These stylish Skullcandy headphones are undeniable quality cans but left me wanting more (or maybe less?)

Skullcandy headphones are cool. That's been the brand's selling point ever since its foundation in Utah's outdoor sports capital Park City in 2003. As befits the brand's birthplace, Skullcandy has also been popular with active users, be it gym rats or snowboarders, for most of that time.

So that the new Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active should be aimed at that exact demographic, sportsy people with an obsession for style, is not exactly a giant left turn for its design and marketing department.

With an emphasis on bass over a more balanced sound profile (like so many of those models in our guide to the best audiophile Bluetooth headphones), this Crusher set arrives knowing exactly who its target audience is: people who like being active while listening to thumping dance or rock music while looking cool. Hey, I tick off two of things! Should be right up my street.

Design and build

The Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active is available in five colours that of course can't be called what they actually are. That wouldn't be cool. So, the options we have are: Soft (faded pink), Concrete (off-white), Smoke (dark burgundy-brown), Forest (earthy green) and Coal (black). My test unit is the Concrete one, and I must say, it looks rather fetching.

In terms of the build, the Crusher is made from a mixture of metal and smooth plastic (which feels like a composite), with a faux-leather-clad headband cushioning on top. The earcups are made from breathable fabric, which is intended to reduce sweat and overheating sensation on your ears as you wear them during your gym session or run or whatever you do to stay active.

The fit is comfortable but firm, and when playing basketball or running after a football with my kid, I didn't worry much about them slipping at all, which is definitely not the norm for over-ear headphones. The weight is lower than many rivals', for that same purpose, which explains at least in part the choice to go for plastic on so much of the casing.

Skullcandy says the headphones are covered moisture-fighting nano-coating and that the breathable ear cushions help dispel heat, and while that certainly makes them more comfortable than leather or faux-leather-clad cans, they started feeling quite hot to me within about 20 minutes of exercise. I do get overheated quite easily, to be fair, so this might just be a general me problem.

The buttons on the cups are easily navigable without looking at them, thanks to them being split between the two earcups and each having a different texture and feel. And as if to ram the bass-heavy messaging of the promotional material, the left cup has a slider that adjusts the bass levels of whatever you're listening to.

All in all, the Crusher 540 Active cans look the business, although I myself prefer a little more intricate design touch on the earcups than the textureless plastic we have here. But it's in keeping with the big, clean shapes that are so in fashion today, so I'm just gonna have to deal with it.

Features, performance and price

The flagship feature in the Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active is what the maker calls 'Multi-sensory Crusher Bass for a whole-body audio hit'. And while it certainly lives up to the 'audio hit' claim, there is a level - and yes, I realise the shock of me, a '90s raver kid, saying this - where you get too much bass. And the Crusher reaches that about two-thirds up the slider on the earcup.

Thankfully, there's a more nuanced audio control available through the accompanying app, in which I could adjust the equalisation much more accurately for my tastes, and I did enjoy the 'Personal Sound by Mimi' feature, which claim to optimise the playback quality for your specific hearing. I struggle to make out speech and lyrics a lot, and I must admit it did help me get a clearer vocal sound without flattening the instrumentals too much.

Tuning the bass up to 'Obliterate' is mostly free of distortion, to Skullcandy's credit, and there is more than enough volume for music to cut through environmental noise, even without any Active Noise Cancellation on board.

However, after experiencing loads of high-quality headphones in the last few years emerging from all corners of the globe, many of which can be had for considerably less than these Crushers, I struggled to really fall for this set. I can recognise the tech that went into its very specific engineering, and the design is gym-friendly and striking in that Jony Ive-inspired way that you will either like or hate, but I don't know that I would feel compelled to pick this set over any other on a shop shelf, especially at the price tag Skullcandy has placed on it.

The extreme emphasis on bass here leads to most music losing its nuance, resulting in a samey, sometimes aggressive sound profile, regardless of what the genre is I'm listening to.

And, at almost £170 at the time of writing this, having some noise cancellation would have been nice, too.

Who is it for?

• Style-conscious active users, for use in the gym or during outdoor runs

Buy them if...

• You want market-approved cool
• You can never have too much bass in your life

Don't buy them if...

• You want a more nuanced sound profile
• Your ears get hot very easily