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Sanity question.
We dont use ipads etc except as a "long journey" treat.
We are off on a fairly long flight / transfer, so I'm looking for 2 sets of headphones that can link, preferably Bluetooth, to one ipad.
The boys are 2 1/2.
What do you all suggest?
I think if you want audio sharing then it needs to be something with an apple chip in.
So beats or AirPods…
We use Pogs. They have both wired and blueTooth versions.
We prefer cables as it requires us to do less and there is no battery to charge. Getting replaceable cables is a good idea if you do choose cabled. The cabled versions link up to allow sharing and have replaceable cables.
We got some J Buddies as they can be used Bluetooth or wired as well as being able to wire additional sets together.
Got them so a whole train didn't have to listen to Paw Patrol.
We use the jvc ones that are about a tenner. Cheap, fit well, have volume limiting built in, haven't died in 4 years
We had some JVC wired units. They’re pretty good. But we replaced them recently with their Bluetooth equivalents. They’re great. Battery life is brilliant, buttons on the side map through to volume and start/stop/next track on their iPads.
None.
Short answer, they won't be bothered by the lack of sound. Just put the speaker on. Everyone else on the plane will have headphones. Plus you will really need 2 ipads.....
Long answer, I have some experience in noise and acoustics, and now 2 young kids. Headphones for kids is not something I'd not be encouraging. Not a lot seems to be known about safe noise levels for kids. The 85dB limit on kids headphones seems lifted straight from occupational health regulations for adults. It is the limit at which hearing protection becomes mandatory.
Technology wise it would be possible to have headphones that measure exposure and reduce the volume or switch off completely. But there is no safe exposure defined.
I don’t really get that logic. Presumably you think there is a safe level, the fact that we don’t know it more precisely is not relevant to the discussion unless you think we should block out all sound for children?
Your kids are gonna get lifelong tinnitus from constantly wearing headphones and going to gigs at the age of 19. Not from watching Octonauts.
We have some MPOW wired ones that link together, the kids seem to like and have been fairly robust.
The kids don’t listen to me, but I don’t think I can blame the headphones for that.
We know two things. First headphones expose you to louder levels of sound. Second, noise induced hearing loss is mostly caused by long term exposure to moderately loud levels of sound.
There is no known safe noise exposure level for kids using headphones. So the best course of action is not encouraging the habit of using them. To be fair, we shouldn't encourage adults to use headphones unless necessary. I think in a few years we will see the affects of using headsets for work Zoom calls reflected in compensation lawsuits.
We went with some snuggly headphones, have sound limiters so good for the ears.
We went basic and got a headphone jack splitter so they could share a device.
Cheap and cheerful and still work fine after a couple of years of abuse.
Have the MPOW ones too, they're holding up OK. Twin pack came with a headphone splitter in the box.
I don’t really get that logic. Presumably you think there is a safe level, the fact that we don’t know it more precisely is not relevant to the discussion unless you think we should block out all sound for children?
I can see what you're getting at now. Kids will be exposed to sound in everyday life. It would be fine if using headphones didn't increase that exposure. However it likely will, which leads on to...
noise induced hearing loss is mostly caused by long term exposure to moderately loud levels of sound.
It's simple risk mitigation.
I've looked at kids headphones a bit more. I know the tech exists to make a set that could monitor the noise level the headphones produced, limit it and switch off to enforce breaks etc. However they don't seem to exist. This is probably because a safe exposure level for kids isn't defined. Even if it existed and headphones enforced it, would parents buy headphones that switched off or kids might complain are too quiet? They'd also be more expensive than the passive limiting systems.
(My) kids chewed headphone cables as they overdosed on the mild peril of Octonauts. So don’t spend much. Or buy some heat shrink sleeve as well.