At their current price-point, there’s little logic in recommending
the Crusher ANC over Sony’s WH-1000XM3, which are better
in every way and can be found much cheaper at this stage.
Harry DomanskiA slightly less appealing option than models like the Creative
Outlier Golds at this price point. Jennifer AllenUrbanista
Athens
Snug-fitting buds for runners.
Skullcandy
Crusher ANC
These cans aim to do a lot, but crush
very little.$599, skullcandy.com.auSkullcandy’s entry into the premium noise-cancelling market
doesn’t do enough to threaten the likes of Sony or Bose.
The simple and clean aesthetic of the Crusher ANC is spoiled
a little by the brand’s logo, and the build quality feels decidedly
plasticky given the price tag. The large main control buttons
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although the dedicated bass slider is wasted space. Turning
this slider up will cause bass frequencies to vibrate your head
with increasing intensity, but it’s fatiguing even at the lower
settings and quickly gets ridiculous, even distorting and
muddying the overall audio.
In their defense, the default audio sounds great – good
clarity, well separated frequencies, and rich bass. You can
improve on this via the Skullcandy app which allows you to
make a simplistic personalised EQ setup, although it’s not as
potent as the Nuraphone’s customisation. Clever features like
an integrated Tile tracker and an LED battery indicator (that
you can check even when the cans are powered down) are great
to see, but they don’t make up for the gimmicky nature of the
aforementioned features. The noise-cancelling is relatively
powerful but is let down by a lot of introduced white noise.
Even if you’re only chasing the personalised audio and
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much better versions of both these features and, again,
manages to do so at a lower cost.Sticking to a more sporty look, the Urbanista Athens earbuds
look like they can withstand you dropping them if worst
comes to worst – something that not all truly wireless
earbuds achieve. There’s the standard selection of silicone
earbuds to choose from to get the right size for you, but the
key here is to twist them as you pop them into your ears –
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The Urbanista Athens are nice enough to look at but they’re
fairly standard fare for sports based earbuds; you won’t have
to worry about them looking a bit too noticeable as you move.
The only ‘moving’ part to them are the buttons for the
controls. Unusually, they are pressure sensitive buttons
rather than touch sensitive so you actually have to click
them down to initiate an action (more on how this works
out later on).
The Urbanista Athens are almost an enigma when playing
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they sound just right. It’s when you get a little more ambitious
with your choices that issues shine through.
It’s all oddly jarring. One track might sound perfectly
respectable while another more challenging composition
could sound quite disappointing. Having said that, when
running or working out, you’ll rarely notice an issue – it’s
only when you’re sitting down and purely taking in the
sounds that you’ll notice the problems.$199,www.urbanista.com