Built on published evidence: the Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 delivers a haptic bass experience few rivals in its class offer, with long battery life and deep customization to back it up. The ANC is merely average and the 332-gram weight is real. For bass-first listeners, it's an easy recommendation — check the current price on Amazon.
— THE VERDICT · JUDGEANY EDITORSThe bass headphone that grew up — a little
The Skullcandy Crusher ANC 2 is Skullcandy's bass-first over-ear with adjustable 4-mic ANC, announced in August 2023 as a redesigned sequel to the original Crusher ANC. Its signature trick is Crusher sensory bass — a separate haptic driver set you can feel vibrating on top of the usual 40mm drivers — tuned with an indexed thumbwheel on the left earcup instead of the old slider. This review is built from published reviews and owner feedback. JudgeAny doesn't run a test lab: every measurement below belongs to the outlet that published it, and the score is our editorial judgment on that public evidence.
Crusher bass: the dial that goes to skull-rattle
SoundGuys tested the Crusher ANC 2 over five days (firmware 5.0.3) and found the frequency response strays far from its preference curve in the low end — deliberately. Crank the Crusher dial to 80% on a bass-heavy track and it can trigger a headache; dialed down to 20% or off, it becomes a more conventional, still bass-forward listen. The snag SoundGuys flags is control sprawl: the Crusher dial, a five-band EQ, and Personal Sound by Mimi all reshape the same output, while the EQ's bands are labeled with descriptions rather than frequencies. Press the thumbwheel to cycle presets or scroll it for finer control; the Skull-iQ app adds an on-screen slider and voice control ("Hey Skullcandy" commands work, but only with exact phrases). The counter-evidence: How-To Geek rates the plain sound "average" without Crusher engaged, and at max bass some owners say mids and highs get buried. The verdict still holds because the hardware does exactly what it advertises — the bass is deliberate, and you can always dial it down.
ANC: fine, and that's the honest word
ANC is in the name, and it is the weakest pillar. SoundGuys found most attenuation comes from passive isolation; with ANC on, kitchen clangs get dampened and speech gets harder to make out, but you still hear your surroundings. Its comparison coverage notes the ANC concentrates on the low frequencies below 800 Hz by up to 15 dB. Tom's Guide calls it average, How-To Geek calls it mediocre, and TechRadar says it isn't class-leading while still warranting a listen for bass fans. The conflict: one long-term Best Buy owner rated the ANC 8/10 and said outside noise disappears once music plays, and the listing holds 4.6 stars on Amazon (per SoundGuys). The verdict holds because the claim stays modest — decent everyday quiet for cafes and offices, not a flight-cabin silencer — while rivals with genuinely better ANC cost more at typical street prices.
Battery, comfort, and the missing off-switch
Battery life is the least contested strength: Skullcandy claims up to 60 hours with ANC off and 50 with it on; SoundGuys' standardized test measured 45 hours and 23 minutes with ANC on — short of the claim, but long by any normal standard — and 10 minutes of charging adds about 4 hours. The battery complaint is behavior, not capacity: SoundGuys found no auto power-off, with a fully charged pair draining 50% while left idle overnight after only 90 minutes of actual listening, and there is no wear detection (Tom's Guide, How-To Geek). Comfort splits the difference: the 332-gram frame is heavy for the class, yet the cloth-covered headband distributes it well enough that SoundGuys didn't notice the weight against the Sennheiser Momentum 4, and the 58x48mm ear cavities handled an hour of wear with sunglasses. The pads run warm, there is no water resistance rating, and the zip-up travel case, wired 3.5mm cable, and multipoint pairing round out the package. One small annoyance: no default button for a voice assistant out of the box, though it is remappable in the app.
Who should buy it
Buy it if you are a bass-first listener — hip-hop, EDM, action movies — who wants a physicality no EQ can fake, plus marathon battery and deep button-and-app customization. TechRadar's verdict lands in the same place: fun, competent, worth an audition if the premise appeals. Skip it if ANC is the priority: the Sony WH-1000XM4 is the rival TechRadar keeps pointing at, with genuinely better noise cancelling. And don't expect codec geekery — Bluetooth 5.2 runs SBC and AAC only, with no aptX or LDAC for Android listeners (SoundGuys). Check the current price on Amazon before deciding.