Watching videos on a tablet is a neat way to keep children entertained whilst traveling. However, if you don't want audio disturbing everyone around, the child will need to wear headphones, which is a problem because most adult headphones are way too big to fit young children.
The solution to adult headphones is kids' headphones although many of them can feel gimmicky and not sound very good. The Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams, in the other hand, sound good, look stylish and come with volume limiting so, they won't hurt little Jimmy's hearing!
The inside of the JuniorJams earcups is marked with the letters L (left ear) and R (right ear) and feature an inch of foam padding covered by artificial leather, which provides a decent level of comfort and passive noise isolation although not as much as over ear style headphones, which literary engulf your ears, sealing them off from the world around you.
Active noise cancellation is not integrated in the JuniorJams, which is okay because it probably wouldn't make much sense since the JuniorJams are children's volume limiting headphones with restricted volume that is designed for ambient noise to pass through. Being volume limiting does come with the compromise that the volume won't go very high so, in busy places with loud background noise, it will be hard for the kid to hear what they are listening to.
The Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams are both bluetooth and wired headphones so, you can connect them via a regular 3.5mm audio cable, which would bypass the volume limitation since volume limitation in wired mode is achieved via a headphone limiter cable, which is included with the JuniorJams.
Being bluetooth 4.2 on-ear headphones, the JuniorJams feature on-board buttons to control the audio playback, including play/pause, skipping tracks and volume. The child will also be able to take and answer calls that they receive on their smartphone by pressing the play/pause button on the earcup.
The built-in microphone is housed inside a small pinhole next to the micro USB port. The second pinhole located on the other side of the micro USB port contains a small led light to indicate status, including pairing mode, low battery (flashing red light) and charging (solid red light).
The JuniorJams measure 20cm tall and 16cm wide with a 6.6cm outer diameter. Because the JuniorJams are on-ear headphones designed to sit on top of the ear, the ear pad hole is purposely small (1-inch diameter) so, the earpads can sit on the ears rather than covering the ears. For older children, there is also an over-ear version called PuroGamer.
On-ear headphones have their advantages and disadvantages, one of them being that on-ear headphones do put more pressure on the ears; hence you can't wear them on as long as you can with over ear headphones. Saying this, the Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams are aimed for young children and most parents probably won't want their young children listening to music for too long anyways; hence the on-ear style is actually an advantage.
The built-in 400mAh rechargeable battery isn't particularly large but because of the volume limitation, a full battery can power the JuniorJams for a massive 20 hours.
Charging time from flat is 2 hours, which is slow as the maximum charging input has also been limited to 0.3 amps. Once charged, the battery can hold power for 12 days. There is a power saving mode feature that automatically powers off the JuniorJams after 10 minutes of inactivity and when battery is running very low.
And, of course, when battery runs out the child can always use the included headphone volume limiter flat cable to resume listening.
The 3.5mm limiter audio cable is, essentially, a headphone attenuator adapter with diodes that limits the volume output so, volume does not go above 80 dB. This is achieved by either muting the volume above 80dB or by cutting the volume gain, which a true volume limiter does. Puro Sound Labs does have a disclaimer stating that some high power audio systems may bypass the volume limiter in the headphone limiting cable. Also, if you use the volume limiter cable backwards, volume won't be limited.
The JuniorJams have 90dB signal-to-noise ratio so, the noise floor is 90dB quieter than the loudest signal. This means, because the audio is limited to 80dB, the noise will be at -10dB so, no hissing even at low volume, which really makes a difference to the overall sound quality, which is good with aptX support.
The Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams earcups are made of hard plastic, while the adjusting headband is made of metal alloy. The earcups can be rotated 180 degrees. Total weight of the JuniorJams is 220 grams.
Along with the headphones, the child also gets a micro USB to micro USB audio male splitter cable, which is a useful feature for siblings, twins or friends with JuniorJams headphones as it would allow them to connect to each other to listen to the same audio.
There is also a hardshell carry case included, as well as a 30-day money back guarantee and a one year warranty so, you can be fully refunded if you're not totally satisfied with the JuniorJams, which is nice although shipping costs are not included in the refund. Check out the review of the PuroQuiets headphones