Which headphones?

[soveryapt]

Right, so I'm in the position (again) where I'm looking to replace the headphones in our ICT Suite, and my last choice (and the choice previous by my predecessor) haven't lasted a hugely great amount of time. Mainly through cables being chewed by the kids, but the odd snapping of bands or falling off of ear pieces..

 

So, I just wondered, what headphones people use out there? I'm tempted to get a shed load of the cheap metal band adjustable sets at £0.73 each and then if a pair breaks, I have shed loads to dish out, but preference would be to get something that isn't so cheap, in the £2-£3 margin really (it's not like we need them for referencing here)

 

Thanks all

[elsiegee40]

My son's school makes pupils provide their own head-phones. Cheapy in-ear ones are available for £1 from the finance office. The school does not provide them.

[soveryapt]

My son's school makes pupils provide their own head-phones. Cheapy in-ear ones are available for £1 from the finance office. The school does not provide them.

 

Wish that could be the case here, problem is, a lot of our parents struggle to find money for a simple plastic folder for the reading books to go into. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[fiendishlyclever]

Wish that could be the case here, problem is, a lot of our parents struggle to find money for a simple plastic folder for the reading books to go into. Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

I'm sure if you could mark them up and sell them with a voucher for a free packet of fags they'd all stump up the cash Amazes me that kids from some of our poorest families on free school meals/benefits always turn up with a couple of quid to spend in the tuck shop and their parents always have plenty of money for cigs and booze!

[SimpleSi]

IMHO there's just the 2 choices (for a primary that is)

 

Get the cheap ones with mic sticking out and buy 3 times what you need and be prepared to replace on a regular basis

 

or

 

Buy the nice, big padded ones from RM with the mic in the lead (or get them with your Tescoi vouchers) and buy a few spares as they last much longer.

 

Either way they'll get broke

 

(I now go for option 2 nowadays as there is more chance of all of them working at the start of a lesson and so less delay for the teachers )

 

regards

 

Simon

[soveryapt]

IMHO there's just the 2 choices (for a primary that is)

 

Get the cheap ones with mic sticking out and buy 3 times what you need and be prepared to replace on a regular basis

 

or

 

Buy the nice, big padded ones from RM with the mic in the lead (or get them with your Tescoi vouchers) and buy a few spares as they last much longer.

 

Either way they'll get broke

 

(I now go for option 2 nowadays as there is more chance of all of them working at the start of a lesson and so less delay for the teachers )

 

regards

 

Simon

 

I've gone for buying a number of cheaper ones from CPC (we don't need the mics in as they insist on having the mics seperate at this school) and see how they last. I'll only roll out the news ones as others break now though instead of the bulk replace that normally takes place.

 

I'd love (and have suggested) buying the big padded ones with nice chunky leads, but they don't want to spend that much as, like you say, they'll get broken anyway.

 

See how this goes, but thanks for the input all.

[SpuffMonkey]

I bought a couple of these for appraisal PROFESSIONAL STEREO HEADPHONES at Ash Distribution and they look pretty good for cheapo phones - they were under £4

[Ric_]

My predecessor bought a couple of box-loads of something like Hills Components UK - new Projector Lamp range - not sure on the price but I believe they were pretty cheap (about the £1 mark). They are pretty rubbish sound quality-wise but stand up to abuse quite well.

[soveryapt]

I bought a couple of these for appraisal PROFESSIONAL STEREO HEADPHONES at Ash Distribution and they look pretty good for cheapo phones - they were under £4

 

Look robust enough, but we're also after a single side input wire .. let us know how they fair though .. would be interested!

[witch]

We dish out the headphones at the beginnng of a lesson and take them in at the end - looking at each one as we go - so we see any damage immediately. It's a pain, and only the dedicated IT suite IT teacher will do it, but it works as he has had NO broken headsets since September

[soveryapt]

We dish out the headphones at the beginnng of a lesson and take them in at the end - looking at each one as we go - so we see any damage immediately. It's a pain, and only the dedicated IT suite IT teacher will do it, but it works as he has had NO broken headsets since September

 

Yeah, apparently it's not for me to use common sense like that and have them dished out as it's the teachers responsibility to ensure the equipment is being used correctly. I did suggest to do a similar thing, and I think with this new batch I'm getting, if they get broken just as quickly I'll go hardline and insist on a similar policy being adopted here until such point the teachers can keep their eyes on their class! lol ..

[Bev]

We have some like this http://hillscomponents.com/pics/wo1704949.jpg from Ash distribution. They have lasted a bit better than the previous lot but we have still lost about 25% of them. I would love to ask students to provide their own, but the IT teacher is not happy with that option. Edited June 11, 2010 by Bev

[TechSupp]

Oh well I'll try posting this again! (Hit the wrong button and lost my original message!) I've had primary kids destroy those ones as well, however we buy the RM/Tesco ones mentioned previously and they are not too bad so long as you put the fear of god in to the kids and teachers aboput handling with care. That said I have collected 30 pairs in since September that are now sat with me being repaired/modded (not an onerours task). Its not a bad job whilst I have the time to do it. Then we will have a full set agin to start in September as they are not getting them back till then!

[dhicks]

We have some like this http://hillscomponents.com/pics/wo1704949.jpg

 

Our pupils are relativly delicate girls, but they still manage to break the headphones we have, similar to the ones pictured - they seem to have a design flaw where the peice of plastic holding the size adjusters on the sides breaks in two if you twist the adjusters a bit too much. The original Coomber headphones, from which the design of most of these other headphones seems to have been copied, seem to hold out rather better - our sixth form have a set that's been going for years. They still won't stand up to deliberate mis-handling, but if you have sensible children then genuine Coomber headphones might be your best option.

 

--

David Hicks

[soveryapt]

The school went for PRO LUXE|TM-701 BLACK/GOLD|LIGHTWEIGHT DIGITAL STEREO HEADPHONES | CPC in the end .. they seemed to be weathering well when I left, but there a number of kids who seem to have rabbits for parents (and that's not to say they have many brothers and sisters, but more if you own rabbits, you know how much they love to chew through cables) ..