The best wireless headphones aren't necessarily suitable for kids: their delicate ears are easily damaged, and many of the best headphones are capable of higher volumes than your little ones should be exposed to.
There's just one problem with most of the kids' headphones I've tried with my offspring. They're terrible. Sound quality is often appalling, and the design is often a hard sell for kids too young for Sony WH-1000XM5 but too old for Fisher-Price design. So I'm intrigued by a new pair of Bluetooth headphones, the Puro BT2200 Plus, that promise not just to protect my kids' ears but to delight them too.
What's so great about the Puro BT2200 Plus?
As you'd expect from kids' headphones, there's an 85dB volume limit in accordance with WHO guidelines for protecting hearing health. The BT2200 Plus also isolate a lot of noise – 83% of ambient noise at 1kHz, Puro says – and there's a choice of over-ear or on-ear cups with both included in the packaging. That isn't just a comfort option: it means the headphones can stay comfortable as your child grows.
There's a built-in mic for gaming and chat, and in a nice touch there's also a daisy chain sharing cable so that siblings or pals can listen to the same thing simultaneously. Battery life is a promised 20 hours.
I haven't tested these headphones yet but their predecessors, the BT2200, have been widely reviewed and the consensus is that while they're not quite adult-grade headphones the sound quality is very impressive with good transparency and only a slightly bass-forward personality. I did see one review noting that the volume limiter seemed less effective on wired connections, but it performed fine over Bluetooth and may have been solved for this new Plus edition.
The BT2200 Plus is currently available from Amazon UK in a choice of six colours including black, blue, green, purple, teal and pink. At £100 they're at the higher end of the kids' headphone price bracket, but for older children you might find it's worth spending that much: a cheaper pair your kids won't wear may be a false economy.
