As a former wired headphones loyalist, I was reluctant to jump on the wireless earbuds train. The only time I’d ever considered moving away from them was at the gym — it’s easy to be envious of the wireless life when an earbud flies out mid-burpee and hits you in the eye. There’s something to be said for headphones specifically designed for workouts .

Which is what brings me to the Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active earbuds — I’ve been testing them out for the last two weeks on both the most rigorous runs and the mellowest of work days, and I was pleasantly surprised. In my book, Skullcandy headphones were never the first I gravitated toward in the lineup of brands. However, these buds boast some sound. While I ran into a few snags right off the bat, these wireless earbuds are a generally more affordable option with surprisingly solid sound.

Price, specs, and availability

The Sesh ANC Active buds are in-ear headphones that come only in an orange and black option. They feature a stabilizing fit grip that you can adjust to your ear size with three different ear-tip options, which are included in the box along with the USB-C charging cord and charging case. The earbuds also offer touch control for easy pausing, playing, pairing, and more — including a Spotify Tap-compatible action.

They have an IP67 rating and an adjustable Active Noise Canceling setting with a Stay Aware mode for safety when you’re out and about. The Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active earbuds are available at major retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, but you can also buy them directly from the Skullcandy website for $90.

What I like about the Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active earbuds

A home-run in two departments

The only Skullcandy buds I’ve ever owned were cheap wired ones in 2015, and it was safe to say that their sound was less than impressive. I did not run into the same complaint when I donned the Sesh ANC Active buds. I listen to everything from Kendrick Lamar to Sabrina Carpenter and Hans Zimmer to Luke Combs on any given Tuesday, so I tested them against all my genres to see how they held up against harmonica solos and heavy EDM drops. I was not disappointed.

On their default listening setting, the bass was fabulous. It didn’t give the physical feeling of my ear canals being pressed against a bass drum, but if I turned the volume up loud enough, there was definitely a good distinction from the rest of the sounds. However, the bass never reached a level where it drowned out other sounds or compromised the quality of the headphones in general. They even excelled in my classical music test, where all the string instruments in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake received the attention they were due.

My other favorite part about these earbuds is their battery life. Like I said, I’ve been using them for two weeks in one-to-two-hour increments for both work and exercise, but I haven’t had to plug in the case to charge it even once yet. With a total battery life of 48 hours (12 hours in the earbuds, 36 hours in the case) and rapid charging (10 minutes gives you a two-hour charge), it feels like I’ll never actually have to plug them in — though, at the exact time of writing this, I finally received my first low-battery warning.

Regarding the world around me, I’ve found that these earbuds feel most at home in my ears either at a coffee shop cranking out some work or in the gym. During cardio, they stay in place very well as long as you have the right-sized ear tips attached. Thanks to the IP67 rating, which makes them dust and water-resistant, I even got to jog in the last few harmless dregs of Hurricane Debby a few weeks ago.

What I don’t like about Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active earbuds

One true strikeout, but easily remedied

First and foremost, I keep running into pairing issues. About 25% of the time, I take the earbuds out of their case to listen to Spotify, and only one bud is connected and on. At first, I intuitively tried to figure it out for myself — putting both or even just one bud at a time back into the case, closing it, and taking it back out. When that didn’t work, I consulted the Quick Start Guide that came in the box and noticed that one of the four main pages of instructions included a “Having trouble?” guide to the exact issue I was having. Missing audio in one earbud was a main concern with a quick fix readily available, but having that dedicated remedy section leads me to believe that it’s a common issue with these buds.

When it comes to Active Noise Canceling (or ANC), Skullcandy didn’t take the gold with its default settings right out of the box, in my opinion. If you’re a true audiophile who likes to mess around with EQ settings and customization buttons, downloading the Skullcandy app is worth it. With it, you can manage these buds and any other Skullcandy devices you have, optimize your audio experience, control equalizer settings, view instructions (that definitely got thrown out when you tossed the packaging), and even download firmware updates for your headphones. However, if you’re looking for a pair of ANC earbuds specifically to remove every surrounding sound without any tweaking at all, these might not be for you.

My final complaint is the absence of one touch-control feature: Track Backwards. Maybe I’m stuck in the wired headphones past, but I love the intuitive double-tap-for-skip and triple-tap-for-back feature. If you want to return to a song that you accidentally skipped, you’ll have to pull out your phone to do so. If you try the triple-tap trick, you’ll find yourself toggling between ANC On, Stay-Aware Mode On, and ANC Off.

Should you buy the Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active earbuds?

Great value for the sound you get

If you’re looking for a relatively affordable pair of wireless earbuds that have good ANC and fantastic sound across genres, the Skullcandy Sesh ANC Active buds are definitely for you. If you’re looking for a bass-blasting set of buds that will have your brain buzzing inside your head, maybe not so much. But I’d like to know who does have that on their wishlist if they aren’t headlining at the local dance club.

These buds are small and inconspicuous, but boast a sound that carries depth whether you’re listening to Jelly Roll on theTwisters soundtrack or Avicii’s Levels. I’m definitely going to take them everywhere as a versatile pair of buds that can go straight from playing Chappell Roan while sipping cappuccinos to hitting my new PR with RL Grime blasting in my ears.