This reviewer received promo considerations or sweepstakes entry for writing a review.
After 3 full days using the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Bluetooth Headphones heavily, they are remarkably sublime. This is a long review and I apologize in advance. If you’re going to spend $400 for state-of-the-art Bluetooth headphones, I hope this helps you. This review covers; Design/Build Quality, Features/Comfort, Bluetooth/Codec, Smart Control App, Battery Life, Noise Cancellation and most importantly SOUND.
I’ve owned several high-end Bluetooth headphones. I much prefer over-the-ear design. I find them more comfortable, better sounding and way more immersive. For the last three years I’ve been using a pair of high-end Bluetooth headphones with noise cancellation. I thought they were really, good. That was until I got the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Headphones.
The headphones come nicely packaged and included in the box is a USB Cable with USB-C connectors and USB adapter for USB-C to USB-A if you don’t have USB-C capabilities. You get a proprietary analog audio cable with 3.5 mm jack which is about 1.5 meters long. Also included is a soft carry case and a quick start guide.
The first thing they suggest you do when you get them is to charge them fully. Then you download the Sennheiser Smart Control app for iOS or Android. The first time you open the headphones to turn them on they automatically go into pairing mode. If you have a device which supports NFC (Near Field Communication), the connection is automatic. If your device doesn’t support NFC, you simply go into Bluetooth settings on the device to pair them.
DESIGN/BUILD QUALITY
These headphones are retro-modern if there is such a word to describe them. The ear cups and headband are beautifully wrapped in supple and soft sheepskin leather (no fake PU leather on these puppies – no sir) attached to matte black metal. They are nicely padded and generously sized to fit just about any size ear. My ears don’t touch the inside of the ear cup, which is a first for any headphone I’ve ever owned. Adjusting the headphones to your head is accomplished by a simple, but elegant stainless-steel band you simply slide up and down. Many competitors to Sennheiser use a lot of plastics in their build. Many don’t offer leather either. The sum of all the parts of leather and steel in these Momentum’s looks and feels very high-quality, which should last for many years.
COMFORT/FEATURES:
These headphones are super comfortable. Wearing them for hours is great. They don’t put pressure on your ears or your head. The sheepskin ear cups are simply sublime in my opinion. Unlike fake leather, which can feel hot very quickly, these never felt even warm.
There is no power button on the headphones. To turn them on, you unfold them, and they instantly turn on. To turn them off, you fold them, and they instantly turn off. And when they turn on, there are voice prompts to let you know their status, such as “Power On,” “Power Off” or “Device Connected.” When you take the headphones off, they pause instantly. When you put them back on, play resumes.
All the controls are buttons on the right ear cup. My previous Bluetooth headphones were touch control. I’m so grateful these are not. If you’ve ever had touch-controlled headphones, it may seem cool at first. But just touching the controller on them often brings unwanted actions, like moving to the next song when you didn’t want to or pausing the music. Having real physical controls makes so much more sense and the layout simple, intuitive and very easy to use. You get a button to control ANC (Active Noise Cancellation) which includes three levels – Max Mode, Anti-Wind Mode, which lets in enough of the outside world when you may need it, and Anti Pressure Mode, which reduces pressure on ear and was actually my favorite mode. You can turn ANC completely off if you prefer. The other buttons are volume up/down, multi-function for music and calls and voice assistance buttons. There are separate microphones for ANC and for phone calls. Phone calls I made with the headphones were uniformly excellent. Callers were completely unaware I was using headphones – Nice!
BLUETOOTH/CODEC
The Momentum 3 headphones are Bluetooth 5.0. Bluetooth 5.0 is the newest Bluetooth standard and is very Low Energy (LE), meaning it won’t run your connected device battery down if your device is 5.0. The newest generation devices are 5.0, but if you don’t have a 5.0 device, no worries, your headphones will work just fine, as these are backward compatible.
In terms of connectivity, these headphones can be paired with up to 8 devices. Remarkably, they will pair automatically with the last two devices they were paired with at the same time. WOW! You can move seamlessly from, say your iPhone to your iPad, without having to unpair and pair again. If you connect to a 9th device, the least used device will be unpaired. Still, having the ability to pair with eight devices, two of which are simultaneous is astounding!
The Momentum’s come with the following Codecs: aptX, aptX LL, AAC, SBC. What difference does this make? These are the most advanced compression's for lossless audio streaming. aptX is not available on iPhone but is available on other makes. Apple uses AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) and is the successor to MP3. Whether your device is aptX or AAC, it will simply sound better.
SMART CONTROL APP:
Go out to the App Store or Google Play Store and download The Smart Control App. It’s perhaps a too simple, but quite easy to use app. Once you’re in the app, you can control the equalizer (EQ) and Noise Cancellation. Adjusting EQ is too simplistic. You slide your finger around, which is easy, but doesn’t permit adjusting bass, mid and high frequencies separately. But since I personally found no adjustment was necessary at all, the app isn’t something I’ll use much, if at all. You can also turn on Transparent Hearing, which turns on the microphone if someone needs to get your attention.
These headphones also come with Tile App compatibility. Since I’m already using Tile, I can track the headphones if I misplace them. If you’re not a Tile user, you will need to download the Tile App and set up an account, which is free.
BATTERY LIFE:
Momentum claims the battery lasts 17 hours. That is not industry leading, but it’s not bad either. Competition in the same class offer better battery life of anywhere from 20 to 30 hours. The pair of headphones I’m replacing offered only six hours, so 17 hours is a big step up for me. But if your battery dies, you can plug the Momentum in with the supplied 3.5 mm cable. It takes about three hours to fully charge the battery.
NOISE CANCELLATION:
There are other headphones in this class which offer more noise cancellation. If your primary reason to buy headphones is to be completely isolated from the outside world, then these may not be the headphones for you. I buy headphones to listen to music. Noise cancellation for me is not the determining factor. To that end, the three options you get with Momentum 3 are more than enough for me and then some. Max offers the most isolation from outside sounds. Anti-Wind is best if you’re outside and need to be aware of your surroundings. And Anti Pressure for me was prefect.
SOUND:
This is what it’s all about. And that’s the magic of Sennheiser sound. Sennheiser is a German company, founded in 1945. They are ALL about sound and introduced the world’s first open headphones in 1968, forever changing the world of headphones. To me, sound trumps ALL when it comes to headphones. Design, build quality, features, etc., aside (which are all excellent), this is where the Momentum's shine brightest.
OMG - These puppies have bass. Deep bass. Full bass. Punchy bass. Well controlled bass. While these headphones are great for any musical genre, I’m mostly a classical music lover. When the organ In Camille Saint-Saens Organ Symphony is played, it is simply awe inducing. The same with the Canons in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. It can rattle your head, but in a great way.
Vocals and instruments, such as guitar or piano are so natural sounding. Few headphones recreate the human voice naturally. I expected Sennheiser to get the human voice and instruments right and they did. To change it up, I listened to some songs from artists like Libera or Enya and everything was balanced and natural sounding. Another fun group, Caravan Palace, uses synthesizers and instruments and with the Momentum's, I heard things I’d never heard with other headphones.
Many headphones over emphasize treble. which can easily become harsh sounding and fatiguing. The best reference monitor speakers may sound flat in comparison initially but sound more natural and can be listened to for many more hours. This is the case with these Momentum’s which makes for being able to listen for hours without listener fatigue.
Is there anything I would change? Just a few things. It would have been more class leading if Sennheiser had put a bigger battery in for more than 17 hours of play. The included soft sided case won’t provide much protection, so I purchased a hard-shell case for more protection. The Smart Control App isn’t really all that smart. And finally, while you can see the battery percentage in the Smart Control app, I would have preferred to see battery percentage in the Battery Widget on my iPhone/iPad. The quick start guide isn’t very good, to be honest. Bu you can go out to Sennheiser.com and download the full user guide, which is much better. To be honest, if these are the only thing’s I can be critical of it’s pretty minor.
So, there you have it. For $399, these are the best headphones I’ve ever listened to. I like how they look. I like how they’re built. I like how they feel on my head. And I LOVE how they sound. It just doesn’t get better than this and I can't recommend them enough!
