Audio players, which will play back music tracks and things you record live, are becoming as ubiquitous as mobile phones, so it's not surprising we're now getting models intended for the youth market. The Max-Joy audio player from German maker Maxfield is intended for children aged between 6 and 12.

Maxfield claims that several features are specifically designed with youngsters in mind and these include a volume limit of 60dB, larger than normal operating buttons, over the ear rather than ear-bud headphones and a ruggedised, rubberised case. So how do these extras measure up, given the relatively low price of the device?

The smart yellow and red case is easy to spot in untidy bedrooms and the red part is slightly rubberised. Whether there's sufficient cushioning to prevent damage should it be dropped from any height is debatable, and the yellow back cover is just plain plastic. The control buttons are a little larger than normal, but also take quite firm pushes to operate them, which might cause problems for smaller digits.

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The Koss headphones have soft sponge earpads, so aren't going to get caught in your ears if pulled off roughly and, inexplicably, have a 15 year warranty. Though they look well made, we'd be very surprised if they lasted that long.

A volume limit of 60dB is a very good idea, as it provides plenty of sound in your ears but is below the threshold where it can do any damage. Sound quality is very good, with clear middle and upper frequencies and only a slight drop-off in the bass ranges.

So far so good; the extra features in the Max-Joy are welcome, though not completely convincing. The bright yellow and blue display is reasonably readable, though some of the characters are very small. This is true of many audio players, of course, but in one intended for pre-teen audiophiles, it may cause more problems than normal. Then again, most of the children we know have far better eyesight than their parents.

The player comes with 256MB of internal memory and supports both MP3 and WMA music formats. It also supports Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM), so should work with tracks downloaded from services such as MSN and Napster. There's a slot for a Multimedia or Secure Digital card of up to 2GB, so fully expanded it will take a lot of music. Maxfield claims the player will run for up to 19 hours on a single AAA battery and it comes complete with a brightly coloured belt-clip.

The 'Audio player for children' seems a bit like a marketing ploy with the Max-Joy. While the volume limit will protect young ears, it also means cheaper components. The ruggedised case is only slightly more knock-resistant than some others we've seen, and other features, like the small display characters, might work against the spin. Even so, this is a good, general-purpose audio player at a very fair price.