Sennheiser - ACCENTUM Wireless Bluetooth Hybrid Noise Cancelling Headphones - White

I was excited to put the Sennheiser Accentum headphones on and give them a go after some good experiences listening to other Sennheiser products and they do have quite a reputation for sound engineering. The Accentum headphones are a more affordable version and have substantial competition in their price range. Out of the box you get the headphones, a USB-C cable and some basic instructions. The build reminds me of the Sony WHCH720N when looking at the earcups and feeling the light weight. The earcups padding is comfortable and has the typical adjustments to size to your head. There’s a slight padding where the headphones sit on top of your head too. The earcups do provide a nice seal around my ears.The buttons are located on the right headphone. You have a power, volume up and down, and a center button that will give you a convenient audible battery readout, pause or play your music. I do like the fact that the L and R are printed large on the inside of the earcups. I often pickup my other headphones and search for the left or right designation so that I put them on correctly. The charging is industry standard USB-C so I have more than a few of these cords sitting around, but one is included if you need it. Overall I feel like Sennheiser has a familiar build quality for this price range and comfort is adequate. I do like the light weight as well. There isn’t a case for travel so these will need to be hanging around your neck or packed somewhere safely. The earcups also sit flat if you need to put them on a flat surface. These headphones have a battery on them. They boast a battery life of 50 hours so you could probably go between charges about a week or two depending on use. ANC is adequate. You can also shift to transparent if you need to hear ambient sounds. I’ve come to learn that most of these headphones, even the more expensive ones, only block out certain frequencies. I feel like the Sennheiser Accentum is on par compared with its competition. These The app is quality. There is connection management that will give you a list of devices that you have connected for management. There is a sound check if you want to customize your presets. You can step through a series of choices as you're playing a song to dial in exactly what equalizer settings sound best and it will save your own custom equalizer. You can also choose from a variety of common music presets or dial in a custom equalizer that reads back dB levels to you as you make your changes. There’s an additional Bass Boost feature and a Podcast preset that focuses on voice clarity. Sound zones are available if you want to create sound settings based on your location such as home, work, gym, etc. And lastly, there’s a Sidetone feature that feeds back a little bit of your voice during phone calls to give you more of a natural sounding phone call. I’ve never thought about this but it makes sense because on our phones we always hear our voices and headphones tend to cancel out some of that noise so I like the idea. Overall I like the app and its customization features, especially with the equalizer. However, I do wish it had a few presets for TV, movies, or youtube. I did watch a few movies and the sound was excellent. I didn’t really feel like I needed to dial in the sound for movies but the preset would be nice. Phone calls are clear. The 2 way microphone does what it need to remove excessive background noise. The sidetone is also a cool feature that can be dialed in to make it sound more like a typical phone call. You have all the typical buttons available for accepting and rejecting phone calls. Google assistant is also available when needed. Sound performance is impressive. These headphones really stand out in the bass department. What’s nice is the headphones aren’t just bass, they have a fine attention to highs, mids, and lows. Music is quite an experience with these headphones. I listen to a variety of music from 80’s to Rock to Hip-Hop and I loved every second of it. When I compare these to higher end headphones I feel like they hang right in there. The sound just delivers in every genre and has a great balance that I’ve come to know with other Sennheiser products. What I mean by balance is the bass mids and treble seem to be at just the right volume levels without being obnoxious, just a pleasant, smooth sound, with absolutely no distortion. The volume is adequate too. I felt like the highest setting on volume was just a bit too loud which is great considering some headphones I’ve had just don’t get loud enough when I really want to turn the volume up. Bass Boost tends to lower the volume down a bit, and I really don’t see the need for it because the bass is excellent on these headphones and the equalizer can be dialed in to boost if necessary. After comparing these Sennheisers with 2 other pairs of Sony (one similar, and one higher end) and one pair of beats fit pro earbuds there isn’t a lot of separation between all four, but there are some distinct differences. The bass is a little tighter on the the higher end Sonys but not necessarily better, actually the opposite. The earbuds have good bass but don’t hit as hard as any of the over the ear headphones. The Sennheisers have a distinct bass that sounds like a larger range in the lower frequencies that in my opinion is more pleasant. If I can tell you anything, the Sennheisers have a detailed, quality sound that won’t disappoint. The question is should you buy these headphones? For the category they reside in, I would recommend these headphones. They are a respectable brand with quality sound engineering, and you can hear it in these headphones. They offer everything that comparable headphones offer in the feature and sound department. Their app offers you everything you need, and a few things you don’t. I personally haven’t seen a battery last this long either. If you’re looking for a case, more comfort, or higher end build quality, you will need to spend more money. If you’re looking for headphones in the sub $200 range, Sennheiser cut the right corners with these headphones to give you the essentials: sound, comfort, and quality. Pros *Exceptional Sennheiser sound *All the features you need in a pair of headphones *50 hours of battery life *Solid smartphone App *Podcast sound preset Cons *Buttons take a minute to get used to *Budget build quality (on par with its class) *No TV/movie sound presets

THIS is the Sennheiser Accentum headphones, coming in around the middle of the pack in price but above the pack in comfort - these Noise Canceling Headphones left me both awed and confused with its feature set and what makes it stand out. First off, at $180 - these beat almost every single ear buds that have ever graced my ear - even putting on a fierce fight with the airpods pro! So lets start ticking boxes: Noise Cancelation, 50 hour battery life, fold flat design, adjustable equalizer, nice/comfortable design…. The Accentum has it all, but is that the whole story here? Design ========== The Accentum is actually very well built - made of a nice feeling soft plastic and buttons that actually click. Something I want to note is that the headphones do have a good clamp on them, and for me, that is awesome! I enjoy it because my headphones don’t slide off my head during a heavy workout or when benching - however, if you are sensitive to head pressure then I would for sure take note of bestbuys return policy and use that to your advantage. The only thing I really didn’t care for all that much design wise was the layout of the buttons. I just like to click buttons and have instant resolution, but the power button is also the Bluetooth button and that caused me to adjust. Very nit picky, otherwise perfect design and comfort. The ear cushions were really nice as well, I have larger than average ears and they were perfectly scooped into the cup very comfortably for hours and hours gaming and doing homework. I really enjoyed these headphones from a design aspect, while being conforming to the market I certainly recognize their own unique way of making the headphones quality and stand out. App ========== This is where my biggest gripes come into play, in the sense that the app was pretty much useless to me. The only thing that I needed to do on the app that I couldn’t do on the headphones was adjust the equalizer and some one time settings adjustments on the active noise cancelation. Lets start with the equalizer though, I really found it to be useless - and the bass ‘booster’ muted most of the bass on my electronic music rendering it useless to me. The Sennheiser app did have some interesting features such as setting up a sound zones to change the settings of your headphones depending on your geographical location, so that at school or work they are transparent and have a different sound stage then at home or the gym where you might find the Noise Cancelation used more and a deeper / more vibrant sound stage is used. You can also use their own personalization feature for the built in 5 level EQ which lets you pick three different options while listing to music - similar to your optometry appointment picking the clearest lenses - but for your music to match how you want it to sound. It was actually really nice for non electronic music, but less adjustable than I would have preferred. There is no adjustments on the mic in app, so the so sound you get off the Mic is what you get, which I found to be quite average but well enough that you could be on your phone, in the car or anywhere other than a headphone microphone - so it was really good enough! Sound ========== What we are all here for! These are certainly studio V - sounding headphones, very clean and neutral. Even in the EQ I was limited in my ability to change the headphones sound and couldn’t really change the sound anything dramatic. Bass is clean, not prominent and that is just how it is with these headphones. Maybe I am blown out on my expectations with bose, but I was left wanting on bass - but the sound was otherwise really full. I will add as a final note on these headphones, they are extremely versatile. I can work, gym, call, zoom, game and everything else in these headphones. I mean truly this is a great pair of headphones to just have for anything! Cheap enough to take anywhere, but nice enough to wear anywhere as well. The Active noise Cancellation was the only fault in the sound, as in, if you are looking for headphones for the pure silence - these probably aren’t it. While the headphone cups are pretty good, there is a small whine from the ANC when just idle. When listing to music though, they block most of the noise you don’t want to hear - but certainly not a full spectrum blockage. I found them susceptible to the usual, high pitched sounds, wind, and sounds that peak really high. Good ANC for the market it is entering, but there is better out there. Final Thoughts ========== I actually really enjoy these headphones, I think at $180 they are really stunners. Comfort and versatility are awesome, but I have never had a pair of headphones actually go 40+ hours without a charge! I throw these in my bag and forget that I ever even need to charge it, having had it for almost two weeks I have charged it twice…. And one was just out of the box so I could test it without the battery dying. I think that individually, you can go and find better features on other headphones - but it would be harder to find a better package of features done as well as Sennheiser has done with their Accentum line. As always, Bestbuy has an excellent return policy and even better customer service, so you never have to worry about buying a product that you don’t like… so why not test it out?!

Overall I think the Accentum provide competitive sound quality and noise cancellation for their price range. They would be good for the typical commuter, office worker or anyone who wants headphones that provide a good listening experience without having to spend big bucks. The downside is that these headphones have a limited feature set and fit somewhat tightly. Pros: - Good Adaptive Noise Cancellation - Good audio quality - Equalizer in the App - Long battery life Cons: - The fit is tight and snug. The ear muff’s opening feels small. - Very small control buttons - No ability to change button functions - Limited voice prompts - Doesn’t auto pause when the headphones are removed - No storage bag or case Performance: Setting up the headphones was easy. They quickly paired via Bluetooth and I added them to the Sennheiser Smart Control app on my phone. I found the overall sound quality and ANC to be the biggest plus for these headphones. The mids and highs are very clear and the bass is solid without being overwhelming. With the fit so tight I think heavy bass in these headphones might be painful. The ANC noise cancellation is good – again the tight fit also helps eliminate the environmental sounds. On the down side the control buttons are on the right ear muff and they are very small and can be difficult to differentiate. There is a separate switch that provides on/off/pairing and a row of three switches that provide the volume and play controls. The on/off switch and play control button have multiple functions depending on the number of taps or length of tap. Because the buttons are so small they can be problematic especially if you have larger fingers or wear gloves. The headphones do have a few voice prompts but most indications are tone based. For example if you put the headphones in pairing mode you hear a tone but when they connect you hear a voice prompt say connected! I find the mix a tad strange and surprised that headphones of this quality use anything but voice prompts. The headphones don’t auto-pause when you remove them but they do auto-pause when you turn off the ANC. Using the Sennheiser Sound App you can set up a custom equalizer, add bass boost, turn on/off the ANC and adjust the Sidetones for phone calls. The app is very simplistic and straightforward. If you create a Sennheiser account you can use the Sound Check and Sound Zone features to create custom equalizers and setting for specific music and zones. Note that the app doesn’t let you change the functions of the buttons on the headphones. While the build quality feels and looks solid they do not include a bag or carrying case to help protect them when in transit. Fit: The overall build and look of these headphones are great but the fit feels tight and because of this they really push on glasses if you wear them. The ear muffs feel smaller than other headphones I have used and the top bar which sits on your head isn’t the softest padding which adds to the tight fit. They are light and ear muffs themselves are made with a soft material that conforms to your fit.