Best kids headphones

If you know a child under the age of 10, they may want a pair of Beats headphones for the bright colors and approachable designs. While it’s nice to treat your child to something they want, the fact of the matter is that kids have different needs than adults when it comes to headphones. Headphones for kids often include features like volume limiters or water resistance. This way a proper set of kids headphones will protect your child’s hearing and protect itself from your child. Let’s look at some of the best headsets you can buy for your little one.

Editor’s note: this article was updated on February 14, 2023, to add information about earwax buildup and expand notable mentions.

The best kids headphones are the JLab JBuddies

This is for ages two and up, making the JLab JBuddies more accessible to kids than the Lego Road Repair Truck kit. Although the headphones cost twice as much as the Lego set, they don’t pose as a potential agony-inducing floor hazard. In fact, this—as are all of the listed headphones for kids—is outfitted with a volume limiter, which prevents the headphones from exceeding an 85dB output.

JLab JBuddies

Kids of all ages will enjoy the eight different pairs of 3D character stickers that can be mixed and matched. We know that you’re busy chauffeuring your kid from soccer to piano practice and the JBuddies make transport easy with the ability to fold up, halving their size. If some water or juice happens to spill onto the JBuddies during an abrupt stop, don’t worry. These are decked out with spill-resistant materials to protect any kid-prone vulnerabilities.

Aside from all of that, these are comfortable and expand or retract as your child’s noggin does. If anything happens to the JBuddies, just give JLab a call and the customer service team will help you so long as it’s within their jurisdiction of the one-year warranty. Between the volume limiter and the pinch-free hinges, JLab has your kids protected.

What you should know about kids headphones

Just like you, we want to keep your kids’ ears safe; each pair of headphones here features volume-limiting ear protection that caps volume at 85dB, 35dB below the human pain threshold. It’s cautioned that humans of all ages remain below the 85dB limit to preserve hearing, but this is particularly important for children who are still developing. If you want to know more, we discuss how your kids hear differently than you, and need different things in their headphones than you might. As far as wireless options are concerned, they’re fine.

Unfortunately, it’s possible to push many of the available kids headphones past their advertised 85dB volume limit, a flaw with certain kinds of volume limiters. In general, Bluetooth headsets will be more likely to limit volume effectively, but this can be defeated either by user settings or by using a non-wireless source.

Though kids may be irked by the 85dB limit, it benefits their developing ears in the long run.

Additionally, you won’t find any earbuds here because they’re much less likely to fit well into small ear canals. They also have the fun habit of impacting earwax—something that kids have to worry about a little more than you or I given the reduced volume of their ear canals. A bit of earwax is normal for everyone, but the more impacted it gets the more difficult it gets to remove—and it can cause some un-fun symptoms like muffled hearing, swimmer’s ear, or itchy ears. Before adolescence, it’s probably best to stick with on or over-ears.

It’s also worth noting that there isn’t a wide array of options afforded to the headphones for kids market. Similar to the general consumer market, there are headphones for niche purposes as you’ll see with the durable Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams, and headphones for the typical listener, like our best all-around pick: the JLab Buddies.

If your child is a budding music aficionado, invest in the Sony MDR-222KD

Maybe your kid is too sophisticated for 3D character stickers or at least feels that he’s too old for stickers. In that case, check out the Sony MDR-222KD. This looks like a run-of-the-mill set of adult headphones but is still fitted for smaller craniums (8+). This headset weighs next to nothing at just 50 grams, and you can replace the ear pads once they get too worn out.

Sony MDR-222KD

Internally, the MDR-222KD headphones for kids are rocking 13.5mm drivers with neodymium magnets to provide a clear listening experience. Sony includes a volume-limiting resistor cable which can’t be toggled on or off. Assisting in the volume limiter is a high impedance requirement that is cause for low volume outputs. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, get this.

Don’t want your kid tripping over wires? Pick up the Buddyphones Wave

When buying kids headphones, you want to know your kid’s ears will be protected. With the Buddyphones Wave, you can limit the loudness output by holding both volume buttons simultaneously. This alternates between a 75dB, 85dB, and 94dB limit, the latter of which we don’t recommend using as it could potentially damage your child’s hearing.

Buddyphones Wave

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There are other kids headphones features here, too, like the pinch-free hinges and hypo-allergenic earpads. What’s more, this headset has durability features, namely IP67 dust and water resistance, making it virtually impervious to child-induced destruction. If something does happen to cause the headphones to fail, Buddyphones has you covered with its two-year warranty.

Need something tried and true? Get the JBL JR 300

For the price of a few gallons of gas, JBL JR 300 is one of the best pairs of kids headphones you can buy. This wired headset comes in red and blue and fits on top of your kids’ ears. Like all others listed, this includes a built-in 85dB volume limiter to protect your youngins’ ears.

JBL JR 300

JBL’s portable design lets your kid compact the headset for transport, thanks to the folding hinges. The company also includes a fun sticker set so each kid can customize their new headset. JBL’s synthetic earpads and headband padding are easy to clean, which is a must-have feature for kids headphones. If you want more color options and Bluetooth connectivity, you can upgrade to the JBL JR 300BT.

Look cool with the Puro Sound Labs BT2200

The Puro Sound Labs BT2200 features an aluminum and protein leather build and comes in four colorways, so any kid is likely to listen happily. Puro Sound Labs also includes a convenient carrying case to further protect the headphones while your kid is on the go. It should be pointed out that these are the only headphones on this list that have been independently confirmed to be able to keep the volume limited to 85dB in any connection. Most other headsets can be defeated either by choice or using an analog source.

Puro Sound Labs BT 2200

These headphones are Bluetooth-enabled, which not only means that there are fewer potential tripping hazards within your child’s reach and allow for a 30-meter wireless connectivity range, but also that the internal components can handle the volume limiting more effectively than wired headsets. Unfortunately, the limit is set to two headphones, but any more than that would likely come to a wiry mess.

These are some of the best headphones for kids and provide up to 18 hours of playback time with 200 hours of standby. No matter how long the road trip, the headphones will keep your kids preoccupied, hopefully lessening the number of times that you hear, “Are we there yet?”

Best kids headphones: Notable mentions

  • MEE Audio KidJamz KJ25:Like all others listed, they include a built-in 85dB volume limiter to protect your youngins’ ears. If your children absolutely insist on hearing above the 85dB threshold—though we don’t recommend it—the volume limiter can be disabled with a switch on the ear cup.
  • YouthWhisper Bone Conduction Headphones: If your kid is an athlete, they should get a pair of bone conduction headphones; the technology keeps their ears wide open so they can remain aware of all that’s happening around them while they run around.
  • Puro Sound Labs PuroPro: This option has ANC, and a look that doesn’t scream “kids headphones.” This is important for adoption if you’ve got adolescents or teens—they’re not going to want to wear anything that looks childish after all.
  • Puro Sound Labs PuroGamer: If your kids are budding gamers, this headset is a decent option. It has a boom mic and very much looks the part of gaming headsets.
  • Puro Sound Labs PuroQuiet: Puro Sound Labs has a lot of entries on this list and for good reason—they offer a lot of decent kids headphones. The PuroQuiet offers ANC as well as decent battery life, though it’s quite small. This is good for younger kiddos.

How we picked the best kids headphones

The Zohan 030 hearing protection on a desk.

The Zohan 030 is our pick for the best all-around hearing protection because it can expand to meet heads of almost any size, comfortably.

Although we’ve directly reviewed a vast array of products here at Sound Guys, we haven’t gotten around to all of them. After all, we’re only human and are inherently subjective. To counteract our unavoidable bias, we do quite a bit of research by perusing online forums, reading other reviews (PCMag, CNET, etc), conducting Twitter polls, and more. Regarding headphones for kids, we know that safety comes first and foremost which is why we made sure that every option features volume-limiting ear protection at 85dB.

In short, this list is the running conclusions of thousands of hours of use from a growing list of contributors over many years. This is a living document, and it’s updated every time a new model knocks an existing one off its pedestal.

Why you should trust SoundGuys

Each of our writers is dedicated to SoundGuys as a full-time job, allowing them to easily identify the genuinely worthwhile products from the gimmicks. Individually, each team member has multiple years of experience when it comes to keeping up with the audio industry, and they each understand that audio is both an objective and subjective experience.

We want you and your kids, nieces, nephews, and so on to be happy with your purchase and to be able to listen safely with any of the listed best kids headphonesnothing more, nothing less. None of our writers may steer you toward one brand of kids headphones over the other. If you’re curious, feel free to click over to our ethics policy.

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