Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

amazon Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 reviews

In our humble opinion, the original Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless are the best-sounding true wireless headphones you can buy. But great sound quality comes at a cost, not just the hefty price tag that comes with them. Sennheiser’s first crack at true wireless doesn’t have the set features to justify its price, with lackluster battery life being its biggest flaw.

Fortunately, two years proved plenty of time to address a few shortfalls. Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, priced at $300 the 5-tool stars we want their predecessors to be. Thanks to dramatically improved battery life and the addition of active noise cancellation, Sennheiser has packed its unrivaled sound quality into an overall package. At least, very close to it.

Case box

Aside from a few tweaks, not much has changed from generation to generation in terms of design. Sennheiser shrunk the new bud by almost 2mm to reduce weight and improve comfort. But they retain the same sharp aesthetic as the originals, with Sennheiser’s silver logo on each end cap. The same goes for the included charging case; it retains the original pill form and is wrapped in a familiar slick fabric.

Other than itself and the case, the packaging includes:

• A quick start guide.
• Three pairs of silicone earplugs.
• A charging cable that’s just as short as the previous iteration.

I swapped out the standard eartips with the buds for a slightly smaller option, then tucked them in for a snug yet secure fit. Glancing through the guide, I kept going through the setup process, which involves tapping both buds simultaneously to put them in pairing mode, finding them in the phone’s Bluetooth settings, and connecting.

An important note here: while we didn’t experience any connectivity issues with the first-generation Momentum True Wireless, it seems a significant number of people who purchased those buds did. It went so far that Sennheiser acknowledged the problem and offered a workaround for those having connectivity issues with Android 10 smartphones.

With the Momentum True Wireless 2, Sennheiser has switched to Bluetooth 5.1, compared to Bluetooth 5.0 with the original. Using the Google Pixel 2 running Android 10 during my more than 30 hours of testing, I didn’t encounter any connection problems. Depending on which device you pair with these earbuds, your experience may be different. But from the time I’ve spent on these, it’s clear Sennheiser has taken the resolution of fan connection complaints about the original version for granted.

Design

For the first few hours I logged in with these buds, the size stuck with me. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not the loudest headphones I’ve dealt with, but they certainly don’t disappear in your ears the way lighter options like the Samsung Galaxy Buds+.

Sennheiser has succeeded in making the Momentum 2 smaller than the original, and I can confirm that doing so helps with load balancing. Overall, they’re comfortable in-ear headphones, and I didn’t experience any major concerns wearing them for longer listening sessions. However, if the larger buds bother you, I would consider that when looking at Sennheiser.

Featured

The highlight in the retooled feature bag for the Momentum True Wireless 2 is battery life. The original offered a disappointing 4 hours of playback on a single charge and a total of 12 hours with the charging case, neither of which can compete with significantly cheaper options like Apple’s AirPods or Jabra’s Elite Active 75T. It’s a glaring drawback in another pair of buds and something Sennheiser needed to remedy.

Second-generation Momentum boasts 7 hours per charge and 28 total hours when combined with the charging case. Using active noise cancellation and listening to higher volumes will usually hit these numbers, and with those factors applied, I get between 5.5 and 6 hours of playback.

As has become common with wireless headphones these days, the Momentum True Wireless 2 features customizable touch and recognition controls to pause playback whenever you remove the headphones. This smart pause feature, as Sennheiser dubs it, is a bit different from other features I’ve auditioned for in that it stops playback gradually, as opposed to a more abrupt stop sound. Sure it’s a small detail, but it’s something I’ve grown to appreciate over time.

With the touch controls, I found the Momentum 2 easy to operate. It took a bit of trial and error to commit all the commands to memory – things like bud-separated volume control and more than once I rotated the volume instead of damping it – but once I did, it’s easy to control the experience without taking my phone.

Like their older relatives, the Momentum 2 has an IPX4 weather rating. Making them waterproof but not completely waterproof. They did a great job of the light exercises I could squeeze while practicing social distancing as part of the coronavirus measures, but I can’t speak to how they’ll hold out during the sweaty sessions.

where can you get a Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 online

SENNHEISER Momentum True Wireless 2 – Bluetooth in-Ear Buds with Active Noise Cancellation, Smart Pause, Customizable Touch Control and 28-Hour Battery Life – Black (M3IETW2 Black): Buy it now

SENNHEISER Momentum True Wireless 2 – Bluetooth in-Ear Buds with Active Noise Cancellation, Smart Pause, Customizable Touch Control and 28-Hour Battery Life – Black (Renewed): Buy it now

Optional application, but not required

Momentum True Wireless 2 has its accompanying app, called Sennheiser Smart Control. With the headset not launching until next month, I’ve been interacting with the app’s beta version, so your mileage may vary. But for my money, while the app itself is a nice compliment, it’s not necessary to indulge in these buds.

It offers the option to customize your touch controls, although after I committed to learning the default controls, I was reluctant to go back to the drawing board. There’s also a tab that lets you disable the Bud Transparency Hearing feature, allowing you to choose the sound of your surroundings if you so choose. But I was able to do it with a few taps on my right bud.

From my perspective, the most useful features in the app are the settings that let you turn off things like Smart Pause or the ability to accept calls automatically. The app-specific equalizer helps pull a bit more lows or extra highs out of the bud, but I always find myself wanting to return the bud for the original tuning.

Sound quality goes up a notch with ANC.

At the expense of iteration, the first-generation Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless are the best wireless headphones we’ve heard. The company, widely known as a leader in sound quality, won’t have to add much to the next version to maintain the status quo.

Instead, it added active noise cancellation to Momentum 2. In my estimation, this is a pretty big deal.

Everything clapping about the original is still there. Clear, impressive low-end, stunning stereo imaging. I was impressed with how, when listening to selections like George Ezra’s Shotgun, the earbuds kept up with the song’s tight bass notes while refusing to overpower the singer’s superb vocals. I’ve heard some pretty powerful headphones, but this is just a completely different experience. The sound pulls you into the music and engulfs you as you choose notes and instruments not available in the competition.

Now, take all that, and add active noise cancellation. The earbuds do a great job of blocking out background noise without a feature with matching ear tips.

By tapping my right bud three times to perform active noise cancellation, the only sound I heard was Bill Burr’s chuckle during the Monday Morning Podcast. While working on the couch away from my significant other, I couldn’t get a word out when she tried to communicate something. That’s not ideal from a relationship perspective, but great for silencing office noise and potentially very effective commuting.