Music machine for a child?

My daughter is soon 6 and has a deep passion for music and dancing. She has the most impressive brain and can listen to a song only a couple of times yet remember all the words. She’s asked for a music box for her bedroom. I suppose the essential ingredients are:

•alarm clock

•streaming

•radio (internet or DAB).

•compact so no A9s - something she could take to uni/college years from now.

I was considering an old Beoplay product but it requires a smart phone and I don’t want her to have uncensored access to the internet for safety reasons and I don’t want her playing computer games in her bedroom. Apple has a child safety mode, if I were to use an iPod connected to a music box.

What are you suggestions/recommendations please?

(P.S. I think she has been infected with the B&O virus 🤣)

Hi STY,

How will your daugther stream her music to the device? We had a similar dilemma and decided to go for a non B&O CD player + radio.

My daugther is soon 8 and it won’t be long before own tablets and phones will come and then also streaming devices.

Good look with the ‘struggle’

What about an A1. Great sound from such a small device. Choice of colours. You could pair two in the future for stereo if the desire arose. It’s also pretty durable and splash resistant.

Ferdinand:

Hi STY,

 

 

How will your daugther stream her music to the device? We had a similar dilemma and decided to go for a non B&O CD player + radio.

 

 

My daugther is soon 8 and it won’t be long before own tablets and phones will come and then also streaming devices.

 

 

Good look with the ‘struggle’

 

i will have Deezer or Tidal so she could stream that to a music machine in her bedroom over Wifi.

For control, what about an iPad mini put into kiosk mode with the B&O app? I wonder if you can lock kiosk mode with a PIN/password?

Kids sometimes don't handle things with care. So it is maybe not a bad idea not to spend to much for an audio device.

The Loewe Klang m1 is a great bluetooth speaker. It's affordable (around 100 €), it's robust and has a great sound.

I set up an A3 with an iPad2 for my daughter.

She uses Amazon, Spotify and the Synology Music app.

I locked out Safari so she can not access the web.

An iPad2 does not support all apps, so this might be an issue, but it is quite robust and I got some A3s rather cheaply two years ago.

So it is a flexible setup, with rather good sound and a big display.

This is where the Bose wave guide CD just fits a need.

I am sure B&O could do something similar and it would sell.

Went to a property the other day and all they wanted was a small Radio/CD player with a remote and great sound.

Could not offer any B&O equivalents

I've said a few times that if the current portable range had regular FM/AM radio built in I'd be all over them but I don't want something that'll drain my phone and be a paperweight after 3-4 hours when I'm down to 40% and need to stop streaming because I need my phone that evening.

I have an A3 with an iPad 2 somewhere doing nothing. She can have it for free, as I’d rather one of us had it than some crappy eBay posting etc

Where you you live roughly? I’ll get my wife to dig it out of the garage in the mean time.

What about a old school boomblaster with a CD player? CD’s cost nothing.

It would also learn hear that not everything is unlimited (even tho music is nowadays for 10€ a month)

It’s a good idea, until 3am and she has friends over for an Adele night!

The A3 + iPad idea is very good as it would be a one-box-solution and easy to use for you daughter.

Another suggestion:

1.) Beoplay A1 or A2 plus an older high resolution audio player, e.g.
- Sony NWZ-ZX1
- Pioneer XDP-100r
both are very great machines and you can add streaming through apps, too. Both have a very small speaker integrated for alarms.

If that isn't loud enough you can connect the player and the A1 through a cable (better sound quality) and set the A1 to retail mode(?) where it doesn't power off when connected to the mains.

1.1) As a somehow childproof device: Samsung Xcover series android phones. They are more rugged than standard phones and should survive a little longer in childrens hands. ;)

2.) Pure B&O: An old Beosound Century.
You could add a Google Chromecast audio or Apple Airport express to the Century (or to an A1 or A2, too).


3.) Regarding the Bose wave radio: Definetely worth a look, too!

4.) Maybe we could buy something like the Bose Home Speaker 500 from B&O:
https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/speakers/smart_home/bose-home-speaker-500.html#v=bose_home_speaker_500_luxe_silver

She's only 6! She'd be more than happy with a Google home.

 

 

 

Yes, she is just six years old!

Once she has her own mobile phone (and I am pretty sure that will happen soon), she will need a smallish bluetooth speaker.

As already suggested the A1 will be fine.

The job will be to get her away from just listening to the ohone itself or a set of crappy set of in-ears.

Don’t bother about cd’s or FM radio......she will soon laugh at you, if you try.

Nowadays a six year old child will quickly learn how to manage playback via bt.

Later on give her a somewhat good set of on ear headphones.....and hope for her to use them.

First of all do things with her, talk about stuff, try it out with her - listening must be learnt!

Don’t leave her on her own - listen as much as possible with her.

Forget restrictions (they won’t help you anyway), be a good example yourself.

 

MM

She will have a mobile when she can afford to pay for one herself. It’s an unbelievable luxury as a child and most teachers/parents would argue an unnecessary distraction. Having thought about this more, I am gravitating towards an alarm clock with internet radio as she’s only interested in FunKids UK on DAB / internet radio.

I’d prefer her to come downstairs and listen to her choice of music with us, talk, play and interact rather than becoming a hermit in her bedroom. Might be good to teach her how to start and select music on the main Hifi downstairs. I’m sure she’d get the hang of a Beosound Moment and Beolabs quickly. She’s a quick learner and is careful/delicate. We’ve started a special treat night for her when she has a takeaway, stays up late till 8.30pm and listens to her choice of music on a Friday night whilst her younger siblings are asleep. She will appreciate music in high quality and the social aspect of it. Hoping to tap into her desire to spend time with us before she hits teenagedom and discovers we’re not as cool as she originally thought.

I have a 6 year old, and all she has is a pair of H2 headphones that she can plug in to an old tablet when required. These are great as they don't go too loud for small ears. She has a dedicated tablet that she has to ask to use that is preloaded with games, music and videos, and wifi is switched off.

Re music, I tend to sit with her with the Beovision and we go through Youtube watching various music videos. She dances, choose tracks, sings along, and I can monitor it. Lots of kid friendly stuff is available, and I also get to go through some nostalgia by playing music I listened to as a youngster!

Our boys have second hands BeoSound Century (50 EUR) and BeoSound 1 (90 EUR).

Stones:

Our boys have second hands BeoSound Century (50 EUR) and BeoSound 1 (90 EUR).

Both would seem to be a good bet, with a Blue Tooth receiver added to the aux in if needed. But I also think encouraging the youngster to be downstairs around the parents and not become a hermit has advantages too. Too many people don't seem to even eat dinner together as a family, or if they do allow the kids to stay on tablets/phones during dinner. My wife and I both had parents that said no reading or TV at the table, obviously we're old enough to not have been in the iPhone generation. I think that together time is useful for a parent to be able to monitor their kids to see if there are problems, and for the kids to hopefully feel comfortable enough to ask the parents for help for any issues, and also just to talk and see how each other's lives are going. Raising kids is a big responsibility, too many parents seem to set them on autopilot which isn't a good idea.

I know Tivoli makes some decent small radios that have internet radio and FM and such, small, simple in a Dieter Rams Braun kind of way. I had one of their small table radios for years at work.

Stereomensch:

Kids sometimes don't handle things with care. So it is maybe not a bad idea not to spend to much for an audio device.

The Loewe Klang m1 is a great bluetooth speaker. It's affordable (around 100 €), it's robust and has a great sound.

 

So true, @Stereomensch. Last year we bought a UE Megaboom 3 as a Christma present for our daughter (I saw someone wrote about it here) and she managed to smash it the next day. My wife was so disappointed, me too, but after that, we never buy anything too expensive. Our daughter is only 7, so she has plenty of time ahead to enjoy music in future.

 

My second child(13) listens to music constantly, and considering how well he’s just done at maths,

this is what he’ll get this Xmas.

Marshall Kilburn 2