Using the ‘Music’ EQ setting, the Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds XT have a v-shaped sound profile that overemphasizes the bass and mid-treble frequencies. The bass is less prominent than in other Skullcandy headphones, like the Skullcandy Indy ANC True Wireless, but electronic music fans will appreciate the boom and punch in the low end. However, a few bumps in the mid-mid to mid-treble range cause lead instruments, vocals, and sibilants to sound very bright overall.
Tapping either bud four times also allows you to choose between three different EQ presets: ‘Music’ (which is the default setting), ‘Podcast’, and ‘Movie’. These presets tweak the sound profile to fit these different media types. ‘Music’ and ‘Movie’ both have boosted bass for a thumpy, boomier sound, while the podcast preset rolls off a lot of these bass frequencies for improved speech clarity. The ‘Music’ and ‘Podcast’ settings also have a bit more treble than the ‘Movie’ setting, injecting some extra high-end sparkle to instruments and speech. You can see the frequency response of the ‘Movie’, ‘Music’, and ‘Podcast’ settings here. The ‘Music’ response is hidden behind the ‘Movie’ and ‘Podcast’ responses.
