Skullcandy has made a habit out of producing pretty good sounding and attractive headphones that don’t cost the earth. The new Grind wireless headphones continue that trend but are ruined by one ear-crushing flaw.
Painful to wear
The Grind wireless headphones come in a range of colours, some are bold and bright, others are more subtle.
The back and brown set, with matt ear cups, a matt black metal band and brown suede-like headband are attractive and well made. They feel sturdy, the padded headband feels light on the head and they stay put while on the go.
But I didn’t get on with the fit. All on-ear headphones pinch your ears, because they press directly on them rather than surrounding them.
The Grind wireless headphones are some of the worst I have tried for extended listening. They have a limited amount of twist to try and adjust to the amount your ears might stick out, but it isn’t enough. The earphone pads are also not thick enough, which means your ear is pressed by the hard speaker plate inside.
All in all, I could feel them pinching after 10 minutes, they were uncomfortable after 30 minutes and unbearable after an hour or so. After a week of wearing them I had to give my ears a take a couple of days break because they hurt so much.
My ears are fairly normal and don’t stick out too far, testing by others in the office showed similar pinching results, but your milage may vary – they were perfectly fine for listening in short bursts.
12-hours between charges
The right ear cup has a power button that doubles as a pause, play and track skip control, as well as plus and a minus volume buttons. The controls are immediate, and work well, but it would have been nice to have independent track skip buttons as double and triple-pressing the pause/play button is a bit hit and miss.
The right ear cup also has a headphones port for listening using a cable when the battery runs out, and a microUSB socket for charging them. Battery life was excellent lasting just over 12 hours in my testing.
Good sound, poor isolation
The headphones sound very good for their price, with a decent amount of bass, fairly good clarity in the mids and high-end, for a nice, well rounded sound. They handled various types of music well, from classic rock with Eric Clapton’s Layla, to the driving electronica of Daft Punk’s Tron Legacy Reconfigured, each sounding good.
They do not, however, block out much of the background noise. I found their isolation almost non-existent, meaning the music had to be turned up quite loud to be heard, particularly listening to podcasts on the train, which had to be very loud to hear what was going on over the noise of the tracks.
Observations
- There’s a small dip in the top of the headband, which keeps the fabric off your head making it more comfortable
- Hands-free call quality was ok, but I had to talk a lot louder than I normally would to be heard
- The don’t fold down for travel, but feel like they would survive just being thrown in a bag
Price
The Skullcandy Grind Wireless headphones cost £70 in five colour options.
For comparison, the Creative Sound Blaster Jams costs £40 and the similar-sounding Plantronics BackBeat Sense cost £130 and the Marshall Major II Bluetooth cost £130.
Verdict
The Skullcandy Grind Wireless headphones get so much right for £70, but the ear-crushing fit ruins the experience. All on-ear headphones pinch to some extent, but none had hurt my ears quite as much as these.
If your ears can stand the crushing, the isolation of background noise is poor, but they sound very good for the money, last for more than 12 hours between charges, are light and work well.
Pros: good sound, 12-hour battery, decent controls, comfortable headband, optional headphones cable, feel robust
Cons: poor isolation, painful on the ears, do not fold down for travel, leak sound at high volumes
