Skullcandy Jib headphones.
- Disclaimer: I recently bought and tested 5 different pairs of headphones which were under the price range of NZ$20 at time of purchase. In all I have reviewed Moki 45 degree Comfort Buds, Xiaomi (“Mi”) Basic in-ear headphones, ifrogz Luxe microbuds (with microphone), Philips “Vibes” in-ear headphones and finally Skullcandy Jib headphones. Note that these were tested with music only; if a set of headphones had a microphone I did not test the quality of the mic.
- Packed in a slightly nasty blister pack that you have to rip open rather violently. It’s one of “those” blister packs that rip in the wrong place when halfway opened, making it necessary for you to reach for your scissors to get it back on track.
- Comes with one of those little folded bits of crinkled paper that you often find in cheap imported products. The paper itself is the warranty in various languages. Other than this it doesn’t come with a manual or other materials (most of these cheaper headphones don’t).
- Comes with the headphones and medium sized bud tips as default, as well as only 1 pair of alternatively sized earbud tips (small ones). This is the only set of budget headphones I reviewed which included only a single pair of alternative bud tips (most have 2 pairs).
- Uses a very thin round double-style cable (the one that looks like two thin cables stuck together), so is prone to tangling.
- Uses a straight 3.5mm plug/jack (not L-shaped).
- The headphones are made of plastic (half-matte, half glossy) that has a very cheap feel. The ear buds are very lightweight, so they are unlikely to fall out of your ears unless you tug the cable.
- Noise cancelling – Quite good. For what appear to be very small ear buds they do a decent job of muffling ambient sound.
- Verdict – It’s pretty obvious to me that Skullcandy saved on costs with the build quality of these headphones and sunk everything into the sound performance, because these things sound great considering their price. The bass is nice and strong (as long as you are okay with the included medium or small bud tips sealing your ears properly; if you usually need large bud tips you may have a problem hearing the bass) and highs and mids are pretty clear overall. They sound almost as good as a much more expensive pair of headphones, so you could potentially buy a few pairs of these instead of one set of $90–100 ear buds. I highly recommend these if you can only afford a budget set of headphones and don’t require a microphone.