FEBRUARY 2020 MACWORLD 117serves are the play/pause button by
pressing it once, which also answers and
hangs up phone calls. Hold the button for
three seconds to reject a call, or press it
twice to redial the last phone number.
Finally, hold the button for five seconds to
enter Bluetooth pairing mode.
Also on the back of the earcup, the
volume up and down buttons form the
ends of a rocker switch; they are slightly
raised, making them easy to find by feel.
Press one or the other to increase or
decrease the volume, or hold one or the
other to skip to the next or previous music
track. Press both simultaneously to mute
the music or phone call. All this
multifunctionality can be confusing, but it is
an efficient use of limited space.
The only other
control is the ANC
switch on the front of
the right earcup,
which slides down
engage ANC.
Interestingly, you can
turn on ANC even if
the headphone’s
main power is off,
which I assume
would extend the
battery life if you just
wanted quiet without
music.
The 3.5mm input
for a wired connection to the source is
located at the bottom of the right earcup,
along with a tiny LED that indicates power
and Bluetooth status. A Micro-USB port on
the bottom of the left earcup lets you
charge the TT-BH046’s battery with the
included cable, and an LED next to it
indicates the charging status.AUDIO PERFORMANCE
The TaoTronics TT-BH046 paired to my
iPad without a problem. When I first put
the headphones on, I noticed that the
opening in the earcups is larger than
many over-ear models, making it seat
easily on my head. Also, the swiveling
earcup gimbals rotated to match the
angle of my head near my ears.Controls and most connections are on the right earcup. Back to
front: (1) power on/off, play/pause music, answer/hang up, redial,
Bluetooth pairing; (2) volume up/skip to next track; (3) volume down/
skip to previous track; (4) 3.5mm aux input; (5) power/Bluetooth LED
indicator; (6) one of the microphones; (7) ANC switch with green LED.
On the left earcup: (8) Micro-USB port and (9) LED charging indicator.