kiteki
aka Theta Alpha 1
aka Alpha Zeta 5
aka Alpha Zeta 6
aka Nanocat Systems
And many other aliases
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2010
- Posts
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I listened from left to right.
The first two are Aviators, the third is a G.I., the fourth is a Hesh, and the Icon isn't pictured (it portable, light and small).
The Aviators look cool, yes, they LOOK COOL. They sound a bit dissonant.
The G.I. clamps pretty hard and isolates well, again it was dissonant, I started to wonder if this is the trademark feature of Skullcandys. On the bright side it actually sounded really fun! This was my favorite one!
The HESH - the dissonance is gone! So much for that trademark dissonant and very fun sound... actually this one was so spatialized and clear I immediately recoginzed there is post-processing along the signal path, i.e. this is not a clean and pure signal, it sounded pretty ok but part of the processing caused a defecit of bass, all in all I can't recommend this one.
The ICON is cheap and flimsy but it sounds better than the Koss PortaPro so I have to give it some credit!
Final Thoughts: The Aviators are a fashion accessory, the G.I.'s actually sound pretty good, the HESH is a joke, the ICON is cheap and flimsy but sounded sortof decent.
I think Skullcandy puts fashion first and sound second, so if you think the headphones look good and you can afford them, go for it, if you're after pure sound quality I think there's better brands but I don't think Skullcandy is after a particular trademark sound so they might have a couple half-decent HP's.
As a fashion brand, purely on an SQ basis I'm more impressed with Skullcandy than the others, and I can say for sure that the G.I.'s sound more entertaining than my Sony MDR-V6's. I think my V6's are the better headphone, but I know there's a bunch of punk kids that won't.
I'm more of an IEM person so I can't make any solid assessments here, and this review is hereby subject to violent and whimsical change in case I hear the Aviators again shortly and they sound better, but I highly don't think so.
/kiteki