They are able to go comfortably (or uncomfortably) louder than I would ever listen for any length of time, and don?t appear to be struggling with distortion or clipping at any point. It fills our small apartment with great sound. These are super cute and fit me quite well, though I do have very high arches, so when I wear them I tend to get a pink mark on the tops of my feet, but no skin breakdown. Its not my phone cause I tried other headphones and aux cords and they work fine. The boom for the mic lacks any adjustment besides folding up next to the left ear cup. Not pleased with this product. Other than that, he loves them! in the instruction manual it states to enable it you press and hold the mic volume button until it beeps. I have 2 things to consider when buying, which I did not anticipate. Overall I was very happy until they started to fall apart.