Skullcandy Hesh ANC Wireless Headphones Review

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC look almost identical to the Skullcandy Hesh 3 Wireless. There aren't any markings on the ear cups, and instead, they have a sleek satin finish, giving them a very casual, non-descript style. They also come in three color variants: 'True Black', 'Chill Grey', and 'Mod White'.

These headphones are decently comfortable. Just like the Skullcandy Hesh Evo Wireless, the padding on the cups feels good, and they don't put too much pressure on your ears. However, the padding on the headband seems a bit thin, which can make them uncomfortable for long listening sessions.

They have good controls. The buttons are clicky and distinct from one another, so it's hard to press the wrong button by accident. There are voice prompts to let you know when you've changed the ANC, as well as a light indicator, which turns on when the ANC is on. There's also a beep when you've reached the minimum or maximum volume limit. All the controls can be found on the right earcup:

• Single press: Raises the volume.
• Hold and press: Skips the track forward.

• Single press: Raises the volume.
• Hold and press: Skips the track backwards.

• Single press: Plays and pauses audio. Also answers and ends calls.
• Double press: Activates voice assistant.

• Single press: Toggles ANC mode.
• Double press: Enters pairing mode.

They're not very breathable. Their fit creates a fairly good seal around your ears which prevents a lot of airflow. That combined with their closed-back, over-ear design makes you sweat more if you use them during exercise. Your ears may also get quite warm after a couple of hours of listening.

These headphones have mediocre portability. While the ear cups can swivel to lay flat, which can help them take up less space in your bag, they're still quite bulky. Unfortunately, they only come with a pouch, which won't really keep them protected when you're on-the-go.

They come with a mediocre pouch to help protect them. The pouch has two pockets inside it so you can store your cables. It also uses drawstrings to stay closed. While it won't protect your headphones from drops, it can help keep dust off of them.

These headphones have an acceptable build quality. They feel a lot like the Skullcandy Hesh 3 Wireless as they retain a lightweight plastic design, faux leather padding, and a headband that's reinforced with a thin metal frame. However, they don't feel very dense or durable and are likely to be damaged if accidentally dropped. They also don't have an IP rating for water resistance, which is to be expected from over-ear headphones.

They're stable headphones. They won't move around if you're sitting at your desk or using them for light jogging. However, they can fall off your head during more intense workouts.

• Skullcandy Hesh ANC
• 1/8" TRRS cable
• USB-C to USB-A cable
• Pouch
• Manuals

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have a very excited, V-shaped sound profile. They deliver intense thump and rumble in the bass-range, and their over-emphasized treble range can cause vocals and instruments to sound sharp and piercing. Unfortunately, they lack any sound enhancement features to customize them to your liking. It's also worth noting that the frequency response changes depending on whether the ANC is engaged. As you can see from this raw frequency response graph, these headphones have a slightly boosted low-bass and a less present mid-range when the ANC is on.

They have good frequency response consistency. Bass delivery is relatively consistent, although you'll experience a drop in bass if you have thick hair or wear glasses, as this can break the seal around your ears. Their treble delivery varies a little more, though, and is dependent on the headphones' positioning and fit on your head.

The bass accuracy is sub-par. It's overemphasized across the range, resulting in intense thump, rumble, and punch. However, this results in a boomy overall sound profile that muddies the mid-range. On songs like Latch by Disclosure ft. Sam Smith, the wobbly bass line has plenty of rumble, but it also muddies the vocals and higher-pitched percussion.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have great mid accuracy. There's a slight peak in the low-mid, which extends from the overemphasized bass response, so your mix sounds a bit muddy or cluttered. That said, the mid-mid and high-mid are well-balanced, which helps vocals and lead instruments sound more natural and present.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have fair treble accuracy. It's overemphasized across the range, which brings out the brightness in vocals and lead instruments. The mid-treble is especially overemphasized, so sibilants like S and T sounds are piercing.

The peaks and dips performance is satisfactory. These headphones generally control their own sound profile, with deviations in certain ranges. There's a peak in the high-bass, which adds warmth and boom to your mixes while the dip in the low-mid thins out vocals and lead instruments. The dip in between the high-mid and low-treble weakens and hurts the details of vocals and lead instruments. The few following peaks across the treble range result in a harsh sound with piercing sibilants.

These headphones have great stereo imaging, which is indicative of a manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics. However, imaging tends to vary between units. There's a peak in our unit's weighted group delay' in the low-bass, which results in a loose bass. However, the rest of the response falls under the audibility threshold, resulting in transparent treble reproduction. Also, our unit's left and right drivers are well-matched in regards to amplitude, and phase response. While there's a small bump in the phase response's high-mid, which causes vocals to sound slightly louder in the right driver, it's somewhat minor. There's also a small mismatch in frequency response, causing small holes in the stereo image. That said, overall, objects and instruments like voices and footsteps, are still fairly well localized in the stereo image.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC's passive soundstage is passable. It sounds natural, wide, and as if coming from out in front of you, rather than from inside your head. However, their closed-back design makes them sound less spacious than open-back headphones.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is alright. Distortion falls under good limits at a normal listening volume, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction. However, there's quite a bit of distortion present at max volume. This can be hard to hear with real-life content, though, unless you have finely tuned ears.

These are the settings we used to test these headphones, and our test results are only valid in this configuration.

The noise isolation performance is alright. Although they have an ANC feature, it actually amplifies some bass-range noise like the rumble of a bus engine around you. It does a better job of reducing mid and treble-range noise, like office chatter and the hum of an AC unit though.

They have a sub-par leakage performance. Leakage is concentrated in the mid and treble range, so escaping audio sounds somewhat thin. If you like to listen to your audio at a high volume, those around you can hear some of it, even in a moderately noisy environment like an office.

The microphone has a decent recording quality. Your voice sounds neutral, although thin and a bit dark. However, you won't have too much of a problem being understood by whoever's on the other end of the line.

The integrated mic's noise handling performance is disappointing. In settings like a busy office, your voice will sound distorted and fuzzy, but the mic separates your voice enough to be understandable. It does a poorer job of separating your voice in noisier environments, and loud noises, like a passing train, can easily drown out your voice.

These headphones have a good battery performance. They have around 24 hours of continuous playback time and the manufacturer advertises that a 10-minute quick charge can give you around three hours of playback time. However, battery performance can vary depending on usage, so your experience may vary. That said, they don't have any power-saving features, and you can't use them while charging. They support passive playback though, so you can use their 1/8" TRRS cable to listen to audio if you run out of battery life.

These headphones have decent Bluetooth compatibility. Unfortunately, you can't connect them with more than one device at a time, and they don't support NFC pairing to make it easier to connect them to your devices. They also have high latency on PCs, which is disappointing if you like to stream videos, as you'll experience syncing issues between the audio and video. That said, they have much lower latency on iOS and Android devices. However, some apps compensate for latency differently.

They come with a 1/8" TRRS cable. They also come with a USB-C to USB-A cable for charging the headphones.

You can connect to PCs wirelessly via Bluetooth for full audio and mic compatibility or with a wired connection.

You can connect these headphones to PlayStation family consoles with a wired connection using the included TRRS cable.

You can receive audio and use the microphone when connected to an Xbox One or Xbox Series X console via plugging in the 1/8" TRRS cable into the controller.