Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 overview

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 are Sennheiser’s latest flagship true wi-fi earbuds. These function all of the bells and whistles, together with adaptive noise cancellation, Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Lossless, LE Audio, Auracast, Sennheiser’s distinctive Sound Personalization function, and wi-fi charging. At $300, they value a fairly penny. However are they price it? Let’s discover out.

Design and luxury

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 have primarily the identical design as their predecessors, simply in a special shade of colour. The charging case is fabric-lined as earlier than, with the foolish USB port on the entrance that all the time confuses since each different pair of earbuds has it on the again of the case.

Nonetheless, that is not the least of its worries and is one thing you may get used to. What I could not get used to are the scale of the case because the chunky form merely is not very pocketable. The selection of lining the outside of one thing that’s all the time dealt with or in your pockets with material can also be questionable and the grey lining of our silver mannequin had already began to stain in my couple of weeks of use.

Except for that, the case is constructed very effectively with a really sturdy lid design that has not one of the play you discover on different fashions and closes with a satisfying snap. The material lining, as impractical as it might be, additionally has a premium texture that’s pleasing to the contact.

Transferring on to the earbuds themselves, they’ve beneficiant proportions that stick out a bit out of your ears. There’s a sizable portion on the again that’s touch-sensitive however as soon as once more there are downsides to this design. The contact space is just too massive so it is almost inconceivable to place the earbuds on or off and never set off one of many gestures.

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 earbuds have a substantial insertion depth. They sit pretty deep in your ear canal, which might not be snug for lots of people. There’s additionally appreciable suction going out and in and most of the time, pulling the earbuds out causes the ear tricks to flip inside out as they detach out of your ear canal.

As a result of this, consolation wasn’t a powerful swimsuit for these earbuds. The factor is, I used to be capable of put on them for lengthy intervals however inserting them and taking them out all the time induced a uninteresting ache that I shortly grew bored with.

One other problem is with the contact gestures, which require you to faucet on the outer floor. Contemplating how deep the earbuds sit in your ear canal, every faucet seems like an assault in your eardrums and is all the time uncomfortable.

Total, I used to be disillusioned within the design of the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4. It seems like not a variety of thought went into the human aspect of designing one thing meant for use by people. A case that’s troublesome to hold in your pockets, opens the incorrect manner and will get visibly soiled as you employ it. Earbuds which might be uncomfortable to get out and in of your ears, have sensors that go off unintentionally and harm when used deliberately. This isn’t the way you design wearable units and everybody concerned wants an intervention.

Software program

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 work with Sennheiser’s Sensible Management app accessible on Android and iOS. By way of the app you’ll be able to modify the sound, ANC, contact gestures, and improve the firmware.

For sound customization, the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 provide Sennheiser’s Sound Personalization function. That is an attention-grabbing function that performs take a look at tones with completely different devices and allows you to prioritize one over the opposite. Ultimately, it creates a sound profile primarily based on the sounds you want to listen to probably the most. For individuals who do not perceive equalizers, that is a simple and efficient solution to modify the sound to their liking.

Audio settings

Nonetheless, in case you do perceive and like equalizers, then you’ll be able to simply bounce into the five-band EQ that is additionally accessible together with a number of presets in addition to separate Bass Increase and Podcast modes. Fortunately, there is not a change within the total sound amplitude when enabling the EQ as seen on another merchandise.

You may also modify the ANC by the app. “Regulate” right here mainly means enabling or disabling the ANC because the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 have adaptive ANC, which routinely adjusts its ranges primarily based on the ambient sound. There’s additionally an Anti-Wind mode, which reduces the extent of ANC however fully eliminates the buffeting sound in windy environments.

You may also allow or disable the transparency mode right here and also you do get adjustable ranges for it. You may also have it turned on throughout voice calls (or primarily any time the microphone is on) with an adjustable degree. Enabling transparency mode may also optionally pause your music after which resume when it is disabled.

In contrast to most different ANC earbuds today, the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 don’t allow transparency mode in a single ear whenever you take away the opposite earbud. This has confirmed to be a helpful and considerate function and one thing Sennheiser ought to be implementing as it is not precisely rocket science.

Different settings

Subsequent, we come to the contact gestures. The app presents a variety of choices to customise gestures and you too can disable them fully. I selected to disable the one faucet gestures as a result of it was far too simple to set off them merely whereas inserting and eradicating the earbuds. You may also disable contact gestures fully in case you like.

The app has a number of different options, together with letting you select the codec (aptX, aptX adaptive, or aptX Lossless), good pause, auto energy off, and extra. One good function is Battery Safety Mode, which reduces charging pace for the earbuds when contained in the case and avoids charging to 100%, which in the end reduces put on and tear on the batteries and extends their life.

Talking of the Sennheiser app itself, it’s beginning to attain Sony Headphones Join ranges of bloatedness. The app is sluggish to launch and takes some time to load all its options. It additionally always closes within the background on some units even in case you pin it to reminiscence and initiates each time you launch it.

Extra annoyingly, the aforementioned Sound Personalization function is locked behind a compulsory Sennheiser account. This was mentioned in our earlier Sennheiser overview and simply seems like an inexpensive tactic to assemble consumer information as there is no such thing as a technical motive to make an account to make use of the function. Do higher, Sennheiser.

Efficiency

Audio high quality

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 function single 7mm dynamic drivers. They help quite a lot of codecs over Bluetooth 5.4, together with SBC, AAC, LC3, aptX, aptX Adaptive, and at last, aptX Lossless. Relating to that final one, whereas it could have been the perfect candidate to check audio high quality and connectivity efficiency, I merely didn’t have entry to any system that supported this codec. At current, it is solely accessible on a handful of units from a good smaller pool of manufacturers. Till that scenario adjustments, you would be doing what I did, which is to make use of aptX Adaptive.

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 have a heat and darkish tonality. The tuning prioritizes a extra laidback, relaxed sound over an lively, detailed one.

The bass is noticeably ahead with extra mid and higher bass power. It is not particularly sturdy or deep and goes extra for a mellow thump over an aggressive slam and rumble. The Weeknd’s ‘Gasoline’ bassline had a tepid assault as a substitute of an in-your-face punch. There’s sufficient power right here to maintain you engaged with out fatiguing you over time.

The mid-range is not a lot to put in writing residence about. The decrease mids carry over a few of the heat from the low finish and may really feel a bit heavy and bloated on some male vocals. On the identical time, the higher mids are missing in power, which carries over into the decrease treble ranges. The violin in Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘Expertise’ feels lifeless and the breathy vocals of Toaka in Suzume’s title monitor lack the airiness that you simply anticipate.

Sennheiser’s tuning appears extra consistent with extra well-liked genres of pop, hip-hop, and digital music. The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 can carry these genres fairly effectively, belting out a balanced, fulfilling sound that leans into their typical tuning. However the second you flip to classical or instrumental music, the sound feels congested and heavy and makes you attain for the EQ. Happily, it is not laborious to tune the sound to your liking by the app.

Microphone

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 had surprisingly poor microphone efficiency. Voices sounded muffled and quiet to a stunning diploma and this was regardless of resetting them a number of instances and testing the microphone on every earbud individually. Callers had a tough time understanding something that was spoken and I typically simply needed to resort to shouting to be heard.

On the plus aspect, there was respectable isolation of background noise however with your individual voice being so muffled, that’s hardly a comfort.

Noise cancellation

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 have excellent noise isolation efficiency. The earbuds block a good bit of noise passively contemplating how deep they sit in your ear canal. As soon as the ANC kicks in, you get close to complete silence in most situations.

The ANC on these earbuds is dynamic so they’re always adjusting to your environment. Once you first put them on, they take a number of seconds to calibrate so initially the ANC may not appear all that spectacular however after some time it will get to the place it must be.

The transparency mode additionally works effectively and it is good that it presents you a totally adjustable degree of management over how a lot sound you need in. It is only a disgrace it would not set off within the different ear whenever you pull out one earbud.

One minor and considerably odd problem with ANC is that if the earbuds restart for no matter motive, the ANC doesn’t kick in routinely. For instance, in case you swap the codecs by the app, the earbuds must restart. As soon as restarted, the ANC doesn’t activate by itself and you might want to take away the earbuds and put them again in for the ANC to work.

Latency

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 have satisfactory latency efficiency. By default, it is not good and also you would not have the ability to play video games. It is advisable go into the app and swap to the low latency mode. This causes the earbuds to restart (and set off the aforementioned ANC problem).

As soon as on this mode, some apps had good latency efficiency however others didn’t. It wasn’t clear why this was situational and relying on what video games you might be enjoying, chances are you’ll or might not get good latency efficiency. Both manner, the latency efficiency appears a little bit of an afterthought with these earbuds and Sennheiser would not even declare a latency quantity in its advertising.

Connectivity

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 has good connectivity efficiency. In my testing, there have been no audio dropouts or random disconnections and all the pieces labored effectively. I could not take a look at the aptX Lossless mode, which might have doubtlessly offered points because of its excessive bandwidth requirement however alas, there weren’t any appropriate units to check with. Hell, many Android units do not even help aptX Adaptive and that has been round for ages.

With aptX Adaptive, the Sennheiser app claims to work at 24-bit/96kHz. Nonetheless, on all units I checked, the earbuds would work at 24-bit/48kHz by default when utilizing aptX Adaptive. 96kHz might be enabled by developer settings however resets again to 48kHz when the earbuds are restarted.

The earbuds help multipoint connectivity and you may handle all paired and lively units by the app.

Battery Life

Sennheiser claims 7 hours of audio playback with ANC enabled. Nonetheless, that is with AAC and we have a tendency to check with the most effective codec accessible so I did all my testing with the most effective codec I might use, which was aptX Adaptive in 24-bit/48kHz mode.

On this mode, the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 performed for six hours and 47 minutes repeatedly on a full cost, which is fairly near the claimed AAC determine. I additionally examined after a fast ten-minute cost and the earbuds performed for simply over one hour repeatedly.

At round 7 hours, the battery life for music is excellent and ought to be sufficient for many customers.

Conclusion

The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 are Sennheiser’s flagship pair of true wi-fi earbuds and that title carries with it some expectations. The earbuds impress with their noise-cancellation efficiency, which is their strongest swimsuit. The audio tuning might not be appropriate for all music however works effectively for well-liked genres so most individuals ought to be pleased with it. To not point out the Sennheiser app makes it simple to customise it to your liking. Nicely, at the least after you make a compulsory account and register. The battery life can also be excellent as is the overall construct high quality.

Sadly, Sennheiser dropped the ball a bit with the microphone efficiency, which was surprisingly unhealthy on our unit. The latency efficiency was additionally nothing to put in writing residence about.

Nonetheless, many of the shortcomings relate to the design, with each the case and the earbuds having some evident points. Hopefully, they get resolved within the subsequent era mannequin as a few of them genuinely get in the best way of utilizing the product. In the event that they handle that then will probably be one thing price wanting ahead to.