When it comes to high quality headphones you will almost always find yourself balancing great sound quality, comfort, and price. Recently Skullcandy introduced 2XL, a brand focusing on individually styled headphones at prices anyone can afford. Being a big fan of over the ear headphones I was excited to have a chance to take a closer look at their Brickyard style headphones, a DJ-style headphone that is according to 2XL "DJ-style headphone with over-ear design, comfort headband suspension and full dynamic acoustic range".
Product Name: Brickyard (Snake Eyes design)
Review Sample Provided by: 2xl
Review by: Wes
Pictures by: Wes
Specifications
Driver Size | 40mm |
Design | Dj style over-ear |
Cable Length | 3 Meter |
Max. Input power | 400 mW |
Plug type | 3.5 mm gold plated |
Impedance | 32 ohms |
Frequency range | 20-20,000 Hz |
Magnet type | NdFeB |
Cable type | Standard |
Comfort
Obviously with the Brickyards being an over the ear design I wasn't worried about them being uncomfortable. The headband lacked any padding yet still was fairly comfortable, I did find the headband to put pressure on my head after more than an hour use. The two ear cups fit around my ears adequately although I would have liked to see them be a 1/4 inch larger. The sealed cups did cause my ears to heat up after some time. I found the Brickyards to be extremely comfortable for the first hour, if you don't take a short break after that point you will have some discomfort.
Performance
I spend most of my time watching tv shows and playing video games when I have my headphones on. In order to test out the Brickyards I dug through my music collection to find a few songs to push their limits along with my standard TV shows and video games. Listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Touble play Ain't Gone 'N' Give Up On the Brickyards had great highs bringing out Stevie's solo's. The bass guitar seemed muted, a little more base would be nice. Just to be sure, I changed it up to Pain by Three Days Grace. Not only did the bass guitar seem more vibrant, even the drums felt like they were pounding on my head. I suspect the difference in my results between the two songs to be due to better recording technology.
In game sounds sounded amazing but did lack the directionality that I would expect in gaming headphones. Considering the Brickyards are not designed for gaming I wouldn't really consider this a fault.
Overall
Overall I found the Brickyards to have the sound quality of headphones two and three times their price. At under $35 bucks 2XL has produced over the ear headphones that almost anyone can afford. The Snake Eye pattern that I selected isn't flashy or overdone, but 2XL does give you options between 7 different designs for almost any tastes. My only complaints have to do with the headset being slightly uncomfortable after long periods of time. Considering the great price and the good performance I think it's worth overlooking that issue and checking them out.