Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsGood Sound Quality with Minor Flaws
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
As a fan of Skullcandy’s products since the mid-2000s, I was excited when the Indy’s were released. I have been using a pair of the Power Beat 2s for the last 4 years, and it was about time for me to replace them, so I ordered these as soon as I saw them. They arrived a lot faster than expected so props to the seller for that, but the Indy’s have a few issues. For me, the three things that are most important for wireless headphones are sound quality, connectivity, and fit.
Sound Quality:
Sound quality is where these standout. Once you get a good fit, the treble, mids, and bass are perfectly balanced. The only complaint I would have about the sound quality is the volume is a bit low. I am an iOS user and while using iTunes with the sound check on they aren’t very loud, turning sound check off didn’t help much either and it increased distortion on bass heavy songs. I also tried with Pandora, Tidal, YouTube, and DirecTV Now and they’re all fairly low. YouTube had a small amount of latency that was barely noticeable. DirecTV Now has no latency at all. The microphone sound quality and voice sound quality during phone calls is not as good as my Power Beat 2s.
Connectivity:
This is one of the major issues. Music will constantly stop while playing these and I’ve also had issues with the left bud losing its connection completely during a workout which was extremely frustrating. Although the instructions do a good job explaining how re-pair the buds to one another, the process is more complicated than it is with other devices. This may not be a big issue to some people, but switching between devices is a pain. I do not take my phone in the gym or on runs, I stream from my Apple Watch, and switching devices is not a smooth process.
Fit:
I’m 50/50 on this. The left side fits perfectly, but I struggle with the right bud every time I put them in. I’ve tried different tips and still can’t get a solid fit with the right bud. And this fit is the biggest problem for these to me. Since the right bud is always falling out or halfway in my ear, I’m constantly pushing it in which activates the touch controls…usually me turning them off so, I end up stopping and fumbling around with these for a little while to get it to stay in my right ear. However, this will not be an issue to everyone, so I can’t knock the design too much for my lack of ear symmetry.
Finally, would I recommend these or not? It depends on how you want to use them. If you don’t switch devices a lot and have the right sized ears, then I would I say these are pretty good for the price. However, connectivity is something that will need to be worked out or perhaps it’s better on non-iOS devices. I would like to hear feedback from an Android user to see if the volume and connectivity issues are an iOS issue. I’ll say give them a try you can always return them if they don’t’ fit.
