Momentum True Wireless Headphones

I never really thought I'd be looking for a "true wireless" set of earbuds until I first heard about these late last year before they were released. They've been on my radar since. They don't look absolutely ridiculous like the Apple Airpods (although I still would feel obnoxious walking around with them), and they promised high-end sound quality.- I couldn't sleep a few nights ago and caved, I went ahead and ordered these. In my sleepless thought-loops, I reasoned that these would be perfect for using in the office. I probably spent maybe 8 hours a week already in office with my trusty pair of Shure SRH 440 cans that I got in 2009 for $95. These would have the advantage over those as being way more comfortable, and way more subtle, likely with better sound... But what really sold me on this style of headphone is the external sound pass-through option. I loved the idea of being able to toggle outside sound as needed through just a simple tap-tap. And it sounds very natural, like you're not even wearing earbuds. For user context, I've spent ~$100 here and there on earbuds like the 1MORE Triple Driver (which I've sadly lost) that have come and faded from my regular use, those and the Shure cans mentioned above have served as my benchmark for what good headphone sound is. I took an impulsive leap ordering this $300 pair, but holy crap am I glad I did. The sound quality blows away what my over-ear Shure headphones can do, the difference is absolutely noticeable. I'm constantly impressed by how great everything sounds on these, and like people say, am noticing parts of my favorite songs that I've never noticed as much before. I've been so inspired by it that I dug into my Spotify settings, discovered the "Very High" setting, and deleted a dozen apps from my phone to make room for redownloading my whole library. When wondering how a bluetooth headset could sound this good, I did some research on the AptX standard and got learnt. I checked to make sure my Pixel XL supported the standard, and heck yeah, it's got AptX HD! These Sennheisers only have AptX though. While that seems to be more than enough, why shouldn't this top-end product utilize the top-end standard? These are very comfortable to wear and very sturdy. I'm using the small eartip set, and I'm not worried at all about these falling out of my ears, despite their mild bulkiness. It sort of seems like it's shaped like a giant earplug -- I wouldn't ever think I looked "cool" walking about with these, same as any other headphones. With the sound passthrough though, I could probably just throw a beanie over them and no one may be the wiser! The case is more compact and convenient. The soft touch and look is nice, and it feels sturdy, all except for the hinge... It's not loose or anything, but I'm skeptical about it's long-term durability. There is just a touch of side-to-side wiggle, and a little give if I try to open it too wide. Feels like I could potentially snap this backwards easily. Hopefully a replacement case isn't too expensive if I ever have a stupid moment or if it wears out in the very-long-term (I hope to use these for a GOOD LONG WHILE, considering the cost -- will update if necessary). I like the build otherwise, though -- very nice how the buds snap magnetically in their cubbies. There is one LED and a button that you can use to check the status of the charging case's battery, straightfoward once you learn it once. The battery life of the buds has been perfectly adequate for my use, and the fact that these have nowhere to go but back in their chargey-case means they're always ready for me. The right earbud draining faster than left is sort of weird but not a big deal and kind of makes sense considering in a way, these are basically two independent devices. when you have two completely independent devices. The USB-C charge port is on this case is another feature that absolutely sold me. My pixel charges with USB-C, as does my Galaxy Book 12 laptop, and I love having one cable that I can use alternately for my daily devices. These buds are an other added to that list. I've seen some complaints about the touch controls, but personally I like them, at least I like the concept, especially. The combination of taps needed is easy to memorize as early as day 1, there's nothing really complicated about it. Timing the double-tap to activate pass-through sound is going to take me some practice though, I sometimes do it wrong and activate voice assistant instead (with 1 touch being registered). This is usually because I tapped too slow and deliberately. Two quick, solid-contact touches is the way to go and I'm sure I will master this with more practice. All this would be a non-issue if I could switch the 1-touch/2-touch functions on the right earbud via the app. This seems like it should be possible with a software update, so fingers crossed! I really love these earbuds and I'm so glad I pulled the trigger on them. It's been a long time since a new gadget has been so satisfying, or made me feel like I've really ascended to the next era in an area of technology. For sure I'm listening to my tunes even more than before, but more importantly, I've been kind of pumped to actually go into the office where it makes sense for me to use these (vs my whole-home Chromecast Audio speaker setup). Great motivator to get into work! Despite all that, a negative I should mention.. This buds can't connect to multiple devices simultaneously. I'm used to using a Plantronics Voyager 5200 bluetooth earpiece for my work calls, which coincidentally just happened to die a few days ago after just 15 months of service. That earpiece was able to connect to both my phone and laptop simultaneously, which was pretty handy and I took to take for granted. With these buds, I have to disconnect from one device before I can connect to the other. Not too big of a deal though, since I only ever used my buds in the office to listen to Spotify. Now I just stream from my phone instead of my laptop, and I can still control playback from my laptop client thanks to the way the Spotify client works, so it feels almost no different. I had a 15 minute work call from an upset customer come in while I was wearing the earbuds, by the way... At the beginning of the call I asked if he could hear me OK, he said it was fine, so there's that. Another small negative, the touch controls seem to function still when the buds are removed from the ear, so it's easy to trigger voice assistant or play/pause by accident when you're handling the buds. You quickly learn to hold them from the edges so as to not trigger the touch-controls, which I got used to quickly. But if the buds can detect when they're placed in the ear, wouldn't it be nice if they could detect when they are removed too (and disable touch controls)? Overall, I'm incredibly pleased with these. I was on the fence for a while, reading loads of reviews and experiences. I wanted to be as thorough as I could with my thoughts on this to hopefully help anyone else that over-thinks things like I do.

Update: Batteries have failed in less than one year. Despite what I write below about good sound quality, it is not a good purchase. Batteries should really last much longer than this. I bought a replacement battery and successfully installed it and it died within 6 months. It is likely the unit itself rather than the battery that is the problem. I decided to trashcan them to avoid the disappointment over not being able to use them. I am not saying these are the best wireless earbuds. I am just saying I think they are one of the best sounding. I live in a place where loudspeakers don't work out well. So I have a lot of headphones/earphones. I am lucky in that I have had a chance to sample lots of wireless sets. I am comparing these Sennheisers to: Jabra 65T, Jabra 75T, Airpods Pros, Bose QC 35 and Sony 1000xm3. The Sennheisers excel in one thing: sound quality. I have listened to these Sennheisers for 2 weeks straight and done a fair amount of comparing. I prefer them above the others for sound quality. The sound is clear and crisp and bass is very clean and not muddy. They are especially good for Jazz. The others each have their strong points and if I needed to pick only one of them to use long term, I would have to consider battery life, sound cancellation and phone call quality. The battery life is not stellar, but they last for at least 3 hours of continuous listening. The Jabras and AirPods last much longer. There is no noise cancellation except of having something plug your ear, and I think they all have a hard time at beating the Sony which is so intense at noise reduction that they are eerie. I haven't even tried them for phone calls. But for sound quality alone these are my favorite. Add in the holiday price of $99 and these are really worth it. Now I have only had them 2 weeks, so I will report back if they are not durable. Update: they still sound great. However they self discharge. So if they are not used for a few days they will discharge to zero on their own. If you use the right after being charged they last over 4 hours at medium volume. Seems that this should be a simple fix but lots of others complain as well. Minus one star. PS someone put advice on this forum that seems to help the battery issue. The buds seem to stay on in the case even if not connected to a source and they run down on their own. if you hold down the battery check button on the back until the light stops blinking, it seems to greatly lower the power drain. Update: I have had these buds for 8 months and have used them extensively. The pointer I wrote above about shutting off the unit by holding the power button down does not seem to matter anymore. Any time you do not use them for a few days or more, it will be dead on its own. This is really not acceptable programming or design or whatever the flaw is. They need to fix it or remove from the market. Even at 1/3 of its original price it is not worth it, even to a hard core headphone geek like myself. They do still sound good.

Alright, so the hype on the sound quality on these is pretty justified. They have a great sound stage, and everything is balanced, which is the main reason I went with them over the Powerbeats Pro. I feel like generally the “thing” nowadays is for the bass to drown everything else out instead of giving a nice balanced signal. These definitely don’t fall victim to that trend, they sound almost as balanced as my HS8 studio monitors, and i wouldn’t really expect anything else from Sennheiser. I’ve used their products for years and they take this stuff pretty seriously. That being said, the battery drain issue is real, even after the update that claimed to fix it. If you plan on using these every day, you absolutely have to charge them every night. I made the mistake the first day of using them for ~4 hours and thinking “hey, they still have over 50% battery, I guess i don’t have to charge them tonight”. Definitely still do, not sure what the issue is here but it’s not super annoying as long as you know what to expect and that you have to charge them every time you plan on using them. The app (on IOS betas 13-13.2 and iPhone XS Max) has been shotty at best. If you pair these to your phone and connect to them, the app will not recognize them. I found the trick is, that works darn near every time, is to open up the case to turn them on, go into your phone settings and disconnecting them, and THEN go open the app, and everything will connect well and good. After that, you have to go back into your settings and connect to them for your phone to actually stream music to them for some reason, but then EQ and al that will work great. Never had a single issue with sync watching videos, nor sync problems between the two buds. The passive sound cancelling in them is pretty impressive, I work in noisy environments daily (loud trucks, equipment, aircraft) and as long as you pick the right fitting silicone tips, it’s super quiet. Just for fun I even compared them to my Bose A20 aviation headset with active noise cancelling in a cruising aircraft, don’t know if this anecdote will fully land for anyone that hasn’t been in a GA aircraft but it’s pretty darn loud, and they held their own for avoiding a headache for sure. Overall, still the best sounding true wireless buds on the market and that’s well worth it for me. If you care more about battery life or noise cancelation though, Id go with the new sony’s, which are also great! But nowhere near the sound quality in my opinion.

The sound quality was amazing. The build quality of the hinge is very cheap and will break eventually. Fast forward almost 2 years after buying it, the case itself does not accept charge anymore making it unusuable.

L'écouteur gauche n'est pas détecté par le boitier de charge, ne fonctionne donc pas après une nuit complète de charge (écouteur droit ok). On verra pour relever la note après remplacement du produit :)

Horrível, produto veio quebrado

El audio es excepcional, mejor que Bose, Beats, etc. Si lo que se busca es la mejor calidad de audio sin escuchar ningún sonido externo, esta es la opción. Son bastante cómodos y la batería sí dura lo que se anuncia (4 hrs) y se recarga dos veces más en su caja pero si se dejan por varios días sin usar, se descarga. La carga es rápida así que no es un gran problema. La función "transparent hearing" que permite escuchar sonidos externos no es tan efectiva sobre todo si se tiene el volumen alto, así que aun activada no se nota a menos que se ponga pausa a la reproducción. Otra ventaja es que funcionan bastante bien con Skype, Zoom y Teams en conferencias aunque en ésta última aplicación se apagan después de una hora (pero debe ser falla en la aplicación ya que no sucede en Skype o Zoom). No son audífonos para hacer ejercicio en la calle porque no se escuchan sonidos externos así que hay que ser muy precavidos y mejor solo caminar. Para el uso en exteriores también tienen un plus que es que soportan salpicaduras (catalogados IPX4). Definitivamente si lo que se busca es calidad de audio excepcional y que ningún sonido interrumpa, esta es la mejor opción de audífonos "in ear".