Intro
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The new, fourth version of the Sennheiser Momentum just been released. Time to take a closer look. Before we started writing, we’ve had it for about a week. Do we like the over-ear with its many features?
The Sennheiser Momentum 4 is the Sennheiser (wireless) flagship over-ear headphone with NC. The headphones are relatively affordable, with a price tag of €349. Especially if you consider that with it you get an over-ear headphone, including ANC and Bluetooth 5.2 with support for the codecs SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX adaptive. With that – as far as mobile use is concerned – at least both Apple users and Android users’ needs are going to be happy.
What is particularly striking about the Momentum 4 is the very long playing time of no less than 60 hours on a full battery charge, with ANC enabled that is
And it has to be said: it’s quite soothing not to see that battery indicator at the top right of your smartphone or tablet screen really go down during (prolonged) use. In short: this will get you through your transatlantic flight effortlessly.
ANC
And while we’re on the subject of transatlantic flights (shorter ones will do), the Momentum 4 features configurable Active Noise Cancelling (ANC). It works extremely well, at least as far as I’m concerned. The sound of a mobile air conditioner, lawnmowers (on the handful of relatively summer days left), the neighbor’s helicopter: they all faded far into the background.
A properly functioning ANC has several advantages. First, of course, the elimination of noise. But the immediate consequence is also that you don’t have to turn up the volume to the max. In the EU, this is a necessary afterthought, since it was once decided that by law we should not expose our delicate hearing to a certain maximum. And forgetting that some sources are recorded less loud, and you regularly miss a bit of volume at the end of the scale.
Sound-permeable
In any case, listening with ANC enabled does not inject (obvious) extraneous background noise or noise. The latter is sometimes the case with cheaper headphones with ANC. Two taps on the right earcup disables ANC, so you can hear your surroundings. That’s not a perfectly clear pass-through, but more than enough to hear the necessary things around you. Another double-tap turns ANC back on.
The degree of noise cancellation can be adjusted to your liking via a slider in the app that comes with the headphones; you can also set an automatic adjustment here.
Especially practical is the slider that allows you to let the outside world through during a phone/app conversation. This allows you to hear your own voice, which is very pleasant. With this – as is often the case with over-ear headphones – you don’t end up in some kind of soundproof bubble, which makes conversations very tiring. As far as we’re concerned, the voice could have been louder than the maximum setting of this option. But it is already quite an improvement over headphones without this option.
Deep bass
What is remarkable about the Sennheiser Momentum 4 is that a deep bass is audible. A bass that does not artificially dominate and remains pure. Together with balanced mids and treble range, it sounds good enough to listen to for a long time without getting tired.
In doing so, your author had disabled the also built-in – and again adjustable via that app – equalizer. Without equalizer, the sound is very palatable. For the enthusiast there is a three-band equalizer available; adjustable via the app. For many users those three bands will be more than enough to adjust bass and high frequencies. If you want more, simply turn off the built-in equalizer and use the one on your phone or an in-app one from a music player.