Being a huge fan of Danzig and The Misfits, the first time I saw the 360-CD Personal CD Player from SkullCandy I knew that I had to have it. This went beyond wanting something, I needed this. When it was first listed at the website it wasn't yet up for sale so I patiently waited for it to become available. That wait proved too tedious so I opted to buy it from another site and was certain that I got ripped off because it didn’t arrive when the tracking number said it should have. Long story short, it finally showed up, was in perfect condition and is something that I really like. I am not going to mince words here, I did expect more from this CD player; SkullCandy products are not cheap and if you are paying upwards of a hundred dollars you expect something that is going to make the bones in your neck sore from the bass boost and leave your ears ringing from the sound.

Skull Candy 360-CD Personal CD Player

This isn’t really called the "Doom & Gloom" CD player but the graphics on the lid are what helped me coin that phrase to describe this. For all intents and purposes it is a well made portable CD player that will give you an above average sound but a lot of that depends on what you are listening to as well as the headphones that you are using. The ones that come with this are the standard SkullCandy ear buds that will give you a lot of clarity and allow you to listen to the true sound of your music. A few people that I have talked to about this said that when they ordered theirs they didn't get headphones with them; they ordered from different sites than I did [none of which were the official Skull Candy site] so that may be why there are different packaging methods and why some of us got headphones and some of us didn't. If you have the choice, stick with the SkullCandy headphones because you are going to get some awesome sound and if you crank the volume, they won't fry out.

Even though this says that it doesn't have a bass boost or bass enhancement, it does. Even without it, you are still going to get bone chilling beats that are sure to have all the bass heads shaking in their shoes. The only problem that I have with the overall sound is when playing certain types of burned CD's; namely the Memorex brand. For what ever reason they skip, freeze or sound like absolute crap. When I played these discs on other CD players they sounded fine but on this one, they sounded like something that was recorded on to a cassette then on to a CD. This player supports both CD-R and CD-RW discs and tracks ripped from MP3's but the quality you are going to get from them depends on the quality of the original and the disc it is transferred to. How does this handle slightly scratched discs? One of my copies of October Rust is badly scratched and will only play on certain models but this one played it in its entirety with only some small skip.

Some of the features of this include looping so you can have the CD repeat itself once it has reached the last track, fast scan forward, fast scan reverse, pause and the lovely hold switch. This is something that I have really grown dependant on; I can slip the player into my pocket or backpack and have it play without skipping tracks if buttons are accidentally pushed or having the volume level change. But to sweeten the deal even more there is a remote on the headphones; this is something that doesn't come with the regular SkullCandy ear buds so if this is a feature you really want, you are going to have to do your homework and read the fine print so you get the correct pair. From the remote you can change the track, volume and play mode but that's about it. Contrary to what some people have said, this doesn't show the name of the track or the artist. If you want something like that, invest in an MP3 player and log all your information. The remote is a nice perk and allows you to have some freedom if you are using this when running or working out but it isn't waterproof so make sure you don't sweat all over it.

I recently upgraded to rechargeable batteries so I could eliminate having to spend an obscene amount of money buying AA sized batteries for electronics and hand held video games. I never bothered to use the ones that came with this set up or use the unit to recharge batteries. That is something that I wouldn't do with a cheap CD player or an expensive one. There is no way I am risking having a battery leak or explode of have the unit overheat simply because I want to recharge my batteries in it. I get about six hours of use from the Duracell rechargeable ones that I use and that is more than enough time for me to go for a run, hit the gym or go for a long walk. There is a battery supply meter on the screen so you know pretty much how much life there is left to the batteries but this isn't a 100% accurate reading so take it with a grain of salt. I've never had batteries die on me while using this but I have come close. I can't say that these are real battery killers but hey, I am using rechargeables so when they start to die, I pop them in the charger and get on with my life.

The control buttons are easy to operate; you don’t have to press hard to get it to advance a track or to change the volume so this is something that pretty much anyone and everyone can use providing that you can get over the somewhat scary graphics. To me that is one of the best parts of the player; sure it is going to get scratched or show marring but for the time being, this baby strikes fear into pretty much everyone that sees it. How do people react to it? Most think it is the Misfits logo, if they even know who the Misfits are. I have had a few people ask me if they could try it out and see what it sounded like and I was more than a little leery about it, I had no desire to chase someone down the street if they decided to make off with it because then I would be forced to bash their skull into the pavement. One possible downside to this is that it is a little on the heavy side; if you are wearing loose sweatpants and put this in your pocket, you better have clean undies on because they will start to slide down on you.

The Bottom Line

This is something that I really wanted to get my hands on when I first saw it at the site. The one year warranty is nice but I have no idea if SkullCandy is going to honor it if anything happens to this since I didn't buy it from their site. Call it an impulse purchase, call it some throw back to my darker metal years, but this is a CD player that matches my mood when I am at the gym or lifting weights. If I had it to do all over again I would have went through the Skull candy site to buy this but I did receive a unit that works perfectly and came with headphones. If you are looking for a strange gift for someone, a Danzig or Misfits fan or just something that will freak people out, the SkullCandy 360 is an awesome pick.


As always, thanks for the visit…

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2006 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 129.00