Onanoff specializes in kid-friendly headphones, and at $49.99, the Onanoff BuddyPhones Play+ are markedly less expensive than the company’s $99.99 BuddyPhones Cosmos. You might think we’re going to tell you to spring for the pricier pair, but the BuddyPhones Play+ achieve the same fundamental goals—they don’t get dangerously loud and they have a Study Mode that focuses on the human voice—without the less necessary noise cancellation delivered by the Cosmos. The audio performance here is rich and crisp, and the lightweight on-ear design is less of an enveloping presence than the Cosmos, so we say save the $50. That said, if you’re willing to pay a bit more, the $69.99 Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams deliver even better performance overall, earning our Editors’ Choice award for kids’ headphones.
A Comfortable, Customizable Design
The BuddyPhones Play+ headphones have a supra-aural (on-ear) design and feel exceptionally lightweight. The earpads aren’t as plush as on the Cosmos, but the cushioning is enough to feel comfortable. Like most kids’ headphones we’ve tested in this price range, there’s a cheap plastic feel to the design here, whereas the Cosmos has a build much more like adult headphones.
Instead of the Cosmos’ printed-on graphics, the BuddyPhones Play+ come with stickers (cartoonish pirate, mermaid, shark, and octopus designs) your child can choose to apply or not. Without them, it’s a uniform plastic design in blue, light blue, gray, pink, yellow, or white. Internally, 40mm neodymium dynamic drivers deliver the audio.
The left earcups’s side panel houses a switch for Study Mode. When engaged, it focuses the audio on the human vocal range, dialing back other sounds outside of it, ostensibly making for more focused listening during study time or online classes. A very short USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable connects to the left ear’s USB-C port.
The right earcup houses the rest of the controls, including a play/pause button that also handles power, Bluetooth pairing, and call management. The plus/minus buttons control both volume and track navigation—we’re never fans of combining these two functions on the same buttons, as it’s easy to accidentally skip a track when you mean to adjust volume. The buttons are also rather rigid and can be difficult to press. The included audio cable for passive, wired listening connects to the side panel of the right earcup. Also included is a small drawstring bag that the headphones fold down to fit inside.
Like the Cosmos, the BuddyPhones Play+ have three volume modes: Toddler (75db max volume), Kids (85db max), and Travel (94db max). We found the middle and high volume modes too loud for kids on the Cosmos, but here, they’re closer to what we expect them to be. We advise skipping the loudest mode—Travel—while the other two modes output levels that seem relatively normal for kids’ headphones.
That said, switching between modes is a pain. You’re supposed to press the plus and minus buttons simultaneously, but good luck with that. Most of the time, I pressed one button a fraction of a second before the other, and so it simply adjusted the volume up or down. The good news is that your child will also struggle to switch out of the chosen mode, so perhaps this isn’t a design flaw.
Onanoff estimates battery life to be roughly 20 hours, about average for kids’ headphones, but your results will vary with your volume levels.
BuddyPhones Play+ Audio Performance
Some of our test volume tracks had audio artifacts added into the mix when the BuddyPhones Play+ were at their lowest volume mode (Toddler). We suggest, therefore, listening in the middle volume setting (Kids), which tops out at 85dB. The testing we describe below is in Kids mode.
The following tracks may not be on your child’s playlist, but they’re part of our regular testing suite and paint a clear picture of what the drivers are capable of. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the headphones deliver a solid representation of the deep lows on this track without distorting or overwhelming the mix. The bass depth is balanced out with bright highs.
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Bill Callahan’s “Drover,” a track with far less deep bass in the mix, gives us a better sense of the general sound signature. The drums on this track sound natural, heavy, and have a nice thump to them, while Callahan’s baritone vocals have a realistic low-mid richness. The high-mids and highs add contour and clarity to the vocals, and help the acoustic strums and higher-register percussive hits stay bright and refined. In all of the kids’ headphones we’ve tested, this is the sound signature (in Kids Mode, at least), that is closest to what audiophiles and purists seek—flat response that isn’t deprived of bass depth.
On Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “No Church in the Wild,” the kick drum loop receives plenty of high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its punchiness, while the sub-bass synth hits that punctuate the beat have a robust, powerful sound without ever overwhelming the mix.
Movie audio and dialogue comes through crisp and clear, with some nice bass depth for special effects.
The built-in mic offers below-average intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone, we could understand every word we record, but the audio was fuzzy with Bluetooth distortion. This isn’t a deal breaker unless your child needs headphones with super-crisp mic clarity for school work.
Headphones for Budding Audiophiles
For $50, the BuddyPhones Play+ get most things right. Volume is limited to reasonable levels, and audio performance is balanced, with rich bass depth paired with crisp, clear highs. If the build feels cheap and the buttons are hard to operate, it seems somewhat forgivable considering the sound quality and price. That said, our favorite pair of headphones in this price range, the $70 Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams, offer a similarly rich, natural bass presence in a more comfortable design. And since there are no volume modes to toggle between, you don’t need to worry that your child is listening to something too loud.
