Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 Earbuds Review – Still Some of the Best

The $299 terms tag connected the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds demands top-tier audio, comfort, customization, and longevity, and if you're spending this overmuch connected earbuds, you’ll privation them to past for years and years. Sennheiser's fantabulous way grounds and the buds' specs expanse – including enactment for high-quality Bluetooth codecs specified arsenic aptX Lossless and LC3 – committedness a dainty for your ears. So bash they unrecorded up to that promise?

Although they’re not rather perfect, the abbreviated reply is yes: they're immoderate of the best, and best-looking, earbuds you tin buy, up determination with the likewise priced Sony WF1000XM5. And fixed they're respective years old, you tin sometimes get them astatine a discount.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 – Design and Battery Life

Starting with the packaging, this is by acold the astir luxurious earbuds lawsuit I've held. The colour of the cloth matches your prime of earbuds, with 5 options. I deliberation the copper variant I reviewed is my favourite: it's understated and classy. Everyone wanted to consciousness the lawsuit whenever I enactment the buds connected oregon disconnected astir friends.

The hardy cloth showed nary scuffs oregon scratches aft a week of bouncing astir successful my jeans pouch and successful my bag, and was nary worse disconnected aft a fewer drops. Long-term users accidental it holds up good and that you needn't interest astir fraying threads. It is connected the chunkier broadside and it sticks retired successful my pouch much truthful than immoderate of the buds I've tested, which bothers me. It's not a dealbreaker, but conscionable cognize that everyone volition beryllium capable to spot the outline of the case.

The buds themselves look astir arsenic handsome arsenic the case. The brushed metallic exterior isn't excessively shiny, and the indented Sennheiser logo lends a beauteous texture. This is wherever you'll beryllium touching to power the buds, and it recognised each my taps perfectly. I'm little keen connected the placement of the outer microphone holes, which sullies the cleanable finish.

The buds are chunkier than competitors, which means they extrude from your receptor more, but it didn't consciousness excessive adjacent arsenic idiosyncratic with smaller ears. The other layers connected the bud – the metallic exterior, a rubber protector, the main assemblage and stem of the bud, and the receptor extremity – creates plentifulness of crevices for grime to accumulate, though it was casual to clean.

The tips felt comfy to deterioration for hours astatine a clip astatine location oregon astatine the gym. You get a assortment of sizes and the accompanying app – which I'll research much aboriginal – includes a "fit test" to assistance you prime the close size. It's a utile other that astir buds don't have. The IP54 rating, indicating the level of particulate and h2o resistance, means that rainfall and sweat won't harm these buds. The receptor tips besides person a mesh astatine their base, protecting the headphones from immoderate particulate oregon earwax falling inside: again, it's thing that a batch of buds don't have.

And the agelong artillery beingness enables extended listening sessions. You'll get betwixt 7 and 8 hours connected a azygous complaint (although little with sound cancelling, customized EQs, and different funky features that I'll speech astir later) and 30 hours full if you support putting them backmost successful the charging lawsuit erstwhile they tally out. That single-charge beingness is simply a smidge less than Sony's best, but the full charge, including the case, is longer; some of which are excellent. They enactment accelerated Qi wireless charging and you tin besides crook connected "battery extortion mode" to complaint the buds slower and halt them reaching 100%, prolonging their semipermanent life. Most smartphones present person a akin diagnostic but it's uncommon connected earbuds: different bonus.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 – Sound Quality

They look bully – but however bash they sound? Lovely, thankfully. Smooth and balanced. I listened to euphony successful plentifulness of genres, antithetic podcasts, watched TV shows and adjacent played games (which I'll speech astir successful a moment). Everything felt similar an easy, pleasant listen, with nary noticeable distortion and nary artificial boosting.

Vocals felt balanced with inheritance euphony to situation maine erstwhile watching films, and voices sounded peculiarly rich. I enjoyed the "podcast mode", which enhanced the clarity and timbre of voices, and made it dependable similar I was listening successful the studio. I similar that the EQs presets are comparatively gentle, too. Sometimes EQ presets stroke up definite aspects of the audio, but listening to Jay Z's The Black Album sounded bully connected beauteous overmuch each setting.

You tin alteration "sound personalization", with a speedy trial connected the app to set the equilibrium of bass and strings to suit your ears, though I indispensable admit I recovered it rather confusing, and didn't consciousness similar it improved the sound. You bash get a small little punch and clarity than with the Sony WF1000XM5 buds. Sony's earbuds are peculiarly precise and bassy, truthful you tin truly consciousness the music: Sennheiser's are, I'd argue, gentler and much well-rounded. Neither is evidently amended – they're some large retired of the box, and it's conscionable what you prefer. If you privation a spot much bite, you tin ever make a customized EQ connected the app oregon toggle "bass boost" for immoderate much oomph without distorting your sound.

They enactment a assortment of hi-res and lossless audio codecs, including aptX Lossless and LC3. You'll evidently request to watercourse from a programme that supports those codecs (the basal Spotify subscription doesn't screen it, for example), and adjacent erstwhile you do, you mightiness not adjacent announcement a quality successful audio quality. But it does consciousness bully knowing you person buds that tin bash it all, and ones that are aboriginal impervious for emerging tech implicit the adjacent fewer years.

On the gaming front, the buds' Bluetooth latency won't basal up to a wired gaming headset oregon a dedicated low-latency gaming earbud similar the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, but I recovered them to beryllium amended than different non-gaming earbuds I've tried. They person a circumstantial "low latency" audio mode designed for gaming, which you tin usage connected your telephone oregon connected your PC. The PC transportation is simply a spot fiddly: you archetypal person to link to some your telephone and PC astatine the aforesaid clip (these buds tin enactment 2 devices astatine erstwhile with zero issue), past toggle connected debased latency connected the telephone app, and enactment connected to your telephone arsenic you play, due to the fact that there's nary dedicated Windows software.

There is inactive a flimsy hold from surface to receptor but it's hardly noticeable. I played a batch of Arc Raiders with them, and I felt wholly consumed by its soundscape. With these buds, I could archer what was happening astir me, and what absorption footsteps were coming from. Microphone prime is the 1 large letdowns of these buds: the measurement is good but your dependable volition dependable a small fuzzy and unclear, which is disappointing.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 – Noise Cancellation and Transparency

These Sennheiser buds person adaptive sound cancellation by default, truthful you can't manually alteration the level of it. Some adaptive systems tin beryllium jumpy, and often neglect to deed max sound cancelling, but determination are nary specified problems here. I didn't really announcement immoderate of the adjustments happening successful existent clip and it chopped retired the loudest noises erstwhile it needed to.

The magnitude of sound cancellation isn't thing special, and I'd accidental it's not rather arsenic almighty arsenic the high-end Sony buds. It did everything I wanted, cutting retired inheritance sound astatine the gym and reducing the sound of the London Underground betwixt stops, but it was nary much awesome than the mid-range OnePlus Buds 4 I reviewed successful September. The screechiest portion of the Underground enactment inactive came done large and clear.

The Transparency mode is impressive, mostly due to the fact that you get much options than with astir buds. You tin prime betwixt 5 levels of transparency, and you tin determine to crook it connected oregon disconnected successful telephone calls. That level of customisation is useful: sometimes, you lone privation a spot of transparency – for example, truthful I tin perceive my woman calling from different country – and sometimes you privation a lot, say, if we're successful the aforesaid room. The highest transparency does nutrient a noticeable inheritance hiss, which is annoying but expected. The trade-off for intelligibly proceeding things going connected astir you is worthy it, and astir of the clip you won't request to crank it to max.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 – Software and Customisation

All the settings for the True Wireless 4 earbuds travel successful Sennheiser's SmartControlPlus app. It's crammed with options you won't find connected different buds. I've talked astir immoderate of them already: bass boost, podcast mode, artillery extortion mode and the acceptable trial are each here. But you tin besides acceptable Sound Zones, which use circumstantial settings erstwhile you get astatine oregon permission a location. It's a neat instrumentality that means you can, for example, crook connected sound cancellation by default erstwhile you scope the gym.

The app tin beryllium a small confusing due to the fact that immoderate of the settings are nether the "my device" tab, portion immoderate travel nether the "settings" tab. That distinction, I'd argue, is illogical. But erstwhile you get utilized to uncovering what you request the app is casual to navigate, cleanly laid out, and works reliably. I peculiarly liked the elaborate customisation of the interaction controls. You person the state to acceptable commands for single, double, and triple taps individually connected the near and close buds. I would've liked a desktop app too, truthful I could alteration settings straight connected my PC, but sadly that's not an enactment with these buds.