. Vocals are warm and natural, making the Grind particularly good to listen on if your choice of music is soft rock or the blues. Track separation is good, but is clearly limited by the Grind’s size and price-to-quality ratio. Play a concerto and the limitation comes through. What we missed in the Grind was in-line volume controls, though a fiddly button at the rear of the left earcup allows you to pause/ play and forward tracks and take phone calls. Skullcandy calls this feature Tap Tech.
Bottomline The Skullcandy Grind delivers more than its sub-4K price would seem to indicate. There is a heap of competition now in this price segment with almost every major brand offering atleast one really good pair. But, the Grind comes across as great value for money given its excellent build quality.
Price: ₹3,999
Love: VFM pricing, build quality
Hate: Not foldable, no in-line volume control