I purchased Skullcandy’s Hesh ANC headphones and I think I’m in love!

Sneaky Advertisers

Recently, there has been a lot of advertisements for a lot of different earbuds and headphones that are for sale. I’m assuming it has something to do with the holiday shopping, Google and Facebook using all of my data, or just the fact that I’m a 20-something year old and we listen to a lot of music.

In response, I did what any normal person would do; I immediately went online to see which musical listening device I wanted to purchase. 

My Skullcandy Relationship

Ever since 2011 when I decided I wanted to be cool and not use earbuds that cost 99 cents at the gas station, I made a purchase of the headset Skullcandy Hesh 2. I bought it for like $15 from FYE (remember them?*) and they were my go-to, favorite headset that I used until my cord broke, and then I spent time trying to find a new one.

*After I said remember them, I googled them and saw that they still exist. Oops.

Fast forward to a couple years ago, I bought the Skullcandy Hesh 3 headset because I could finally upgrade and they are amazing. I love them so much. The sound quality is amazing; and they are so comfortable which is important to me, because I have a smaller head than most of my big head friends, so sometimes headsets are too big for me.

Let me say that there is absolutely nothing wrong with my Hesh 3 headset. I love it and I use it all the time.

I use a headset a lot as I work on my computer, and my husband works on his, which literally touches mine to the left. We’re also gamers, so our headsets are also quite important.

The headset I use for listening to music is quite important, as gaming headsets aren’t the best for just laying back and listening to an album.

The Hesh 3 are really good at tuning out what’s around you (even though they aren’t active noise cancelling), and helping you focus on your listening experience.

So when I got inundated with ads for buying ridiculously expensive earbuds, the first place I went to was Skullcandy.

The first new listening device I purchased was Skullcandy‘s SeshEvo. They are fairly inexpensive “Truly Wireless” earbuds.  I’ll write my review about that later; however, when I bought them, I just felt meh. I wasn’t overly excited and felt let down when it came time to use them.

Hesh ANC

I saw on Skullcandy’s website that they had something called the Hesh ANC, which features active noise cancelling. 

I’ve heard of headsets that have noise cancelling before, but I’ve been seeing a lot of “active noise cancelling”, and I was very interested in seeing the difference and what that actually meant.

After doing some research (googling), it seems that the headphones take the outside sound, and basically produce the opposite sound waves so they cancel each other out. You know, you could just check out this HowStuffWorks page on it, because they explain it a lot better than I can.

Skullcandy also has a headset called the Venue ANC. I tried it on at the store, but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t as comfortable as the Hesh were, and the headband felt very flimsy and felt like a light plastic. I compared it with the other headset Skullcandy had on display, the Crusher, and that felt much more secure. My fear is the Venue ANC would break easily.

 The Hesh ANC headset has three different modes; active noise cancellation on, active noise cancellation off, and ambient mode. 

The noise cancelling is surprisingly great. I’ve never had a set of ANC headphones so I didn’t really know what to expect. It’s not like I’m in a vacuum, but it does a very good job of getting rid of all of the sound around me. 

It’s good enough that I have had at least 5 scares in the past hour, as I’ve been typing and my husband has been coming up to me to ask questions, and I can’t hear his approach.

If I wasn’t at home, or somewhere that I didn’t need to hear my surroundings, I would probably have the sound set to ANC off. ANC off is enough for me to be in tune with my surroundings but also immersed in my music.

Ambient mode is good, if you want to have a quick conversation with someone. If I don’t want to take my headset off and just need to hear a quick conversation, it’s great for that. This could be useful in situations of taking public transit, or if someone stops by your desk at work, and completely ignores the fact that you have a headset on because you don’t want to have a conversation.

As for the sound quality, the sound is great for the types of music I listen to. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to different types of songs to get an overall feel for this headset.

I’ve listened to jazz music, rap music, 90’s pop music, Christmas music, and R&B music. I’ve also listened to some gospel music that had choirs and different vocal parts, and I was able to hear each vocal section very clear. 

The bass in the Hesh headsets aren’t as heavy as the Skullcandy Crusher which is designed for that, but for my listening pleasure, it’s great for me.

I bought them the day after Black Friday at Best Buy for $129.99. However, I can’t actually find them on their website, and there was only one headset on the shelf with no price tag.

Searching to buy a pair feels like trying to find a Playstation 5 right now, it’s not that easy to do. If you go to Skullcandy’s website, you can sign up for an email waitlist. It says that it’s available in limited retailers, and although I see Target has them in stores near me, each store only has one headset available in each.

I would suggest buying these if you want a good ANC headset that’s really comfortable and at a good price. If ANC isn’t that important to you, the Hesh 3 would be a great choice as well, and they are a lot cheaper now since they aren’t the newest model.

One of the best things to note is while the Hesh 3 charges with micro usb, the Hesh ANC charges with usb-c which is amazing because it will charge it much quicker, and also uses the same charging cable as my phone.