Advanced Mute Links (MuteLinks fork) makes use of the Firefox's built-in mute tab functionality and automatically mutes a tab based on its URL.
Every time a new tab loads or a tab URL changes, Advanced MuteLinks will check the URL and if it matches a link or criteria of the Blacklist, Whitelist the tab will be muted, in case a tab is muted and its URL changes to one not on the Blacklist the tab will be un-muted.
I just don't let JavaScript run by default. In Chrome I just went into preferences and flipped the switch. Now I have to turn it on site by site, which is a little annoying. But once it's on for a domain, it's on forever, unless I turn it off again.
JavaScript not only runs things, it's what most sites use to bulk themselves up. That is to say, if a site chooses to embed advertising, it doesn't embed all the CSS, JavaScript, images, videos, iframes, and so on. Instead it just adds a script tag or two. Then that script tag, once it runs, goes out and fetches more JavaScript, stylesheets, images and videos.
In other words, turning off JavaScript not only squashes pop-ups and autoplaying videos, it reduces the size of the page by 90%.
I go for option 2. Option 1 leads to an annoying browsing experience (if you go for option 1, all the power to you). Option 2 just means you only have sound on when you need it to.
