[Review] Skullcandy GRIND headphones

I’m usually quite lucky with earphones and headphones, they go through hell and back with me for a long time and soldier on without a peep. Sadly my last set, after almost 3 years has finally died (RIP) so I quickly picked up a new pair from Amazon last week. Skullcandy’s range has seen some big improvements since I last looked, and I was pretty tempted for the Grind Wireless headphones. The style of them appealed to me a lot but I’m not a big fan of wireless tech, particularly earphones/headphones. Keeping my phone charged when I’m out and about is hard enough, dead headphones are just no fun 🙁

Instead I chose the Grind wired headphones, and they’re a doozy! The wired version has more colour schemes (something like 7 or 8 different variations) but I got the orange/navy set. The colour of the orange in adverts and pictures looks like a more salmon colour so I was a bit disappointed they weren’t EXACTLY correct, but they’re still a great looking set of headphones. The leather is very soft and is comfortable for long periods of time (can confirm – am programmer) and I’ve got a big head/ears. One point about them is the length of the wire going from one side to the other – if you do have a big head and need to lower the speakers to make them as big as possible it does look and feel like the wire might be a little stretched, but it might have some extra length within the unit that’s hidden.

The packaging is very complimentary to the headphones and internally they are placed within a mould to keep them still during transport. The 3.5mm headphone jack is detachable which is incredibly useful for carrying them around, and if that cable goes bad for whatever reason you can just get a new one! The sound from the Grind earphones is very good, I’m no expert in audio but to me it’s a big improvement over anything I’ve had in previous years. Of course, they’re not noise-cancelling so don’t expect to hear nothing but your favourite Spotify playlist. Everyone around you will also be able to hear what you’re listening to if you have it set to a high volume but I guess that’s part and parcel of most earphones/headphones.

The TapTech button on the Grind earphones is a nice feature that allows control over your music from the left speaker. It works on all of my devices (not my PC or Mac unfortunately) and the functions are pretty much standard controls; Play, Pause, and move through tracks. I would definitely recommend them if you’re considering buying a new pair, but again they are not noise-cancelling!

Updated notes – 2018

Here we are in 2018, 2 years after buying these headphones. They’re still going strong and are my everyday headphones choice! One downside that I’ve discovered is that the colors on the side of them has been slowly scratched away. It’s very easy to do, even with a fingernail! I didn’t expect them to last this long anyhow, so  a little wear and tear is obviously expected.