Plus, whenever you get low, the Rapid Charge feature gives you 3 hours of listening time on just a 10-minute charge. That said, a recording of a loud, busy restaurant played through near-field monitors gave the headphones some trouble. The highs are dialed up, too—the tape hiss is a little louder in the mix than it normally is, and the acoustic strums sound bright.

At lower volumes, they were able to tamp down the noise for the most part, but at high volumes, the highs seem to not only escape the ANC circuitry, but perhaps even get louder—there’s a weird effect in the earcups when this happens, as though you’re hearing the highs through the ambient mics.What that tells me is that the padding on the ears and on the headband are likely to pack down over time. Collecting the old product which is officially counted as WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). The active noise-cancelling was surprisingly good, it blocked out most noise whether that was my own keyboard taps, chatter or traffic. Even though there are 3 different earpieces to make the fit better, they don’t ‘seal’ well in my ears and I’m of average size. The sub-bass synth hits are delivered with true power here—they don’t quite overwhelm the mix, but the drivers are able to pump out lows that other headphones don’t quite reach down for.

You get about 22 hours of battery life with the Skullcandy Hesh ANC, that's not the best you can get but it will be plenty for most people who plan to use them every now and then throughout the week.The Hesh ANC manage to block out an impressive amount of noise for a pair of entry level headphones and the ambient mode on these headphones is miles better than the ambient mode found on the more premium Skullcandy Crusher ANC. They also support multi-device pairing, so you can connect up to two different devices, and their continuous battery life is longer. At times vocals did get drowned out though, and you couldn’t always hear every instrument coming through, like in Pencil Full of Lead by Paolo Nutini, which was a little muddied in places.

Although they have an ANC feature, it actually amplifies some bass-range noise like the rumble of a bus engine around you. They have around 24 hours of continuous playback time and the manufacturer advertises that a 10-minute quick charge can give you around three hours of playback time. She keeps a finger on the pulse when it comes to the most exciting and innovative tech and is happy to tell you exactly what she thinks about it too. They deliver intense thump and rumble in the bass-range, and their over-emphasized treble range can cause vocals and instruments to sound sharp and piercing.Distortion falls under good limits at a normal listening volume, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.