Sennheiser - MOMENTUM Sport Earbuds - Black

TLDR: Best Sport headphones, they are worth the heavy price. Hands down. I have been using the Jabra Elite Sport headphones for years and needed some new buds. I always had problems with them wiggling out even under just regular workouts, constantly adjusting while running. I've dreamed of Sport earbuds that gave me all the bells and whistles and ear fins. Behold the Momentum Sport. I can do all the box jumps I want, sprinting, plus handstand walks, and these stay rock solid. Very impressed with the fit, I put my gym headphones through more rigorous torture than most. I also have to give a huge shout-out to Sennheiser for their Smart Control App. For Android it's the best headphone app I've used. Major win is their connection management feature. With multipoint this allows you to pick any 2 devices for it to be connected to if you own many devices, super handy. Sound and ANC are top notch as well. They deliver a lowerful punch through an intense workout and are also incredibly clear listening to something lighter and more relaxing when stretching and cooling down. No one has complained about sound quality on calls which is great but that's not why I bought these, but it's great. Now here is where I give them 5 stars. The tap controls. Full transparency I prefer the physical buttons from Jabra. I love these tap controls though compared to their competitors, especially with how you can customize in the app. With the right tips, wings, and control setup these are the best fitness earbuds on the market. Attached photo is from doing handstand walks with earbuds not even budging.

PROS + Comfortable to use for long periods of time and with lots of movement (weight lifting, running, biking, etc.) + Battery life and overall playtime is great + Solid overall sound quality + Unique and useful software features (heart rate and body temp monitoring, ear fit assessment, sound check custom EQ presets, and custom sound zones) + Transparency mode is excellent with the semi-open design and software passthrough + Integrates with the Polar ecosystem of products if you own Polar devices + Responsive touch controls + Sennheiser Smart Control app is well designed, responsive, and easy to use. The earbuds integrate well with any other Sennheiser smart products you use with the app CONS - Touch sensitive controls are a bit too touch sensitive, even with the sensitivity adjusted, often leading to accidental triggering - Removable ear fins are not very secure and quickly fall off if an earbud is dropped - Case cover is a bit flimsy feeling and the case itself is on the large size SO-SO * Sound is a bit bass light out of the box, but can be improved with bass boost and EQ Adaptive ANC works pretty well despite the semi-open design, but isn’t going to blow you away with canceling ambient sounds * Overall max volume is loud enough in my use cases, but I can turn them up to 80-90% comfortably, which may not leave a lot of headroom for some folks THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT If you are an avid athlete and/or exercise enthusiast who likes to listen to music while you workout, then you know the challenges of finding the right pair of headphones or earbuds. Some get too hot, some don’t fit well, some don’t sound good, some are too heavy; it can be a trick to get everything right. The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds do a good job of trying to ride this middle ground of features and performance, doing most things well, some things great, and a few things missed along the way. Overall though, I think these are a solid choice, if you are willing to pay the relatively higher premium for them. FIT & COMFORT In terms of size, fit, and comfort, I personally found these very comfortable for my uses. Even without the replaceable wings, these fit well in my ears when I used the right ear tips. The app has a fit evaluation feature that determines if the earbuds are a good fit in your ears with their current position and set-up, and I found this worked very well for getting the right ear tip size to create the proper seal in my ear. Once I had the right combination of ear tip and ear fin, the earbuds stayed securely in place and I had no issues with using them during activities or static for longer periods of time. The one issue I did have with the rubber ear fins is that they are not very secure when wrapped around the buds. They don’t hook onto anything, and instead rely on their tension to stay in place, which is fine when in my ear, but when I would set the buds down or drop them, the fins would often pop off very easily. I wish there has been a simple hook system to make them more secure from falling off. But overall earbud comfort is great. SOUND QUALITY In terms of audio quality, I think these sound very good for what they are, but I wouldn’t say they blow me away for their price. They are not audiophile levels of quality, even for earbuds, but they also have a very neutral sound signature that I like. The mids are very present, with no harsh treble or highs. I do think the low-end is missing a bit for my liking, but enabling bass boost did help, along with some minor EQ tweaks. You can tune these well to your liking, but I think most people will find these perfectly fine out of the box. Again, they didn’t blow me away with sound performance, but they also sounded much better than alternatives I have heard. They are very good for long listening sessions. You do get support for Bluetooth 5.2 and AAC, which is great for hi-res audio support over Bluetooth. SOFTWARE The Sennheiser Smart Control app that you use to update firmware, adjust EQ, run the fit assessment, and more is very good in my opinion. It takes a little bit to connect to the earbuds (~5 seconds or so), but once done the app is very responsive, looks good, and has all of the controls you could want. You can play around with the ANC and transparency settings, in addition to all of the things you would expect like remapping the touch controls to different functions. Speaking of these, I found the Adaptive ANC to be serviceable, definitely deafening sounds, although not class leading. However, with ANC engaged, or the custom “Anti Wind” mode engaged, and music playing I did find it did exactly what it needed to do by dropping ambient sounds and fully engaging me in the music. Likewise, I heard no degradation in audio quality between the modes, which was great. The transparency mode on the other hand was really fantastic I thought. These are a semi-open designed earbud, so while that hinders full noise canceling, it helps a lot with awareness of the environment. I found the transparency mode very natural sounding, and did a great job of letting in surrounding sounds and mixing them with audio I had playing. For the touch sensitive controls, they are very responsive, but too sensitive, which I am hoping can be adjusted with firmware. If I reach up to adjust them while working out, or remove them from my ears, it would often trigger a response accidentally like changing the sound mode or volume on my music. You can adjust the sensitivity in the app, but in my case even the lowest level was a bit too sensitive for my liking. On the health side, these do measure your heart rate and body temperature, which you can view in the app. I found both of these lined up well with my other fitness tracker I use, and if you have Polar devices, these can be linked up for more comprehensive health tracking. If you don’t have a dedicated fitness tracker, then these provide some nice built-in tracking for things like heart rate, which is a nice feature, but far from “essential” I think. CASE & BATTERY The battery life is great, quoted at 24 hours of total playtime (6 hrs earbuds + 18.5 hrs case), which I haven’t been able to fully stress test to the max, but is very believable from my use. It has fast charging capability, which is great, and in general, longevity should not be an issue with these. You can also use a setting in the app to slow the charging speed a bit, to increase the lifespan of the battery, which is also a nice touch. The case itself is solid. It is a bit on the large size for the size of the earbuds, and has a somewhat flimsy feeling cover that has a soft hinge which magnetically attaches the lid to the case. It does the job, and looks good, but I do wish it was a bit smaller and felt a bit more sturdy when it came to the lid. Not a deal breaker by any means, but a nitpick nonetheless.

What They Come With Inside the box you will find the earbuds, a carrying/charging case, earbud tips, earfins, a short USB-C to USB-A charging cord, a strap for the carrying case, and instructions. Set-up The set-up was really easy. Start with charging the earbuds. Pair the earbuds with your phone. These use Bluetooth connectivity, and paired really easily for me. There’s a Sennheiser Smart Control app to download for more control of the headphones. Upon establishing an app connection you will need to download any available firmware updates. You can customize the earbuds by changing the size of the eartips for the comfort of your ear. Also, there are earfins that you can slide on. I didn’t find the earfins very comfortable of helpful. Use the app to adjust other settings for the earbuds. Quality The earbuds have a solid build to them. It’s to the point where they feel a little heavy. There’s a carry/charging case with these earbuds. It’s quite a bit larger than the cases for other earbuds that I have used or seen. Quality-wise the case is good except for the hinge side of the case. It’s a flimsy feeling material that I would expect to tear over time. I feel like I need to baby that when I open it. Comfort These are not that comfortable to me due to the size and weight of the earbud. Adjusting the eartips can help some with that. I do not like the earfins. Special Features The Momentum Sport earbuds are designed for active people and have a couple of extra features: Heart Rate Monitor – These will measure your heart rate while wearing both earbuds. There’s a problem with that for me as I may only wear one earbud while walking so that I can be more aware of what is going on around me. The heart rate monitor only works with both in. Temperature Monitor – These also measure your temperature. One catch to using these features is that you need a Polar account. If you don’t already have one, you’d have to sign up for another account to use these features. It’s not built in to the Sennheiser app that you download. Water Resistance – This is also mentioned as a sporty feature. Other than sweat I have not put these in contact with any water, so I do not know how water resistant these are. The package says IP55 splash resistant. Audio Quality The sound quality is clear. I wouldn’t say that it’s stunning, but it’s solid compared to other earbuds I have used. There are controls in the app to help customize the sound quality. One odd sound issue with these is that there’s a clicking noise when nothing is playing. I’m guessing that it’s the monitoring feature possibly. Seems like this shouldn’t happen. Controls The controls for the Momentum Sport are not good. The touch controls are way too sensitive. I can’t adjust the earbuds without changing my volume, track, or noise cancellation. And when these are designed for an active person, you should expect for people to stop and adjust the earbuds. Overall These earbuds are just okay. While they do have a good sound quality and boast some sporty features, I find them a little too heavy and hard to control. The over-sensitive touch controls make this a hard product to use in active scenarios, and that’s the target audience for these. For me the Momentum Sport earbuds get just barely a 3 star rating.