Skullcandy Indy ANC vs Bose Quiet Comfort Buds (gen 1)
In my view the key to a good review is to consider the item from the perspective of intended usage and the price. So few reviewers seem to have a clue (or deliberately write dribbleShit because they want to get more free things to review - which explains why so many reviews are samey samey). So this is both a review of the Skullcandy Indy ANC buds and a comparison of them to a class leader in the field. Be careful in buying because the Indy are not the same as the Indy ANC. If you haven't read my review of the Bose, then its here, and may help to clarify some matters in this comparison.
Summary position - money matters
If money didn't matter I'd be driving a Range Rover not a 1989 Mitsubishi Pajero, thus its important to say that I shop around and got the Skullcandy for AU$60 off eBay as an unwanted gift, and I regularly see them for less than AU$100 anyway. There is essentially zero risk of fakes because not only are they well priced to begin with, there is no real "cachet" attached to what is a budget brand anyway.
I got my Bose "cheap" off eBay too so lets just say that you won't get likely Genuine Bose for under AU$200 and RRP is AU$399. So from that perspective of "money matters" you have to ask yourself about value for money. If I had to say which is better I'd say they're both winners, but of different competitions.
What you see and what you get
The form factor or style of the Skullcandy buds is much more like the Apple or indeed "most of the market", which is neither here nor there, but as it happens I like it in some ways.
The buds are smaller and the stem actually makes handling them easier in some ways than the Bose QuietComfort (QC) earbuds, but what really stands out first is the case difference.
While the Bose case works well in a office (desk beside your monitor) or in the car (in the console) the Skullcandy case is easy to slip into a pocket of your jeans or a side of your backpack. This itself tells you about what they're for: outside and about (and I'll return to this when discussing ANC).
Opening and removing the buds to put in your ear shows that the Skullcandy are more about on the go than the Bose when trying to remove the buds and put them in your ear without the case being on a table before you.
and the little wing supports make a nice "grippy flexible handle" from which to pull them out and put them in.
and while the above pic really shows off the extensive nature of the Bose ANC microphones it also shows how "smooth and slippy" they are when getting them from case to ear. The rounded shape is quite attractive, but to me the Skullcandy wins here for sheer practicality of usage.
To remind you of the way the Bose present when you open the case / charger to get them out:
A lovely presentation, but I've dropped them more than a few times when doing this on the move (and have learned to put them on a table top before putting them into my ears).
Some pictures up close of the Skullcandy buds
showing the size, the ear bud and that there is a second part of the silicon to be the support (rather than it being one piece as per the Bose. I don't know if this is good or bad, but at the very least you can pick wing size (they're called Gel's on the Skullcandy) independently from tip size (for the difference in ear shape and ear canal size).
Points awarded there, but as it happens I'll say that I've found the Bose quite good (perhaps better) than the Skullcandy with respect to fit and fit comfort (and not falling out).
Verdict: slightly advantage Skullcandy
Wearing
The Skullcandy are nice and compact and sit discretely in your ears.
from this one can see the wing support at the back (as well as my hairy ears) and to get the best audio you need to perhaps (at least in my case) twist the stem a bit further down.
Either way fitment is critical for success and so the choice of the right size tip and perhaps the right size "wing" is important.
While doing (almost) everything the Skullcandy felt good and I was surprised that the few grams less weight did actually make a difference to ear fatigue over a few hours. Lighter has some benefits.
The only complaint I have was that if I bent over (say, to pick something up off the ground) they would fall out. Perhaps this can be remedied by some replacement tips that are memory foam instead of the silicone ones (but they won't likely be as durable). Either way I managed to be aware of this and it isn't often a problem for me
Verdict: advantage Bose
The Audio quality
This is where the Skullcandy actually surprised me, they sound a little better playing music than my Bose do. Better separation of highs from the mix and really good bass. Not "coloured" like Dr Beats are but somehow more like a clarity of lows one usually needs good speakers and a few meters distance from the speaker to achieve (my rule of thumb on speakers is at least 2 wavelengths of the bass frequency but with buds its actually an acoustically coupled tube).
I was tweaked to this possibility by the specification of the driver used in the Skullcandy Indy ANC being 12mm (reported here {and that's a pretty good review too btw}) ... that's about the biggest driver in this class of audio.
Lastly (and I didn't test this) there is an app that comes with the Skullcandy to actually work with your own hearing and compensate for any loss you may have in the audio spectrum. That's also best in class.
So for less money, if your music needs are as important as ANC then really, definitely give the Skullcandy a look
Verdict: slightly advantage Skullcandy
The ANC
I was "fortunate" in todays testing to have a cement mixer truck turn up next door.
This gave me a great background annoyance all morning, with changing pitches as the engine revved to power it and the hydraulic motor gave various whines.
ANC is a vexing issue and is seldom measured (personally I've never seen it done well) and has essentially no baselines in quantitative specification. Worse I'll say 95% of people who are interested in ANC have little to no experience in understanding actual ear-plug style hearing safety, how its measured (hint dB and phon), what the various scales of measurement are what frequency they cover. Look up some of these standards on the packet below if interested:
So basically its a bunch of kiddies and or dopes making subjective evaluations (usually from quiet rooms) without a clue. This is of course classic King Wang (the blind [usually wankers] leading the blind [and usually stupid]) stuff.
The Skullcandy buds (like the Bose) have an "Aware" mode as well as an ANC mode, but they have an ANC off mode too. This makes them just bluetooth buds which is quite interesting as you can evaluate how they sound without that "effect" being present. Additionally it shows something else about the Skullcandy: that there is a low "hiss" (or noise in audiophile world) which frankly isn't present in the Bose. The reality is of course that this hiss is only identifiable in a quiet room ... and if you were in a quiet room, why would you be needing the ANC? So you can turn it off with a simple gesture on the bud and it will always default back to ANC being on when you power your buds back on again (I'll get back to that).
The difference between the ANC on these two are basically this:
the Bose is more quiet than the Skullcandy by what appears to be a few dB (which is a logarithmic measurement and if you don't know what that means let me say by "a noticeable amount").
the Skullcandy is perhaps slightly better at cancelling the low frequencies (assessment assisted by that cement truck) than the Bose which may work better on flights but may not block out "everything" as well (this can be an advantage which negates the need for the Aware mode when the hostie asks you if you want tea or coffee)
So I actually liked the level of pass through on the Skullcandy without needing to resort to the Aware mode.
Something that Bose users are aware of is the success of the Bose ANC buds is that it has limits, and when these limits are reached quite audible "clicks" are heard as transient peaks overwhelm the limits of the ANC (everything has limits). These clicks (which if the loud noise is sufficiently lengthy can turn into a buzz) aren't uncomfortable but they show the limits of the system.
The Skullcandies showed no such issues and seemed to gracefully fail to attenuate when the sound became loud enough. But remember you've got these things in your ears like a kids fingers right? So its not a problem.
This leads to the ultimate question here: whats the actual point of ANC?
What are your expectations?
If you're after something to use at the shooting range you've picked the wrong class of things to be wearing from the start. But if you're after more "muting the background noticeably enough to still be able to enjoy your music without having to turn it up to hearing damage levels" then both the Bose and the Skullcandy are quite good.
An anecdote: if I'm in a waiting room (say for my chiropractor) I have to put the Bose into Aware mode or I'll miss being called and feel like a dope when the receptionist waves at me to attract my attention. With the Skullcandy I don't need to do this because passthrough of the background is enough that I'll hear things without needing to turn on the Aware mode. Actually the Aware on the Skullcandy is so good at bringing up the speech in the background that I can easily listen to otherwise muted conversations (aka eavesdropping) if I chose to.
I'll leave this section with a note of "how much is too much ANC" in a world where "when its noisy we also need to be aware for our safety"
... as that idiot found out.
So in summary apart from in the most noisy situations (like my old Pajero on long road trips) I find that the clatter of my keyboard being hearable as well as other small sounds coming in make the music listening experience better and drops the background noise (of say that cement mixer) far enough away to be "thanks, that's nice".
Verdict: advantage Bose, but Skullcandy is sufficient.
The usage and operation
First up, the Bose are able to stop the music on the phone when you take the buds out, the Skullcandy don't have this feature. Myself I don't really care (because I can then use the phone control to pause if I'm missing something important in my music and don't know how to rewind).
Both Bose and Skullcandy have the ability to control the buds by touching them, things like:
adjusting volume
turning ANC into Aware
stopping and starting music
answering a call
accessing the "assistant" (Siri or Google or whateverthefuckelse) of your phone
They both do things differently and in some ways it takes time to learn to use either (just read a few reddit groups) however I'm going to say that I prefer the Skullcandy for the following reasons: most gestures are symmetrical (meaning that the same gesture works on the left side or the right) and those that aren't are logically different. This is the instruction sheet which the Skullcandy came with
so you can see that most (all but one) controls are the same either side you touch, but Vol up and down is (to my mind) more like the volume up and down on most stuff with buttons: left is decrease volume, right is increase volume. Its probably a lot more gestures than most people will use but as you get more familiar with them over time you'll perhaps find yourself using more of them
The Bose OTOH requires you to know which side you are double tapping (or tap sliding), and actually has less features available with touch. Sometimes (despite having used them for longer) I still make mistakes with the Bose. More details here.
If I'm (for instance) driving and I wanted to take a call, with the Indy all I have to do tap twice, and to hang up tap twice ... which ever side happens to be more convenient (and I'm left handed so tapping the right side isn't my natural thing) while the Bose requires I do it on the right side.
Bonus points because the Skullcandy actually turn off automatically! and you can manually turn them off if you choose. Yes, as annoying as that may seem to others (Dunning Kruger types) it means that if you just take them off and put them down (and go and do other things) they'll turn off.
That's great for a few reasons, not least of which is they won't go flat overnight and be useless the next morning when you may want to have them on for your commute. Further, you can turn them off and they'll probably last for weeks at 80% of charge and you can just turn them on with no loss. Imagine a situation:
You don't use the buds all the time (gasp, shocking right), you were you are driving, you take them off, forget about them and they're in the car (which you don't use every day) and have gone dead flat in the days it takes to go back to the car. It may even be that they go so flat as to never be able to be recharged again. Makes me wonder about some of the Reddit reports I've exactly read on this topic.
Something I've identified in my previous review of the Bose is that because you can't turn them off it may effect battery longevity:
In contrast, with my QC35II's I (can) turn them off as I take them off and so they can sit for days or even weeks at somewhere around 50% and I know that will give the maximum life of the battery. I've had them since 2019 and the battery is doing well. I doubt that this will be the case for these.
Again, points awarded for the "inferior specification" performer the Skullcandy.
Verdict: advantage Skullcandy
Making calls
So, enough about you, what about them? (who makes calls you say?)
When you use these ANC buds you also give some level of ANC to those you're talking to. Now, my phone (and probably yours) has an excellent ANC system built right into it, but when I'm driving I can't actually talk on my phone (well I can, but it will cost me). So the other benefit of ANC buds is that it gives some of the Active Noise Cancellation to the other party on phone calls.
I first realised how good this was when making calls on my QC35ii over ear phones from my noisy 1989 Pajero on my over 2 hour trip home on the weekends from my job "in town". Its not insignificant how much more tired you feel after a 3 hour drive home in my 4WD without using these headphones
Indeed exactly this was the very reason for me buying the Bose QC buds in the first place: making trips in my car (down to the city) when I could listen to music in the car without the stereo turned up to drown out the defining roar of the car, tyres, engine. rattling and clanking; but without over ear headphones.
Don't get me wrong, the QC35ii's are great, but: are sweaty in summer and difficult to put sunglasses on and off (or reading glasses to consult a map) when you're wearing them. So I bought the QCBuds to try ... and here we are.
I have heard some tests of the audio quality of what other people get from these buds (and have made my own which are not well presented, so I don't care to share them here. However this link is a reasonable exemplar (although I have problems with reproducing his outcomes on Zoom and Android recordings)
Instead I called a friend and drove (around bashing roads) in my 4WD talking to my mate with the Bose QC35, QC Buds the Skullcandys and the just using my phone (in my top pocket).
My friend reported that he couldn't tell the difference between the QC35ii's, the QC Buds, felt that there was a bit more noise (but still quite fine) with the Skullcandy and that my phone was the best. Pity I can't just drive and use my phone ...
Worth noting another friend reported (when doing an around the house test) that chip packets (being handled) or noise from taps was particularly disgusting on the Bose ... which sort of equals how I interpret the results from the above YouTubers findings.
What it says to me is that right now, the other user side of phone calls are not well serviced by any of the existing ANC systems when driving or in a noisy environment (and may never be without boom mics as used in aviation).
Verdict: equal
Findings and Conclusion
If you are the Range Rover guy, then I'd say get the Bose over the Skullcandy Indy ANC, but even for me its a matter of I wouldn't like to spend over $200 (and I didn't) for the Bose. If I had a quieter car (like a typical less than 10 year old sedan I'd be entirely satisfied with the Skullcandy, to the point of I'd sell the Bose. Indeed for walking around the house, doing some things in the yard or just being in the supermarket the Skullcandy takes the edge off and is sufficient.
Especially if you're after an occasional use set of buds for in the car (or delivery truck) then the Skullcandy are pretty ideal and in my view better than any "mid range modern car" bluetooth audio" I've yet encountered.
If you can afford to drop the money on the Bose, go ahead. But if you're seeking a lower dollar spend then the Skullcandy Indy ANC are pareto principle winners IMO
Pareto principle: 80% of the benefits for 20% of the costs.
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