Skullcandy has relaunched its Aviator headphone series after a 15-year hiatus
The new Aviator 900 ANC is its new flagship offering at $300 / £250. While not quite the brand’s priciest headphones to date, they're being touted as the most premium and advanced, and are priciest in the current line-up.
While the original Aviator line made its debut in 2010, this revival attempts to blend the series' distinctive retro aesthetic with updated audio tech.
This includes THX Spatial Audio with head tracking – a Skullcandy first – which promises a more immersive listening experience.
Users will also be able to create a customised sound profile powered by Mimi – the same tech found in products from other brands, including Focal, Philips, and Nothing.
Beyond tailoring the sound, it will also reportedly restore detail, while letting you enjoy music at lower volumes.
As for noise cancellation, the Aviator 900 feature six microphones to help block out the outside world, while battery life can reach up to 60 hours with ANC turned off.
This drops to around 50 hours with it turned on, while a 10-minute quick charge provides four hours’ worth of juice.
For context, this is pretty respectable, though it doesn’t quite match the likes of the never-ending Cambridge Audio Melomania P100, which lasts up to 100 hours without ANC, and 50 hours with it turned on.
Still, Skullcandy’s latest cans trounce more expensive handsets like the £400 five-star Sony WH-1000XM6 in terms of battery life, with Sony’s offering only managing 30 hours with ANC on. The audio and ANC performance though, is likely a different story.
This is all, of course, without mentioning the design. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but we rather like the organic curves, coiled wires, and suede materials.
Physical controls like a knurled thumbwheel are a bonus too, and there’s even a tiny multi-function LCD display with suitable retro orange digits for (presumably) displaying information like the current volume level. They fold flat as well, which is a bonus for compact travellers.
Connectivity includes Bluetooth 5.3 with LE Audio support, multipoint pairing for simultaneous device connections, and Google Fast Pair integration.
The accompanying Skullcandy app also provides customisation options, including five-band EQ adjustment, button remapping, and adjustable transparency modes.
You’ll notice we haven’t mentioned anything about the audio hardware – the press release is notably devoid of any actual physical specs like driver type, size, frequency response and the like, so we’ll naturally have to reserve all judgement until we get to take them for a spin.
The Aviator 900 ANC are available now via Skullcandy's website and selected retailers globally for $300 / £250 (Australian pricing and availability have yet to be confirmed).
Whether or not it’s worth forking out that much when excellent alternatives like the far cheaper Sony WH-CH720N exist, remains to be seen. The fact that you can also get the proven Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless for £199 in the UK at the time of writing is also tempting.
Still, we’re looking forward to seeing how Skullcandy shapes up against the competition. Watch this space.
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