For nearly a decade, we’ve associated Sennheiser’s Momentum wireless over-ear headphones not only with excellent sonic qualities, but also with sleek, elegant style: the grained leather headband, the oval ear cups with mother-of-pearl or matte finishes, and the distinctive metal slider have carried over from one generation to the next as they admirably refuse to look ordinary next to the competition.
The Momentum 4 Wireless have opted for a simpler we’d say safer design language, more similar to that of their competitors. It’s a bit like a wonderfully eccentric kid at school deciding to keep a low profile to fit in with his classmates. And while we’re by no means against minimalism, we have to say we’re a little disappointed by this move. But that comes before the theatrical “but” of a judge rendering a favorable verdict in a Hollywood courtroom drama.
Because the dissatisfaction of the first impression is fortunately made up for by everything else that these new Sennheiser headphones are and can do. The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless is the next generation of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless. Their design is much more minimalist than their predecessor, and some important updates have been made to their performance. They don’t support high-end sound tuning, an EQ that’s supposed to provide a more dynamic and vibrant sound experience, but that exacerbated the driver inconsistencies in our Momentum 3 unit.
Instead of aptX-LL codec support, they use aptX Adaptive, which ensures low latency and a high-resolution audio experience. They also have a much longer battery life than their predecessor and other competing models like the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless. Sennheiser has packed everything your heart desires into the Momentum 4 Wireless spec sheet.
Aside from the remarkable 60-hour battery life (at normal volume with active noise cancellation), that’s twice as long as many competitors, including the Sony WH-1000XM4 and XM5, which both last 30 hours, and the Bose QC 45 and Bose Noise Cancelling 700, which last between 24 and 30 hours. It’s rare that we only had to charge our headphones once during the test, but here the Sennheisers just kept running and running and on, aided by a wearer detection feature that pauses playback when you take them off, and an automatic feature that turns them off when they’ve been inactive for 15 minutes, reactivated by another touch.
When you are running low on juice, you can also listen wired, either with the included 2.5mm-to-3.5mm audio cable or with a USB-C-to-USB-C cable (not included, but you get a flight adapter and a USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable in the sleek hard-shell case). The Momentum 4 Wireless are equipped with Bluetooth 5.2, which means they can connect to multiple Bluetooth devices at once and switch between them more easily – there’s a nice connection management tab in the app to see your devices. There’s also support for apt X and aptX Adaptive, one of the latest and greatest Bluetooth codecs around.
