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You may know me as Mad Lust Envy on Head-fi, and Shin CZ/Raven Crimson elsewhere. Google Mad Lust Envy, to find my full gaming headphone guide.
I'm sure that pretty much anyone interested in headphones know the Skullcandy brand. Their name is instantly recognizable, and their headphones can be found in many stores, ranging from their very entry level headphones, to their higher end Aviator and Mix Master headphones. They do not have a shortage of headphones, and as such, have been the target of a lot of criticism for not catering to audiophiles but to the domestic market. Personally, I can easily say that I do not have a lot of experience with Skullcandy products. My first pair of Skullcandy headphones were a pair of Ink'd IEMs that I bought ages ago loved. I didn't know a thing about headphones back then, but I do remember liking their sound signature, and their cheap price. The next product I had some time with was the Lowriders...a PINK pair, I had bought for my then girlfriend, hahaha. I have never been a fan of on ear headphones, and the Lowriders couldn't stay on my head. I honestly couldn't tell you if they were halfway decent or not. I have a slippery dome it seems, lol. I wasn't exactly pleased with them, and their build quality was quite lacking from what I'm used to today, but they were very inexpensive, and my girlfriend liked them well enough.
Anyways, my point is, I don't have a bias for OR against Skullcandy. What I DO know is that they have made great strides in improving their line and becoming more serious about the quality of their products. I can surely appreciate any company doing that. With the arrival of the SLYR, PLYR, and PLYR2 (with help from Astrogaming, which is well known in the gaming community, and which they now own), it's hard to not be curious about what Skullcandy has up their sleeves for us gamers.
So I'm approaching these headphones with a completely open mind. Okay, maybe not completely open. I do have ONE bias: I don't expect much from headsets. With as many headphones as I have owned and tested, gaming headsets have been, for the most part, disappointing. Save for the Sennheiser PC360 (which remains the best headset I have used, and still among the best competitively even among the amazing headphones I have owned), the next best headset for me was the Tritton AX720 which was decent, but not 'good' overall. They are excused as they come with a Dolby Headphone decoder box which more than makes up for their lack of pure sound quality. Everything else was borderline forgivable to 'blegh'. So, with that bad taste in headsets overall, the SLYR had an uphill battle, and that's before I even opened the package. Still, I was excited.
Hmm, the Skullcandy SLYR (pronounced Slayer). Upon opening the package and taking them out, I was still neutral. They were unassuming, and relatively stealthy in a dominantly matte black finish with sort of yellow/green 'windows' on the cups. From what I have seen of earlier Skullcandy designs, they tend to be fashion statements, with lots of urban/street flavors, etc. The SLYR is humble looking in comparison. I actually like this. I tend to prefer a more classy approach to my headphones, rather than ones that scream at you. The SLYR still has an edgy design to them with sharp angles, but it's not 'loud'. It's hip for the younger crowd, but still reserved enough for adults.
So that was my first impression on looks. Looks are not my top priority in a headphone. Comfort and sound first. How did they fare? Well, as soon as I put them on, I immediately thought: "Crap, these are on ear." I'm not a fan of on ears. Still, the pads were very soft, and they weren't pleather. Things I DEMAND in a headphone nowadays. I absolutely avoid pleather/leather like a plague. Then I realized, with a little bit of adjusting, the SLYR is actually circumaural/over ear! YES! Very happy about that. Certainly not the biggest cups, but they did fit my ears well enough (bigger openings than the Creative Aurvana Live, and much deeper pads). The SLYR is off too a good start, and I haven't even heard them yet.
As with every headphone I buy, my first listening test is ALWAYS music. Gaming comes later. I fired up some songs, let my ears adjust to their sound signature and soon after, I knew; Skullcandy meant business. These don't just sound like a good headset. They sound like a good headphone. PERIOD. I absolutely did not expect this sound coming from an $80 headset. The first thing that I immediately noticed was the balance between the bass, mids, and treble. I am not exaggerating in saying that headphones costing 3x the price of the SLYR can't manage to find such a great balance between fun and balance the way the SLYR does. I mean it. With the Sennheiser PC360, you get a really good and overall neutral-ish tonal balance, with not much sticking out of place, but not being exciting tonally. The SLYR on the other hand manages to sound balanced, with the right amount of bass emphasis and energy to make them exciting. They are forward sounding headphones, with not a hint of boredom in it anywhere. The Creative Aurvana Live sounds considerably more reserved in direct comparison, darker, and warmer. (which I had on hand at the time of review). While the CAL was still more refined overall, I have to say, I preferred the sonic signature of the SLYR. It was immediately more engaging and exciting. The SLYR isn't the fullest sounding headphone I've heard, nor the most refined, but they definitely got the balance right for my ears.
Bass: To be honest, I expected to have more bass than they did. I expected bloated bass. Bass that gets in the way of detail. This is NOT what I got. Instead, I got punchy, impactful, energetic bass that is quite present, but never overwhelming. It also has good speed and decay. Quite impressed with the SLYR's bass. A very good start. If I had to give the bass a quantity, I'd give them an 8. Plenty of bass for me. Not perfectly in line with mids and treble, but it's a GOOD emphasis.
Mids: I'm used to v-shaped curves, with bass and treble emphasis, and recessed mids. Yet, the SLYR has some pretty up front mids next to the typical v shaped can. Can't pinpoint if it's the smaller soundstage, or just the mids in general, but they certainly weren't what I consider really recessed. Maybe just slightly so next to the bass, but I'd say they're pretty in line with the treble. They are pretty forward in the sense that vocals are near you basically at all times unless a song purposely mixes them further back.
Treble: You either expect dull, veiled treble, or treble that is too sharp, too spiky, too peaky. Again, the SLYR surprises in it's sonic characteristics. The treble is energetic, but it's not harsh. It's very close in balance to the mids for me. It is RARE for treble to be in the safe zone between too soft, and too harsh. The SLYR is DEFINITELY in that safe zone. I honestly wish the DT990's treble had a similar line. That's right.
Amping: As to be expected, the SLYR is a very efficient headphone, and I didn't feel they needed any extra amping.
Soundstage: This is definitely the only aspect of their sound that I was personally not entirely happy with. Part of it is because I'm grown so accustomed to open headphones, with an airy, wide/deep soundstage, and going back to a closed headphone's soundstage and typical closed headphone signature is a bit jarring. After getting used to the closed headphone sound, I'd still say the SLYR's weakest aspect is the soundstage. It's relatively small even comparing other closed headphones. I have VERY little experience with closed headphones, and I feel that out of the few I have on this guide, the SLYR is near the bottom in terms of soundstage. Thankfully, everything else is so good, so this drawback doesn't hurt as much. Still, it is small, and everything sounds pretty packed together next to other headphones in direct comparison like the CAL and A40s (the two main headphones I had on hand).
Positioning: Now that we're getting into the gaming side of this review, the first thing to discuss is positioning. Since I feel that positioning is very dependent on soundstage, I feel they did suffer just slightly compared to my faves. That is the nature of closed headphones (with the exception of the D7000, and DT770s which have some truly large soundstages for closed headphones), and the Pro 900 which, with the aid of S-Logic helps give a sense of depth not typically found on closed headphones, though not by much. The SLYR does place positional cues properly around you, though with the lack of soundstage, there isn't much space between you and the virtual space to make pinpointing easy. Still, it does a good job. Not great. I was able to dominate pretty easily in Call of Duty 4, and didn't feel lie I was at all hampered by the SLYR's positional cues. I didn't feel like they gave me a huge advantage compared to some of my fave headphones, but they did their job well. Again, good. Bear in mind, the SLYR was definitely marketed as a stereo headset with a mixer that plugs into RCA cables. I'm fairly certain that those who play in stereo will have VERY little to complain about.
Clarity: The SLYR is a warm headphone, but with enough crispness to say that they are plenty detailed for gaming. The closed design hurts clarity again only compared to open headphones like the PC360 and K701. As a closed headphone, I found them to have a nice balance between fun and detail-whoring, so I'd say that if I had to rate clarity separately, they'd get a 7 (good). I doubt there will be any complaints about clarity, especially at their price range.
Comfort: Pads? Soft, deep, comfy velour. They could definitely be bigger as larger ears MIGHT make these on ear ear headphones. Clamp? Not too loose, not too firm. I find them just right. Weight? Very light. Check. They stay relatively in place at all times, with not a lot of readjusting needed. A huge win here.
Microphone: The microphone is permanently affixed to the SLYR, but like the PC360, you swing it upwards. Unlike the PC360, the mic on the SLYR tucks away nicely into the cup, and is relatively well hidden when not in use. it's also small, but sensitive enough to pick up my voice quite easily. My voice came through clearly on my PS3 device settings, so I have very little to say about it, other than it does it's job well. It may be just a little too sensitive for my setup, as I have a large, noisy fan near me, and the mic picks it up unless I sit further back than what I'm used to. Still, that shouldn't be an issue for most people.
Build Quality: The SLYR is made out of all plastic. The plastic feels sturdy enough for my taste, somewhat reminiscent of the PC360 plastic. I have more faith in tossing these around than I would the Creative Aurvana Live. Assuming you're not abusing the hell out of the SLYR, I don't see these breaking with normal use.
Accessories: The SLYR comes with a stereo mixer. Think of it as a stereo alternative to the Mixamp, with the ability to mix voice/game audio at your desired levels, with three different EQ presets. One bass heavy, one flat, and the other treble heavy. I personally don't have much use for the Mixer since I own the Mixamp and prefer gaming in Dolby Headphone surround, but I did test the mixer and found the presets to work relatively well, and the mixer to also work pretty well in mixing game and voice without a lot of distortion. If anything, the closest alternative to this Mixer is the Steelseries Spectrum Audio Mixer, which retails for $40 and is for the 360. The SLYR's mixer works for both the 360 and PS3 (as well as PC). I didn't find a need for the EQ presets as the SLYR already has such an agreeable sound signature.
The Mixer has a very lengthy cable terminated in RCA jacks with piggyback female inputs. The Mixer is powered by a standard USB plug, and comes with a 3.5mm input for ANY headphone, as well as the 2.5mm input for the 360's controller for chat audio. The SLYR comes with a detachable 3.5mm male/male cable (a bit on the short side, IMHO) that carries chat audio. You can indeed use your own 3.5mm male/male standard audio cables, though the entry on the headset side may not accommodate thicker plugs. I found that the CAL's extension cable fit, but the first gen Astro 3.5mm cables didn't. I used the CAL's extension on the headset side, and my own 3.5mm male/male cables on the female end of the CAL's extension cable when using the SLYR for music on my main headphone setup (non-gaming). Basically, you will want cables with thin 3.5mm plugs if you want a lengthy cable for the SLYR. I don't know where to get lengthy ones that also carry voice audio, unfortunately.
Value: $80 gets you a damn good headphone that just so happens to actually be a headset. Convenience, comfort, and a relatively forward, engaging, and still balanced tone makes the SLYR the very first headset in the sub-$100 bracket that I recommend to anyone who absolutely needs a headset.
Final Impressions: While the SLYR isn't perfect, and aren't as refined as to what I'm personally used to (hello "Head-fi standards"), I must say that even with my higher end tastes, I really, REALLY like the SLYR from the sound, all the way to the comfort. These are great for music, pretty good for fun gaming, and good enough for competitive use. Skullcandy's first serious gaming headset gets a solid B from me, and have made me a true believer. I can't wait to see what else Skullcandy has up their sleeve. If their $80 headset is this good, I have high hopes for their higher end models. One last thing that you will want to know: I prefer the SLYR over the A50s.
Final Scores...
Fun: 7.5 (Pretty good. They really did a great job in finding a great balance between fun and balance. Very impressive for this price.)
Competitive: 7 (Good. They absolutely do their job. I'd say stereo gamers will particularly love them, kind of like how I personally see the M50s if a little better in terms of positional cues. For us virtual surround gamers, I'd still say they are worth looking into if you absolutely need a headset.)
Comfort: 7.5 (Very good. Those with larger ears may have to use them as on ear as mentioned before, though they are still comfy in that way.)
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I've had this headset since about a month before Christmas and I must say that the sound from it is *above* what I'd normally expect from Skullcandy and I usually prefer the Skullcandy Ink'q headphones, which are usually pretty good sounding cheap ones. These however make them look like tin cans tied together on string! The bass is where I like it, the sound is so crisp and clear that when I played Mass Effect 3 with them on for the first time. I was noticing sounds that I had *never* noticed before. With even the TV at a loud setting, I don't recall hearing footsteps from whenever I walked but with the headset, I was doing much more than hearing them, I was *feeling* them with the bass! I played other games and could hear the bullets as they whizzed by my head (saved my life a few times too!) Oh, one thing to note about the sound. The headset can start out *loud* but the in-line controls can easily turn it down to a comfortable setting. Be sure to turn the tv to mute(won't affect the headset unless you use the TV headphones port) or you won't hear anything and the headset can adjust the sound for either voice or game sound. Oh, and the leather ear coverings can muffle sound quite a bit, combined with the high volume it can start out with, you might miss your boss calling you on your phone to tell you that you're late again. Lol!I did test hearings of Turtlebeach X-12's, Astro's from Best Buy and the Slyr had the best sound, best mic (never did like having to move it in front of my mouth) and plus the Slyr mic could be put away making it look like a normal pair of over-the-ear headphones. The others that I tried were good sounding, tho the x-12's oddly sounded better than their higher number versions. The Astro's had good sound and comfort. The Slyr had great sound and was the most comfortable to me out of all the ones I tried. Like any over-the-hear deals, they could get a little warm when wearing them for prolonged periods but that may not be a bad thing when you're outside during cold weather. lol! :)
One thing I liked about the Slyr is that the default cord that goes from the in-line usb one to the headset is just the right size for going from the headset to my pocket, where the others where so long that I was left wondering what to do with all the extra cord. Another selling point for me was that the Slyr was Xbox,PS3, and of course PC/phone/mp3 player compatible. :)
I found you could plug them into a phone (if it took normal headphone jack) and use it for listening to music or use the mic and have a conversation with people. People would tell me that they couldn't tell that I was using the headset versus the normal phone mic. Although for me, it saved me from having a hot phone pressed against my cheek and freed my hands to do chores that required both hands.
The headset was also more easier to adjust upon my head than some others. Some headsets were the "one-sizes-fits-all" and thus required "stretching" to get comfortable in, if at all. The Slyr were comfortable and adjustable from the get-go since it had fabric padding on both the headband and ears. Both the headband slides up and down as well as the ear padding was big enough for someone like me with big ears to fit within them and even people with in-ear hearing aids can wear them without them squealing due to over-closeness. Even when wearing glasses, you can wear them comfortably as they don't press too tightly like some others do to leave them hurting you.
If the in-line boosting and volume controls are not important to you, you can use the headphone cable to connect to your tv's headphone port and still use the usb part of it to connect with the xbox to your xbox controller. It'll look weird but still work. So truthfully there are lots of ways of using a headset like this.
So whether you are using it for talking on a console, your phone, or just listening to your mp3 player blast music at you. You can't go wrong. This is just a plain awesome headset.
If anyone has used them for the PS3, I'd be happy to hear their experiences.
PS> Like any headset that costs more than $12, you should treat them with care. Don't grab them by the earpads. Grab them *gently* by the headband. These aren't your $12 headset that comes with the xbox, they are a sound investment in your hearing pleasure. So if you do grab it by the earmuffs, don't twist as you pull them off. That's the easiest way to break *any* headset. I've seen too many youtube reviews and friends where they break even $300 headsets by rough twisting or improper handling and in some cases just bad placing where they can get stepped on by a friend or family when one's not around or chewed on by the family pet. Remember: all things these days are made with a limited lifespan (on purpose) to get them to break and you buy them again. If you take gentle care of them, then they will last far longer than the manufacturer wants them to last. :)
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I liked the headset A LOT! There isn't many reviews on Amazon so I based most of my judgment of the product from the reviews on Skullcandy's website (very good reviews).The problem I had was with the mic. First kind of annoyance is no mic monitoring, I think I get a little loud sometimes because of this. Second is the entire headset worked great for about a week before the mic started going dead one day while I was deep into a game that requires me speaking through the mic to get even further (Tranzit zombies on Black Ops 2). My friend suddenly couldn't hear me. I realized and made sure my connections were all good (they were) and finally just unplugged and replugged the USB, and the mic came right back up again. Literally a couple of minutes later the exact same thing happens.. So I go through the unplugging and replugging, problem solved... Then a couple minutes later the problem happens again.. This happened a good 10 or so times before the game finally ended.. Frustrated I just stopped playing and hoped it would never happen again. A couple of days went by and everything was fine. Then it happened again... same thing.. Every couple of minutes. even more frustrated I called Skullcandy who did offer to replace them which was great. They said it would take a couple of weeks. I opted to return them.
DON'T GET ME WRONG!!
I liked the headset A LOT until I had the mic problem. Very comfortable, awesome sound, and style. The wire is 5 meters long so plenty of length to reach anywhere in the room. Some people complain about the set up but even that took no more than 10 minutes.
I just have a hard time keeping an item I paid $85 for and having it fail in 1 week... Very disappointed skullcandy.
Last but not least. I submitted a review that almost exactly mirrored this one on Skullcandy's website (I didn't have it saved so I can't remember what I wrote word for word) and they rejected it in a noreply email. If nobody can leave an honest review on their website without it being rejected, then the reviews aren't valid in my opinion. Made me even more frustrated with Skullcandy.
Honest reviews on Skullcandy SLYR Gaming Headset, White (SMSLFY-205 )
lol dude. You can use an HDMI cable and just plug your component cables in also and only use the audio from it. Or you can buy a $5 piece made JUST FOR THIS. And on top of all that. The VGA cable used by MLG pro's that play on computer monitors because of the lag time, comes with component audio cables. Do your research before you leave a bad rating. This is an excellent headset. Great value for the money. You just need to stop being so technology illiterate.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Skullcandy SLYR Gaming Headset, White (SMSLFY-205 )
I've been using these headphones for a month now and I couldn't be happier with them. They provide great sound and the mic works great. Great for any gamer.
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