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 non-descript style. They're casual enough to use as everyday headphones. They also come in two color variants: 'Black' and 'Mod White'.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC 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 the ear. However, the padding on the headband feels a bit thin, which could make them uncomfortable for long listening sessions.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have good controls. All the controls are found on the right ear cup. The volume up button also allows you to skip a track forward when you hold it down. Conversely, holding the volume down button allows you to skip back. The middle button lets you play or pause music as well as answer or end calls. If you press this button twice, you can activate voice assistant. There's also a circle button, which turns the ANC on and off. 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.

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.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC 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.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC 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 could be damaged if accidentally dropped. They also don't have an IP rating for water resistance, although we don't currently test for this.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC are stable headphones. They shouldn't move around if you're sitting at your desk or using them for jogging. However, they can fall off your head if you're doing more intense physical exercise.

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

Update 01/20/2022: Due to user interest, we have tested the frequency response with ANC on, ANC off, and wired with the same seating. As soon as you plug in the headphones, they power off and turn off the ANC, so to use the ANC, you must connect via Bluetooth. Looking at the raw frequency response graph from our dummy head, 'ANC off' and 'Wired' have the same frequency response while the 'ANC on' frequency response changes. This is expected since the ANC does change the frequency response of many headphones. However, there hasn't been a change to our review as we don't expect users to use these headphones with the ANC off or wired most of the time.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have a very excited, v-shaped sound profile. They deliver intense thump and rumble as well as bright and sparkling vocals and lead instruments. However, some users may find they sound harsh or piercing. Unfortunately, they lack any sound enhancement features to customize them to your liking.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have good frequency response consistency. Bass delivery is relatively consistent, although you may 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 poor. It's overemphasized across the range, resulting in intense thump, rumble, and punch which some users may prefer. However, it can also sound overly boomy.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have great mid accuracy. The low-mid is a bit overemphasized, so your mix sounds a bit muddy or cluttered. That said, the mid-mid and high-mid are well-balanced, although a little uneven, resulting in slightly forward or weak vocals and lead instruments.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have acceptable treble accuracy. It's overemphasized across the range, resulting in harsh 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. There's a peak in the high-bass, which adds boom to your mixes while the dip in the low-mids 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. However, the few following peaks across the treble range result in a harsh sound with piercing sibilants.

These headphones have great stereo imaging. There's a peak in the weighted group delay's 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, its L/R drivers are well-matched in regards to amplitude, frequency, and phase response. This means that objects and instruments, like voices and footsteps, are accurately localized in the stereo image, resulting in a more immersive listening experience. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

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 Skullcandy Hesh ANC don't have any virtual soundstage features.

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.

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 can amplify some bass-range noise like the rumble of a bus engine around you. It does a better job of reducing ambient chatter and the hum of an AC unit.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have sub-par leakage performance. 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.

These headphones have an integrated microphone.

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

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC's mic's noise handling performance is just alright. It's best-suited for taking calls in quiet spaces and can struggle to separate your voice from ambient noise in moderately loud environments.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC have a good battery performance. They have around 24 hours of continuous playback time and are advertised to have a 10-minute quick charge, which is supposed to give you around three hours of playback time, but we don't currently test for this. 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 don't have a companion app.

Update 11/10/2021: These headphones were updated to Test Bench 1.5 and their latency values have changed. Our previous Test Bench 1.4 measurements reported 'PC Latency' at 128 ms. However, our new test bench uses an average of three measurements instead of one, resulting in 169 ms of latency on PCs. As a result, we have updated our text to better reflect test bench 1.5 measurements.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC 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 devices to them. They also have high latency on PCs, which is disappointing if you like to stream videos. That said, they have much lower latency on iOS and Android devices. However, some apps compensate for latency differently, so your experience may vary.

These headphones are only Bluetooth-compatible.

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

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.

The Skullcandy Hesh ANC don't have a base or dock.