Customer Reviews

Skullcandy (Product Out Of Date, Newer Version Available) INK'D Earbuds (Black)

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

These earbuds like most other sound isolating earbuds I have tried can be annoying to wear if you are moving around a lot. Since the earbuds make a tight seal inside your ear, any movement in the cable will be conducted through to your ears. Therefore, I would not recommend these for wearing during a workout. This is not a fault of these earbuds alone but every pair that I have ever tried, so I will not knock these earbuds on that basis. That being said these are great earbuds, just don't buy them for jogging.

The sensitivity of these buds is much better than my standard iPod earbuds and several other aftermarket earbuds that I have tried (Panasonic, Altec Lansing, Phillips). I have probably tried 5 or so different sets of earbuds in the $20-$40 range over the last few years and after a little break-in time and finding the right size gel pad (3 sizes are included) to fit your ears these easily blow them all away. The bass, midrange and high end are all good. These really shine in the bass and low mids compared to most other earbuds and since they are so sensitive you can keep the volume lower and save battery life on your player. You will hear things that you have never heard before in your music, especially if you are using the standard issue buds.

Since there are 3 different gels to choose from as far as fit, these are also more comfortable for long listening sessions then other earbuds I have tried. They also offer good sound isolation, so these are great for work or in a moving vehicle.

They are light in your ears, light on your battery and light on your wallet while providing excellent sound. Give them a little break-in time and you will love them... I did.

These are by far the best earbuds/headphones I've ever purchased. I got these for $10 at a local FYE store and they are totally worth the money. The sounds are very crisp and loud. I literally feel the base of my music (a lot of hard rock and heavy metal). It took some time to figure out which side is left/right. The skullcandy label on the cord splitter is how you tell which side is which. The label is always on the front and from there it is simple to figure out. I've had these for about 2 months and they haven't skipped a beat since. Highly recommended.

If you are going to just sit on a metro train or in a nice setting, this these head phones are great! They come with different sized pieces of elastic that will fit, depending how big your ears are.

My biggest problem with them is that they are not good sound conductors; as in, the material that the cord is made of transfers noises into your ears. This effect is much like when you use two cans and a string to try and talk to someone. I don't see how people are running or walking with this pair in their ears. Every noise of it rubbing against my clothing or bumping against my arm are all transferred to my ears. Watch out for those pieces of elastic, because if you use one of the bigger sizes, it sticks to itself, making a very loud sticking noise in your ears.

But for the price and the quality your getting, it kind of evens out. It does well in blocking out outside noises (like people talking or overwhelming city noise) and in some cases sounds better than the head phones that come with the iPods.

For $10 at fye, a great replacement for my dead Sony EX71s.

IMO, these will get you everything you can get out of compressed sound on an iPod. Garbage in, garbage out -- but good enough for me. I listen to dance mixes while running and to books /lectures. Contrary to other reviews about a lack of bass, I found these had ample but not excessive bass and were clear through the rest of the range. Perhaps there is a lot of variation in buds these cheap; perhaps I'm getting a better seal with my ears (make sure you insert the rubber tip entirely into your ear canal).

I have three minor complaints, none significant enough to dock a star from a $10 pair of buds.

1) The silicone rubber tips can make squeaky noises when the ear bud moves. This is the folded silicone sticking to itself. This seldom happens unless the wire gets tugged. The black rubber tips on my Sony's never had this issue. I may swap them out.

2) These have a symmetric "Y-split" cable that hangs in front, i.e. your standard headphone layout. I prefer the asymmetric "J-split" design (left is shorter than right) cable design on the Sony and other ear buds. There are two reasons why the asymmetric design is superior when using in-ear buds. For one thing, you can instantly tell which is left (the short cable) -- even in the dark. With the Ink'd buds, you can't even tell left from right in the daytime as there are no L-R markings.

A 2nd reason to favor asymmetric cables is how earbuds transmit noise to you ears every time something rubs against the cables. All earbuds do this, but the noise can be minimized by soaking up the vibration in the cable. With asymmetric cables, the right bud drapes across the back of the neck with asymmetric cables, causing the rest of the wire to naturally drape across the body. Your body then soaks up most of the vibration, leading to cleaner sound. When the wire hangs freely in the front, vibrations transmitt straight to the ears. Every time my Ink'd buds rub against my lapel, I hear the drum-like noise. Sitting, it's fine; running, it's like an extra off-tempo drumbeat. The workaround is to wrap the wire from the Ink'd bud up and over the ear. That way, the outer ear soaks up the vibration instead of transmitting it to your eardrum. Asymmetric wires were weird at first, but for in-ear buds, it's almost a necessity IMO.

Also, because the asymmetric design drapes over the body, your wires get tangled less often. Granted, some people prefer the standard Y-split, hang-in-front design, but give it a try. If not, try over-the-ear trick helps. Also, attaching a clip to the wire and fastening it to your shirt also works pretty well. I snagged a clip off some old cellphone headset.

Oh, another advantage of the J-split is that when you take your buds out (or have them pulled out), they hang conveniently around your neck. With the Y-split, but buds fall to the floor (especially if you don't wrap up that long wire - see #3).

3) The wires are loooong, at least for how people typically use earbuds. For many people, that's not a downside, but I have to wrap the wire around the back of my iPod case several times to take up the slack. It would have been nice to include some kind of cable management, like a light piece of plastic to wrap the wire like on some of the V-Modas or use a short built-in cable plus an extension like with the Sony Fontopias. Again, not a significant issue for $10 buds.

All-in-all, these are 5 stars for a $10 set of buds. I'd say they're even a good buy for $20. Anything more than that and I'd start looking for something else, like maybe the Create EP-630s or the Sennheiser CX-300s (based on the reviews I've read).

These headphones include adapters for several sized ear cannals. Given this fact, I can't imagine them not fitting in your ears (unless you clean your ears with SUPER sized cotten swabs). Please no admonishments about using swabs in your ears... only an illustaration not a recommendation. These units are tiny, lightweight, and create awesome bass compared to anything in their price range. Perhaps previous reviewers who thought they were inadequate did not understand that they are suposed to be stuffed in your ears like ear plugs. I am a musician and a critical listener who has owned quite a few sets of headphones/earphones in the past and believe me, you can not beat these for the money!

I use these to listen to my electronic music since they give off better bass than any of the simple over-the-ear headphones I have. It took 2 hours at most to get used to the weird feeling of in-ear headphones. The sound quality, like others say, is quite rich too, I'm just really impressed by the punch of bass these tiny things give out. This is my first time reviewing an item on Amazon, I just had to make sure I got my good review in there.

I bought several pairs of these headphones because they really do sound great. EVERY review that says they have no bass is completley wrong! Those dummies must have them in backwards! They were on sale at target for $10.00 a pop, so i bought one for the work truck and one for home, after showing some friends how great they sound, my wife, father in law, and brother in law ended up buying them!

You have to jam them in your ears like ear-plugs or else there will be NO BASS, that is why these idiots say there isn't any bass, they obviously don't know how to use them, god forbid they get behind the wheel of a car, if they can't work headphones.... anyways back on topic.

I found a major problem with the fact that they aren't marked with left and right, but that faded, now i don't have to worry about getting them in the right ears, it's music anyways who cares! if i am using it for movies and I get it wrong I just switch it back BFD!

All in all the best headphones I have owned ( I never spend more than $80.00 on headphones anyways, people who do are either professionals or neurotic )

I have a pair of Shure E2C's that are my main earbuds for use with my iPods but wanted something to use at the gym and on trips that I wouldn't cry over if lost or damaged. The Shure E2C's are great except that the very thick cord tangles easily which can be annoying. I was surprised at how good these earbuds sound for the little I paid for them. I don't claim to have great hearing, but to my ears they sound very close to the Shures. They also stay plugged in my ears very well, and are possibly more comfortable than the Shures. The only problem I notice is that when I move the thin cords do transmit sounds easily (guess that's why the Shure's cords are so beefy). If you want earbuds for jogging these may not be the best, but I don't notice the cord noise too much on an execise machine. However, the weight of the heavy Shure cords can also be annoying while working out, so choose your poison.
If you have the money to spend I highly recommend Shure, but it's hard to argue the value of these little buds for as little as they cost.

I bought this older version of Skullcandy's Ink'd earbuds several years ago, before I knew much about audio products or how good quality audio should sound. However, from the moment I opened the package, the sound coming from these earbuds was unbearably tinny, and lacked bass of any kind. It is possible that I simply purchased a pair of earbuds that slipped through Skullcandy's quality control, but either way, I have moved on to better quality audio products.

I am happy to report however, that the latest generation of Ink'd earbuds (Skullcandy INK'D Earbuds (Blue) have much better sound quality.

I just purchased these recently and have been using them for about 2 weeks now. They're really great earbuds that cancel out all outside sounds when listening to music, or if used in conjunction with an iPhone are great to hear somebody on the other end in a very noisy area. I would recommend these earbuds over any others that I have ever owned. They are completely comfortable in your ears unlike apple's earbuds for instance.. This item is a great buy..