Toys built for pounding or for playing instruments come with noise, so the useful question is which noise you can live with. I'd start with the Wooden Knock Bench at £15.29: it's a pounding toy for children over 12 months, and the page calls its pegs non-removable.
What do the pages say about volume?
Nothing at all. None of the pages for these toys gives a volume, a decibel figure or a way to turn the sound down, so nobody can honestly promise you a quiet one.
Some pages give ages and piece counts. The bench and instrument-set pages also say what the toy is. That's enough to rank the toys by how many different noises each can make, which is a rough guide and not a measurement.
The knock bench is the sensible start
It's a pounding toy with a twist, and the twist is that the pegs are non-removable. They go up and down and never leave the bench, which means they can't go missing. Its whole job is being hit, which is a clear brief.
The Wooden Pound And Tap Bench is £22.49. Its page says it's easy to use and gives no age or size, so it's the knock bench's pricier and less talkative cousin.
Do the instrument sets make it worse?
By arithmetic, yes. A set is several instruments, which is several noises against a bench's one job.
The Musical Instrument Set - Forest has 7 pieces and lists maracas, a tambourine, a recorder and a xylophone, for anyone over 18 months. The Musical Instrument Set - Unicorn has 9 pieces and lists the same four plus castanets. Both are £22.49, and the Unicorn page doesn't give an age.
The Forest set has forest animals on the instruments, and the Unicorn set has unicorn decorations. Neither page claims the decoration changes the noise.
The recorder is the one I'd think hardest about. It's a wind instrument, and both pages list it without comment. If your household is sensitive to noise, the sets are the ones to think twice about. Five kinds of instrument is five ways to find out what a toddler does with a tambourine.
If you're unsure, buy one-job toys first and add instruments later. A bench, then a set, is a gentler way to find out how much you can take.
The piano's page says very little
The Fisher Price Laugh & Learn Puppy's Piano is £17.99. Its page says that Fisher-Price is the best quality, which may be true but isn't a volume setting. There's no age, no description of what it plays and nothing about sound, so we can't tell you more than its name.
Whichever you choose, follow the ages the pages give: over 12 months for the knock bench and over 18 months for the Forest set. The other three don't say.
Prices read on Wednesday 11 November 2026.