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Over time I have come to realize that with a great love of music comes a great love of music delivery devices. These days it's not enough to just listen to music out of any old speaker or headset. I have become very particular in my device usage. While I have reviewed some great headphones over time, offerings from Phiaton, Nixon and Logitech have impressed, I always come back to one particular manufacturer of personal headphones. The latest in-ear headphones from Skullcandy, The Fix, continue to bring a strong and affordable sound delivery system to my ears.
Listen, way before I ever started reviewing headphones I was using them. From back in the Sony Walkman days. Remember those over the ear puffballs? Then, headphones got better and I took a liking to in-ear headphones, rather than the classic earbuds that kind of hang there. Companies started touting the "noise cancelling" effects of in-ear buds (which is nearly impossible, they just raised the bass output) and there were tons of them on the market. I went through numerous Sony in-ear headphones, Pioneer and so on. Then I found my first pair of Skullcandy.
One day I was at work, and realized that I had forgotten my headphones. So I drove to Target, which was closer than my house, to buy another pair. That's how much those headphones rocked. When my MP3 player got stolen, I was more disappointed because of the flat cord Skullcandy headphones that were with it. I bought another pair, but had to settle for the rasta-colored ones because they were out of blue. Up until recently I've been using a pair of Skullcandy Titans, which have a fabric cord, something all manufacturers should adapt. So as you can probably guess, me reviewing another pair of Skullcandy headphones will probably end positively.
Skullcandy is billing The Fix in-ear headphones as the solution to the age old problem of headphones, especially earbuds, falling out of your ears during athletic activities. While I appreciate the nod towards assuming everyone is being physically active, this problem, I think, isn't as roughshod as they make it out to be. There have been headphones on the market for years that stay in the ears, though those over the ear ones with earbuds can be kind of uncomfortable.
Styled similar in shape to the Phiaton Bluetooth pair I reviewed recently, Skullcandy has learned that this is the best and most ergonomic shape for in-ear headphones. You don't see many like this on the market, with the in-ear bit at that particular angle. There is one major item I like to check before listening to any music when I get a new pair of headphones and that is construction.
For the price, around $70, they are constructed well, but could be better. The cord does have a plastic casing near the base of the headphone to protect it, but that could have been stronger. The actual earbuds are classic Skullcandy, deep and with a flimsy piece of carbon fiber keeping your over-abundance of ear wax from falling into the speaker. I've never liked this, and always felt that something needed to be done to secure these bits on better. I've never owned a pair of in-ear headphones that solved this problem.
For the record, this is probably going to be my last headphone review until the next one. Wait, what? So how do they sound? That's the question now, isn't it? Well, I generally have a standard slate of test tracks that I queue up, but I have some new tunes so I decided to switch it up just a bit. I started off with a mainstay, "Suddenly" by BT. The mix of highs, lows and electronic magic make for a good test of a headphone. The levels were nice, nothing too deep (as I've experienced with some Skullcandy headphones in the past) and the highs and minute details of the music were present.
The sound overall was very similar to the Titan, though The Fix seemed to lock in your ear in such a way that you get those minute details. Next up was some rock with good vocal range, so why not the new Muse album 2nd Law? On a side note, this is an excellent album, so go buy it now. The album kicks off with the song "Supremacy" which goes into some deep orchestration and vocal ranges. The Fix did a great job of picking all this up with no distortion or ranging out the music over the vocals.
I wanted to go lower, put in some bass. Something that would make my sub-woofer at home vibrate the neighbors house. So I switched over to one of Scrubclub's latest artists, Service Lab. Their EP R2D2 hit the lows well. Impressive bass from The Fix on the title track here, though I pretty much expected that from Skullcandy. While their headphones haven't always captured the highs very well, they've always handled the lows with supreme competence.
The real selling point of these headphones though is the shape and the ergonomic feel. They have an in-line microphone, but I don't really use that type of feature much. Though I'm pretty sure I listen to music too loud in the car, so I might need an in-line mic on my future hearing aid. Not sure how that would work though. The Skullcandy Fix in-ear headphones also come in a billion different colors, but that's not important. Well, it is to some people, the fashion conscious music aficionado.
WIRED Ergonomic and light, the Skullcandy Fix in-ear headphones carry great sound at a reasonable price.
TIRED The cord is still the classic rubber and you will eventually sweat through it.
