Here in the Stevens household, we have gone through several iterations of headphones and audio delivery systems for my six kids. Most of them work, like Turtle Beach Elite, that my 15-year old stole from me and has hidden the dongle so only she can use them. Some of them don’t work, such as six sets of earbuds that we have flown through in the span of two months due to cats and tangled wires no one has untangled.
One consistency in this audible chaos that has never been solved is how the six-year-old can safely use headphones to listen to her tablet audio. She doesn’t like earbuds because of the way they feel inside of her ears, and the actual headsets she has tried kept slipping because of her petite head. Because of this lake of headset solution, we have all had to suffer from an unnamed YouTuber she likes that thoroughly enjoys saying, “OH MY GOD! (Insert fake surprise at whatever is going on in Roblox).” We have tried a lot of solutions to prevent this personal hell from continuing and all have always failed.
That said when I received an email about a set of headphones geared towards kids I jumped at the freaking chance to try them out. I mean, if you heard the YouTuber on a daily basis, you would try about any solution. It’s like having a seventh child in the house some days that won’t listen to reason. It’s horrible.
Anyway, the headphones we tried are called myFirst Headphones, and they’re quite interesting.
The first thing you will notice about these headphones is that they’ve got the design of those old Sony headsets they used to sell in the 90s the wrapped around the back of your skull (see below).
While these were certainly cool in an up and coming iPod age, they lost their charm with their stiff plastic curve that let audio seep out uncontrollably. In addition, the plastic grip was uncomfortable after a while, which meant that you could listen to music for a finite period of time before a headache set in. Sure it could have been the hours of Nine Inch Nails, but more than likely it was the headset.
myFirst Headphones took that same type of design, but instead of the hard plastic, it turned out to be strong, yet flexible rubber that contoured with the head it gripped. That type of material and design is important for a number of reasons.
First, the design is important because of comfort. When the headset doesn’t feel like it’s there, it’s a beautiful piece of tech. My daughter didn’t mind the rubber grip at all, and I was somewhat concerned about it, which was a HUGE plus for the headset. She has an issue with texture and touch, so her not flinching once or getting uncomfortable with these for a period of time was a big, big deal. She simply wore them like they weren’t there. When I got them out of the box, they felt light and undetectable in my hands. They almost felt like they could fall apart, but ended up being tough and resistant. It was impressive in hand and seeing them in action.
The second big reason the design is good is because of the flexibility with head shape, as the audio quality wasn’t lost with how the head bent the rubber grip. The audio in the myFirst Headphones isn’t delivered directly into the ear, rather behind and in front of the ear. The audio doesn’t go right into the eardrum, rather shouts outside of it, but directly at it. That’s huge as well because I don’t want someone like her to get audio blasted directly into her eardrum. It works beautifully in that manner and because of the rubber grip, it politely keeps the positioning of the audio delivery regardless of the child’s head shape. There’s a lot to love about the audio and the rubber grip, it works incredibly well.
The last reason this design is good is that it keeps those ears open. When I needed to talk with her, she knew it and turned the volume of her tablet down. There wasn’t any unnecessary shouting or handwaving on my part to grab her attention, she simply could hear me during her video. The audio was still hitting where it needed to, but the design of the headphone makes sure that child/parent is available, even when the audio is a little hot. If you are a parent and your child has a phone or tablet, you know the struggle of getting their attention. This is a very nice design to accommodate attention-getting.
Beyond just comfort and functionality, the headphones are easy to set up. Out of the box, you can charge them, hold down the power button, and the Bluetooth goes into search mode. I connected this to my Mac laptop and her Amazon Fire tablet quickly and easily. Both were seamless and both worked/sounded phenomenal. Any parent that is unfamiliar with the Bluetooth connection process should be able to figure this out easily, which is a huge plus when it comes to purchasing.
Are there any downers to this product? Only one — the charger. While it is magnetized, and I get that it could be pretty useful when it comes to that design, as Apple has done that with its chargers up until the most recent laptop generation, getting the charger to stay on firmly is a wholly other. The charger can easily slip off of its connection, even by a small movement of the wire. It’s a very short wire too, which makes this frustrating at times. When it connects, it stays on, but it can easily just be knocked off. I’m not sure why MicroUSB couldn’t have been used or Mini USB for that matter, but this choice of charging connections was frustrating. Eventually, it works well, and even charges fast, but having something less proprietary and unique would have been a better route.
Overall, there are more positives than negatives to the myFirst Headphones, but that charger issue has to be addressed. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but it is a little frustrating. It’s a superb headphone choice for young kids otherwise.
