Skullcandy INK’d Earbuds S2INCZ-033 (Black/Black)
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Ink adds permanence. It forces the visual representation of an idea, concept, ideal or experience, and tangibly commemorates it. Like a tattoo, graffiti, or stretch marks. Until you’re really ready to commit, go with the INK’D ear buds. Big sound, little price, no visible scarring.
Features
- Speaker diameter: 11mm
- Magnet type NdFeB
- Frequency response 20-20K Hz, impedance: 16 ohms
- Cable Type: TPE, nylon braided
- 3.5mm gold plated
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 1 x 2 x 1 inches
- Weight: 0 pounds
Would be great earphones if they didn’t die after 2 months
I have owned two sets of Skull Candy earphones and both times I have had a problem with them only months after buying them. Each time, one of the ear buds has completely stopped working. I have tried contacting Skull Candy about this, but I get no reply. The first pair I bought were $30 and the second pair were $20… they should last longer than two months!
Quality Sound!
The first skull candy’s that I owned I loved them, until they went kaput on me. But i do believe it was my fault. I guess i don’t clean my ears good enough. What had happened was ear wax made its way into the actual speaker part of the ear bud. One side of the ear buds one day was quieter then the other side, but there was still a little remaining sound coming out (one side had full volume, the other barely anything). So when i bought a new pair (this pair), I started getting creative. I cut some little squares out of sandwich bag material, and placed them over the actual speaker part of the ear bud. I then pushed the rubber part onto the ear bud, and now wax wont get in there (you cant even notice that i did that). Still has great quality sound, because it makes that seal with your ear and has the best bass. Love it.
OK in a pinch until you spring for a better pair.
I bought these as a cheap stop-gap solution because my last pair’s connector (Ultimate Ears) developed a fault – after just over a year. I find that more acceptable than these, which also developed a fault. After 2 months. My headphones lead a hard life, it’s true, and my expectations for durability are low. But 2 months?
Get what you pay for I guess – they are cheap.
The sound is decent thought a bit strange in the high end. The comfort is poor; the gaskets are very thin rubber and there is no end to the amount of fussing and re-arranging I have to do to get them to feel and sound correct – each and every time.
Like I said, they will be OK if you need a cheap quick pair of earphones. But don’t expect much else.
Good quality for the price but don’t last long
I’m actually now on my third pair of these headphones and they just went out. Honestly I think they are the best in that price range (meaning, really cheap) in terms of sound quality. I had some Sony earbuds once that sounded horrible in comparison. The only real problem with these headphones is that they tend to die relatively quickly. In another review someone mentioned this is because of the straight headphone jack (as opposed to an L-shaped one) I think this is correct–every pair that I’ve had has stopped working in one side after about 4-6 months. Still, I go back and buy another pair because I’m honestly not sure if going up to one of the more expensive Skullcandy earbuds would fix the problem and I don’t want to be out $50 when they break instead of the $20. For $20 replacing them is really no problem at all.
Looks great, Sounds awful
These are very cool-looking, seem to be well put together, and are very comfortable–and I usually don’t like ear-bud style headphones at all because they sometimes hurt my ears. However, anyone who thinks these sound great needs to have their ears checked–or maybe they’ve never heard a decent pair of headphones. Tinny, sharp highs, weedy midrange, and absolutely no bass whatsoever. I’m disappointed to the point that these are going straight in the trash. If you’re rally into retro, and want all your music to sound like 1920’s radio, these are the ones for you. Otherwise, skip it.
Best you’ll find for cheap price!
This was my second pair of Skullcandy Ink’d earbuds. I was not impressed by their lifetime, given that I used them quite gently. My first pair was a little over half a year old and one earbud suddenly stopped working. Also, the cord is too long; it gets in the way and tangles easily. The reason I came back for another pair of these earbuds is that they are VERY comfortable! Hard earphones like the ones that come with an iPod bother me and do not adjust to my ear properly. I’ve also tried earbuds with a foam covering (like the material that is used for ear plugs) instead of the flexible plastic used for INK’d earbuds. These are by far the best! They come with two sets of different sized plastic covering. Also, Skullcandy will give you a 50% coupon off another pair of headphones if yours break.
These earphones really rock.
I bought two of these headphones one for myself and the other for my niece who saw me browsing for headphones and told me about SkullCandy. I was hesitant at first as they seemed like earphones for teens and might not suit my purposes. I travel a lot for business and need a comfortable, good quality earphone at a reasonable price. Well I was pleasantly surprised that you could get such amazing sound with such clarity deep rich bass and nice mid and highs from a little earphone at such a reasonable price. The more I use them the more I am impressed. I recently took them on the road with me and they were very comfortable on a 3 hour flight from Grenada, they fit very nice sound very good and look very cool. I am really loving these, I just hope that they are durable but so far so good. Oh my niece is really loving her earphones especially since she got the colour that matches her ipod perfectly.
Good headphones, bad order processing
After owning a pair of Holua earbuds from SkullCandy, I’ve built up a reasonable trust for the quality of their earbuds. I’m no audiophile, but these produce a sound good enough for me, and probably for the average user. The cord is made of some kind of cloth, which I didn’t expect. Hopefully it lasts a bit longer than the Holua cord, which broke after about two months of use. Granted, I had a habit of sleeping in them and yanking them out.
The one problem I have with this order is that the color does not match the picture provided. I was under the assumption that I would get black and white, but what I got was blue and black. Unfortunately, they look a little feminine, especially with the cutesy monkey on the buds. I’m not too concerned about that, though; at least it still matches my black iPod. But Amazon should probably ensure that the picture of the product is actually the product that will be shipped. For that, I’ve knocked off one star.
i got monkeys
i ordered the awesome skull and cross bone thing going on in the photo above, but instead i got one with monkeys on it, and in the wrong color too! (blue), i only got them a few days ago, but they seem to work well, so if you don’t really care what they look like (i do… very much so) then get them, i think they just messed up my order, but still… MONKEYS
Best for price
I really like these earbuds, before I has the seinheisser 300 ones, which are also very good. I misplaced those somewhere and picked these up for under 20 bucks. To me the were more comfortable than my previous earbuds, and the bass is good. Just remember how much you’re paying for them, they end up amazing for the price, but doubt they compare to the pricey ones (wouldn’t know, too cheap to buy them).
Might as well pay someone a $20 to kick you in the nuts
These headphones are great so long as you don’t have to wait a month to receive them and you get the correct color. Somehow even though the package reads “S2INCZ-033″ which is the item number for (Black/Black) I received what appears to be black on metallic gray. That tells me either Skullcandy has some really bad quality control or what I got was repackaged. Not cool.
Great for the price
Purchased the headphones about a week ago and I’m very pleased. I previously had the JVC Marshmallows and loved those headphones, but one of the earbud sleeves came off and the new JVC’s are designed differently so I decided to give these a try. They produce very clear sound with solid bass. I was also surprised by the fit on the silicon caps that come with these. I have a difficult time finding silicon caps that will stay in my ear so I usually stick to foam, but these headphones came with three different sizes of caps and the smallest size fits and stays in without a problem. I will also say that I bought the Comply Foam Tips recently and am currently using those on these headphones (since I already had them) but once these wear out then I will stick with the silicon tips that came with these headphones because they will probably last longer. All in all, great purchase!
Retired My JVC Gumies For These
Firstly, I want to mention a few important tidbits that I think you should know.
1. Pay attention to the L and R on these earbuds, which can be hard to see. Do not reverse them, as doing so can affect fit and sound quality.
2. Don’t assume you know which gel size will fit you best; make sure you try on all 3 gel sizes that come with these, as using the wrong size can dramatically decrease sound quality and comfort. For myself, I automatically went with the smallest size because my ears are small, but those made the earbuds sound like cheap garbage. It wasn’t until I tried the next size up did I get the full quality of sound that these are designed for. So pay attention to this, since it really matters.
3. These have a straight plug, not an L-shaped plug. So you will need to be extra careful as a straight-plug design increases the amount of pressure both on the plug, and the headphone jack of your player. This leads to frayed wires or a loosening of the headphone jack, or both . . . which ultimately lead to the classic problem of only one side having sound.
4. The cord is long – measures approximately 4 feet, 5 inches.
5. Burn-in works with these. Slightly.
Now, as for the build quality – I’m impressed. They are not cheaply made ear-buds, despite their low price. The wires are nice and solid, and feel very well made – not flimsy or plastic-y. The silicone gels (tips that go in your ear) are very soft and pliable, and even have the Skullcandy logo engraved on them. Nice touch.
They feel good, too. Really good. Both the material, and the way they fit my annoyingly small ears. And they don’t fall out constantly, although I do sometimes get the sensation that it’s . . . I dunno, getting sucked into my left ear. Hard to explain.
And yes, these come with 3 different size gels.
Sound is great. These handle bass extremely well for mid-tier earbuds, and highs aren’t so shrill and piercing as with other comparable brands. Some of this really depends on your player, too. Even between iPods, sound quality does differ.
As far as functionality goes, I find I am able to run with these with no problem. The wires do not get tangled, and you can easily adjust the split in them with an attached slider (that has ‘Skullcandy’ written on it in the corresponding colour), which I find very convenient. I do not hear this thumping sound that others claim to hear from wire-movement, so I can’t confirm that.
The only things I dislike are the straight plug, and the lack of a case. Otherwise, I am thoroughly impressed with Skullcandy. The craftsmanship, the quality of sound, and all the little extras that Skullcandy does that really lets you know that they are paying attention, and that they care about their products and end-users.
Worth every penny.
Great value, great sound!
I purchased my Skullcandy Ink’d ear buds almost two years ago, and now that I need to lay them to rest I thought I would write a review on them.
First off, don’t think that they are cheaply made because mine broke. From what I have been reading, two years is a good deal of time to have working headphones, especially at the low price of under 20 bucks! If I have to say, I provably contributed to the heavy wear of the jack that plugs into my computer (it is in the front of my laptop, so when the computer slides close to my lap the jack gets pinched).
Construction:
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Being my first pair of non-stock earphones, I don’t really have much to say in terms of construction, but as previously mentioned they lasted a helluva long time, so that should carry some weight. Speaking of weight, these buds feel light, but not so much that they feel cheap. Even after a couple of years the wires are intact, and I have had no problems with them up until a couple days ago (one ear bud stopped working, probably due to abuse). The only problem I would say has carried any weight in this department has to be the the fact that the rubber coated wires make a noticable sound through the buds when tapped or rustled (almost sounds like a heartbeat). This could probably be fixed with some comply foam tips instead of the stock silicone ones.
Sound Quality:
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I listen to a variety of music genres through these things, and I can safely say that the sound quality is great across the spectrum. Anything from the highs and mids from classical to the deep undulating bass from dub-step can be heard clearly. They might not hold in a battle against some $100+ buds, but for this price they are awesome.
All in all, I am rating the Ink’d buds a 4/5, only because of the sound producing wires (see ‘Construction’). If I could give it a 4.5 I would.
Look Good… But Won’t Last
These look nice, fit well, and sound pretty good. I was quite pleased with them at first… However in less than two months they’ve stopped working completely.
I use them only during my commute to and from work and store them gently, there’s really no excuse for such a poor lifespan on these.
I won’t be buying another pair. I really expected these to perform better than the cheap ear-buds I can get at any corner store but they did not. What a let down.
Disappointing
I have a set of cheap JVC earbuds that I think are better than these. They have that crappy background hiss even when the device they are plugged into is muted. The JVCs did not hiss on the same device, so I know its these. The feature that is a plus is the selection of different earbuds, and they have some degree of noise canceling, to bad they don’t cancel the annoying hiss. Not impressed by Skullcandy thus far.
Skullcandy earbuds
This is one of the best earbuds one can have. After a little getting used to, they are the best earbuds ive bout. It delivers clear sounding music with great bass while blocking out all other sounds around you. Highly recommended.