At a glance, the TransNova BTH16 headphones from iClever have quite a few things going for them. They’re priced reasonably at $49.99, they’re wireless, and the outer plates of the earcups can be swapped out with various images that receive LED backlighting when the headphones are on (the lights can also be turned off to preserve battery life). While these kid-friendly headphones can be limited to a maximum volume of 74dB, if your child figures out how to disable this setting (it’s not difficult), they can get as loud as 94dB, which is arguably louder than any kids’ headphones should be able to reach. Worse, it’s easier to defeat the volume limits than to set them, and they need to be reset every time you power the headphones up. So while these headphones look and sound pretty good, we don’t recommend them to anyone concerned about volume.
A Fun, Customizable Design
Available in blue or pink models, the TransNova BTH16 are over-ear headphones with backlit panels on the earcups. By default, these panels light up in a rainbow-like array of colors that shift slowly over time. The blue model comes with space-themed imagery, and the pink model comes with less obvious themes, including a microphone, a large star, and a gradient graphic design. The earpads and underside of the headband are generously cushioned and lined with a faux-leather material, while the rest of the frame is a matte plastic.
Along the right earcup’s side panel, there’s an array of controls. The button labeled M turns the light on or off, and a multifunction button controls playback, your phone’s voice control, or manages incoming calls depending on how many times you press it. It’s flanked by plus/minus buttons that control both volume and track navigation; we’re never fans of combining volume and track navigation on the same controls, as it’s far too easy to accidentally skip a track when you mean to adjust the volume.
But the primary issue with the controls is how easy it is to defeat the volume limiting. Out of the box, the headphones are set to 85dB (the middle setting). This is the limit for most kids’ headphones we test, as it’s generally agreed upon that 85dB is safe for kids. But there’s another setting here that gets louder—94dB—and it’s hard to argue a good case for this setting being included on kids’ headphones. After you cycle past the 94dB setting, you finally arrive at the 74dB setting.
Pressing the plus and minus buttons is supposed to cycle through these volume modes, but it’s easy to misfire or hold the buttons down for too long. Twice, I accidentally put the headphones into pairing mode by pressing what I thought was these two buttons, though it’s possible I also had held down the central multifunction button—the controls are tiny enough that it’s hard to tell. And re-pairing isn’t a quick process—on an iPhone, we had to restart the entire pairing process from scratch.
The headphones don’t remember what volume setting you put them on when they are powered off, so if they were previously set to 74dB, they’ll default back to 85dB the next time you turn them off and on again. And if your child figures out what happens when the plus and minus buttons are pressed at the same time, the headphones can be operating at 94dB without you ever knowing. In short, the controls are problematic in both concept and layout.
The headphones ship with a zip-up protective case and a cable for passive listening. But in passive mode, the volume limiting controls are no longer in play.
iClever estimates battery life to be roughly 45 hours, which is quite good, but volume levels always play a key role in battery life, and so do the LEDs on the earcups. Expect lesser results at higher volume levels and with the LEDs on.
iClever TransNova BTH16 Sound Quality
The following tracks may not be on your child’s playlist, but they’re a core part of our testing suite, and allow us to tell you what the headphones sound like. On tracks with intense sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the headphones deliver a powerful low-frequency response. That’s not bad news—kids want to hear bass, and as long as the volume levels are limited, there’s no real worry here.
Even at the 74dB setting, the lows here have some serious thump to them. At 94dB, with the volume maxed out, the drivers don’t distort, which is impressive, but that’s beside the point—this is arguably too loud for kids’ headphones. You can make the argument that it’s there for quieter music (like classical recordings), but that’s a stretch: Even orchestral tracks, like the opening scene from John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, sound too loud for kids at the 94dB setting.
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I’d normally spend the rest of the review telling you how the headphones sound across various other genres, but I’ll summarize: The bass depth is boosted, and the highs are crisp. At the low and middle settings, things sound good, and it’s at least possible that tracks won’t get too loud, but that all depends upon the actual volume setting used by your child after you’ve set the the volume-limit levels.
And one last note about the default 85dB setting: This is a common limit for kids’ headphones, but in our tests, the audio still seemed a bit loud. In a head-to-head comparison with the 85dB Happy Plugs Play, the TransNova BTH16 seemed notably louder. It’s entirely possible that both are under 85dB and the TransNova is simply the louder of the two, but the HappyPlugs Play’s 85dB level sounds more like the TransNova’s 74dB level. In fact, even the TransNova’s 74dB setting sounds a bit louder than the Happy Plugs Play. Is this because the TransNova has much more bass boosting in its sound signature? Possibly, but one of these models feels far more volume-limited than the other.
It’s a shame, as some children will love the way the TransNova BTH16 headphones look, and their bass depth is laudable. At 74dB, things sound full and rich, with solid clarity in the highs. But turn the headphones off and back on, and you’re back at a default higher volume.
The mic offers solid intelligibility. Using the Voice Memos app on an iPhone, we could understand every word we recorded, so you should be able to understand your child on phone calls or video chats if these headphones are used.
A Little Too Loud
Without the easily defeatable volume limit setting, we’d give the iClever TransNova BTH16 a higher rating The buttons are a little annoying to operate, which can result in some misfires, but otherwise, audio performance is solid and the headphones are comfortable. But your child can easily either figure out how to make them louder or accidentally discover how to defeat the quietest setting by simply powering the headphones down and powering them back up. For safer volume levels, check out the aforementioned Happy Plugs Play and the Puro Sound Labs JuniorJams, both of which cost $80. If you’re looking to spend less, we also like the $30 JLab JBuddies Studio Bluetooth and Onanoff BuddyPhones School+.
