Sennheiser - MOMENTUM 5 Bluetooth Wireless Adaptive Noise-Canceling Over-The-Ear Headphones - Denim

With the abundance of excellent noise cancelling wireless headphones available, making the “right” choice is daunting. I think the Sennheiser Momentum 5 makes this task a bit easier though. It has just about everything higher-end headphone should; clean audio, solid noise cancellation, adequate comfort and other interesting features. I’m fond of its understated design too. The kicker is the Momentum 5’s battery is user replaceable so the headphones can remain useful well past its essentially disposable and more expensive competitors. That’s good for the wallet and reduces e-waste. MOMENTUM 5 OR HDB 630? Technically, the Momentum 5 falls in the middle of Sennheiser’s wireless NC line up, but it’s really a unique product rather than a hobbled underling. The Momentum 5 even has features and codecs absent in the 630. So, if you are wondering which model best suits you, understand it’s not the usual “better,” “best” comparison. It really comes down to use case. I’m fortunate to own the 630 too and with months experience to understand the key distinctions between the two models. Surprisingly, the price gap isn’t that large. I think it’s because the sound difference between the two is narrow except if listening critically, which is the 630’s forte. The two really cater to different uses. I can’t go over all the differences here, but here’s a few of my key deciders. Where the 630 is authentically neutral out of the box the Momentum 5 comes ready to rock. The 630’s 5-band parametric equalizer helps users precisely adjust frequencies for critically listening. Momentum users get a more user friendly 8-band dynamic equalizer aimed at casual listening. There’re other ways to tweak the Momentum 5’s sound too, which I’ll note in the “App” section below, but nothing that can micro adjust like the 630 has. The flagship 630 includes Sennheiser’s BTD 700 Bluetooth dongle, giving wireless lossless audio capability to devices, like the iPhone, that natively are wireless lossy only. That’s not included with Momentum 5. Fortunately, the BTD 700 is sold separately and Momentum 5 compatible, so it’s an option. It’s been transformative in my in-home listening, but I’ve yet to use the BTD 700 with the Momentum 5 simply because I wear them during travel and walking around town and I find a dongle inconvenient in those situations. Then there’s the comfort factor. The Momentum 5 is comfortable to point but its compactness has a negative impact here, and I’ll detail in the “Fit” section below. For me, it does not compare to luxuriousness of the 630 with its bigger ear cups. The 630’s plushness has a cost in its scaled-up footprint. Its larger size looks goofy on my small head and bulky to wear in public or pack for travel. In sum, the Momentum 5 is an excellent “all around” headphone. It’s terrific for walking around and travel, and home too if it will be your only pair of headphones. The 630 shines at home when you want to enjoy each music note exactly as the artist intended. BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN Construction materials differ between the two, but both have suburb build quality. They also share a similar design, with the Momentum 5 being more compact. I really dig my Momentum 5’s metallic Navy Blue “Denim” color with gray ear pads. It’s a dose of eye candy that sets the stage for the ear candy I’m about to experience. Blue is my favorite color so I’m biased here. The headband’s topside is knit fabric rather than faux leather. On the Denim Momentum it’s a fun, but stylish, black and blue pattern. I suspect the textured fabric is more difficult to clean. Smartly, the earpads and bottom of the headband is vinyl. The rest of the Momentum 5 is plastic, I’m guessing ABS. Overall it’s a joyful colorway. Pricier headphones employ plastic too so I can’t fault the Momentum 5 for matching industry standards here. The supplied zippered case is covered in a matching fabric. The Momentum 5 drops into place, no origami needed. This may seem like a minor point until you are in a rush and can’t remember which direction to fold a convolutedly designed headphone to get them to fit in the case. Included in the case are USB and 3.5mm headphone cables, each in their own compartment for a clutter-free experience. FAIR-ISH FIT & COMFORT My head is oval and small. I wear a size 6 7/8 or 7 baseball cap and only needed to slightly raise the Momentum 5’s yokes for a no-slip fit. They have plenty of extension. I measured a bit more than 1.25” per side. Widthwise, max spread from edge of the left cup to the edge of the right is about 6”. The headband is comfortable, but I’d prefer more padding. Clamping force is gentle; my head doesn’t feel like an orange being squeezed. During walks, workouts, or even a happy dance there’s little movement. However, they might shift during a run. They also are neither water nor sweat resistant. Any discomfort comes from heavy-ishness of the ear cups. I always know they are on. Fit and comfort is subjective though since everyone’s head and ears are different. This is my experience. While head is small, my ears didn’t get the bulletin. They stick out like Alfred E. Neuman’s. As such, my ears fit like they “just” fit. They aren’t used to such a cozy interior space. It not a deal killer but maybe don’t expect ultimate comfort here. I received the Momentum 5’s in the middle of heatwave and took them for a leisurely three mile walk in 93-degree heat, 80% humidity. Minutes after being outside my ears heated up ahead of the rest of my body and stayed warmer for the entire walk. It never became unbearable, but there is appreciable heat retention. I can’t wait to wear them in winter. CONTROLS AND USE Headphones are one device I detest touch controls. Unfortunately, that’s what the Momentum 5 offers, except for a single physical “multi-use” button for power, summoning a device’s voice assistant, and hear the battery level. There is also an LED battery indicator on the right earpad. All transport controls are by tap and gesture. My 630 works similarly, and Sennheiser did a laudable job. The gestures are all intuitive. For example, swipe up to increase volume or down to decrease. Incidental touching, like when I adjust the headband or lift the earpads to wipe some sweat, can trigger unexpected actions, but usually it just “beeps,” nothing more. Activating a voice assistant, like Siri is on par with my other non-Apple headphones/buds. There is a 10-20 second delay between pressing the multi-use button and hearing the Siri tone. After that Siri works like Siri. I have not come across an auto-pause setting. Music continues when I remove the headphones. However, when I set them down it does automatically power off. BATTERY The 57 hours battery life is impressive because it includes noise cancellation. Many headphones boast incredible battery life with a “noise cancelling off” asterisk. No hiding the ball here. I quasi-tested performance myself by letting it play for a day to see where the battery indicator would line up afterwards. No surprise it was near the middle. Of course, it’s not scientific proof, but I’m confident it’s accurate enough. Replacing the battery is child’s play. I tried it and if you can use a screwdriver, you have the skills to replace the battery. It literally involves pulling off the ear pad and removing four screws. It takes minutes. I posted a pic to give a visual of the replacement process. INITIAL SETUP Bluetooth pairing to my iPhone was no different than other Bluetooth devices. The SmartControlPlus app is not required for installation, so bonus points for that. I do recommend installing it though. It’s packed with useful features, not a portal for advertising and personal data. My Momentum 5 arrived with Bluetooth 5.4 installed. However, Sennheiser says Bluetooth 6.0 is coming in a future firmware update. Coupled with the replaceable battery, this makes it even more “future proof.” Multipoint pairing is supported to connect two devices. APP AND AUDIO QUALITY To my ears, the out of the box sound has slightly elevated bass and treble tuned for pop/rock music. It’s not “boomy” or over bright, so if you are looking for exaggeration, it might not suit you. It’s even hard to simulate the signature glass breaking bass of some other brands using the equalizer. But if you are looking for clean, tight bass, clear vocals, detailed string instruments with noticeable separation keep reading. That is how I’d characterize the Momentum 5’s native profile and app’s “Neutral” preset. It’s not “Neutral” in an audiophile sense, but a marker to return to the default sound. The 8-band dynamic equalizer allows customization from the default sound within limits. It’s an invigorating Sunday walk rather a risky adventure. A customization can be saved as a preset. For non-DIY people there’s presets for most genres along with a neat custom sound helper Sound Personalization that guides the user to an individual sound. There’s lots more but word count limits me. In short, the Momentum 5 + app makes customization easy, both in finding the right frequency levels and general functions. Lossy ACC files from my iPhone are enjoyable and some Android phones can take advantage of the 5’s Lossless codecs. While many devices, like the iPhone, don’t support wireless lossless playback it is available wired, using the supplied USB cable or wirelessly with the optional BTD 700 dongle. NOISE CANCELLATION & TRANSPARENCY MODE I’m no technician, but anecdotally, with noise cancellation at 100%, volume at 40%, virtually all outside sound is imperceptible. Only a jackhammer, church bel or overhead jet penetrated and then it was slight. Audio remains clean and appropriately vibrant to the song. There’s no artificial white noise permeating quieter sections or gaps being songs. Noise cancellation and transparency are customizable. An alternative automatic mode is also available.

The Momentum 5’s are a great all around pair of headphones priced lower than comparable models from Apple, Sony, and Bose. They sound great, they’re comfortable to wear, and the battery life is excellent. There are a couple of areas where they do fall a little short comparatively, but nothing that would prevent me from recommending these to anyone. The Momentum 5’s come in white, black, and a dark blue color they call Denim. I got the Denim color, which contrasts with a stone type of color on the earcups/head band and a few silver accents. It’s simple looking, but feels sophisticated. It also comes with a color matched zip-up case. The headphones lay flat in the case and don’t fold, so the case is on the wide side, but it’s pretty thin. The case also holds the included USB-C and 3.5mm cables. The build quality is very good, though it doesn’t feel quite as ‘premium’ as some other headphones I’ve used. It’s mostly plastic, with some fabric on the outer band and some type of faux-leather material on the earcups and headband. It feels well constructed though. The band adjustment is smooth, the earcups rotate all the way flat in both directions, and I haven’t seen any worrying flexing or creaking. Comfort is great on the Momentum 5. The weight feels like it’s about middle of the road for this size of headphone and they sit comfortably on my head. I have spent a few days at my desk wearing these and they haven’t fatigued my head or ears yet. The clamping force feels like it’s a touch on the light side and if I lean my head too far back or forward they do start to slide a bit. The leather earcups can feel a bit warm on my ears depending on the day too. But overall I really enjoy wearing them. Besides the power button, there aren’t any physical buttons on the Momentum 5’s and all of the controls are handled via touching and swiping on the earcups. For the most part, this works well, though the on-ear detection has been hit and miss for me and if the headphones aren’t detected as being on my head the controls are disabled. So I end up doing this thing where I sort of swivel the earcups on my head until I hear the confirmation sound confirming the headphones have detected me. The basic controls are intuitive; swipe up and down for volume and left and right for back and forward. There are some more advanced controls like tapping with 2 fingers to enable/disable Dolby Atmos that are a little harder to remember if you’re not using them regularly. Overall it’s a good setup though and I think it could potentially be improved through a firmware update. The Momentum 5’s sound fantastic. The sound is balanced and clear and the bass comes through well without being overwhelming. I’m mostly listening to them over Bluetooth and in addition to the standard AAC/SBC codecs there is also support for AptX, AptX HD, AptX Adaptive, and AptX Lossless for higher quality audio. USB-C wired audio supports up to 96kHz/24-bit. There is also an 8-band EQ to dial in the sound further via the app. Listening over Bluetooth on my PIxel 10 Pro, they got loud enough, but only just and most of the time I had the volume at between 70-90%. There is also Dolby Atmos available as well and I can’t say that I noticed much of a difference to the audio with it, but maybe I just didn’t have the right content to test it on. The noise cancelling is as good as I’ve heard on any other high-end headphone and the transparency mode sounds very natural. The Momentum 5’s functions are controlled via the SmartControlPlus app and overall it’s a good app. All the important functions are front and center and there aren’t any extra or gimmicky things it’s trying to do that you don’t need. Battery life is rated at a whopping 57 hours and I’m at 90% after about 5 or hours of usage, so it seems to be holding up. It’s definitely not a pair of headphones you’re going to have to worry about charging very much and it should get through any long flight. Overall I think the Momentum 5’s are a really great pair of high-end headphones. They’re a step down in price, but not quality compared to others.

I have been using the latest Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless headphones for everything from long commutes during the day to deep work sessions at my desk and they have been a godsend in the wear I’ve been able to put them through. Looking for the short answer: Sennheiser simply doubled down on what made the previous model great, addressed my number one gripe, and now packaged it in an amazing design that looks immacate in the real world. Talk about Denim, which is the best looking version of these types of headphones. The standard black and white versions might have a slightly corporate look and feel to them, while the Denim version features rich and deep blue denim on the headband and matching tan faux-leather ear-cup cushions. Has a very premium wellgroomed smart casual vibe without being too loud. They weigh 290g which gives them a nice weight for your head but not too much. The clamping force is adjusted beautifully not so tight as to cause a headache and not so loose as to fall off while walking or tilting the head. The ear cups are just a little bigger than on the older Momentum 4s and the soft padding makes for an exceptional passive seal. An eco-friendly gear featuring adaptive noise cancellation for a pleasant listening experience. If you were the owner of the previous model your aware that the sound was wonderful, but the noise canceling was "okay". Sennheiser definitely got the message and incorporated it into their design. They packed eight microphones into this chassis and ran a full-blown adaptation on that already with an active enhancement. It's a huge difference. The Momentum 5 was very good at eliminating midrange sounds, such as the low buzz of an airplane engine, an office, AC unit or the background noise in a busy coffee shop, among other things. The Momentum 5 is starting to make some serious headway in overcoming the top-tier competition. The best part? The ANC doesn't make your ears build up that uncomfortable feeling like "cabin pressure". Sennheiser will continue to put its foot down. It's no surprise inspired by their legendary HD 600 series open back headphones, the 42mm dynamic drivers play ball. Soundstage & Separation: Fantastic instrument separation The tracks do not trapped or compressed to your head. In the case of a rock song with a lot of acoustic tracks, you can hear the guitar, vocals, and percussion layers of the track in their own distinctive pocket. The bass is well handled, and has a good volume for the sub-bass and upper bass. It makes punch when needed but doesn't intrude on the vocals with punch and muddy. For the tech-savvy users, it supports Bluetooth 5.4 aptX Adaptive, and aptX Lossless. Streaming high-res audio sounds as impressive on playing through via an Android device or the PC as it is on a traditional wired connection if your device is compatible. Dolby Atmos: The headphones employ a 3D spatial audio (with head tracking). For regular stereo music I highly recommend NOT using it, however, when watching movies or t.v. it really adds a dramatic level of immerse. These have a playtime of 57 hours when ANC is enabled, which is not a misstatement and this has a user replaceable battery. The wireless headphones also typically come with an expiration date, given that the lithium-ion battery becomes fatigued after a couple of years, and thus, an expensive piece of tech becomes useless. The Momentum 5 features an easy to remove 700mAh battery and can be changed using a standard screwdrivers. Just for this reason alone, if you're planning to have your headphones for more than 3 years you should consider this as a worthwhile investment. Touch Controls: Both ear cups have a touch button which controls volume, track skipping and transparency toggle. This is generally sensitive, but has a minor learning curve as well as the occasional headphone head movement causing the detune and/or track skip effect. Case Design: They are folded over to a re-designed, slimmer zip-up case. While it's definitely portable, the ear cups are still pretty wide in the backpack and won't fold in towards the earband. But when you add class leading 57 hour battery life, heavy noise fading and signature-grade, audiophile quality sounds, plus Sennheiser's replaceable battery, this headphone is definitely much more valuable and long lasting than the competition. So if you love great music and your looking for a dazzling future proof tech for your every day listening needs, it's a superb choice no brainer.

I'm not a headphone snob, but I must admit this is probably the best pair of headphones I've ever owned. They are lightweight and, out of the box offer a good listening experience. The carrying case is thin as well and will not take up much space. It is a minimal design and can easily fit into a carry-on backpack for travel. The headphones look aesthetically pleasing to the eye. They don't look big and bulky, but they look like premium headphones. The genius part of the headphones is you can pop the ear piece off and replace the battery. So you can get a longer longevity out of the Momentum 5. I don't think this is a feature on most headphones, and if so I just learned about it with these. You get a 180-degree swivel if you ever want to take a break and rest them around your neck. The comfort is also top-notch. You get padding along the top portion as well. So for long sessions, this helped and worked very well. I have a large head, so I was kind of skeptical if this would fit well. I'm very happy to say they do fit very well and are comfortable. I do have to extend them to the largest adjustment as I usually do. Fresh out of the box, the Momentum 5 gave me exceptional audio. As soon as I put them on, I noticed a difference. The noise cancelling has to be the best I've tested and used. You can download the app to even enhance the experience. You get more adjustments like Anti-Wind, Immersive Audio, Bass Boost, EQ, etc. I also tested the noise cancelling by turning on a cordless vacuum while listening to audio. You still can hear the vacuum, but the experience was much better than other headphones I've tested. I even tested the Momentum 5 while gaming and again it was an exceptional experience. With Good audio and a clear, fun sound, which made the gaming session more alive. Almost too alive because I kept having to pull one ear off because the Headphones kind of draw you in with the noise cancelling. The Momentum 5 advertises 50+ hours of usage on a full charge. I don't doubt this claim but even if you start to see different results. You can always change the rechargeable battery. The only negative is that the touch keys are kind of sensitive. Sometimes I like to wear one ear out and uncuffed. I like to be aware of my environment. Well, while doing so I was constantly pausing my video. Something I'll have to learn and adjust to in the future. Yet, these are a fantastic pair of headphones. They are now my go-to because they are lightweight, comfortable, and offer a good audio experience.

The Sennheiser Momentum 5 in Denim (Best Buy exclusive colorway) feels like a premium over the ears headphone from the moment you pick it up. The denim-textured headband and soft ear cushions balance style and comfort, and the over-ear fit seals in sound without feeling overly tight during daily use. A little feature that I like, that not all headphone makers have, is that the left and right headphones are clearly marked in large letters. It’s a nice touch I appreciate that makes it easy to put the headphones on the proper orientation. I worked out at the gym for 2 hours, lifting weights and running on the treadmill for 45 minutes, without feeling any discomfort in terms of sweat and heat build up. Sound quality is classic Sennheiser: clean, slightly bass-emphasized, and detailed enough to reveal nuances in your favorite tracks, while the midrange stays smooth and non-fatiguing over longer listening sessions. Hybrid Adaptive ANC does a great job cutting down unwanted noise like the lawnmower man just outside the home office and blasting background gym music. The ANC is almost as good (maybe 95% of the way) as my Sony “Mark 6’s”, which I consider the very best ANC performer. Transparency mode feels natural when you need awareness. The real standout is battery life with up to 57 hours with ANC on means you can commute and work for days before reaching for a charger, and quick charge gets you hours of playback from a short top‑up. Pair that with the very easy to use Smart Control Plus app for EQ tweaks, Dolby Atmos support, and multi-device pairing, and the Momentum 5 becomes a versatile daily driver for music, calls, and streaming. The Bluetooth pairing was easy and held the connection over multiple days of use. In conclusion, these are a great pair of headphones at a very fair price relative to the competition. You get Sennheiser quality and style and with the denim colorway, a very unique look not seen on any other headphones.