Wearing over-ear headphones to the gym is pretty standard these days, even though few are expressly designed for that very purpose. That’s where the Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active come in.
It’s a combination that makes sense on the face of it. Skullcandy has carved out a reputation in audio circles as a brand that loves to bring thick bass to its products, and since it’s also experimented with funky designs, making a pair that feels at home at the gym addresses a niche the company should pursue anyway.
To be clear, you don’t have to use these headphones only at the gym. They’re perfectly fine in front of a computer, too. The difference between these and other headphones that do similar things is the sheer rumble you can get out of the bass here. Plus, a couple of design considerations keep sweat in mind to make these last longer. You just have to be cool with the compromises that come with the whole package.
Design and fit
The Crusher 540 Active borrow heavily from another Skullcandy pair, the Crusher Evo. Indeed, the two actually share the same exact specs under the hood, meaning neither has active noise cancellation (ANC). If you’re going to drown out background noise at the gym or wherever else, the onboard mics aren’t going to help with that. It’s all passive isolation here.
The differences lie in how the two pairs were manufactured. Skullcandy uses fabric for the ear pads instead of the Evo’s faux leather. The headband is the reverse, where you get fabric on the Evo and plush rubberized leather material on the Crusher 540 Active.
There’s a method to all this that does make sense based on my own extensive experience with headphones. Leather-ish materials don’t generally go well with sweat because the salty perspiration can break down the ear pads and headband over time. The fabric pads on the 540 Active are both removable and washable, while the headband is easier to wipe clean because the material is less porous. On top of that, Skullcandy covers the entire body with a nano-coating that better resists moisture and sweat so that breakdowns don’t happen elsewhere on the heavily plastic unit.
Skullcandy also claims to have adjusted the clamping force for a tighter fit but I’m not all that convinced. I have a shaved head and these would start slipping off very soon after laying down horizontally while stretching or doing yoga on a mat. Staying upright, I rarely had to fiddle with them until my ears started feeling a pinch after a long listening session.
Despite everything going on here, the headphones aren’t heavy, though the swivels for the ear cups are looser than usual to better articulate for a wider variety of heads and head movements. Rather than a harder case, the headphones only come with a thinner cloth pouch to make them easier to throw into a gym bag, made even easier by the fact they fold up nicely to fit inside.
Controls and app support
Controls are all tactile here, so no touch-sensitive options on board. The left cup has the power button, USB-C charging port, 3.5mm jack, and a bass slider to adjust the potency of the effect. The right cup has play/pause, volume up, and volume down buttons. Skullcandy wisely makes these buttons into different shapes and sizes so that you know what you’re pressing just by feeling for it.
The Crusher 540 Active work with an app for additional features and custom controls, though it’s important to distinguish between them. These headphones work with the Skullcandy app on iOS and Android, not the Skull-iQ app that works with other devices.
Options are pretty barren anyway, but the most important one is Personal Sound, which offers a listening test to create a personal profile universally applied to everything you listen to. It’s an easy process that only requires you to listen to tones in your left and right ears over a few minutes to set it up. You must do this in as quiet a space as you can find because some of the tones are so faint you’re not likely to hear them with other audible distractions going on around you.
Once done, the custom profile should sound different than Skullcandy’s default tuning. The app’s equalizer is actually more of a basic trio of presets for music, podcasts and movies. Beyond that, you can’t adjust the settings for those presets, putting more of an onus on the custom tuning.
Firmware updates also roll through the app whenever Skullcandy releases them. The only thing left after that is the Tile integration by way of a chip inside that makes it possible to track the headphones down in case they’re lost or stolen. You need the Tile app and a subscription to make use of the feature, however.
Sound quality
If you really like bass, there’s a good chance these will be music to your ears. Even with the bass slider at its lowest setting, it’s easy to tell how influential it is to the wider soundstage. The Crusher 540 Active fall very much in line with the bass-friendly sound profiles Skullcandy is known for right out of the box. Start pushing up the slider and it’s like adding a rumbling, thumping burst of low-end sound to the mix.
It resonates so much as you keep moving it that it’s almost like putting your ear right up to a subwoofer. For me, much of it is overkill but Skullcandy likely knows there are users who love it, so taking the bass to what feels like 11 or 12 is clearly by design.
Tuning headphones for the active gym crowd means these headphones aren’t going to play the crispiest audiophile-level sound. They don’t support hi-res Bluetooth codecs like LDAC, aptX Adaptive or LHDC, so you’re limited to AAC and SBC. Chances are, you’re not going to care while working hard in the gym or doing a 5K run when you just want to hear the kind of bassy tunes that will fuel your adrenaline.
And that’s really the rub here. If you’re not using these $250 headphones to work out, I’m not sure there’s a reason to go with them when the Crusher Evo offer the same audio experience for a lower price.
Battery life
Skullcandy rates the Crusher 540 Active at up to 40 hours per charge at default volume. That’s not bad, though also not especially high when there’s no noise cancellation involved. Volume levels and the bass slider have the biggest impact in lowering that number, so the most likely outcome is a range of 25-40 hours. At least more than enough to get you through a lot of workouts.
Conclusion
The Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active fall into a niche few other over-ear headphones do. While they don’t have an official IP rating to distinguish dust and water resistance, they’re tough enough to withstand sweaty workouts — provided you also take care of them. Wash the removable pads after a while, wipe the rest dry to remove salt and don’t be too careless with them in spite of the lack of a harder protective case.
I would just be wary if your workouts involve a lot of horizontal positions, like bench press, lying leg raises, glute bridges, pilates, yoga and other similar exercises. These should be tighter to stay put during those exercises but they only tend to do so when you’re upright.
