Dad, my Headphones don't work...again

December 5, 2012 4:30 PM

Cheap headphones that can survive children...are there such things?

We go through headphones like a hot knife through butter. Mostly it's because anyone younger than my 20 year old son (of which there are three other members of the family that fit that description) can't seem to keep a set healthy enough to use for more than a few months at a time.

Anyone have suggestions for what headphones to buy that aren't too expensive that might be hearty enough to survive, or some way of trying to preserve the cheap ones we do buy (reinforcing with tape, or something)?

posted by thanotopsis to technology (4 answers total)

They may be a bit "young" for your kids, but we have several pairs of these Califone kids' headphones and they've survived for more than a year with our very young kids. Our toddler twins drag them around the house with the MP3 player (a heavy Sweetpea3) still attached and our 3 year old isn't much better with them. They're still doing fine.
posted by zsazsa at 4:36 PM on December 5, 2012

I wish I could blame children on the number of headphones I've gone through. For buying new stuff, I've usually had the best luck with Sennheisers. They're not too expensive, and they're well constructed and generally sturdy. I have a pair of Sennheiser HD201s that have survived 3 or 4 years of use without problem.

Beyond buying new stuff, when headphones die it's usually because the cable's gotten tugged on too much and broken the connection in one ear or another. I find it happens near the point where the wire joins the headphones, since there's less give there than anywhere else. To prevent it, you can try using heat-shrink tubing - this kind of stuff - to give a little more support to the cable. Cut a few centimetres of the tubing, slide it up the cable to the weak spot, then hit it with a blowdryer until it shrinks into place. It should reinforce it a bit, but it's not a perfect solution.
posted by ZaphodB at 4:54 PM on December 5, 2012

You might check these Monoprice phones out. I think they sound great, and for 10 bucks they sound awesome. The cords are cloth covered so they're reinforced, so you can keep hearing them chords. Amazon has them.
posted by PaulBGoode at 5:53 PM on December 5, 2012

We've had a few pairs of the Kidz Gear ones, and they last a while. They do break eventually -- my kids are rough on them -- but they're not too expensive.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:56 PM on December 8, 2012