Headphone advice for 7 year old

[jp_over]

Friends,

I made a not-so-great purchase that I've learned from. I bought a "volume limiting" set of headphones for my daughter. This model in fact: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q3I68TU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

While the concept of an added layer of ear protection sounds ideal in theory, in practice it results in having to elevate the source to unreasonably high levels with the unfortunate secondary effect of BLARING music if the headphones are unplugged before the source volume is lowered. Not a big deal with an iPad but quite a different story with the home system (Marantz AV 7005)!

In any case, we'd like to purchase an "open" set of headphones (strong preference for Sennheiser) in the $200 or under price range. I say "open" so we can at least have some monitoring of sound levels. Our kid is smart but we'd still like to make sure she's not listening at a volume which is too loud.

Any advice on which model for fitting a small head? I've looked seriously at these:
HD 579 & HD 598 SR

Thanks for your input; this forum has been a great resource for me through the years!

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

All Sens I have or tried fit tightly, so having smaller head should not be an issue. I own 558s and I think they are great for the price I've paid - under $80
I highly recommend to look and do what this article suggests:
https://www.howtogeek.com/224491/how-to-volume-limit-your-iphone-ipod-and-other-apple-devices-and-save-your-kids-hearing/
Damaging hearing is really easy and it's permanent. Having nice headphones is cool, but be extra careful.
I don't need to tell you, teenagers are prone to do stupid things.

 

[highfigh]

I have seen people with little kids at outdoor music shows for decades and it would be interesting to know how the kids' hearing was affected- it was too loud for me and I like live music to have enough volume to make it exciting but 40Hz-18KHz @ 95dB for hours is gong to do some damage. OSHA allows 93dB for 4 hours a day, for adults, and that's too long, IMO. I know people who worked in noisy environments and they all have hearing loss. For kids, it's worse.

I think headphones should cut out when the level reaches a certain point. Being the coolest self-induced deaf person is no prize.

 

[lovinthehd]

Don't know about an ipad but your Marantz has a volume limit setting you can employ to help out....

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Don't know about an ipad but your Marantz has a volume limit setting you can employ to help out....

My iPhone has a volume limit setting so I imagine so does the iPad, and most modern AVR's have it too.

 

[jp_over]

Thanks for the input; also, the article was very helpful. I'm going to enable that feature on both the AVR and iPad.

 

[rojo]

Friends,

I made a not-so-great purchase that I've learned from. I bought a "volume limiting" set of headphones for my daughter. This model in fact: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q3I68TU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

While the concept of an added layer of ear protection sounds ideal in theory, in practice it results in having to elevate the source to unreasonably high levels with the unfortunate secondary effect of BLARING music if the headphones are unplugged before the source volume is lowered. Not a big deal with an iPad but quite a different story with the home system (Marantz AV 7005)!

In any case, we'd like to purchase an "open" set of headphones (strong preference for Sennheiser) in the $200 or under price range. I say "open" so we can at least have some monitoring of sound levels. Our kid is smart but we'd still like to make sure she's not listening at a volume which is too loud.

Any advice on which model for fitting a small head? I've looked seriously at these:
HD 579 & HD 598 SR

Thanks for your input; this forum has been a great resource for me through the years!

Hey jp_over, I just went through the same ordeal with headphones for my 6-year-old daughter. That's admirable that you want to raise your daughter as an audiophile, but if your daughter is anything like mine those $200 Sennheisers would be overkill at this stage. For what it's worth, I bought my daughter a pair of these Monoprice Essentials ear phones. They're cheap plastic crap with surprisingly excellent sound completely at odds with the price. This post details my thoughts, but I'll also add that they have good imaging with a nice, wide and tall sound stage. And although they have an unpleasant fit on an adult head, my daughter has never complained about their fit and has no problem wearing them for the life of her iPad battery. I do insist that she leave the volume no higher than half while wearing them, and she has proven to be careful about it. I also set the volume limit and enabled restrictions on her iPad, but not all her apps adhere to that limit. Active parenting is safest here.

 

[jp_over]

Thanks rojo - I enjoyed reading your review about the Monoprice headphones and agree that $200 is a bit much. I ended up splitting the difference and picked up the Sennheiser HD 558 from Blinq for $60 shipped (open box).

I also set the limiter on our AVR and will also do so on her iPad before our next road trip.

The only "trouble" now is that I really like the velvet/felt covers of the HD 558s vs the standard leatherette on my HD 25-1 IIs. I imagine I'll be ordering replacement covers soon...