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 value 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 coloration. The charging case is fabric-lined as earlier than, with the foolish USB port on the entrance that at all times confuses since each different pair of earbuds has it on the again of the case.
Nevertheless, that is not the least of its worries and is one thing you will 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 at all times 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.
Other than that, the case is constructed very nicely 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 giant so it is almost unimaginable 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 will not be comfy for lots of people. There’s additionally appreciable suction going out and in and as a rule, pulling the earbuds out causes the ear tricks to flip inside out as they detach out of your ear canal.
As a consequence of this, consolation wasn’t a powerful swimsuit for these earbuds. The factor is, I used to be in a position to put on them for lengthy durations however inserting them and taking them out at all times prompted a uninteresting ache that I shortly grew uninterested in.
One other subject 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 appears like an assault in your eardrums and is at all times uncomfortable.
General, I used to be dissatisfied within the design of the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4. It appears like not a number of thought went into the human ingredient of designing one thing meant for use by people. A case that’s troublesome to hold in your pockets, opens the flawed means and will get visibly soiled as you employ it. Earbuds which are uncomfortable to get out and in of your ears, have sensors that go off unintentionally and damage when used deliberately. This isn’t the way you design wearable gadgets and everybody concerned wants an intervention.
Software program
The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 work with Sennheiser’s Sensible Management app out there on Android and iOS. By means of the app you may alter 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 fascinating function that performs check tones with totally different devices and allows you to prioritize one over the opposite. In the long run, it creates a sound profile primarily based on the sounds you want to listen to essentially the most. For individuals who do not perceive equalizers, that is a straightforward and efficient technique to alter the sound to their liking.
Audio settings
Nevertheless, if you happen to do perceive and like equalizers, then you may simply leap into the five-band EQ that is additionally out there 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.
It’s also possible to alter the ANC by means of 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 utterly eliminates the buffeting sound in windy environments.
It’s also possible to allow or disable the transparency mode right here and also you do get adjustable ranges for it. It’s also possible to have it turned on throughout voice calls (or primarily any time the microphone is on) with an adjustable stage. Enabling transparency mode can even optionally pause your music after which resume when it is disabled.
Not like most different ANC earbuds today, the MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 don’t allow transparency mode in a single ear if you take away the opposite earbud. This has confirmed to be a helpful and considerate function and one thing Sennheiser needs to be implementing as it is not precisely rocket science.
Different settings
Subsequent, we come to the contact gestures. The app provides a number of choices to customise gestures and you too can disable them solely. I selected to disable the only faucet gestures as a result of it was far too straightforward to set off them merely whereas inserting and eradicating the earbuds. It’s also possible to disable contact gestures solely if you happen to like.
The app has a number of different options, together with letting you select the codec (aptX, aptX adaptive, or aptX Lossless), sensible pause, auto energy off, and extra. One good function is Battery Safety Mode, which reduces charging velocity for the earbuds when contained in the case and avoids charging to 100%, which finally 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 continuously closes within the background on some gadgets even if you happen to 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 assessment and simply appears like an affordable tactic to assemble person knowledge as there is no such thing as a technical cause 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 a wide range of codecs over Bluetooth 5.4, together with SBC, AAC, LC3, aptX, aptX Adaptive, and eventually, aptX Lossless. Concerning 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 out there on a handful of gadgets from a fair smaller pool of manufacturers. Till that state of affairs 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 robust 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 write down dwelling about. The decrease mids carry over a few of the heat from the low finish and might really feel a bit heavy and bloated on some male vocals. On the similar 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 observe lack the airiness that you just anticipate.
Sennheiser’s tuning appears extra in keeping with extra fashionable genres of pop, hip-hop, and digital music. The MOMENTUM True Wi-fi 4 can carry these genres fairly nicely, belting out a balanced, satisfying 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 means of 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 usually simply needed to resort to shouting to be heard.
On the plus facet, there was respectable isolation of background noise however with your personal 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 continuously 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 nicely and it is good that it provides you a completely adjustable stage of management over how a lot sound you need in. It is only a disgrace it would not set off within the different ear if you pull out one earbud.
One minor and considerably odd subject with ANC is that if the earbuds restart for no matter cause, the ANC doesn’t kick in routinely. For instance, if you happen to change the codecs by means of the app, the earbuds have to restart. As soon as restarted, the ANC doesn’t activate by itself and you 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 be capable of play video games. It’s essential to go into the app and change to the low latency mode. This causes the earbuds to restart (and set off the aforementioned ANC subject).
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’re taking part in, chances are you’ll or could not get good latency efficiency. Both means, 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 every part labored nicely. I could not check the aptX Lossless mode, which might have doubtlessly introduced points as a result of its excessive bandwidth requirement however alas, there weren’t any appropriate gadgets to check with. Hell, many Android gadgets 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. Nevertheless, on all gadgets I checked, the earbuds would work at 24-bit/48kHz by default when utilizing aptX Adaptive. 96kHz may very well be enabled by means of developer settings however resets again to 48kHz when the earbuds are restarted.
The earbuds help multipoint connectivity and you may handle all paired and energetic gadgets by means of the app.
Battery Life
Sennheiser claims 7 hours of audio playback with ANC enabled. Nevertheless, that is with AAC and we have a tendency to check with the most effective codec out there 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 constantly 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 constantly.
At round 7 hours, the battery life for music is superb and needs to be ample 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 will not be appropriate for all music however works nicely for fashionable genres so most individuals needs to be proud of it. To not point out the Sennheiser app makes it straightforward to customise it to your liking. Properly, not less than 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 write down dwelling about.
Nevertheless, a lot 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 value trying ahead to.