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Skullcandy pumped out two pretty cool ear buds.  The Smokin’ Buds have “suction cup” ear pieces to block out noise.  They also have a loudness slider, and come in different colors…for those who wish to express themselves through their ear buds’ color.  The Ink’d are a modest white, but deliver meaner tone, by far.

The Smokin’ Buds’ loudness slider is a great feature, but doesn’t cut the audio completely.  In its lowest position, the music still plays.  So if you listen to your music very loud (please don’t) and want to cut it to have a quick talk, you’ll still have Boy George whispering in your ear.  That kind of defeats the purpose. 

For my personal comfort, all ear buds kind of suck.  Between these two, the Ink’d sucked less.  They nestle into the ear real well and didn’t leave me feeling too violated.  The Smokin’ Buds are like little suction cups, which is great for those who wish to really cut out the world’s beautiful noise, but it just sounds dangerous to create a vacuum in your ear.  They didn’t sit in my ear as well, and I wasn’t about to push them in any further.

Tone and bass response is key with ear buds.  Since the sound is denied by the acoustic environment it’s designed to be in, color and tone need to be on point.  With this, the Ink’d win.  You’d never notice unless you heard them side-by-side, but the Ink’d have much better low-mids and better bottom end.  Don’t get me wrong, the Smokin' Buds sound crisp and clear.  They sound like everything around 600Hz and below 250Hz is attenuated, leaving the bright tones, but that’s a choice I’d rather leave to the mastering engineer. 

At the end of the day, the Smokin’ Buds had one better feature, but ultimately Ink’d pulled ahead for comfort and sound.  They’re both made by the same people, and they’re both comparably priced at around $20 - $30.