Sennheiser HDB 630 Review - It's not just about the sound

The Sennheiser HDB 630 is a $500 wireless closed-back noise-cancelling headphone that’s been met with near-universal praise—and after testing, that praise mostly feels deserved… but still, it’s not perfect. Let’s talk about why.

Design and Comfort

Visually, the HDB 630 strikes a clean, modern look: silver yokes, matte black shells, and a restrained, professional aesthetic. Build quality feels solid, and the headphone offers full cup swivel for portability.

Interestingly, the cup swivel actually may be too much—since even slight asymmetry when worn can affect tonal balance, it would be nice if the design were a bit more stable and consistent in how it can be worn.

Comfort—for me, at least—is improved over the Momentum 4 thanks to reduced clamp force and better weight distribution, but large-eared listeners may still find the small-ish earpad openings too tight.

Sound Quality

Measured on a B&K 5128, the HDB 630 shows excellent wideband balance with a few quirks.

Bass is its standout strength—tight, articulate, and physical without boom or bloat. Compared to the Momentum 4, it’s punchier, quicker, and more neutral overall. Additionally, because of the use of active feedback systems for the ANC, listeners are likely to get a very similar response under 800 Hz or so to what they see on the measurement.

The mids are generally natural, though a mild forwardness between 1-2 kHz and low-treble energy around 3-4 kHz can make vocals and snares sound slightly shouty. The former 1-2 kHz area is also prone to significant variation based on the coupling/orientation/clamp of the headphone, so people should be aware that if they want to use the included EQ in this region that adjustment by ear will be absolutely necessary; do NOT just blindly follow measurements in this region for this headphone.

Treble is where opinions are likely to diverge with any headphone, and it’s where the HDB 630 ended up disappointing me a bit. There’s a lot of upper-air “sparkle,” but a dip through the mid-treble further highlights this forwardness while also leaving the presentation a bit closed-in and stuffy feeling.

Even though this is a subtle issue within an otherwise refined tonal balance—one that may even be specifically bad for me vs. others—Sennheiser still gives users full control to fix them, by including the thing audiophiles have been asking for forever: parametric EQ.

Parametric EQ and App Features

The HDB 630’s app is the standout feature. It includes a proper five-band parametric EQ (±6 dB range), adjustable by frequency and Q, letting listeners fine-tune without resorting to third-party tools. I cannot stress enough how important it is that Sennheiser finally included something like this, especially since HDB 630 seems to be selling well, that means it may be something other big companies take seriously and do on their next offerings. (Take notes Sony and Bose!)

One cool touch is that you can A/B toggle your EQ curve instantly, and while precision could be improved by allowing for direct numerical input—sliders are a bit finnicky, this is one of the best EQ implementations in any consumer headphone app period.

The app also includes optional crossfeed (useful for older stereo mixes) and adjustable ANC. Noise cancelling performance is good—quieter environments will sound truly silent—but not on the same level as Bose’s QC Ultra or Sony’s WH-1000XM6.That said, there’s no background hiss and of course when it comes to the sound quality, far better overall fidelity.

Connectivity and Latency

Included is Sennheiser’s BTD 700 dongle, which enables a low-latency mode for gaming or movies. Tapping the dongle three times engages a 30 ms-range mode that dramatically reduces audio delay.

It’s not eSports-grade instant—and you will not want to use this headphone’s microphone, as any microphone use transfers the headphone to Hands Free mode which dramatically lowers audio bandwidth and ruins the sound quality of what you’re listening to—but it’s more than fast enough for everyday gaming and video use, which makes this one of the most versatile Bluetooth setups currently available.

Comparisons

Without EQ, the HDB 630 already outperforms nearly every major wireless ANC headphone in its class. It’s cleaner, more dynamic, and more natural-sounding than the AirPods Max, Bose QC Ultra, Sony WH-1000XM6, Bowers & Wilkins PX8, and even the original Focal Bathys.

The Bathys MG still holds a slight edge in treble refinement on my head in the Dynamic preset, but it’s also far more expensive (and because treble is so personal/interwoven with individual anatomy, it’s not unlikely other people find the HDB 630 better than the Bathys MG in this particular area).

Verdict

Taken as a whole, yeah the hype is real. Sennheiser’s HDB 630 is the most balanced, best-sounding wireless ANC headphone you can buy in 2025. It nails the fundamentals, adds genuinely useful features like onboard parametric EQ and low-latency mode, and finally gives audiophiles a wireless option that feels purpose-built for them.