I have been a fan of Skullcandy headphones for years. I got my first pair of Ink’d headphones and I was hooked. I upgraded to Heavy Medals, and I also have a pair of Smokin’ Buds and some Titans rolling around my home, my office and my car somewhere. You could call it a headphone fetish, I prefer to think of it as nerd accessorizing.
The Problem
You read the summary. Heck, you already know the problem because as a tech enthusiast, you yourself have many pairs of earbud headphones… be it the red and blue ringed black pair that came with your first Gameboy or those uber trendy white buds that came with your last Apple purchase.
The problem is always the same. Your ears have bell shaped canals, and your earbuds are funky little saucers. Most children know you have to put the proper shape into the proper hole, but for some reason headphone manufacturers haven’t generally put 1 and 1 together yet for this seemingly simple concept. The result, your headphones either work their way out of your ears slowly, or you bump the cord and they pop out of your ear altogether.
The Solution
A new shape, a hook design with a fixed in-ear fit. They look a little odd, but then Skullcandy dressed them up with a cool logo, and a bunch of pretty colors. It seems so elementary, heck even preschool that someone would do this… and yet some of the best revolutions of technology came from good design and simplicity (Rest in peace Steve Jobs).
The Features
FIX was made to work with iPod, iPhone, and iPad. That means that you have an in-line Mic3. That’s important that we distinguish this because the last pair of Heavy Medal buds I bought lacked the microphone, and I can’t use them to take a call. (I didn’t return them, because they still work for the gym and sound amazing!).
Speaking of sound, these little buds pump some big bass beats through your ear holes. Load up some Dubstep and get the best bass earbud experience you’ve ever heard! That’s thanks to the fit rear acoustic port for deep bass. There is also on board passive noise isolation, so you can retreat to your happy place even in an urban jungle. You can control the volume right on the buds, no need to take that iPhone 4S out on the subway, you don’t want to be a target right?
Top all that off with two different silicone gel sizes (different sized people have different sized ear canals) and a wicked looking carry case, and you have the total package.
The Tech Specs
The speaker diameter is 10 mm. FIX uses the powerful and common neodymium magnet. It produces a 20- 20KHz frequency response with a 16 ohms impedance. The maximum input power us 5mW, and it has a gold plated 3.5mm (standard) headphone jack. Technically that means it works with other devices (for you Android, Blackberry and tasteless Windows phone folks) but make sure your device works with the Mic3 technology, as some users have had problems ranging from the volume controls not functioning to flat out getting no sound at all.