Comfy earbuds with hard mute button?

February 1, 2017 12:18 PM

I'm looking for comfortable, wired earbuds that are like Sure SIE2i (they are comfy, they aren't noise-reducing in-ear-canal style) that also have a hard wired mute button (that button on the cord hangs up) on the cord or the earbud proper. The ones I've seen that do this are bluetooth (like Plantronics BackBeat Fit) but a wired version would be ideal. Would love to know if anyone has found anything like this. Thanks!
posted by jlittlew to Shopping (5 answers total)

I've been using LSTN earbuds (and earphones, lately) ever since a pair was included in a Birchbox sampler I received a few years ago. They're not cheap, but they're not cheaply made, either. A portion of their sales proceeds supports the Starkey Hearing Foundation. (Yep, that Starkey.) The earbuds have play/pause controls on them as you're looking for, which works as a hang-up button when you're on a call.
posted by emelenjr at 12:38 PM on February 1, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks emelenjr -- but like all other (so far) headphones/earbuds I've seen, that middle button is hang-up not mute/unmute...
posted by jlittlew at 12:50 PM on February 1, 2017

Oh, I misread your question! Sorry about that. No, the LSTN earbuds don't have a mute button at all. I assumed you were just looking to stop the sound coming out of the earbuds, not stop the microphone from working.
posted by emelenjr at 1:08 PM on February 1, 2017

I really love my Bose Soundsports, as to comfort, functionality and sound quality, but they too stop sound or transfer calls, and let you control volume -- they don't have a mute function.
posted by bearwife at 2:31 PM on February 1, 2017

Response by poster: Oh right yeah I see how I wrote that was wrong. The fact is I think the way most (all) earbuds work that button on the 'remote' is a hang-up button, which isn't what I want. I don't think you can repurpose that button. So there'd need to be another hard-wired mute button somewhere else on the headphones... and I don't think that really exists. Thanks all for helping!
posted by jlittlew at 6:09 AM on February 2, 2017