The Puro set connects easily over Bluetooth and has a simple on/off switch and volume controls. While a lot of other kids headphones are made of breakable cheap plastic, the BT2200 has a well-constructed aluminum frame. Plus, the headphones come with a 30-day money-back guarantee and a one-year warranty. In fact, we long-term tested these headphones with several kids, including on cross-country flights, and all of our test pairs are still doing just fine. The size and weight fit kids from 2½ to 11 years comfortably, so you can buy these headphones once and they’ll grow with your child, and they are sturdy enough that they should last a long time, too.
The wireless design is also handy for avoiding tangles, a favorite feature of our big-kid panelists. The Bluetooth wireless connection-done correctly here-means that the Puro pair will play at the correct levels, whatever source the child uses it with. The Puro BT2200 is our pick because not only do these headphones remain within safe listening levels when used properly, but they were also the top pick of all our kid panelists, which means your little ones will be more likely to use them. But our picks, used properly, should help to provide an added level of protection for your kids’ ears, and peace of mind for you. We believe that volume-limiting headphones are merely tools that can assist parents or caregivers in protecting a child’s hearing-they are not solutions in themselves. Upon finishing our analysis, we found several headphone models that we felt confident recommending-though even with those, protecting a child’s ears isn’t as simple as just handing over a pair. In fact, based on our findings, The New York Times (parent company of Wirecutter) conducted its own investigation into kids headphones, regulations, and safety. You can read about all of our testing methods in detail below. Additionally, many of the headphones we tested had design flaws that could allow a child to bypass their volume-reduction features easily. When we went further with our testing, we found that even more of these headphones-nearly half-could be pushed past the recommended 85 dB when measured with actual music.
It’s light and doesn’t feel bulky, so it’s easy to wear all day.Despite claims that kids headphones limit volume to 85 decibels (the level the World Health Organization considers “safer”), up to one-third of the kids headphones we tested exceeded that level when measured with pink noise, allowing higher volumes-sometimes much higher. The mic boom offers the convenience of rigid plastic with the flexibility of a wire-allowing you to place it precisely for the best possible sound and quickly flip it out of the way. Calls are crisp without being so bright that your ears get fatigued. It’s heavier than our main pick but also has a fuller sound profile that is better for music, while voice calls still sound great.įor heavy users, the UC Voice 550 Duo is the best USB headset we tested. If your day at the office consists of frequently switching between calls and your mp3 collection, Microsoft’s LifeChat LX-6000remains a very good option-it was our previous pick, and it’s currently a few bucks cheaper than the Jabra. It also features an easy-to-position mic boom, which combines rigid plastic with a more flexible wire tip. The noise-canceling mic filters out background noise so you won’t drive your callers crazy, and when you don’t want to be heard, the easy-to-use mute controls were among the quietest and most discreet we tried. It’s comfortable enough to wear during even the longest conference calls thanks to soft, well-padded earcups that don’t put pressure on your ears, and it has the best sound quality for voice calls of all the models we tested but still allows you to hear what’s going on around you.