Hearing Protection Headphones For Adults And Children

November 2, 2017
Witchdoctor Rating
  • 7/10
    - 7/10
7/10

Summary

Puro Sound Lab Studio Grade Adult Bluetooth Wireless Headphones REVIEW

$229.99

PAT PILCHER finds that Puro’s ‘hearing protection’ headphones are solid performers with only one glaring failing.

 

You only have two ears, so looking after them is important. Even though our hearing declines as we age, noise-induced hearing damage plays a huge part too. The worrying thing is that hearing damage affects children as much as adults.

The sheer number of people who plug their ears into buds means that the potential for hearing damage is huge. This wasnโ€™t lost on the folks at Puro Sound Labs, who have crafted two different Bluetooth headphones, one for adults, and the other for little monsters.

Puro have tackled headphone-related hearing damage by designing their over-ear cans so thereโ€™s a tight seal around the ears, which Puro claims reduces ambient noise by anything up to 82 per cent. Less ambient noise means youโ€™re less likely to crank up the volume.

Plugging the childrensโ€™ headphones in sees them limiting output levels to 85dB. The adults model allows the listener to crank up their volume.

That said, on the adult models, an LED glows green to show safe audio levels, yellow to indicate youโ€™re at the upper limit of listening levels, and red when listening levels are harmful to hearing.

There’s a downside to this approach, though. The LED can glow green at the start of a song, but change to red as the song gets louder. Then there’s the not so small issue of the wearer not being able to see the LED once they’ve got the headphones on. This sort of makes their headline feature about as useful as a cat door on a nuclear submarine.

Puro have put a lot of effort into designing their ear-gear. They feel luxurious. This is thanks to padded leather ear cups (for noise isolation) and a padded headband. This makes wearing them very comfy indeed. Both the headband and ear pieces are hewn out of brushed alloy, which means that while they feel robust, theyโ€™re also light. Adding to their premium look and feel is a handsome carry case. Both left and right ear pieces fold inwards which means that the carry case isnโ€™t the size of a small building.

The left ear piece houses the headphoneโ€™s controls, which consist of a Bluetooth pairing button, power and volume controls and a 3.5mm socket and USB input. There’s also a microphone for hands-free calling.

The controls are well positioned. In practice this means they’re locatable by touch when wearing the headphones. The Bluetooth button also does double duty as a pause button and can answer/end incoming calls. Double tapping volume up skips forward while the volume down button skips backwards.

Their operating range is also good. In line of sight, I got flawless audio up to about 10 metres away. Puro say that when charged their cans will run for 24 hours but can last a whopping 260 hours on standby. I attest that they ran over two working days, but didnโ€™t get enough time to test standby capabilities.

The audio delivered by Puroโ€™s headphones impressed. Iโ€™m not a huge fan of Bluetooth audio, yet I found the Puroโ€™s pulled out a lot of unexpected detail on the music I cranked through them. Bass-heavy tracks sounded a tad boomy, but otherwise audio was crisp and accurate.

Puroโ€™s wireless headphones may protect your hearing, but they deliver solid audio. Theyโ€™re not cheap, but neither are they price-bloated, and you do get a lot of headphone for your money. The Studio Grade Childrenโ€™s Bluetooth Headphones are available for $154.99.

nz.purosound.com

 

Pat has been talking about tech on TV, radio and print for over 20 years, having served time as a TV tech guy and currently penning reviews for Witchdoctor. He loves nothing more than rolling his sleeves up and playing with shiny gadgets.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Give a little to support Witchdoctor's quest to save high quality independent journalism. It's easy and painless! Just donate $5 or $10 to our PressPatron account by clicking on the button below.

Authors

WIn a Wiim Ultra Network Music Streamer with Witchdoctor.co.nz
Panasonic Fire TV Be Mesmerised with next gen AI TV
Advance Paris - Designed with French flair. Amplifiers, Streamers, CD players and more www.pqimports.co.nz
Previous Story

How Refreshing: An Intelligent Rom-com With A Feminist Twist

Next Story

Bjรถrk’s New Album Out November 24

Latest from Gear

Go toTop