Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have these and feel they are best compared to the Sony WH-1000XM4 (which I also have). It may sound strange to compare $150 headphones to $500 headphones, but hear me out... From a sound-quality perspective, the Skullcandys are great. Perhaps 95% of what you're getting with the Sony headphones. As an added bonus, the microphones built into the Skullcandys are also fantastic, with people on the other end of phone conversations saying that I was coming in clearer than with almost any other headphones I've ever used (and I test a lot of them...). For noise-cancelling, I'd say the Skullcandys give you about 50-60% of what you get with the Sonys. This is enough for it to be plenty isolating when you have music playing, but to a lesser extent when listening to something with more space/silence as you might find in a podcast. For touch-controls, the Sonys are definitely better. It is far easier to swipe the headphone cup rather than find the small joy-stick on the back of the cup. The Skullcandys are fine, but nothing amazing. Battery life is actually as predicted, with about 65 hours or so of use on music and phone calls. The big question is durability. Skullcandys tend to wear out faster than other headphones. I've had the Sonys for about 5 years and they still work perfectly and have held up fantastically despite the use in travel. If the Skullcandys can last for at least 2 years without breaking/malfunctioning (might be a stretch given my prior experience with the brand), then these could be excellent economy headphones (for the noise-cancelling, over-ear space).

I was excited about these and as far as sound performance, they are everything they proclaim to be. Bass quality I would say are these headphones claim to fame. The ear cushions are soft and comfortable. I just wonder about their durability longterm though. A few things to note: - This particular model does NOT connect to the SkullCandy app. This was very disappointing. Please check ahead of time if the one you purchase is compatible with the app. - The "smart" feature was a little too smart for me. Everytime I put my head down while working out, music stops. Then, when I am doing virtually anything except standing up straight, it does the same thing. Usually when the item has an app, I can adjust this easily, but not sure how to fix this. It makes these frustrating to use at the gym. My main issue is the lack an app to use it with. Otherwise, these headphones are fairly decent quality sound, they have the 3 noise cancelling modes (noise cancel on, noise cancel off, and ambient mode) which are good and work fine, but the turning off when I move my head a certain way is very undesirable.

GOOD - Outstanding battery life - Good controls - Controls can be customized through the mobile app - Auxiliary 3.5mm jack BAD - Terrible ANC - No hi-def Bluetooth codec support - No protective carrying case TLDR The Hesh 540 has great battery life and intuitive joystick controls on the back, but the ANC is almost non-existent. Without that, there's nothing to justify its high price tag. DETAILS The Hesh 540 ticks a lot of basic feature boxes I expect from wireless headphones these days. It's comfortable, it has good-enough audio quality, and a companion mobile app for customizing the headset, like adjusting EQ and updating firmware. As an added plus, the mobile app doesn't require you to make an account with Skullcandy and you can even customize some of the buttons and controls on the headset. Not that you really need to change the controls because it has a five-way joystick which is already quite intuitive and easy to use. There's also a 3.5mm auxiliary input, though the headset can't use it and Bluetooth at the same time. The headset claims a very good battery life of 50 hours, even with ANC on. That seems to hold up pretty well as over five hours of use only dropped the battery from 100% to 90% for me. Such a long battery should make these great for traveling, but the Hesh doesn't come with any sort of protective case to keep the earcups from getting smooshed in a backpack. However, the Hesh 540 ANC hardly lives up to its name because the ANC barely does anything. For $150 ( as of this writing ) I don't expect high-end ANC performance like you get from nice Bose or Sony models. But the Hesh might as well not have ANC it doesn't do much more than the normal passive noise reduction all over-the-ear sets provide. This set won't dull the buzz of a busy office space. It won't block voices from the other end of your house. It certainly won't help at all on busses, trains, and other public transit. Even my desktop computer fans, which are barely above a whisper at 35 dBA from my desk chair, aren't blocked out. Given the weak cancellation effects, and audio artifacts the ANC can periodically bring up when trying to adapt to some outside noise, the ANC sometimes isn't worth turning on. If these things sold for under $100, it would be a different story. For that price they'd be a decent headset with some minor noise-canceling abilities. But as-is, these are nowhere near the price of admission.

I hope that this review finds you well and in good health today. We were asked to do a review on the Skullcandy HESH 540 ANC headset. The packaging was perfect for the product and had no issues opening the package. The instructions were also nicely placed on top for visibility and ease of access. When I got them out of the packaging, I noticed that the headpieces are movable which worried me a tad. After wearing them a few times, I got used to that. Overall, my opinion is that the headphones look and feel cheaper than what they are . The headphones were easy enough to charge, but when I got them connected to Bluetooth, I was terribly disappointed with the not only the volume, but the controls as well. The volume control is a knob that is not user friendly. It controls volume as well as the track that you’re listening to. It’s a pain to constantly have to go back and forth because the knob went too far one direction for the track adjustment. Overall, I’d rate them a 4/10. YMMV

Sounds good but the noise cancelation is poor. Just two button for commander