Customer Ratings & Reviews

These are fairly decent headphones that are great for a commute pair. Has thumping bass and decent mids and highs. Definitely headphones geared towards today’s music. If you like modern pop and rap, these will thump your heart. Comfortable, not too tight, and good form factor. These would be excellent headphones for a teenager or young adult that wants to be serious about listening to music but not break the bank with a premium headphones setup. Setup was a non-issue and took mere seconds. My wife took them from me and was using them while she mowed the yard and found them to be excellent for chores work. She loves “90’s/2000’s sad boy emo rock” and said the headphones were absolutely spot-on! Battery time is exceptionally good. Used them all weekend and they still have plenty of power. Box says 40hrs and I’ve no reason to doubt it. Overall, these are a fairly good upgrade from the typical earbuds and pack-in style headphones. The dedicated bass and EQ towards hip hop tones will please some, but those looking for a more tight, controlled sound will find these lacking a little. Overall, I’d say they are a decent purchase.

The Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active headphones are a really interesting pair of headphones. In fact, I'm not sure that I've ever used a pair of headphones that surprised me as much as the Crusher 540 Actives. #Unboxing# Pretty standard headphone unboxing experience. The box uses plastic packaging inside rather than more easily recyclable cardboard,which is a little disappointing for headphones at this price. The headphones came with a carry bag made of soft microfiber, a USB-C charging cable, and a 3.5mm headphone cable. I was also impressed that the headphones came with a small (but useful) manual in addition to the standard QR codes directing you to view the manual online. Kudos to Skullcandy for this. I like having a paper quick reference for what the buttons do rather than having to stare at my phone even more. #Using the Crusher 540 Active# So, despite having the handy little manual, I basically misused the Crusher 540 Actives for the first half hour or so. I totally missed that they have a slider for bass! In that first half hour, I was thinking they sounded OK but I thought it was a little weird that they were priced fairly high and didn't really have EQ options or notable sound quality. Once I flipped through the little manual again (looking for a button combo to change EQ settings) my fingers found the little slider and WOW. First, I think it's unique that the bass is controlled by a slider on the headphones themselves. Second, the bass on the Crusher 540 Active headphones is phenomenal. Even without it cranked up all the way, the bass you get is nearly at the level of some high end gaming "haptic" headphones I've used. These are crazy gaming headphones, and thanks to having a 3.5mm plug they work well without needing to have bluetooth on your PC or gaming device. Otherwise, the sound quality isn't notable in any way. It's not mind-blowing, it's not terrible. But that bass... wow. The comfort of the Crusher 540s is notable, though. They have a more breathable cloth fabric for the ear pads that seems to keep my ears from feeling sweaty like some of the leatherette earpads do. We had a pretty cool May here in TN, but now that we're a week into June, the temperatures and humidity have risen a lot. The Crusher 540s stay on your head really well even when sweaty. #Final thoughts# I was a little disappointed that the Crusher 540s don't include ANC for this price, but after using them for a bit over a week I think they have a lot to offer for a few different types of user. Bass heads - look no further, this is a great wireless headphone. If you use a rower or other more violent workout machine, the 540s also offer a fit and feel that I haven't seen before. Even for just regular gaming, the Crusher 540 Active headphones are extremely comfortable with amazing gaming bass.

This Skullcandy Crusher 540 over the ear headphones are fantastic! I recently built a new gaming PC for my son and I to enjoy together and these are great for that. The out of box experience was great, it paired with my PC, my Samsung Galaxy phone and my son's iPhone with no issues. The battery life is a claimed 40 hours. I never pushed it that far, but didn't have any issues with the battery performance. And as with many headphones, there are buttons on both sides that do multiple things depending on how you press the buttons, Skullcandy even has a thing where you can slide the left button to increase or decrease the bass setting. When using this in a non gaming environment, it did well, the noise cancelling isn't the best, but did ok with these being an over the ear headphone. The sound and fit of these headphones are great as is typical of any Skullcandy product. The bass output of these headphones is amazing, Skullcandy just keeps getting better every year. I've been buying this brand for years and have no intention of stopping anytime soon. This is a great pair of headphones for gaming.

These headphones are, without a doubt, one of the most fun and entertainment value providing electronics I have acquired to memory in the last years! The haptic bass experience on these is beyond amazing. If you have ever been a passenger or owner of a vehicle that has true aftermarket subwoofers installed, such as dual 12’s or the like, then you have an idea of what that kind of powerful bass feels like: it is immersive and not just flowing into your ears but conducted throughout your whole body in a pseudo-emotional experience. That is what these headphones remind me of when I listen to my bass music on them! I am taken back to 2011 when I had my first car with Kicker dual 12’s in the trunk, and my friends and I would turn up Skrillex or Bass Hunter so loud that we made the rear-view mirror pop off the front windshield once. Anyway, I digress. These headphones are made for bass; if the above paragraph did not convey that point enough. From the moment you first turn them on and plop them on your head, you feel like you are about to experience something different. The haptic slider on the left headphone allows you to control the intensity of the bass, while the other nicely tactile controls allow you to distinguish between the various buttons like power, volume/track up, etc. While this headphone set is a little plasticky in appearance and no great beauty visually compared to its competitors in the price range, the bass experience is 100% the best I have ever experienced on an over-the-ear headphone set. I think those are the most important things I want to convey here! Know what you are buying in terms of these not necessarily being up to the build quality of competitors, but man, do they thump the bass like no one’s business!! 5 out of 5 stars for sure!

I’m super picky with my headphones. Leather/vinyl is an automatic NO for me. For on/over ear, I need foam, velour, or cool mesh. I own most of the major players in the over ear sector and have spent a ton on replacement ear pads for all because they all come with the suffocating covering I hate. All that to say: these come with the “memory foam-ish gel” that I love. My ears don’t feel hot! So my first impression is the best I’ve had in a long time. Then, I turned them on to the “connecting” prompt; super easy standard pairing process. I was intrigued and thought about how I’d use the volume slider on the power button side (L) of the headphones. On the right side, there were standard up down center with the dimple in the center. I first played some rock and couldn’t believe the bass. I instinctively pushed the left ear slider to turn the volume down and the bass disappeared. There’s a bass slider on the headphones!!! Let it be known: these shake in insane ways. It’s not simply haptic.. it’s like you’re sitting in a 1997 civic with two 12’s. Your whole head shakes. But it doesn’t sound artificial. Really, really cool.

TLDR: Haptic feedback makes movies and games fun but also makes the Crusher 540’s a one-trick pony and often distorts low-frequency effects more than it emphasizes them. PROS Haptic feedback makes movies and games more fun Mini subwoofers for your ears Excellent audio calibration software Good battery life (Up to 40hrs) Sweat and dust resistant Excellent voice feedback CONS Haptic feedback destroys low frequency details Disabling haptics disables bass No ANC Android App still needs some bugs squashed USE I like the Skullcandy app, even if it doesn’t work all that great on Android. While I can’t get certain functions to work on the app with my Android tablet, I do like the custom sound profile the app allows you to create. Using a series of tones (exactly like you used to get in school hearing tests), the app will tailor the frequency response to your level of hearing loss. Very few vendors offer this feature in their apps, and Skullcandy deserves a shout out for incorporating it in their design. The Crusher 540’s are like having mini subwoofers on your ears. Like other manufacturers, the Crushers use haptic feedback to enhance bass reproduction. Giving a noticeable thump to bass frequencies. A conveniently located slider on the left ear cup allows you to control the amount of haptics, from off to max. I found the Crushers very entertaining during action movies and games. Adding haptic feedback to the audio mix brings things to life. Playing Doom: The Dark Ages was a lot of fun with the Crushers, especially using Dolby Atmos or DTS:X audio processing. The sounds were immersive and the added haptics make Doom even more entertaining. We all know that when something explodes in a game or movie, everyone knows what it’s supposed to sound like. The Crushers let you feel what it’s supposed to sound like. The same can be said for movies as well. The haptics make action movies immersive and help make you feel a part of the scene. Explosions resonate against your head. Airplanes, helicopters, etc. all seem like they are flying right on top of you as the Crushers vibrate. Haptic audio, especially with the Dolby Atmos processing of my Android tablet, is a ton of fun. It’s an easy way to feel like you have your own personal surround sound system. CONS As much fun as the haptic feedback is for movies and games, I find Skullcandy’s implementation ruins music. Technically, the haptics ruin details in movies and games in the lower frequencies as well, the added sensations make the lack of low-end definition forgivable. However, queue up a song that is bass heavy and the haptics over power the actual bass. The thumping and thrumming of the haptic drivers over power the actual audio drivers causing low-end bass to sound muddy and incoherent. Adjusting the slider makes it somewhat better, but it gets to a certain point that once the haptic drivers are off, bass is off too. The Crusher 540’s rely too heavily on the haptic drivers for bass reproduction instead of its audio drivers. Every other single pair of headphones I own with 50mm drivers do a far better job at music than the Crushers. Every single one. Even my smaller in-ear style headphones produce more accurate and detailed bass than the Crushers. To me, the Crushers are like that teenager’s car that pulls up next to you at the red light. You are vibrating from the huge subs the person next to you at the red light installed in their ride. You can’t hear any of the actual song or make out any of the lyrics, all you hear is the thumping from the subwoofers. This is how I feel the Crushers handle their bass reproduction as well. You can feel the bass in music, movies, and games, but it lacks definition and clarity, drowned out by the haptic drivers. The Android version of the Skullcandy app is not quite ready yet. Neither my Android tablet nor my Android phone allows me to select sound profiles. I cannot switch between Movies or Music. While I did praise the Atmos audio reproduction, there is also an odd oscillation in the audio playback on Android. It’s hard to explain. At times, things are too quiet and then get louder. Haptics or not. I’m not sure what it is or where the problem lies. I’m hoping Skullcandy can tune it out with a firmware update. My other headphones don’t exhibit this randomly odd behavior. CONCLUSIONS As I stated earlier, I enjoy giving the Crushers a go with games and movies. I find them entertaining and very immersive. But I wouldn’t, and don’t, use them for music. I can’t get them dialed into a sweet spot for music. There is either too much bass or the bass is non-existent. On top of that, when I get close to a sweet spot, it seems like the audio processing is just a bit off. Thrumming the haptics on frequencies that shouldn’t get haptics and missing those that should. For me, headphones need to be adept at all trades. I will recommend headphones that try their best to do it all, but I can’t recommend headphones that try at only one thing. This is what I find with the Crusher 540’s. They have great haptics, outside of that, everything else is just average at best. While I can watch a whole movie or play games with the Crushers and have a good time, I haven’t listened to more than a half dozen songs with the 540’s during testing. I find them annoying and unsatisfying. With haptics on, there is too much bass that muddies the audio quality. Without haptics, no bass. There is no happy medium with these and music. In the end I would rate them as follows: GAMES: 5 (The addition of haptic feedback makes them very entertaining) MOVIES: 3 (Great for action movies, but hard to find a happy medium without haptics distorting vocals) MUSIC: 2 (These just aren’t my thing for music. I have several pairs of headphones with and without haptic feedback and these are, by far, the poorest sounding). NOT RECOMMENDED

Bass is wild battery id great highly highly recommend and they are great for the gym

Great for a workout! Been lookin for some headphones for this exact reason

My younger brother loves it and says he likes using it at the gym alot.