Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 review: These earbuds beat out AirPods Pro

When they arrived out in 2018, the Sennheiser Momentum Legitimate Wireless were among the ideal-sounding truly wi-fi earbuds, if not the ideal-sounding. They had been not devoid of some flaws, even so. The buds’ batteries would drain though in the scenario, so if you did not charge the scenario for 4 times, you could close up with a dead established of earbuds, which was troublesome. They had been also a tad major, so some persons complained of pain immediately after obtaining them in their ears for a though. And at $300, they had been very pricey.

The 2nd-era Momentum Legitimate Wireless two, accessible now for preorder and transport in April, continue to have that elevated $300 (£279 300 euros) selling price. But they’re much better all about, with a slightly lesser, much more cozy style, energetic sounds canceling that rivals that of the AirPod Professional, improved battery lifetime (up to 7 hours as opposed to the original’s 4) and much better sounds reduction in the course of phone calls. And, if you really don’t like them in black, a white version is slated to comply with later on this year. Most importantly, although, the Momentum Legitimate Wireless two have the very same stellar sound — for correct wi-fi earbuds, anyway — presenting obviously outstanding sound good quality to the AirPods Professional. That tends to make them arguably the ideal correct wi-fi earbuds on the marketplace right now and earns them a CNET Editors’ Alternative Award.

That stated, they’re not automatically for everybody. Apart from the simple fact that they’re highly-priced — $50 much more than the AirPods Professional — they’re heavier, not fairly as cozy to use and lack the hands-free Siri found on those Apple models. And, though Sennheiser shrank the new earbuds by 2mm, the Momentum Legitimate Wireless two are continue to on the even bigger side and might not be a ideal match for some people’s ears. Individually, they healthy my ears fairly well and I acquired a limited seal from the most significant ear tip (three dimensions are provided). As I stated, I felt that the slightly lesser style does help — I was equipped to use these devoid of a problem for extensive stretches.

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That limited seal is critical for optimizing sound good quality and sounds cancellation. The AirPods Professional have adaptive sounds canceling. The sounds canceling on the Momentum Legitimate Wireless two isn’t going to look to be adaptive, but it is powerful. In the settings menu, it suggests, “Solitary-mic ANC lessens low-frequency ambient sounds,” adding that activating the aspect does have an “effects on battery lifetime.” In other terms, really don’t expect to get 7 hours if you have it on, specially if you enjoy your new music at greater volumes. The charging scenario does give an more three charges (21 hours) on the go and Sennheiser has fixed the challenge with the buds’ battery draining in the scenario — they now go into a deep snooze method. 

I wore the Momentum Legitimate Wireless two about the streets of New York and in the subway for a couple of times. You get some passive sounds cancellation from just obtaining a limited seal, but when I toggled the sounds canceling on and off though using the subway, the variance was straight away evident. It appeared to be on par with the AirPods Pro’s sounds canceling for muffling ambient sounds. I did not check out them on a airplane, but I believe they would be superior for that environment as well.

Examine much more: Very best-sounding wi-fi earbuds: Sony, Sennheiser and much more when compared

Like the originals, these have touch controls and they perform well, even though I like Apple’s stem-squeezing controls on the AirPods Professional a very little much better. You can method the touch controls in Sennheiser’s Good Management application for iOS and Android. For instance, I established the faucet-and-maintain gesture on the appropriate earbud to activate sounds canceling. The very same gesture on the remaining earbud activates a transparency method that lets ambient sound in so you can have a dialogue though sporting them.

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Sennheiser is not marketing and advertising these as athletics earphones, but with an IPX4 ranking they are splashproof and need to be sweatproof. I was equipped to go working devoid of them falling out of my ears and they’re certainly good for lighter workout routines at the gym. I are unable to tell you how well they’re going to maintain up more than time if you sweat on them a large amount, but they need to be equipped to set up with some moisture devoid of a problem.

Like the originals, the earbuds have volume controls on the earbuds themselves using the default faucet-and-maintain gesture. However, immediately after I modified the faucet-and-maintain gesture to activate ANC — instead of manage volume — I couldn’t improve the gesture back again to managing volume (I experienced to reset the controls back again to their default settings). The application I was using was labeled as beta, and I assume this bug will be fixed in an update.  

A couple of other settings are truly worth mentioning. You can opt for to activate sidetone, a aspect I like that lets you to hear your voice in the earbuds and modulate your voice when you are creating a phone. And there is an equalizer in the application to tweak bass and treble concentrations to your liking. For needs of this evaluation I remaining it at the default setting, which appeared properly superior to me. 

Sennheiser additional a microphone to each individual earbud for the sounds canceling and you can find a beamforming microphone in each individual earbud to select up your voice when creating phone calls or using your voice assistant. The phone performance is improved from the originals’, with much better sounds reduction so persons can hear you much better in noisy environments (ambient sounds is muffled although continue to present). I am not certain these are fairly as superior as the AirPods when it comes to phone good quality, but they executed well all round in this section.

I also expert negligible Bluetooth hiccups — the wi-fi connection was primarily strong. They use Bluetooth 5.1, with assistance for AAC and aptX audio codes (only selected Android phones assistance aptX streaming). And I did not have any complications with audio syncing the right way when viewing video applications like Netflix, YouTube and Vudu.

The Momentum Legitimate Wireless two earbuds have the very same 7mm dynamic motorists as the originals. If there are some slight gains in sound good quality, it’s much more possible owing to much better electronic processing as a final result of chip and application updates. As I stated, sound good quality is excellent and the Momentum Legitimate Wireless two has richer, much more thorough sound than the AirPods Professional with well-described bass, normal-sounding mids and some sparkle in the treble. These sound like high quality headphones need to. They’re very open up the sound isn’t going to truly feel stuck in your head.

I rated the Sony WF-1000XM3 earbuds hugely for sound, although they’re not fantastic for creating phone calls. The Momentum Legitimate Wireless two are a very little much more thorough and articulate. On well-recorded tracks you can genuinely hear each individual instrument they really don’t mix in with each individual like with a large amount of Bluetooth headphones. Other higher-close models like the Master & Dynamic MW07 Moreover ($300) also have sleek, nicely thorough sound with superior bass definition, as well as some sounds cancellation, but the Legitimate Wireless two have much better style and headset performance along with slightly much better sound and much more powerful sounds cancellation. 

The scenario charges via USB-C, while at this selling price you’d like to see wi-fi charging, but that’s not a big omission. The AirPods Professional certainly have an attractive style and aspect established with potent performance, but they’re simply just not in the Sennheiser Momentum Legitimate Wireless 2’s league for sound good quality. And now that Sennheiser has additional energetic sounds canceling and fixed some of the authentic Momentum Legitimate Wireless’ tiny flaws, these are the earbuds to get if you worth sound good quality more than everything else.