Skullcandy and Sony sell headphones to very different crowds, but a strange thing happened this month that put them on a collision course. Skullcandy released the Crusher 1080 ANC, a bass-heavy over-ear headphone with Bose noise-canceling technology baked in. Meanwhile, Sony’s WH-1000XM5 — the previous-generation flagship that for years was the default recommendation for anyone wanting the best ANC — dropped to $248 in what Amazon is calling a “final clearance” push. That’s $152 off the original $400 price.
Suddenly you have a choice that didn’t exist a month ago: a brand-new headphone with premium internals at a midrange price, or a proven flagship at a clearance price that undercuts most midrange options. Both have active noise canceling. Both have good battery life. Both work for calls. The differences are in the details, and they matter more than the spec sheets suggest.
Noise Canceling: Bose Inside vs Sony’s Best
Skullcandy licensing Bose’s noise-canceling tech is the headline feature of the Crusher 1080 ANC. It’s the first non-Bose headphone to ship with QuietControl ANC, Bose’s adaptive noise-canceling system that adjusts to your environment rather than running at a single fixed level. The headphone uses six microphones — three in each earcup — and Bose’s SpeechClarity voice pickup for calls.
Sony’s WH-1000XM5 runs eight microphones through two dedicated processors: the QN1 HD Noise Canceling Processor and the Integrated Processor V1. That dual-chip setup has been the gold standard for ANC since the XM5 launched in 2022, and it’s still competitive with the XM6 that replaced it. The XM5 does a noticeably better job of canceling mid-frequency noise — voices, office chatter, the hum of a coffee shop — than most competitors. High-frequency isolation is good but not class-leading anymore now that newer models have caught up.
The practical difference: Sony’s ANC is more refined and more proven. Bose-inside-Skullcandy is the newcomer with impressive specs but less real-world testing. The Bose QuietControl system inside the Crusher 1080 is the same technology that powers the $349 Bose QuietComfort Ultra, adapted for Skullcandy’s hardware. That means the core ANC capability is genuinely competitive. The question is implementation — how well the microphones are placed, how the earcup seal affects noise isolation, how the firmware handles sudden loud noises. Skullcandy hasn’t shipped an ANC headphone at this level before, so there’s execution risk that Sony eliminated years ago. If ANC is your top priority and you don’t care about anything else, the XM5 at $248 is the safer bet. If you’re willing to take a chance on Bose tech in a more affordable package, the Crusher 1080 is the more interesting option.
Sound: Bass Cannon vs Reference Tuning
Skullcandy’s Crusher line has always been about bass. The Crusher 1080 ANC continues that tradition with a sound profile that emphasizes low-end thump and sub-bass extension. This isn’t a neutral headphone. It’s designed for people who want to feel their music, not analyze it. The Bose WaveForm audio engine and TrueSpatial audio with head tracking add a layer of spatial processing that makes the soundstage feel wider than you’d expect from a bass-forward headphone. In practice, that means hip-hop kicks hit harder, EDM drops feel more physical, and action movies have more rumble. But acoustic tracks, podcasts, and classical recordings can sound artificially thickened — the bass boost that makes Drake sound great makes a solo piano sound wrong.
Sony’s XM5 takes the opposite approach. The default tuning is balanced and relatively neutral, with a slight warmth in the lower mids that makes vocals sound natural. The DSEE Extreme upscaling engine reconstructs detail lost in compressed audio, and LDAC support means you can stream at near-lossless quality from Android devices. If you want more bass, the Sony Headphones Connect app has a customizable five-band EQ — you can dial in extra low-end without permanently coloring everything. Out of the box, the XM5 sounds refined and controlled, the kind of tuning that works for podcasts, classical, hip-hop, and conference calls equally well.
Which one you prefer depends almost entirely on what you listen to. The Crusher 1080 makes bass-heavy genres more exciting. The XM5 makes everything sound correct. If your playlist is mostly hip-hop, electronic, or pop with heavy production, Skullcandy’s tuning might actually be the better fit — you’re getting the sound signature you want without having to EQ it in. If your listening is more varied or you do critical listening where accuracy matters, the XM5’s neutral baseline is the safer starting point.
Features and Comfort
Sony has a clear edge in features that make daily use easier. Speak-to-Chat pauses your music the moment you start talking and switches to transparency mode, so you don’t have to pull the headphones off to order coffee or answer a quick question. Touch controls on the right earcup handle playback, volume, calls, and your voice assistant. The soft-fit leather earcups are light enough for all-day wear, and the 30-hour battery with ANC on is still above average.
Skullcandy’s Crusher 1080 uses physical buttons — two per earcup — instead of touch controls. Some people prefer buttons because they’re harder to trigger accidentally when adjusting the headband or taking the headphones off. The headphone includes Bluetooth 6.0 and Bose’s TrueSpatial audio with head tracking, which the XM5 lacks (though the newer XM6 added it). It doesn’t have Speak-to-Chat or an equivalent feature. If you take a lot of calls or listen in environments where you’re constantly starting and stopping conversations, Sony’s convenience features add up quickly.
Call quality splits along interesting lines. Sony’s eight-microphone array and Precise Voice Pickup technology isolate your voice effectively in noisy environments — the person on the other end of your call won’t hear the coffee grinder behind you. Skullcandy’s six-microphone setup with Bose SpeechClarity is the wildcard. Bose’s voice pickup tech is genuinely good on the QuietComfort line, and licensing it into the Crusher 1080 gives Skullcandy a calling experience it couldn’t deliver on its own. Early hands-on reports suggest calls sound clear but not quite as isolated as the XM5’s dual-processor setup. If you take calls in noisy places regularly, the XM5 still leads. If calls are occasional and you’re usually in a quiet room, the difference won’t matter.
Both headphones fold flat for storage and come with carrying cases. Sony includes a USB-C cable and a standard 3.5mm headphone cable for wired use when the battery dies — a thoughtful inclusion that most manufacturers have dropped. Skullcandy’s accessories package is similar but the case materials feel less premium. Neither headphone is rated for water resistance, so don’t wear either in the rain or at the gym.
Price and Value
The Sony WH-1000XM5 at $248 is the best price it’s ever been. The XM6 has replaced it as the flagship, but the XM5 is still a top-tier ANC headphone that outperforms most headphones released since. At the clearance price, it’s competing with midrange models while delivering flagship performance. The catch is that it’s being cleared out — once inventory is gone, it’s gone.
Skullcandy hasn’t announced final pricing for the Crusher 1080 ANC yet, but the Crusher ANC 2 launched at $229, so a similar or slightly higher price point — somewhere in the $200 to $280 range — is likely. If it lands at $229, it undercuts the XM5 slightly. If it lands at $279, the XM5 at $248 is the better value by almost any measure.
The wildcard is longevity. Sony’s headphones have a track record of lasting three to four years with daily use. The earpads eventually wear out and need replacing, but the electronics hold up. Skullcandy’s build quality has improved with each generation — the Crusher ANC 2 was noticeably better built than the original Crusher ANC — but the company doesn’t yet match Sony’s consistency across units. The Crusher 1080 with Bose internals is a big step up for Skullcandy in terms of what’s inside the headphones. Whether the outside matches the inside over two years of daily use is something no reviewer can tell you yet.
There’s also the app experience. Sony’s Headphones Connect app is mature, well-designed, and gives you granular control over ANC levels, EQ, and touch control customization. Skullcandy’s app has improved but isn’t at the same level. If you’re the kind of person who sets up your headphones once and never opens the app again, this doesn’t matter. If you tweak EQ per album or switch ANC modes throughout the day, Sony’s software is the better experience.
Which One Should You Buy
If noise canceling is your top priority and you want a proven, refined headphone that does everything well, the WH-1000XM5 at $248 is hard to beat. It’s a flagship at a midrange price. Buy it before the clearance stock runs out. The only reason to hesitate is if you specifically want spatial audio with head tracking or if the XM5’s neutral tuning feels boring to you — neither of which is a flaw in the headphone itself.
If you listen to bass-heavy music, want spatial audio with head tracking, and like the idea of Bose ANC in a headphone that doesn’t look like every other black oval on the market, the Crusher 1080 ANC is the more interesting choice. It’s not as polished as the XM5, but it’s more fun. For the right listener, that matters more.
One final factor: the Crusher 1080 represents a bet on Skullcandy’s direction. The company partnered with Bose to put genuinely good tech into a headphone that historically competed on bass and price, not on noise canceling or call quality. If the execution is solid and the price lands right, Skullcandy could own a segment of the market — bass-forward headphones with flagship ANC — that nobody else is targeting. The first generation might have rough edges. The second generation might not. If you’re the kind of buyer who’d rather be part of a product’s trajectory than get the safest possible option, the Crusher 1080 is the more rewarding choice. If you want a headphone you can put on, forget about, and trust to work perfectly every time, the XM5 earned that reputation over years. It’s not exciting. It’s just good.