Quick review
The good
The not-so-good
The first big new earphones of the year, Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 4 offers an updated feature set in a design that works. Is it the best new pair?
It’s been a few months since CES in January, and we’re slowly beginning to see some of those announcements trickle out. New TVs from LG, but not the transparent TVs, and plenty of AI PCs, as well.
And now our first batch of properly new earphones, too.
Announced in January, Sennheiser’s latest in its “Momentum” truly wireless earphones is expected to boost the capabilities thanks to the latest generation of Qualcomm hardware underneath, plus also see improvements to battery life, as well.
But how much can change in two years? We’re about to find out, as we jump from version three to version four in the Sennheiser Momentum TWS earphones. Does the latest model have what it takes to beat the benchmarks of Sony and Bose?
Design and features
Before we get stuck into the features and capabilities, let’s get stuck into the design, and good luck telling the difference because it’s not easy to see, if at all.
Unlike the Momentum 4 over-ear headphones, these are in-ears, and they’re very much like the previous model, at that. Comparing the look of the Momentum TWS 3 to the Momentum TWS 4, Sennheiser has stayed with the theme of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix” in that they appear identical.
Inside, they’ll use a Qualcomm sound processor, the S5 Gen 2 platform with Snapdragon Sound, and there are also improvements to the wireless reception technology, too, to keep the wireless connection solid.
Simply put, aside from what’s inside the earphones, the Momentum True Wireless 4 are more or less the spitting image of their predecessor. Given that we loved the previous generation, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
One thing is a little different: the water resistance, which jumps from IPX4 to IP54, giving it a little more proofing from dust and water. Handy.
In-use
Once the Momentum 4 earphones go in your ears, there’s a level of comfort and grip that holds them nicely, something Sennheiser improved in the previous model, compared to the first-gen which were comparatively uncomfortable.
Again, that “ain’t broke, don’t fix” mentality is here, with the comfort remaining the same, and even the touch panel being here.
The app will again be one of your main sources of comfort, which can let you tweak the controls for the panel and even trigger a form of adaptive noise cancellation based on GPS locations, provided you register or sign in with Sennheiser. Essentially, if you’re at work, you can trigger the ambient mode to hear through them automatically, or not as the case may be. It’s your choice.
One minor change is the inclusion of four in-ear tips in the box, now catering for extra small alongside small, medium, and large.
Performance
Armed with the right pair of earphone tips sized for your ear, you can get stuck into the sound, and tested with the Pickr Sound Test, we found a pair of capable, warm and balanced earphones.
Kicking off with the electronic and dance vibes of Tycho and Daft Punk (albeit not together), we found surprisingly meaty mids and lows, with Sennheiser’s understanding of solid bass here for another round, delivering slightly warm sound amidst strong balance. These are bassy where they need to be, but not overkill.
It’s much the same through the pop sounds of Carly Rae Jepsen and Ariana Grande, delivering a nice punch where it needs it, and you can still get a great delivery of bass when it happens, such as with FKA Twigs’ “Two Weeks”.
With rock, the delivery was clear across all tracks, but felt properly impactful in Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back”, which saw a tight snap of bass and bass drum, neither of which overpowered, and yet felt right.
The clarity was clear in older rock, too, including David Bowie’s “Starman” which just nailed the delivery, offering superb definition and sound in this well-mastered track.
Unsurprisingly, these earphones love pretty much most of the music you throw their way, which is good news for listeners of just about any genre.
Noise cancellation
Audio performance is just one part of the package, though, because there’s active noise cancellation to think of, as well.
Testing the Momentum 4 wireless earphones throughout Sydney, we found the noise canceling performance was strong, but not quite up to the level of where either Sony or Bose position their tech.
There aren’t a lot of settings for noise cancellation, beyond switching between the transparency or ANC modes. You’ll have adaptive noise on, anti-wind, and adaptive noise off. That’s it.
It will definitely block much of the ambient noise coming in, and tends to fare well against wind and other repeatable sounds, but it wasn’t the total isolation a pair like the Bose QC Ultra offers.
Upcoming extras
Sennheiser also sees a little more capability in the Momentum 4 wireless earphones, largely because of the Snapdragon tech inside.
Support for Auracast is coming to the earphones, a technology which can let you hook into a shared source of media, such as a single TV sending out one source wirelessly to multiple Bluetooth earphones. Think of it as the TV on silent in a public place, and anyone with a pair of Auracast earphones being able to listen in while the TV physically remains quiet for everyone else.
Bluetooth LE Audio is also an upcoming feature coming by way of firmware update, which aims to improve the sound thanks to a new codec.
Regular listeners won’t likely pick up on this straight away, especially since neither is available at launch or during the review period, but it’s a promise from Sennheiser (and Qualcomm) that the Momentim 4 True Wireless will get an upgrade and won’t remain locked in time.
It means more features are coming, which makes the pair future-friendly in a way few companies really act on, except for maybe Apple which delivers surprise feature drops from time to time.
Frankly, we wonder if spatial audio will make an appearance, which we couldn’t find during our time with the Momentum 4 true wireless earphones, and yet can be found in some form on models from Sony, Bose, and Apple.
Battery
There’s also up to 30 hours of battery life in what appears to be an identical case, namely due to the size, though the battery system is slightly different. Essentially, Sennheiser is tweaking things slightly and getting a little more out of each earphone, with the seven hours of battery in the Momentum 3 now up to half an hour stronger in the Momentum 4.
Essentially, that’s a maximum of 7.5 hours per charge with a good four charges in total with the case, bringing it to 30 hours of battery life. A little bit more, it seems, and close to matching the competition.
The charge case also supports wireless charging by way of Qi and also works on USB-C, which just like the knitted design, makes it identical to the last generation. It’s still a sizeable earphone case, especially compared to what else is out there, but there’s a decent amount of battery life stored inside.
Value
Priced at $499.95 in Australia, however, Sennheiser feels a little high, especially given what else it competes with.
Technically, the $399 to $450 mark is seen as the high-end, and if companies push their prices beyond these, we really want to know why. With Bose and Apple among the best in the truly wireless earphones — and scoring in our Best Pick earphone category last year — seeing a company push a price beyond this puts us on edge, and it might for you, too.
Granted, a maximum of $100 isn’t a steep increase, but it’s one all the same, especially when you see just what the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 competes against.
Sennheiser Momentum TWS 4 vs the competition
At $399, the Apple AirPods Pro 2nd-gen are still one of the best pairs of truly wireless earphones and iPhone owner can get, and depending on where you look, you might even find them for as low as $345. Meanwhile, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds started at $449.95 and were worth it at that price, but can now be found for $369 all too easily.
Both of these are exceptional options for up to $150 less. Even Sony’s WF-1000XM5 can be found for around $350 at present, placing the three obvious competitors well under where Sennheiser is pitching its latest pair.
Competitor value is precisely the problem Sennheiser is dealing with in the Momentum 4 wireless earphones, because competitors just seem to have more going for them comparatively.
The one thing Sennheiser has going for it is the support for features such as Auracast and Bluetooth LE Audio, which essentially give it an intriguing level of future-proofing.
The problem, however, is these are features you might not care about, and could be happy to live without. Never mind that they’re not there at launch, you might never use them when they do launch, and could be happy saving the money in the process, while also getting more useful current technology stacks, such as support for spatial audio, something both have and that Sennheiser misses out on.
What needs work?
So what needs work? The pricing, which if we’re being direct should be a maximum of $450 in Australia, but ideally should be closer to $399.
Beyond the new tech inside, the Momentum True Wireless 4 will appear very similar to the Momentum True Wireless 3, and they can be found for $299 in Australia while the stock is replaced. Given the minor feature differences, that makes the third-gen model a steal, while the $200 higher price tag of the new model still unappealing.
If you want a pair of excellent Sennheiser noise cancelling in-ears, the Momentum 3 makes sense economically, and if you don’t mind spending $50ish more, the options from competitors seem better priced in terms of features. Not so much with the Momentum 4, which are priced far beyond where we think they should be at launch.
They will probably drop quickly — it typically doesn’t take long for earphones to drop in price — but at launch, five cents under $500 puts the Momentum 4 wireless earphones in the same place as the also-excellent Technics AZ80, and we didn’t know why they were $499.95, either.
Final thoughts (TLDR)
A slight update to an already excellent pair of wireless noise cancelling earphones, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 4 delivers much of what fans of great sound will be looking for, boosting the feature set slightly in the process.
There’s little doubt these are great earphones, and anyone would be happy with the sound on offer.
That said, given the feature set, we’d suggest looking around at what else is out there, as that near-$500 price doesn’t make these our top choice.
If slash when Sennheiser drops that price, we’d reconsider and likely give the Momentum True Wireless 4 a more solid recommendation. These are so close, but there are better options out there if you go looking.
