Some may argue and hate on Dubstep, electronic dance music in general, being too repetitive and “annoying”. But, have you ever tried listening to them with a heavy bass-focused pair of headphones.
That’s when my article of best headphones for dubstep, kicks in.
Before I start listing what I think are the best headphones for dubstep, let me define Dubstep in short words, for those who don’t know.
Dubstep is a genre of electronic music that originated in London, in the early 2000s. Like most forms of dance electronic music, it is created especially for the dancefloor, and it is produced to be heard on a loud sound system. Dubstep is all about BASS, it is typically driven by its sub-bass and it is not enjoyable being heard on an inferior system like computer speakers, cheap speakers in general.
| Image | Product | Features | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 10 | Check Latest Price | |
 | 9 | Check Latest Price | |
 | 8.5 | Check Latest Price | |
 | 8.8 | Check Latest Price | |
 | 8.6 | Check Latest Price |
The Top 5 Headphones For Dubstep:
5. Beats Studio3
It was a time when Beats by dr. Dre were seen everywhere and worn anywhere. Even though they are not hyped as much those days, they still remain at the top charts, lately being represented by their flagship, the Beats Studio3 Wireless headphones.
The latest incarnation (and latest model) from Beats make use of the signature stylish look of Beats with the new noise cancellation technology and a high-performance battery- life.
Beats Studio3 is made out of soft, matte plastic that is quite smooth and nice to touch. They are available in a bunch of colors, like always Beats is generous in that aspect; such as Matte Black, Blue, Midnight Black, shadow gray, red and more.
The ear cups are made from synthetic leather and are really well padded, will fit over most ears while the padded steel headband, finishes things off by offering great comfort for hours.
Besides the Noise-canceling feature, the key change would be Apple’s W1 chip.
The W1 chip is Apple’s take on wireless Bluetooth. It enables painless pairing across all Apple devices. Worry not, even though they are optimized for compatibility with Apple devices, they work just fine with any device that has Bluetooth compatibility.
Beats have been all about Bass, besides the stylish look, a major selling point was their heavy bass. Surprisingly enough, this time in Studio3 bass isn’t their key ingredient in their sound signature, it’s not nonexistent don’t worry about that. It feels like it has been forced to take a back seat to the midranges and highs. Nevertheless, they still remain great contenders for listening to Dubstep.
Battery life, well it is decent, nothing to complain about nothing to the hype either. It will mostly depend on your usage, you get 22 hours with ANC on.
4. Sony WF-XB700
Sony WF-XB700, might not have the best naming scheme like something from Bose (e:g QuietComfort) but it is as straightforward as you can get. The XB part stands for extra bass, oh and it sure delivers it at a great price.
Sony is quite prolific in the headphone industry, it is keen to embrace as many categories and budgets as possible. I mean how can they not be famous when they provided a flagship like Sony WH-1000XM4.
But enough with that, we are not here to talk about Bose or XM4, but the Sony WF-XB700. A pair of headphones that might be the cheapest ones in Sony’s huge portfolio, that offer great comfort and BASS in return.
They are available in Black and Blue colors and they sport a plastic oval shape that is designed to mimic the shape of your ear. The contours sit between the silicone ear tip tightly, to ensure that the buds stay in your ears.
Overall, their low weight makes them surprisingly comfortable and easy to wear for a long time, also the tight seal that I just mentioned contributes to them sounding great.
The case it comes with is quite minimalist and not something we are used to seeing on Sony’s more expensive earbuds, which is an understandable compromise. It is fairly slim and it uses a translucent cover that allows you to see the charging status of the earbuds, just plain and simple.
As for the sound quality, I’m not sure if I should include this part and waste your time further. I mean they have the “XB” in their name, which I mentioned earlier “Extra Bass”.
That gives us a good insight into how they sound.
The first thing you will notice when listening to them is the bass, don’t worry though it is done in a way to sound punchy and nice, rather than muddy and bloated. The result of the responsive bass would be: Pretty fun to listen to Dubstep music.
Battery life is on the good side too, without the cases you get around 9 hours of playtime, and when in the case it doubles at 18 hours. Its charging time takes around 2 hours or 3 from 0 to 100%.
3. V-Moda Crossfade M-100 Master
V-Moda Crossfade M-100 Master is the successor of the original Crossfade M-100, a pair of headphones that gave the competition a hard time since their debut.
Crossfade M-100 Master, is here to do the same, but the latter one proves to be even a tougher challenge for the competition, it got an upgrade on all aspects.
Let’s dig a bit more and see what makes them a threat in the audio industry.
Before I start talking about their design, they also give the listeners the option to customize the headphones, the same thing I mentioned in my Crossfade 2 Wireless Codex review. It is a cool thing to have around you can choose the material, color the metal plates, and all the way to screws.
Build quality is another level with those headphones, something we expect from V-Moda products now, at the same time is something that gives them an edge over the fragile plastic built from the competition.
The matt black case has a cyberpunk look and surprisingly enough, despite their robust and metal build they are quite light and compact. They look quite futuristic and at the same time quite simple and minimalistic.
Their closed design shields you very well from the background noises and hardly bleeds outside. Sound quality with their 50mm double diaphragm drivers, presents an above-average wide frequency response. I mean just by their bulky, tough design you would assume that they are a pair of headphones that lives for the heavy bass. Crossfade M-100 Master reproduces every genre of music quite well, without leaving the dubstep behind, obviously.
Overall, they have a great audio quality and are a great pick for long listening sessions or casual listening. They can handle anything you throw at them, and performs exceptionally well with bass heavy music.
2. JBL Tune 125TWS
The next option would be earbuds from JBL, and I like how JBL bills them as “Pure Bass. Zero Cables”. Just what we need right?
The JBL Tune 125TWS, much like his brother, the 120TWS, rocks a straightforward and minimalistic design. They are lightweight, compact, and accompanied by a hefty charging case. The charging case is as discreet as the earbuds, and they fit instantly in the socket via their magnets, which gives them a tight and secure fit for charging. What I liked the most on the case, was the USB Type-C charging port as opposed to a Micro USB charging port that we saw on the 120TWS.
You can pick the Tune 125TWS in, black, blue, pink, and white. Since the headphones themselves are all about simplicity and discreetness, id advises going for the black or white color, for a flashy color you can go for pink.
What I like the most about their design, must be the comfortability on the ear, and in-ear fit. They come in three different silicone ear tips – small, medium, and large to fit all ear types. To secure the fit of the earbuds to not fall, you need to twist the earbud a bit inside the ear.
The Pure Bass on their name isn’t there for nothing, you won’t be able to stop yourself from making a dance move when listening to dubstep with them. What I like is that they sure give bass, but you can also hear the rest of the track and not just loud annoying bass. Overall, the sound quality is quite solid and is able to maintain a balance in all sound stages while offering clean and punchy bass.
As for the battery life, JBL promises us up to 32 hours with the charging case, since it adds a total of three charges in the earbuds, this means 8 hours in the earbuds and 24 hours in the case.
Great audio quality, no sound leakage and a comfortable fit for long listening sessions make these the best option when it comes to in-ears.
1. Skullcandy Crusher Evo
The Crusher Evo is the newest addition to the SkullCandy’s Crusher lineup, since its debut they became fan favorite.
SkullCandy sure did hit the nail in the head with their Evo, these over ear headphones are a dream for bass heads.
At first sight, you notice the good build soft-plastic material that feels smooth and nice to touch. You can pick them on a bunch of colors that all look good, like Chill Gray, Dark Blue / Green, Light Grey / Blue, and True Black. The headband is lightly cushioned and automatically adjusts to accommodate different shaped heads(even large heads, without a problem). The earcups come in faux leather and they can tilt, swivel, even retract for space-saving and transport.
They are a bit heavy, but nothing offensive, still remain compact and portable. Something that might bother people is, due to their due to the closed system it develops a certain amount of heat around the ears. But yeah, I think this might also consider a benefit, especially on the cold winter days.
Sound quality? Do we even need to dig here? The audio quality of these over ear headphones is simply amazing, however, they might not be for everyone.
The iconic sound feature that Skullcandy is known for is their bizarre bass, which is really responsive and punchy. That’s not all, the Evo’s are so bass-hungry that they even feature a Sensory Haptic Bass, which basically is a bass booster that creates haptic bass perception. No doubt, that the Skullcandy Crusher Evo is ideal for the DubStep genre or electronic music in general. Providing a haptic bass that can be heard even in the throat, is their only purpose in “life “.
Battery-Life? They sure have good stamina.
Skullcandy claims that the Evos will last you a whole whopping of 40 hours. Surprisingly enough, in some cases, people reported that it lasts even more than that, which is quite insane. If these are too expensive for you, i recommend you take a look at our list of the best skullcandy headphones to see more options.
Even though they are not a pair of high end studio headphones that you can use for music production, they still do a good job, and you can use them for light music production if you’re into that.
Since the list consists of both types, Over ear Headphones, and Earbuds, I’ll go on below and explain the difference between them.
Headphones vs Earbuds
Headphones are well-padded and feel cooler to have, but at the end of the day, they will never be as lightweight and portable as earbuds (earphones)
At the same time, they lack the versatility and professionality a pair of good Headphones give, as well as the noise cancellation, especially the passive one.
Both types have their benefits and weakness, meaning, in the end, is all about preferences and budget, or on what you are willing to compromise.
2 Key Factors: Buying the Best Headphones for Dubstep
Aside from Bass, which is obviously that they should be bass-oriented, you need to pay attention to their comfort and padding.
Yeah, this might sound pretty much like the same thing, good padding means good comfort. That too, but aside from the comfort factor it also hugely helps in keeping the ambient noise away, as well as to keep the music from floating away in the environment. If you want a bit of extra “OOMPH” on your dubstep, always go for high-end padding headphones.
As for the comfort, it is obvious, that you will be wearing the headphones for a long period of time, you want them to be as comfortable as possible so you can avoid unnecessary fatigue.
Final Words
As you can see, a pair of dubstep headphones can look like any other headphones, there’s nothing groundbreaking or uncanny about them.
What you should know and learn more about is, what’s under the hood, meaning not all the 50mm drivers you see are the same and produce the same quality.
I picked those products based on my knowledge and mostly went for the ones that are heavy bass oriented since bass is the best presentation of the Dubstep genre.
Sound Artist
I’m a Sound Artist creating immersive sonic experiences. I turn everyday objects into music, turning the mundane into something marvellous!
