I am not an audiophile, and I find little use for those ultra-expensive professional-level noise-canceling headsets. But I do love those skull-squeezing, cool-looking fashion headphones, and I must’ve gone through dozens over the course of many years.
Recently though, my headphone purchases seem to come from just two lines: mix-style and Skullcandy. I love both brands, and have personal pet peeves against them as well. Here’s a quick run down on the pros and cons of purchasing items from the mix-style and Skullcandy product lines.
mix-style is designed and produced in Japan, and has gained cult status as the headphone of choice thanks to Izumi Konata of Lucky Star and Hatsune Miku in The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku live concert performance. mix-style is a closed, over-ear model with an extending folding headband and a 1.5m cord. It has a 40mm driver and can handle output up to 20K Hz.
I love the minimalist but bold statement the Japanese street-style inspired headset makes both on and off your head. Its clean white headband paired with the dash of pure attitude from the matte color earphones makes it great with any outfit. And although the sound quality is not at par with professional models from Sennheiser and Bose, I’m quite happy with its combination of rich bass and low treble — perfect for rock tracks, dance tunes, and anime theme songs.
Skullcandy on the other hand is worn by many celebrities including rap artists and rock band members (Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy has been spotted in paparazzi photos wearing a pair). Skullcandy Hesh is a closed, over-ear speaker, with an extending foam-padded headband and a 1.5m cord (with built-in volume control). It has a 50mm driver and can handle frequencies up to 20K Hz.
What I love about the Skullcandy Hesh is the strong grip its foam-padded headbands afford; this means that you can comfortably wear the headphones for long periods, and it also makes sure that ambient noise is efficiently cut out. I am also quite partial to the volume control attached to the single cord, which is great for those times you need to turn the volume down to listen to conversations without taking off your headphones.
Now for the cons: both models are prone to cracking and splitting on crucial places in the headband. mix-style tends to have those on the hinge where the headband folds in half, while on Skullcandy it’s on the plastic extensions that hold the headband and the earphones together.
When that happens, the grip on the mix-style phone become uncomfortably loose — it’s like they’ll fall off your head at the slightest movement. It’s even worse on the Skullcandy: when the crack occurs, your earphones might snap clean off the headband, and no amount of tape will hold it back in place.
If you’d like to give these babies a test-drive yourself, mix-style is available online from YES ASIA (beware of some EBAY and MULTIPLY sellers who sell fakes), while Skullcandy is available locally from skate, surf, and wakeboard shop REPUBL1C (Makati, Alabang Westgate, and Eastwood Mall).
JPOP Manila 
If we’re just talking fashion here, Swimmers are really cute, too. Not as nice sounding as headphones from say, Sennheiser but hey, if it’s just about looks, Swimmers rock 😛
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ah swimmers — aka the gothic lolita headphones 😀 i’d love to roadtest a pair — which online shop did you get yours from? 😀
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I like the skullcandy designs but the sound is still my top priority when it comes to headphones, that’s why I always opted for Sennheiser.
Although I would like to own one of those babies eventually 🙂
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I love skullycandy to bits. I’m planning to buy another one 😀
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heyyy dude, first and foremost, thank you! haha XD coz i now know the difference between fakes and original XD
but im just wonderin, dont mixstyle headphones got their own website, if they dont, whats the website where i can get a ORIGINAL ONE
and whats the USUAL price for it? in USD/UKP
thanks
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hi. the official website is mix-style-headphones.com, but they don’t have an online shop, just a store locator. if you want to purchase one online, i suggest you get them from YESASIA for about USD 50 (with free shipping).
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what about in philippines? where can i get a legit mix style headphones?
thx for the website btw ;]
the mix style from yes asia, thats original right?
;]
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yup — they are the official distributor online for asia-pacific. there are no local official distributors AFAIK but there are re-sellers on MULTIPLY; i can’t vouch for their authenticity though so if you purchase from them it’s at your own risk.
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well im in uk right now, do you think yes asia does deliveries to uk? and sicne it said on the site its free shipping, is it still gonna be free from asia to uk? :]
anyway thanks for the help :]
really appriciate it ;]
i shall go ask for more help if i need to buy some other japanese stuff haha XD
ill recommend your site to my friends
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lol sorry, i hadn’t caught on that you were based in the UK. anyway, YES ASIA does deliver to europe and north america so you should be in good shape. thanks for the thumbs up and i hope you get your headphones real soon. cheers!
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haha its ok ;],
thats good to hear ;]
yeah thx ;]
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Shure and Sennheisers are my choice. I’m currently using 2 of their pairs.
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