Customer Reviews: Read 103 more reviews...
 Comfy, great sensitivity and sound! August 18, 2008
18 out of 18 found this review helpful
These earbuds like most other sound isolating earbuds I have tried can be annoying to wear if you are moving around a lot. Since the earbuds make a tight seal inside your ear, any movement in the cable will be conducted through to your ears. Therefore, I would not recommend these for wearing during a workout. This is not a fault of these earbuds alone but every pair that I have ever tried, so I will not knock these earbuds on that basis. That being said these are great earbuds, just don't buy them for jogging.
The sensitivity of these buds is much better than my standard iPod earbuds and several other aftermarket earbuds that I have tried (Panasonic, Altec Lansing, Phillips). I have probably tried 5 or so different sets of earbuds in the $20-$40 range over the last few years and after a little break-in time and finding the right size gel pad (3 sizes are included) to fit your ears these easily blow them all away. The bass, midrange and high end are all good. These really shine in the bass and low mids compared to most other earbuds and since they are so sensitive you can keep the volume lower and save battery life on your player. You will hear things that you have never heard before in your music, especially if you are using the standard issue buds.
Since there are 3 different gels to choose from as far as fit, these are also more comfortable for long listening sessions then other earbuds I have tried. They also offer good sound isolation, so these are great for work or in a moving vehicle.
They are light in your ears, light on your battery and light on your wallet while providing excellent sound. Give them a little break-in time and you will love them... I did.
Great for the Price November 9, 2007
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
For $10 at fye, a great replacement for my dead Sony EX71s.
IMO, these will get you everything you can get out of compressed sound on an iPod. Garbage in, garbage out -- but good enough for me. I listen to dance mixes while running and to books /lectures. Contrary to other reviews about a lack of bass, I found these had ample but not excessive bass and were clear through the rest of the range. Perhaps there is a lot of variation in buds these cheap; perhaps I'm getting a better seal with my ears (make sure you insert the rubber tip entirely into your ear canal).
I have three minor complaints, none significant enough to dock a star from a $10 pair of buds.
1) The silicone rubber tips can make squeaky noises when the ear bud moves. This is the folded silicone sticking to itself. This seldom happens unless the wire gets tugged. The black rubber tips on my Sony's never had this issue. I may swap them out.
2) These have a symmetric "Y-split" cable that hangs in front, i.e. your standard headphone layout. I prefer the asymmetric "J-split" design (left is shorter than right) cable design on the Sony and other ear buds. There are two reasons why the asymmetric design is superior when using in-ear buds. For one thing, you can instantly tell which is left (the short cable) -- even in the dark. With the Ink'd buds, you can't even tell left from right in the daytime as there are no L-R markings.
A 2nd reason to favor asymmetric cables is how earbuds transmit noise to you ears every time something rubs against the cables. All earbuds do this, but the noise can be minimized by soaking up the vibration in the cable. With asymmetric cables, the right bud drapes across the back of the neck with asymmetric cables, causing the rest of the wire to naturally drape across the body. Your body then soaks up most of the vibration, leading to cleaner sound. When the wire hangs freely in the front, vibrations transmitt straight to the ears. Every time my Ink'd buds rub against my lapel, I hear the drum-like noise. Sitting, it's fine; running, it's like an extra off-tempo drumbeat. The workaround is to wrap the wire from the Ink'd bud up and over the ear. That way, the outer ear soaks up the vibration instead of transmitting it to your eardrum. Asymmetric wires were weird at first, but for in-ear buds, it's almost a necessity IMO.
Also, because the asymmetric design drapes over the body, your wires get tangled less often. Granted, some people prefer the standard Y-split, hang-in-front design, but give it a try. If not, try over-the-ear trick helps. Also, attaching a clip to the wire and fastening it to your shirt also works pretty well. I snagged a clip off some old cellphone headset.
Oh, another advantage of the J-split is that when you take your buds out (or have them pulled out), they hang conveniently around your neck. With the Y-split, but buds fall to the floor (especially if you don't wrap up that long wire - see #3).
3) The wires are loooong, at least for how people typically use earbuds. For many people, that's not a downside, but I have to wrap the wire around the back of my iPod case several times to take up the slack. It would have been nice to include some kind of cable management, like a light piece of plastic to wrap the wire like on some of the V-Modas or use a short built-in cable plus an extension like with the Sony Fontopias. Again, not a significant issue for $10 buds.
All-in-all, these are 5 stars for a $10 set of buds. I'd say they're even a good buy for $20. Anything more than that and I'd start looking for something else, like maybe the Create EP-630s or the Sennheiser CX-300s (based on the reviews I've read).
Best Budget Earbuds October 24, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
These are by far the best earbuds/headphones I've ever purchased. I got these for $10 at a local FYE store and they are totally worth the money. The sounds are very crisp and loud. I literally feel the base of my music (a lot of hard rock and heavy metal). It took some time to figure out which side is left/right. The skullcandy label on the cord splitter is how you tell which side is which. The label is always on the front and from there it is simple to figure out. I've had these for about 2 months and they haven't skipped a beat since. Highly recommended.
 Looks good, feels good, sounds terrible. October 31, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
The iPod buds sound decent to me, though I've got a real problem with them staying in if I do anything besides sitting still. If I keep them in my ears for a while they begin to hurt as well. So, I decided to get a set of buds that would stay in the ear with some comfort. Mission accomplished. These Skullcandy Smokin Buds fit in the ear nicely and don't hurt after using them for a period of time. Unfortunately, they sound terrible. I'm no audiophile, but I can tell a complete lack of bass when I hear it. I expected more, but they're $15.
Comparable to E2c SUREs !!! Sound quality Excellent !!! July 14, 2007
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
If you know anything about IN-THE-EAR headphones and what to expect from them, you would appreciate the SkullCandy Buds.
Ive had A LOT of experience with IN-THE-EAR "plug" "bud style earphones" (see my other reviews on Sony MDR-EX90LP($99)in-the-ear, V-MODA (gun metal) in-the-ear plugs($99) Sure Ec2, KOSS(KOSS coil engineering is VERY good- good for budget phones) because I commute in the train and subway in a big city.
I HATE the feature called "exhaust port" "BASE port" "AIR vent" in the BACK OF THE EARPHONES, no matter how expensive they are.
The existence of hole in the back of an earphone speaker means that they are absolute crap when it comes to filtering the ambience of the RAIL / Subway.
The less subway noise hits your eardrum the better for your health. (In most cases you can tell when phones have poor sound isolation - just look out for the HOLE in the back !! Not good for your eadrum's health....
Seems having an airtight case will impact the response of the membrane. Well, me and my buddies at work tested different earbud headphones listening to the same song with HIGHs and LOWs (f.e Karmah - "Just Be Good to Me" spin off from Police "Every breath you take".) and the difference in sound response across speakers is shocking..
For example compare these and JVC Earbuds! The superior Sound Range of ScullCandies is obvious!
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