The Lucid Audio HearMuffs are an interesting product. They have a built in volume limiter, are suited for small to large heads, and have a bright color that pops for their target audience (kids). There's a lot of things to like here, but there are some misses too.
Overall the feel is all plastic. These are meant for kids, so it's hard to knock it for material, as plastics are durable, flexible, and handle drops better than many other materials. The construction isn't bad, as the head band must include some steel due to how it flexes, and is probably the most sturdy part. The plastic adjustments for head size give me pause; they're thin and probably are the weakest link in the design. I could see these splitting after a few months of heavy use, but who knows. The choice of material again at this price is probably correct. The memory foam in the headband is generous and comfortable. The earcups are a pretty hard vinyl but squishy enough for smaller heads. The headband can flex to allow even adult heads, but things get kind of tight at that point.
There are 3 pretty cheap feeling rubber buttons on the right earcup. They perform volume up, play/pause/on/off/pair, volume down. Below the buttons is a micro-usb connector - which while expected at this price, is disappointing (come on we're so close to USB-C only world!). Audio prompts describe what is happening (power on, pairing, power off) and in a kid voice even.
The noise isolation is mediocre at best. These aren't cancelling, and they certainly don't offer that much isolation given the ear pads material and minimal padding. They do dampen the outside world, but no more than most over the ear headphones. They are made of non-toxic material... at least I'm going to take their word at that, as consuming headphones isn't usually on my review. My 6 year old son is past eating headphones, so we're just going to trust that claim. As far as wearing these to sleep in... perhaps for some very still sleepers, but if I were you: get a sound machine and play some white noise if you have a light sleeper. That is less problematic, and more comfortable than trying to sleep in headphones.
The bluetooth pairing worked great, and I was able to pair to a Windows computer and my son's iPad. The volume limiting on the PC was interesting, as it would hard stop at 73 (out of 100). You could manually increase the volume on PC, but using the controller on the headphones would reset the max volume to 73 which I thought was interesting. Obviously the electronics in this with a micro-usb and simple buttons are pretty commodity setups. Sound is passable, but nothing to write home about. Bass is flat, and highs are muted - however nothing is harsh - which is important for kids headphones.
Overall for the price, these aren't a bad option. There are cheaper headphones, but despite my initial worry about long term durability for the price they seem solid enough. Making an affordable pair of kids headphones is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I hope these hold up, because my son does really like them (and red is his favorite color).
