Little Ones First System: Upgrade My Fisher Price

[Alex_UK]

Well, this is a bit of a double question. Firstly, a bit of background. My little girl (see avatar) is 21 months old, and seems to love music, dancing away if she gets the opportunity. She is starting to grasp what a CD does, and certainly likes playing with them if she gets the chance (Grrrr) as well as how speaker cones wobble with a finger if I should forget to put the covers back on (double Grrrr.) She has also worked out how to turn up the volume if it is music she likes (Lady Ga Ga is her favourite, if it comes on she will recognise it before I do...)

I don't want to push her into anything in life, but feel it is my duty as a parent to let her experience lots of different interests in life, and see what she enjoys. Part of this is music, and I would prefer her to appreciate a better sound than a flimsy ipod speaker dock, (although I guess ipods are part of most people's lives these days.)

So, how have any of you gone about introducing your little ones to hi-fi, if at all? Did you get them their own system, built from your own spares or purchase something specially? At what age is it appropriate to start them off with their own system, if at all? (I know Jeff (Goraman) is already ahead of me on this one with his little one!)

And perhaps we can even come up with some good suggestions for My First Hi-Fi components? (Simple to operate, robust, cheap?)

Any thoughts, or am I just being daft and should keep her away from it all for as long as possible?

[Beechwoods]

A 1G iPod Shuffle I got for £11 and camoflage overear headphones for a fiver :whistle: - the Shuffle was easy for my 3 year old (at the time) to get to grips with and you can set a fixed max volume in iTunes. I loaded it with 15 of his favourite tunes and it was a winner. To be honest I was quite impressed with the quality through his little headphones, given the price! Much better than my first Walkman :)

http://www.ipodhistory.com/images/first_generation_shuffle_i.jpg

Picture for example - I wouldn't recommend in-ear phones for a child!

[Alex_UK]

That's an excellent idea... (I was thinking about giving her the pink Nano her mum was desperate for when they first came out and which I bought her but has only been used about twice... (another Grrrr))
Not sure what she'll think of headphones, but got to be worth a try if I can find some Barbie or Dora the Explorer ones or something. Great, thanks Nick.

Would still like to get something for her room too, I think.

[hifi_dave]

I'm not sure your lovely little Daughter should be exposed to headphones just yet. My eldest Daughter won't let our 20 month old Grandson near a pair of phones, lest it damage his hearing.

What about going to your nearest car boot sale on a Sunday morning and bring back a pile of 80's Sony, Technics, Yamaha or whatever for twenty Quid and install that in her bedroom ? One of my relations does this every few months and comes back laden with all sorts of impressive looking goodies for the price of a Starbucks sandwich.

I know I'd rather have a 'stack' than an i-pod.....:)

[retro]

Alex,Ipod or some other mp3 player is great sugestion.
I'll tell you my experience.More than 12-13 years in some magazine (i think it was TAS or some Stereophile) I read the article about how someone has learned his two-year child to use carefully his precious TT and CD player.I do the same.My kids have never broken anything.If you will be defending your equipment something bad will definitely happen (Murphy's low) :) .Be patient.

Regards,

[Beechwoods]

My eldest Daughter won't let our 20 month old Grandson near a pair of phones, lest it damage his hearing.

Dave - I appreciate the concern, but you can define your own 'maximum volume' for an iPod within iTunes so the little blighters can't turn it up past a level you feel is comfortable - this was a big factor for me in making my choice of machine :)

[The Grand Wazoo]

Give her headphones & you'll be hoarse in notime yelling up the stairs that dinners ready or it's bedtime or whatever.

My daughter got the Sony amp I posted on the my first amp thread a ratty old no-name CD player from a car boot sale (£5) & some JPW speakers from a flea market (also a fiver). Then, when she was older she used her PC to play CD's. I got her switched on to vinyl on her 17th birthday with a TD160 & we got her a TEAC Reference 500 system for her 18th.

[Beechwoods]

My lads is set quietly enough so he can still hear us hollering ;)

[The Vinyl Adventure]

iPod,
iPod dock - pure I-10 - £30
class t amp - eBay - £30
Q acoustic 1010's - ritcher sounds £50

£110... And that's new stuff... You can't really go wrong with a little class t of eBay ... It won't go loud and it only has a volume control so is easy!

[REM]

Wouldn't she prefer listening to some tunes with daddy????;)

[hifi_dave]

That's the preferred option.

My grown-up kids still recall sitting on my lap listening to music from the Hi-Fi, when they were small....:)

[Beechwoods]

Wouldn't she prefer listening to some tunes with daddy????;)

:lol: I think it's really cool that all my boy's favourite tunes, bar one or two, are ones he's come to love because I've played them to him...

[Alex_UK]

Ok, let's be honest, there is an element of this that is me being selfish:

* I have an excuse to search for stuff to buy to put the system together
* If I give her a cheapo system to play with, she might not break mine! And if she breaks a £15 ebay special CD player it doesn't really matter

In reality, she is far too young for all this I guess, so maybe I should just hang fire for a bit, though I might get a Shuffle anyway as we can plug that into my system with her songs on it. Attention span is a bit tricky yet, though!

Thanks everyone for suggestions so far.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I bloody knew it! I was gonna say that your just wanna buy a bit of hifi! Hehe :lol: ;)

[James G]

Man, you got a lucky little girl. Her own stereo before 2yo!

One of the things I had was a cheapo AM/FM cassette player when I was a young'n. I loved sitting in my room alone listening to the radio, making mixed tapes. I never gave a thought about the sound quality at that time. I just knew it wasn't as loud as the family stereo.

I also vote for the iPod dock. But don't spoil her with that B&W one (because I'll get really jealous)! :)

[goraman]

A small boom box might fill the bill for awhile...

[goraman]

Hey,Hey,Hey Apple! look here!
Get her the pink one! The one that looks like Hello Kitty and Zsa Zsa Gabor though up all over it (pink and bling) is just the thing for a little princess who loves music.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmkD4C0v0Ng&feature=related

[James G]

Hey,Hey,Hey Apple! look here!
Get her the pink one! The one that looks like Hello Kitty and Zsa Zsa Gabor though up all over it (pink and bling) is just the thing for a little princess who loves music.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmkD4C0v0Ng&feature=related
Jessica Chobot is hot. I thought she worked for Xbox?

Hey Jeff, if you like Hello Kitty, check this site out. Just give it 5 minutes. You will be shocked at what has been made into a Kitty version! Seriously! :lol:

http://www.kittyhell.com/

[goraman]

Not a big fan of hello kitty or Jessica chobot.
Some seriously messed up hello kitty stuff there man.
But then glamor babes have never been my thing.
They say leaveing something to the imagination is sexy.
Mabey thats why I dig chicks in burkas...
Just kidding, but I do prefure middle eastern beauty.
My wife Nosheen in the picture below.
In her Hello Kitty Sari.

[James G]

Very pretty lady you have there Jeff! Congrats.
I like 'em all TBH. :)

[DSJR]

Alex, I agree that two yrs old is a bit young for headphones and my personal experience is that it would be better to listen to your main system for a bit longer and let her use the personal player in a few years (by which time it'll be so out of date it won't matter if it gets lost or broken).

Our son is just getting some semblance of a musical taste and I've had to download a few tracks not of my taste (Europe - The Final Countdown :vomfest: among others) to his little Sony Atrak player given to him as a Christmas present. He uses it lots though and is developing quite a good singing voice if he did but know it....

Alex, when your little one is school age (if not before), why not get her a good used Denon DM3/DM30 with the adequate speakers they came with (or some Q Acoutics from Richer Sounds). Should be easy to use and IMO is of genuine low-powered HiFi quality.....

[Alex_UK]

Thanks everyone for the further input. A Denon mini is probably a very sensible approach, and will save a bit of space for her, maybe with an ipod dock, and see how things go. She might not be interested anyway, and I don't want to force her into it. Cheers again.