Gadget: SkullCandy Aviator

The Skullcandy Aviator is a headphone made in collaboration with Jay Z's RocNation. It's the best collaboration since Bert and Ernie! Even better than Ant and Dec! I know I'm being silly but you get my drift. Ok it took five whole weeks for these to arrive, but fuck me it was worth the wait! These are amazing! The look great, feel great and sound amazing!!! I bought the black pair and I love them! The cushions are made of memory foam which are so soft you can barely feel them! The black see through casing that shows the inner components, the chrome, the nylon cord! It even comes with a matching leatherette bag to keep it safe when your not using it. The design of the Aviators mean that they don't sit on your head, it only has contact with your area around you ears... and your hair depending on its length. It's all so good!

As soon as they arrived I grabbed my now deceased iPod and searched for songs with loads of bass. As soon as the first song started played, all I could think was WOW!!! The sound was so clear and crisp! I have never heard music so clearly. Now I have new found love for music, where I listen to and appreciate every sound that happens in a song. Everybody who tried them on loved them. It caught so many peoples eyes. I wore them at the US Surf Open in Huntington Beach, California, and decided to check out the SkullCandy tent and while I queued up for a freebie, a guy walked out of it and started talking to me. It was Bret Barlow, the Marketing Director for SkullCandy US. He told me I was the first customer he had seen wearing the Aviator and talked about them with me. He end up letting me get all the freebies I wanted. Sweet! I'd say the combined prices between the freebies and the pair of Holua (see previous post), I got the Aviators for free! Very sweet!

Bonus! The Aviator has a built in handset feature which on an iPhone allows you to switch to phone calls at the touch of a button. You can also use it to change the volume on your iPhone or iPod touch, so you can leave them in you pocket while you listen to your music.

Due to the huge demand for them, it took five weeks to arrive. Everybody wanted a pair. On the first day I wore them in public, a girl jumped out of a limo, ran across the road and tried to get them off me by accusing me of stealing them! Now I always thought that someone would try to steal them off me, but on the first day? Wow now that is demand!

Now unfortunately they haven't been released in Europe yet as of the huge demand for them in America. The new release date is January 2011, but that will probably be put back as I suspect they will be sold out again due to being on US Christmas lists. They cost me $150. I'd say you will probably end up paying double once it hits this side of the pond.

Yeah I'm probably one of a few people who have them in Europe. Yay for exclusivity!

My only problem with them is that the mic/volume control is a huge weak point in the design. Inside of it you can see very thin wires that have nothing protecting them from twisting. After three weeks my pair lost sound in the left speaker, I inspected inside and found that one of the wires became so frayed it came apart, and another about to go. As I returned to Europe, Skullcandy US could not help me as I was no longer in their juristiction, but as they were the only branch of the company with Aviators, Europe couldn't help me either.

That's the price of exclusivity I guess.

After months of emails and phone calls, I have organised a solution with Skullcandy US and EU. I'll keep you updated with that. By the way, neither speakers work now. Sucks.

Do I recommend them? Yes I do actually. Just remember, they are delicate!

Should have updated this ages ago but Skullcandy has replaced my Aviator headphones and I have had no problems with them at all.  I love them so much! 

Oh, and I met a girl who had the brown pair and they look so good! Saw a white pair in a shop and they didn't do it for me. They don't appear to be see through either. My favourite is still the black pair, and I'm not being biased, it's all down to personal taste. But if your buying a pair, I recommend the black or brown pair.