Introduction

I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I was excited about the newest iPhone or Samsung flagship. The era of rapid tech advancements or innovative features has faded out. Now we’re left with incremental upgrades met with a smattering of applause. 

That’s how I feel about wireless ANC headphones nowadays. Recent releases from big brands like the Sony XM6 and COLLEXXION or even Apple’s AirPod Max 2 have quietly come and gone. Yet, if you know where to look, there have been some advancements like the Sennheiser HDB 630 finally adding custom PEQ into their apps or the Bose QC Ultra Gen 2 with a genuinely cool ear sensor to correct acoustic environments. 

That’s the question I have with the topic of this review: the $400 Sennheiser Momentum 5. Will they follow the HDB 630’s lead and prompt us to take notice? Or will it be the next in line of marginal improvements? Let’s find out.

Be sure to also watch Resolve’s coverage of the Momentum 5!

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Build and Comfort

The build of the Momentum 5 is similar to the Momentum 4 and the HDB 630, though not identical given some of the different tech inside. It’s functional, but I’ve never loved it as I find them to feel a step behind Sony/Apple/Bose in quality. It’s just not as premium-feeling. It also seems slightly more plasticky than the HDB 630. Though to be fair, the Momentum series is cheaper than its competitors. And I do like the fabric-like material on the top headband though. It’s nice.

The fit and comfort are similarly OK. Like many wireless headphones designed to be slim and compact, there isn’t much space within the ear cups for those with larger ears. It measures roughly 60 mm tall by 42 mm wide and 14 mm deep. It fits my ears just fine, though the tips of my ears lightly touch the inside of the cups. The clamp force is on the lighter side which helps comfort but also means that excessive head movement will cause it to slide off more often than not. Of course, this will depend on your head size.

The one thing I’ll applaud Sennheiser for is the newly designed carrying case for the Momentum 5. It’s one of the flattest, slimmest cases I’ve seen and I can easily slip it into a backpack. It also properly lives up to the name carrying case as it features a handle-like groove at the top where the headband is nested. Very handy (pun intended). 

You also get two cables for wired connections: a standard USB-C charging cable and a 2.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable. Like many wireless headphones these days, the Momentum 5 does need to be turned on even when wired. It cannot play passively. Presumably this is because it needs to activate its DSP. 

Sound Quality

Here are my thoughts on the Momentum 5’s stock tuning (ANC 100%, Neutral preset) as if I were reviewing a regular headphone. However, it must be emphasized that wireless headphones are NOT regular headphones. There are many, many factors that will affect sound quality and overall value, which I’ll touch on in other parts of this review.

The Momentum 5’s stock tuning is generally competent if a bit boomy in the subbass. It’s the type of sound I can accept for my wireless headphones but won’t be particularly excited about. Like an “Oh, that’s it?”. We’ll get more into it below, but first here is the frequency response measurement of the Momentum 5 measured on the B&K 5128. 

For those who are unfamiliar with graphs, here’s how you read it in extremely simplified terms. If the frequency response (the line from 20 Hz to 20 kHz) is within the grey region, it’s likely to sound balanced. If it’s above the preference bounds, that region could be described as e.g. too bassy or too bright and vice versa. Light blue and dark blue parts show the range of variation a headphone’s sound could have on a person’s head.

Preference research suggests that the average person prefers sound that is balanced with an approximate 10 dB downwards slope from the bass to the treble (i.e. within the grey region). That said, 1) You are not an average person; and 2) There’s no reason why you can’t enjoy multiple types of tunings. These graphs are a way to help us understand how these audio products may be colored relative to what the average person would consider “neutral”.

Now, I do wear glasses, so here are measurements taken with in-ear microphones calibrated specifically for me right at the ear entrance comparing the Sennheiser Momentum 5 with and without glasses on. 

Essentially, this is a very good representation of how these headphones perform on my own head. Don’t read too deeply into all the tiny peaks and valleys and wibbly-wobblys. Focus on the overarching trends in how they compare relative to one another. As I talk about the sound below, I’ll be referencing this graph. 

Bass

From the graphs, we can see that the Momentum 5 has a strong subbass presence below 60 Hz. On its own, it can be a good coloration for deep rumble. However, on my head when I’m wearing glasses, we can see how there is a break in the seal at the lowest octaves below 40 Hz, so there is a fair amount of roll-off which diminishes that rumble. 

As a result, because of my glasses the bass isn’t quite as excessive as it may appear to look on the B&K 5128. However, I still do find the bass here to be a bit loose and boomy. Bass articulation and note dynamics are blurry. While there is physical oomph and body, it’s not a tight, deep, weighty note that lands with impact and finality. It’s more representative of bass quantity than quality. 

I’d say the bass-to-mids transition is well done. I don’t really get a sense of bloat in the lower mids. It’s really that subbass/midbass area that has an extra bit of loose boominess. 

Mids

In the mids, I find there to be a bit of a shoutiness around that 2 - 3 kHz region. Normally, that rise isn’t an issue, but because of the surrounding dips at 1.5 kHz and 4 kHz on my head, it isn’t a smooth midrange. Of course, your mileage may vary. The graphs on the B&K 5128 suggest that it should be a little more evened out than what I ended up getting.

Otherwise, I don’t think this is a bad midrange per se. There’s enough forwardness so notes aren’t hidden or recessed. I wouldn't call it a clear midrange however because the mids feel a little forced to me rather than being an effortless sense of clarity. Oddly enough, I’m not bothered by the 1.5 kHz dip at all really. Or, at least, I’m not conscious of it. 

Treble

The treble has an almost incoherent character to it. I’m not quite sure why, but like the mids, while there is presence, effortless clarity just is not there. The Momentum 5 feels like it needs to work for its treble notes, and doesn’t quite get it right all the time. In particular, the timbre of hats and cymbals sound conflicted - notes start oddly flat at the transient, then rise with a peak somewhere, before fading before it truly gets to breathe with the air and shimmer. In the context of the overall tonal balance, it gives the Momentum 5 a slightly stuffy feeling. 

This is one area where graphs don’t fully tell the story. Of course, one contributor to this issue is my glasses. As you can see in the in-ear mic graphs, my glasses amplify the Momentum 5’s peaks, particularly at 7.5 kHz and 11 kHz. But even without my glasses, I wouldn’t say the Momentum 5’s treble suddenly sounds perfect. 

The positive part about the Momentum 5’s treble is that personally, it doesn’t have any dealbreakers. It’s not harsh or sibilant anywhere. It’s not fatiguing in any way. But I would say it is the weakest link in the Momentum 5’s sound. 

Presentation

The Momentum 5 is through and through a standard sounding closed back headphone when it comes to the staging and presentation. While it’s better than the stereotypical 3-blob left-center-right imaging, it does feel closed in. Notes feel like they’re physically trapped within the cups. Likewise, resolution, layering, separation, and all your typical audiophile terms for perceived technicalities are all middling. 

This isn’t a knock against the Momentum 5. It’s more of a footnote that the Momentum 5 isn’t an overachiever in this regard. Closed headphones are acoustically suboptimal environments. I want to reiterate here that while I may be picking apart the sound of the Momentum 5, I return to my initial assessment: it’s a generally competent, if slightly boomy, sounding headphone. 

Tech Features

Wireless headphones are just as much tech gadgets as they are audio devices. Arguably, the tech aspect has a greater impact than sound quality on the overall product. Here’s what you need to know as of firmware 6.2.1.

The core features of these wireless headphones are very mature now, so concerns over range, stability, latency, floor noise, etc. are no longer an issue. The Momentum 5 passes all of these with flying colors. Pairing is fast and easy. 

The Momentum 5 uses Bluetooth 5.4 which isn’t the most cutting edge (we’re up to 6.0 on some devices now), but it’s more than sufficient. Importantly, the Momentum 5 has BT multipoint with support for two devices connected concurrently. We don’t get LDAC unfortunately.

The battery is quite impressive. Sennheiser boasts 57 hours of battery life and I believe them. In my testing, I didn’t have to charge it once. Even better, the Momentum 5 offers a user replaceable battery. They also have a battery protection mode in the app. I’m glad to see Sennheiser taking battery life seriously. This is especially important because as previously mentioned, the Momentum 5 like many wireless headphones cannot function while powered off.

The Momentum 5 also comes with Dolby Atmos for head tracking. I can’t comment on this too much as I don’t have any Dolby Atmos files, but I can say the head tracking aspect seems to work even on regular stereo content. I would leave it off for that though.

Touch controls are OK. I like that Sennheiser has intuitive swipe gestures on a wide touch surface, though I do find myself occasionally needing to undo or correct some of my gestures. I would also have liked at least a physical volume rocker.

The microphone quality is fine. Nothing spectacular and does have some of that crunchy sound characteristic of many wireless headsets. But it’ll be more than sufficient for your office calls.

ANC, Transparency, and Adaptive Modes

The ANC of the Momentum 5 is quite good. Or at least, it doesn’t feel like it’s significantly behind its peers like Sony, Apple, or Bose as it used to be. More crucially, I don’t get too much of that airplane cabin pressure effect like I do on some other ANC implementations. At 100% ANC, I do feel it a bit, but it’s very manageable and I don’t notice it when music is playing. I’m glad to see Sennheiser has caught up to the industry leaders when it comes to ANC.

I usually find transparency modes to be a little gimmicky, but I think Sennheiser also did a very good job here. It doesn’t have excessively annoying high-pitched side effects when turning it on and it generally works well for environmental noise. 

Interestingly, there seems to effectively be two base tunings depending on the setting you have. The first is what I would call the standard Neutral tuning - ANC ON at 100%. This is what I expect the majority of people to be using the majority of the time. This tuning is also the same if you’re using Adaptive mode, which is basically ANC mode but the app chooses the strength for you.

The second is the ANC OFF mode. However, this doesn’t only apply when ANC OFF. It actually appears if you are below 25% on either the ANC or Transparency mode. You can actually hear the DSP deactivate if you bring the adjustment slider low enough. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter if you’re using ANC or Transparency at 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100%. They all have the same frequency response. 

The takeaway here is that you should set ANC to 25% if you want as little of it as possible while still retaining the stock tuning. Personally, I just leave ANC on at 100%. There is an interaction with the ANC turning off and that tuning that it starts to sound kind of weird. Either way, I just don’t use it.

The SmartControlPlus App

EQ

Unfortunately, the Momentum 5 does not have PEQ. This is a bit of a disappointment compared to the HDB 630 where they debuted it. Supposedly, this is a hardware challenge as you need certain chips for headphone PEQ. 

Instead, we get an 8-band GEQ. The interface is slick and reactive with a very handy bypass feature. It even auto-adjusts the overall based on your settings. However, beyond the standard limitations of GEQ (no frequency or Q value adjustments), the SmartControlPlus’ EQ only allows up to +/- 6 dB of adjustment. For most, this should be sufficient.

Presets

Along with the EQ, you get a wide variety of presets. These presets are actually preset EQ values designed by Sennheiser’s audio team, so you could technically recreate them yourself if you wanted or use them as a base and adjust it as a new custom preset if you want.

That’s what I did. Turns out, there is one EQ setting I thought was rather decent. That is the Movie preset. It pulls down both the bass and treble by a few decibels to hide some of the Momentum 5’s deficiencies in those areas. From there I adjusted it some more to get roughly what I thought sounded balanced.

See the Appendix for all the presets.

Sound Personalization

One last interesting thing that Sennheiser has in the app is the Sound Personalization program. Many companies have their own version of this. Sennheiser’s process is interesting. The app plays strings (violins), then layers on bass and then drums while you continuously choose how much volume you want of each. Here’s what I ended up with after a quick session without any fine tuning.

There are some similarities to my custom EQ where it pulls the bass and treble down. However, the way it dips the bass at 100 Hz can only be achieved with a high Q value. Which means there is a possibility of more unique Q values that we don’t have access to.

Anyway, I’d say it works OK. I prefer it a little more than the Neutral stock tuning. With some fine tuning it could be better but I decided to stick with my Movie-adjusted preset as it was good enough for me.

Comparisons

Sennheiser Momentum 4 and HDB 630

My standard recommendation as always is: if what you currently have is serving your needs, don’t upgrade. The Momentum 5 has much better ANC, better battery life, and better stock tuning. Is it worth spending $350 for that upgrade? Probably not. 

But if you don’t have a wireless headphone and you’re wondering if it’s worth spending $50-75 more for the Momentum 5 instead of buying an older Momentum 4, then yes. Definitely. 

And if you could stretch your budget, look to the HDB 630. The sound out of the box is genuinely good, particularly in the bass and treble. You also unlock PEQ functionality in the app so you can really dial in the sound quality. You do sacrifice some ANC performance however.

Sony XM6 and The Collexxion

I prefer the Momentum 5 over both the XM6 and The Collexxion. I do not like the sound of either of these headphones and I find the ANC on them to give me headaches. But if you aren’t planning to use these stock out of the box, Sony’s companion app offers a similar amount of customizability for their headphones and also comes with a 10-band GEQ. I’d say it’s a wash here. The Momentum 5 edges it out with almost double the battery life and lower MSRP.

Bose QC Ultra Gen 2

The Bose QC Ultra Gen 2 is probably the toughest competitor to the Momentum 5. It costs $50 more, but it does feel more premium all around in its build and design. Sound wise, it’s even bassier but makes up for it with a cleaner midrange. It also has a priming function to ensure better acoustic consistency in the mids every time you put it on, which is very cool.

It is limited in its customizability with only 3 bands in its EQ, however. But if all you need is a simple bass and treble adjustment or have alternate methods of EQ, then the Bose QC Ultra Gen 2 starts to become the more compelling option. Especially as it’s been out for a while and often goes on sale.

Apple AirPods Max 2

If you’re looking at the AirPods Max 2, you probably value Apple’s design language and build quality more than the headphone’s features and sound quality itself. Fair enough. To Apple’s credit, the AirPods Max 2’s bass is actually fantastic. It hits hard and punchy and is what the Momentum 5 should’ve been. And though its treble can stand out as being rough and overdone, with Apple’s newly announced EQ you can ostensibly nudge it to where it’s less of an issue. 

For $200 less, the Momentum 5 is a much better value offering, especially if you want to feel like you’re in control of your device rather than the other way around. But once again, if you’re an Apple fan these likely aren’t concerns for you.

Should You Buy It?

Maybe. The Sennheiser Momentum 5 is simultaneously both an easy and hard recommendation. On one hand, it checks almost every box I want for a wireless headphone. It’s a quick and painless experience right from the start. On the other hand, it sits dangerously close to its competitors in price and doesn’t really offer any standout features that would sway one over another. It’s competent, if boring. 

As such, if the question is “Is the Sennheiser Momentum 5 a good wireless headphone to buy?”, the answer is unequivocally yes. If the question is “Should I buy the Sennheiser Momentum 5 over everything else on the market?”, the answer becomes the frustratingly annoying but realistic “Well, it depends”. What does it depend on? Primarily price, fit, and how well you tolerate the ANC from different brands.

Fortunately, the nice thing about general consumer products like the Momentum 5 is that you can try them at your local brick and mortar electronics store to get a feel for them on your head before committing. Let this review point you in a direction and help you understand what to look for, but more than anything I can say, spend 15 minutes playing with all the options at your local mall before ordering it online or anywhere else.

Appendix

Here are all the presets as of firmware 6.2.1 measured on my head without glasses using in-ear microphones personally calibrated to my HRTF. These are relative measurements to the stock tuning (black).