****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
My 8yo and 4yo have had several kids' headphones over the years; currently they use the top-rated Sony MDR222kd and Philips SHK1000 respectively. With these HeadFoams, MarBlue has bested the market leaders and produced the best headphones in the house. In fact I liked the first HeadFoam so much I bought a second and tossed the others.First, and for the younger one most important, there is no slide mechanism on the arm. The advantage is that there's nothing for her to get her hair stuck in (then rip out and cry). The disadvantage is the HeadFoams only have two size settings: with pad and without. Surprisingly, without the rigid plastic frame this is less of an issue than I thought it would be, and both of my girls use it without the pad.The arm itself is a padded foam that, though shaped, can easily be bent or twisted. Having lost a couple headphones over the years to breakage (one was sat on and the other snapped like a wishbone during a fight between the girls), this is my favorite feature of the HeadFoams: there's nothing really to break. The speakers themselves are well-insulated and the foam is fully malleable, so no more unfortunate headphone snapping for us. This also means if the kiddo falls asleep in the car with them, you won't have to bend them back into shape later (ahem... Sony).And while we're on the speakers, they're actually pretty good. In my experience with kids' electronics, performance usually falls somewhere below color and design on the priority list. While the Sony has decent sound, neither of our old kids' headphones were as good as a comparably-priced adult set. The HeadFoams are. Now they're no Denons, but they produce crisp voices and clean music. Yes, they are foam-padded, but that's purely for comfort and does nothing for noise isolation or cancellation (which is helpful because I can also hear if they have the music too loud).Like the Sony and Philips, the speakers on the HeadFoams are throttled to about 85 decibels, or just under the volume of the kids running through the backyard playing. I actually wish there was a lower-db version, maybe 65db (conversational level), but I'll let that go. Cranked to 85db, hearing damage begins around hours 3 or 4. Fortunately even on their most lethargic days, the kids can't sit still long enough to watch movies or listen to music for that long.I noticed a few other reviews knocked the cord as being "cheap" and they deducted stars because they anticipate problems. Respectfully, I disagree. I'm giving it the 5 stars I think they deserve and will adjust down if there's an actual issue later, not just an anticipated one. Though the cord is not reinforced per se, it is almost identical in quality and attachment build to the industry-leading Philips and Sony models, and nobody has docked them for it. I'll update the review later if it becomes an issue. For now its only issue is not coming in pink... and that's according to the kids.
