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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-10-02 · 7 min read · Independent comparison
• MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon — biggest strength: a whole-silicone in-ear housing with a 5–6 mm dynamic driver that's built to sit gently in your ear for hours, including when you're lying on a pillow.
• MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon — biggest trade-off: it's a wired 3.5 mm earbud with a 120 mm cord, so it's tethered to your phone, tablet or laptop and has no USB option.
• Wantek Headset — biggest strength: an over-ear design with a noise-cancelling boom mic, in-line mute and volume controls, and a 3-in-1 plug that covers USB plus 3.5 mm devices.
• Wantek Headset — biggest trade-off: at 200 g it's a headset you wear at a desk, not one you'd wear to bed or on a run.
• Who each pick is for: MAXROCK for sleepers, side-sleepers, travelers and anyone who wants the tiniest possible mic'd earbud; Wantek for office, call-center, remote-work and gaming-from-a-desk setups.
MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon is the odd one out in a good way. The whole ear housing is soft silicone, and that single design decision drives everything else. There's no rigid plastic shell digging into your ear canal, so you can rest your head on a pillow without that pressure-and-pain feeling that normal earbuds create. If you're the kind of person who needs music or an audiobook to fall asleep, this is the specific use case the design is aimed at.
The specs back up the "tiny and light" pitch. The driver is listed at 5 mm in the marketing copy and 6 mm in the measurements, with 16 ohm impedance and a 20 Hz – 20 kHz frequency range. Low impedance like that means it's easy to drive — a phone or tablet doesn't need to work hard to get volume out of it. The silicone tip also gives you passive sound isolation, which the listing frames as noise reduction by fit rather than by electronics. There's no active noise cancelling here, and that's fine for the price class it plays in.
Who should skip it? Anyone who needs a boom mic that sits near their mouth, anyone who wants USB connectivity, and anyone who spends their day in video meetings. A 120 mm cord and an inline mic are perfect for a phone call on a walk. They are not what you want for an eight-hour day of Zoom.
Wantek Headset: Who It's For
Wantek Headset is the opposite philosophy. It's an over-ear, on-ear-style headset with an ABS plastic frame that weighs 200 g — roughly four times the MAXROCK earbud. That weight is the point: it's built to sit on your head for a workday, not to disappear into your ear. The "Professional" styling tells you exactly who it's aimed at.
The headline feature is the noise-cancelling microphone. The design goal, per the listing, is to block background noise like a crying child or a barking dog — the stuff that wrecks a call when you're working from a cafe, an open office or a call center. That's a fundamentally different mic approach from the MAXROCK's inline mic, which sits on the cable near your chest rather than in front of your mouth.
Connectivity is where the Wantek pulls ahead for desk work. It ships with a 3-in-1 plug covering USB and 3.5 mm, and the listing calls out Windows 2000/7/8/10/XP/Vista, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, tablet PCs and phones. In practice that means one headset that works on a work laptop over USB and on a phone over 3.5 mm. The in-line control gives you volume and mute, so you can kill your mic mid-sentence without touching software. Impedance is 32 ohm, which is a normal, easy-to-drive figure for a headset of this type.
Who should skip it? Side-sleepers, runners, and anyone who wants to travel with the smallest possible kit. A 200 g over-ear headset with a plastic carrying case is not a pillow companion, and it's not something you'll want to wear on a treadmill.
• Best for sleeping and side-sleeping → MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon. The all-silicone housing is designed so you can lie on your side with your head on a pillow.
• Best for calls and meetings → Wantek Headset. A noise-cancelling boom mic plus in-line mute is the right tool for talking all day.
• Best for travel and pocket carry → MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon. It's a tiny in-ear bud with a 120 mm cord and a small protective case.
• Best for desk and multi-device work → Wantek Headset. The 3-in-1 USB/3.5 mm plug covers laptops, desktops and phones in one headset.
• Best for blocking background noise at the source → Wantek Headset. The mic is designed to suppress environmental noise; the MAXROCK's isolation comes from the silicone seal in your ear, not the mic.
• Best for comfort over long listening sessions → MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon. Soft silicone and a near-weightless fit beat a 200 g over-ear frame if comfort is your priority.
• Best for hands-free phone control → MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon. The inline button handles answer, reject, end, play/pause and track skip on a 3.5 mm connection.
• Best for a plug-and-play work setup → Wantek Headset. USB support out of the box is the deciding factor for most office laptops.
• Warranty worth noting: MAXROCK lists a 1-year warranty; Wantek lists 45-day money-back plus a 24-month warranty via its support email.
In my opinion, these aren't really competitors — they're two different jobs. If I had to pick one for the way most people actually use a mic'd headset (calls, meetings, working at a desk), I'd buy the Wantek Headset. The noise-cancelling boom mic, in-line mute and USB-plus-3.5 mm plug make it the more capable tool for talking, and the 24-month warranty is a real confidence signal.
But if your goal is falling asleep to audio or wearing something so light you forget it's there, the MAXROCK Total Soft Silicon wins that job outright, and the Wantek can't touch it. Buy the one that matches your actual daily routine, not the one with the longer feature list. Check the current price on Amazon before you commit, since these two sit in very different budget tiers.
how to use headphones with microphone
Plug the 3.5 mm jack into a phone, tablet, laptop or console with a matching port, then use the inline button to answer or end calls and control playback. On the Wantek, connect via USB or 3.5 mm and use the in-line volume and mute controls. Your device should detect the mic automatically; if it doesn't, check your sound input settings.
how to test headset with microphone
Make a test call or use your device's voice recorder and speak at normal volume. On a computer, open your sound settings and watch the input meter move as you talk. For the Wantek, confirm the mute switch is off before testing, since a muted in-line control will silence the mic even when everything is connected properly.
how to headset microphone
If your headset's mic isn't working, first confirm the plug is fully seated — a partially inserted 3.5 mm jack is the most common cause. Then check that the correct input device is selected in your software. The MAXROCK routes audio through a single 3.5 mm jack, so devices with separate mic and headphone ports need a splitter.
how much are headphones with microphone
Prices vary widely by type, and the two products here sit in different categories — a tiny in-ear silicone bud versus a full over-ear USB headset. Rather than guess, use the price button on this page to check the current price on Amazon for each. That way you're comparing live numbers instead of stale ones.
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