Sennheiser‘s Momentum True Wireless have been amongst the first to show you should attempt for more. The headphones seemed nice, had strong connectivity, blocked adequate backyard noise, and possibly most importantly, sounded higher than nearly any competition.
But they had their flaws too. They suffered from extreme battery drain troubles whilst resting in their case, had been too large for some ears, and had some unintuitive controls.
The new $299 Momentum True Wireless 2 (MTW2) enhance on most of these flaws, and whilst they aren’t best by using any means, they are nonetheless the headphones to beat when it comes to sound quality. With higher comfort, energetic noise canceling, and substantially multiplied battery life, the MTW2 as soon as once more strives to be the audiophile’s choice.
The layout has viewed solely the subtlest of changes; the headphones are a little smaller, having shaved off 2mm off their predecessor, and the business enterprise now provides a mannequin in white. Sennheiser hasn’t modified lots of their look otherwise, however as a long way as I’m worried that’s a precise aspect – they’re amongst the classier searching headphones on the market. The carrying case is nevertheless small and unobtrusive in a pocket too.
One location that hasn’t elevated plenty is the contact controls. They’re now not awful — the massive contact floor is responsive and the headphones react right away to your touches. I additionally recognize that the organization presents a lot of flexibility to customise the controls to your liking. But you won’t determine out how to use the mixture of faucets and holds except searching at the guide or app.
Moreover, it suffers from one of my largest pet peeves with authentic wi-fi headphones — you have to put on each earbuds to get entry to all the controls. The biggest sin is that even with customizable controls, there is no way to each elevate and decrease the extent whilst the usage of solely one earbud— some thing I frequently do for ambient attention whilst I’m using my bike or on foot my canine — until you discuss to Google or Siri. Another pet peeve: solely the proper earbud can fly solo, some thing I discovered after attempting many times to get the left earbud to join on its own.
Luckily, the MTW2 do come with an extremely good ambient cognizance mode (Sennheiser calls it ‘transparent hearing’). It’s the most natural-sounding such mode I’ve heard, top ample that occasionally I overlook I’m carrying earbuds at all, even though it nevertheless suffers from the occasional wind noise.
More vital is the new noise-canceling mode. The aggregate of the already-great passive noise isolation with energetic noise canceling makes the MTW2 2d solely Sony’s great WF-1000Xm3 amongst its capacity to shut out the backyard world. In fact, I assume the Sennheiser‘s are a bit higher at dealing with excessive frequencies and chatter thanks to their higher passive isolation, however Sony nevertheless takes the lead when it comes to getting rid of low-frequency sound.
Where the MTW2 truly pulls in advance is in song playback. It’s amongst the few proper wi-fi headphones that don’t make me experience like I’m drastically sacrificing sound high-quality for convenience; they simply sound like correct earbuds period.
As some distance as I can tell, the sound is additionally very comparable to its predecessor. The tuning is barely V-shaped, with a bit of an emphasis on the bass and treble, possibly a little laid lower back round the top mids.
This continues vocals from turning into shouty, however they can also no longer be the satisfactory desire if you decide upon your voices extra upfront. Bass tuning is additionally tasteful, even though I’d individually choose a smidgeon greater sub-bass. On the whole, they are a wonderful pay attention — properly ample that I don’t sense the want to get my higher-end headphones out when I get returned home.
Perhaps extra importantly, the sound is noticeably customizable via the equal intuitive EQ machine current on the authentic MTWs. Though it doesn’t provide as a whole lot manipulate as a full parametric equalizer, you can alter bass, treble, and mids separately, as nicely as the normal tilt of the frequency response.
These adjustments elevate over even if you join the headphones to a new machine too. I used the EQ to emphasize the top mids a little more. While I would possibly supply Master and Dynamic’s MW07 Plus a moderate facet in out-of-the field sound fantastic for my tastes, the MTW2’s built-in EQ helps it take the lead overall.
You can hear to the headphones in the course of nearly an whole workday too. Sennheiser claims you can get 7 hours on a single cost (with any other 21 hours in the case). I managed about six and a half of hours in one go, which is drastically higher than what I get with most proper wi-fi headphones. And luckily, I’ve had none of the battery drain troubles I had with the unique if I left them in their case for over a day.
At $300, the MTW2 aren’t the first-rate cost out there. Nor are they the most handy or person pleasant earbuds— Google’s Pixel Buds two and Apple AirPods Pro are better, less expensive preferences if you prioritize tight smartphone integration.
But they get the fundamentals right, and they sound excellent. The Momentum True Wireless two is what a sequel must be: it brings some thing new to the table, however doesn’t mess with a prevailing formula. If you don’t thought paying a top rate for sound quality, the Sennheiser‘s state-of-the-art are nicely really worth your consideration.
