Skullcandy Titan Earbuds Review
So, I'm back from the dead (aka the school semester is over! no more exams, woo!) and I thought I'd post a review of some new earbuds that I just got. Heaven knows I read about a million reviews before getting them myself, but found very few of them helpful. I hope this one is, should anybody find and read it.
The Story (I'll try to keep it short):
I had a pair of Skullcandy Smokin' Buds which I bought about 2 years ago, which I was quite happy with. I don't do a lot of "serious" listening, so I want reasonably good audio but don't want to pay too much. I recall they were about $40 from Future Shop or something. A month or two ago, they stopped working, first one ear then the other. It seemed that the wires had come loose from where they connected inside each bud, probably from repeated putting-in-pockets and occasional yanking on the cord by accident. So I sent them back to Skullcandy, seeing as they have a lifetime warranty and even if you break them yourself you get a 50% discount in the Skullcandy store. I received my $30 credit (which was half the price of the buds plus a shipping credit), and looked around to see what was available to buy. I thought, since I was getting a bunch of money off, I might move up a level in quality.
After much searching of the web for reviews* I decided on the Titan earbuds. They got pretty good reviews from a couple of sources. As it turns out, I could either get them for $70 on the SC website with $30 off (so, $40 with shipping included) or I could get them for $25 on Amazon. Seriously. With shipping it was more like $33, but still... I got them on Amazon. Now I still have a $30 credit with SC should I need it.
I was pretty excited when they came! And there are some good things about them - and some not-so-great things.
The Sound
PROS:
Sound is very clear, never muffled. Better quality in general than the Smokin' Buds (which makes sense, given the $30 price difference). I can hear things in some of my music that I had no idea were in the recording before, like instruments that are hidden in the background, or details of vocal/instrumental timbre. One recording of an acappella group with a very low bass actually scared me because it sounded like he was standing next to my ear, growling.
CONS: Unfortunately, I'm finding more cons than pros for these buds. Here's a list:
- The buds are calibrated to be extremely loud. I am not a loud-music person** - I usually listen to various things on a medium volume, if that. With the Smokin' Buds, I would turn my iPod up to about 80% volume, but have the in-line slider in the mid-to-low range, which I found was a good way to get the levels I needed. With these buds (which have no in-line volume control), I have to have my iPod at about 30% volume.
- Related to the loudness of the buds: they are truly ridiculous and impractical when I plug them in to my computer. If I want to watch a YouTube video, I have to turn my computer's volume down to the lowest it will go and turn the video's volume down to about 20% to get it at a level that isn't blasting my ears off. Seriously, I'm not aiming for whisper-level, I'm talking about normal speech here.
- Also related to loudness: now I can hear all the crappy noise that my laptop's soundcard makes when it gets electrical interference from other motherboard components (or so says Google). With the Smokin' Buds I'd noticed a bit of fuzz, but because I could up the music volume from the computer and turn down the earbuds volume, and this computer noise stays the same level no matter where the music volume is at, it wasn't coming through that much. (If that makes any sense.) Now if I want to stay sane I'm gonna need to buy a USB soundcard.
- Percussion is really really piercing on these buds, specifically high-end percussion like cymbals. If a song has lots of cymbals going on, I start to get edgy because they wind up being louder than the vocals or anything else. Now, I'm used to the Smokin' Buds which I've read are bass-heavy and which I can tell are fuzzier in general, but I don't think this is how the tracks are supposed to sound. That's my only beef with the sound quality. Not sure what I'm going to do about it - I've been trying EQ settings on my iPod but have trouble telling the difference between most of them.
Physical features/Durability:
PROS:
- I love the braided aluminum/plastic-coated cord. Much sturdier than my previous buds, much less prone to creases or tangles.
- Comfortable in my ears just like the Smokin' Buds were - don't come out unless I yank them. I can't have them in for more than about an hour without getting uncomfortable, but that's just cause they're in my ears.
CONS:
- No in-line volume control. I was confused about this when buying, because apparently some of the earlier models of Titans did have it, but I guess the current ones don't. The Smokin' Buds did, and I found it handy if I was listening to a lot of songs at different volumes on my iPod, or if I got on the bus and could easily up the volume a bit to compensate for bus noise, etc.
- I'm not too sure about the reinforcing (or lack thereof) where the cord inserts into the buds themselves. That's where my last pair gave up the ghost, and these ones have only 1/8 of an inch of hard plastic tubing around the wires where they insert.
TL;DR
I don't feel qualified giving these a rating out of ten or anything, seeing as I have so little to compare them to. However, I'm beginning to think that while these are a significant step up in sound quality from SC's Smokin' Buds, the disadvantages I'm running across are enough to make me want to buy an entirely different brand next time.
Hope that helps!
-------------------
* While SC's website descriptions are entertaining, "an army of unstoppable warrior giants marching in lockstep" is super-unhelpful as a description of sound, quality... or anything other than an army of warrior giants.
** Perhaps SC is not the best brand for me - I hear they're based mostly on looks and loudness - but I had this credit, see... now that I think of it it doesn't even make any sense that I got these. Coulda bought any earbuds I wanted off of Amazon and been in the same situation. Sigh.
The Story (I'll try to keep it short):
I had a pair of Skullcandy Smokin' Buds which I bought about 2 years ago, which I was quite happy with. I don't do a lot of "serious" listening, so I want reasonably good audio but don't want to pay too much. I recall they were about $40 from Future Shop or something. A month or two ago, they stopped working, first one ear then the other. It seemed that the wires had come loose from where they connected inside each bud, probably from repeated putting-in-pockets and occasional yanking on the cord by accident. So I sent them back to Skullcandy, seeing as they have a lifetime warranty and even if you break them yourself you get a 50% discount in the Skullcandy store. I received my $30 credit (which was half the price of the buds plus a shipping credit), and looked around to see what was available to buy. I thought, since I was getting a bunch of money off, I might move up a level in quality.
After much searching of the web for reviews* I decided on the Titan earbuds. They got pretty good reviews from a couple of sources. As it turns out, I could either get them for $70 on the SC website with $30 off (so, $40 with shipping included) or I could get them for $25 on Amazon. Seriously. With shipping it was more like $33, but still... I got them on Amazon. Now I still have a $30 credit with SC should I need it.
I was pretty excited when they came! And there are some good things about them - and some not-so-great things.
The Sound
PROS:
Sound is very clear, never muffled. Better quality in general than the Smokin' Buds (which makes sense, given the $30 price difference). I can hear things in some of my music that I had no idea were in the recording before, like instruments that are hidden in the background, or details of vocal/instrumental timbre. One recording of an acappella group with a very low bass actually scared me because it sounded like he was standing next to my ear, growling.
CONS: Unfortunately, I'm finding more cons than pros for these buds. Here's a list:
- The buds are calibrated to be extremely loud. I am not a loud-music person** - I usually listen to various things on a medium volume, if that. With the Smokin' Buds, I would turn my iPod up to about 80% volume, but have the in-line slider in the mid-to-low range, which I found was a good way to get the levels I needed. With these buds (which have no in-line volume control), I have to have my iPod at about 30% volume.
- Related to the loudness of the buds: they are truly ridiculous and impractical when I plug them in to my computer. If I want to watch a YouTube video, I have to turn my computer's volume down to the lowest it will go and turn the video's volume down to about 20% to get it at a level that isn't blasting my ears off. Seriously, I'm not aiming for whisper-level, I'm talking about normal speech here.
- Also related to loudness: now I can hear all the crappy noise that my laptop's soundcard makes when it gets electrical interference from other motherboard components (or so says Google). With the Smokin' Buds I'd noticed a bit of fuzz, but because I could up the music volume from the computer and turn down the earbuds volume, and this computer noise stays the same level no matter where the music volume is at, it wasn't coming through that much. (If that makes any sense.) Now if I want to stay sane I'm gonna need to buy a USB soundcard.
- Percussion is really really piercing on these buds, specifically high-end percussion like cymbals. If a song has lots of cymbals going on, I start to get edgy because they wind up being louder than the vocals or anything else. Now, I'm used to the Smokin' Buds which I've read are bass-heavy and which I can tell are fuzzier in general, but I don't think this is how the tracks are supposed to sound. That's my only beef with the sound quality. Not sure what I'm going to do about it - I've been trying EQ settings on my iPod but have trouble telling the difference between most of them.
Physical features/Durability:
PROS:
- I love the braided aluminum/plastic-coated cord. Much sturdier than my previous buds, much less prone to creases or tangles.
- Comfortable in my ears just like the Smokin' Buds were - don't come out unless I yank them. I can't have them in for more than about an hour without getting uncomfortable, but that's just cause they're in my ears.
CONS:
- No in-line volume control. I was confused about this when buying, because apparently some of the earlier models of Titans did have it, but I guess the current ones don't. The Smokin' Buds did, and I found it handy if I was listening to a lot of songs at different volumes on my iPod, or if I got on the bus and could easily up the volume a bit to compensate for bus noise, etc.
- I'm not too sure about the reinforcing (or lack thereof) where the cord inserts into the buds themselves. That's where my last pair gave up the ghost, and these ones have only 1/8 of an inch of hard plastic tubing around the wires where they insert.
TL;DR
I don't feel qualified giving these a rating out of ten or anything, seeing as I have so little to compare them to. However, I'm beginning to think that while these are a significant step up in sound quality from SC's Smokin' Buds, the disadvantages I'm running across are enough to make me want to buy an entirely different brand next time.
Hope that helps!
-------------------
* While SC's website descriptions are entertaining, "an army of unstoppable warrior giants marching in lockstep" is super-unhelpful as a description of sound, quality... or anything other than an army of warrior giants.
** Perhaps SC is not the best brand for me - I hear they're based mostly on looks and loudness - but I had this credit, see... now that I think of it it doesn't even make any sense that I got these. Coulda bought any earbuds I wanted off of Amazon and been in the same situation. Sigh.