Parents have been telling their children to turn the volume down since "wireless" meant "AM radio," but noise-monitoring has gotten trickier as music has moved into headphones – where sound levels can get dangerously high. With parental concerns in mind, the LoudEnough earbuds from Ultimate Ears have volume-limiting safeguards built into the hardware.

Although safe volume levels are important, the components in the LoudEnough earbuds also reduce sound-pressure levels up to 20 decibels, or one-quarter of the volume of other earphones.

The earbuds sell for about $40 and can be found at www.loudenough.com.

The New York Times