Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 Headphones Review

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 bear a lot of resemblance to the previous generation Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3, sharing similar earbuds and almost identical cases. The buds are chunky and squarish, with rounded edges and optional silicone stabilizers. They look premium, with a semi-matte metallic finish, a shiny logo on each touchpad, and either black or white interior-facing plastic. Your color choices are 'Black Copper,' 'Black Graphite,' and 'White Silver.'

These buds feel decently comfortable. They're lightweight, and you've got a choice of four ear tips and the option to wear one of the three pairs of included stabilizers to help you dial in the fit. Still, if you don't like a deep in-ear fit or if you have small ears, they can feel invasive and bulky with their weight distributed unevenly. Because their touch controls are located directly outside your ear canal, rather than on the stems like the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd generation) Truly Wireless, you may find that using the touch controls causes discomfort.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4's controls are good. The capacitive touchpad registers commands predictably. However, due to their shape and large touch surface area, you can accidentally trigger a command when adjusting the earbuds, which is annoying. Otherwise, they emit clear tones for each command you enter, except if you max out the volume (which we don't recommend for your health), and then the sound prompts get drowned out by the audio playback.

Otherwise, you can reassign most of the controls in their companion app, like transparency mode (which pipes in the external sounds of your environment) and noise cancellation. Your reconfigurable gestures are single, double, and triple taps, as well as press-and-hold commands, and the commands don't have to be the same for both earbuds. The only two options you'd have to manually add are locking and unlocking the touchpad or assigning no control to any given touch command. Every other remappable command is included in the default controls seen below, and you can change any of them except for the factory call controls.

Left earbud:

• Single tap: Enable transparency mode, accept incoming calls, or mute the current call.
• Double tap: Skip to the previous track, reject incoming calls, or end the current call.
• Triple tap: Turn ANC on/off.
• Press and hold: Decrease the volume.

Right earbud:

• Single tap: Play/pause audio, accept incoming calls, or mute the current call.
• Double tap: Skip to the next track, reject incoming calls, or end the current call.
• Triple tap: Activate voice assistant.
• Press and hold: Increase the volume.

Both earbuds:

• Press and hold both simultaneously: Enter Bluetooth pairing mode.

Like most true wireless buds, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 earbuds are very portable. You can easily stash them in a pocket, and they're about the same size as the previous generation.

The charging case for the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 is great and is virtually identical to the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3. It's shaped like a rectangle with rounded edges. The plastic case is covered in a tweed-like fabric, which varies depending on the colorway you choose. Its magnetic lid feels reliable, and you can charge it via the included USB-C port on the front or with a wireless charging pad. A small LED indicates the case or earbuds' battery and charging status.

Like the previous generation, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4's build quality is impressive. The buds feel lightweight and premium, with nice finishing and tight seams. They have an IP54 rating against water splashes and dust for the buds, which is an upgrade over the previous generation's IPX4 rating against water only. You get four ear tips, three sets of stabilizing wings made of good-quality silicone, and replaceable filters to cover the drivers. Their charging case is a bit more stout and made of denser feeling plastic than the midrange Sony WF-C700N Truly Wireless. It's possible that if you treat the case carelessly, the tweed can wear down, but it won't impact the effectiveness of the case.

Their stability is great. Through a combination of a good fit achieved through the right ear tip size and wings, these headphones stay put slightly better than the last generation and are lighter and more stable. You can easily exercise with these without worrying that they'll dislodge.

• Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 earbuds
• 4x pairs of ear tips
• 3x sets of stability fins
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 sound warm and neutral by default. Their low to mid-bass is slightly restrained when delivering rumble to sub-bass synths. Due to the laid-back low and mid-bass and recessed treble, the boom of kick drums in the high-bass is punchy but not rumbly, and the lead instruments come across with focus in the balanced mid range. This yields clear guitars, keyboards, and bass guitars. Vocals come through as natural but not very bright. By default, the sibilants (like S and T sounds) of vocals and cymbals sound somewhat veiled and inconsistent.

In any case, If you like the warm sound the previous Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 provide, then you'll like the similarly tuned 4th-gen. This tuning is a pretty easy one to finesse using their app's EQ—whether you listen to EDM or folk music—because of how conservative and smooth it is by default.

Their frequency response consistency is excellent. Using the correct fitting ear tip and stabilizer wing allows the earbuds to deliver predictable bass, mid, and treble. We had trouble getting the bud to fit our rig's right ear, so our results from the right ear have a little more variation than the left, but that's not because the right earbud is less consistent. This isn't something that you will experience in real life, though.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 have remarkable bass accuracy. It supplies kick drums and bass instruments with a consistent amount of boom and thump. It's not going to give you that deep thump in tracks like Praia Do Norte (Club Edit) by Molecule, but you can EQ that to taste.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4's mid accuracy is fantastic. As a result, lead instruments and vocals sound true to their audio mix. Only a slight dip midway through the mids causes leads and vocals to sit slightly down in the mix, but the bass and treble responses help to make this very subtle.

Their treble accuracy is decent. The low to mid-treble is underemphasized, pushing harmonic detail and clarity of vocals and cymbals down in the mix, and warming them up. The rest of the treble is somewhat uneven, with a slight emphasis on sibilants (like S and T sounds), although the response isn't bright and airy.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 True Wireless' peaks and dips performance is excellent, indicating they control their sound profile well. Through most of the bass, they're accurate, with a wide but shallow peak in the high-bass to low-mid, yielding a good amount of thump and a bit of added boom. The minor dip, followed by a larger peak in the mid range and where the mids transition into the low-treble, nudges lead instruments down slightly while adding more intensity. The largest dips and peaks are in the treble range, where the dips dull and darken the harmonics of vocals and cymbals, while the peak adds sharpness.

Their imaging performance is good. This indicates the headphones have good ergonomics and aligns with the results of other headphones we've tested by the manufacturer, suggesting tight quality control. The headphones' group delay yields tight bass and transparent treble. There's a small bump in the mid and high-mid's phase response, but it isn't audible with real-world audio playback. The amplitude exhibits a bit of mismatch between the left and right drivers in the mids, which slightly shifts the stereo image between both drivers, but it's not very obvious unless you're listening for it. Imaging can vary between units, so our results are only valid for our unit.

The earbuds' passive soundstage performance is bad. That's expected with closed-back, in-ear fitting headphones because they bypass your outer ear, which ordinarily helps you to process direction and distance. As a result, your audio sounds like it's coming from inside your head instead of within the room around you, and it's not open or immersive.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4's weighted harmonic distortion performance is satisfactory. Like the previous Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3, these have distortion present in the low-treble that peaks between the low and mid-treble regions. It's not obvious in real-life content.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4's full range noise isolation performance is excellent. The earbuds use adaptive noise cancelling, which is adjustable in the app, with a wind reduction mode as well. They filter low rumbling engine noise, but not as well as they reduce mid range ambient sounds like traffic and speech. They also isolate bright and piercing sounds like shrieking subway brakes and dish clatter well.

During testing, the earbuds would turn off while we tried to get a good seal in our testing rig's head. We've alerted the rig's manufacturer, and it's a known issue, but most importantly, it doesn't impact your actual experience of the earbuds and their noise cancelling. In other words, they don't turn off when you, a human, wear them. We could measure noise isolation during testing using a single earbud. However, because both earbuds need to be operational and fitted into the testing rig, the following tests don't have recordings: Noise Isolation - Common Scenarios, Noise Isolation - Voice Handling, and ANC Wind Handling.

They do an excellent job of handling the noise of everyday life situations. Their combined adaptive noise cancelling and isolation reduces the sounds of a busy street, the ambient din inside of an airplane cabin, and the usual noise inside an office effectively.

Unfortunately, due to how these buds interact with our test rig, we couldn't capture audio recordings. There's more on this in Noise Isolation - Full Range. Fortunately, this doesn't affect their performance in the real world.

Unfortunately, due to how these buds interact with our test rig, we couldn't capture audio recordings. There's more on this in Noise Isolation - Full Range. This doesn't affect the ANC performance in real-life circumstances.

Depending on your needs, you may want to block out all sounds—including voices—or hear them clearly while reducing other external sounds. If you're in the former camp, the ANC significantly reduces (but doesn't completely block) how loud people's voices sound. However, if you want to follow a conversation, speech is still understandable but more difficult to hear if audio is playing simultaneously.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 have a mode in their companion app to reduce noise that results when exterior ANC mics interact with the wind hitting the capsules. Their ANC handling with the mode turned on produces similar results at all angles. You'll still hear a bit of environmental noise, but it's quieter than without noise cancelling enabled. Check out this comparison of their wind handling with ANC on, ANC with wind reduction mode, and ANC off. Leaving the wind reduction mode on when you're not in a windy environment can impact their ANC performance.

Unfortunately, due to the interaction of the buds with our testing rig, we couldn't capture audio recordings. There's more on this in Noise Isolation - Full Range. However, this doesn't impact the experience of using the earbuds in real life.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 True Wireless have incredible leakage performance. Due to the deep in-ear fit, they block your ear canal and successfully tamp down on audio escaping. What little escapes is very quiet even if you listen to music at high volumes, so you won't disturb folks nearby.

Their mic's recording quality is good. The earbuds use beamforming microphones, which aren't fully compatible with our testing rig, but even so, they sound good. Captured speech is intelligible and bright, if lacking body, and sounding a touch too sibilant and sharp. The caller on the other end will certainly understand you.

The mic's noise handling performance is mediocre. With consistent background noise, their mics struggle to fully separate your voice from the unwanted noise and cut some of the higher frequencies of your voice as a result. You'll still be intelligible to the caller, but you won't sound completely natural. The mics struggle more with handling sudden and loud noises and can completely cut out portions of your speech altogether.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4's battery performance is good. The manufacturer advertises their total battery life, including the charging case, to last 30 hours with volume at 50% and ANC off. Our standard testing yielded just under seven and a half hours of continuous battery life with ANC enabled and set to max, so they'll get close to that 30-hour figure, including the case with their three extra charges. The case recharges in just under an hour, which is quick, and you can eke out an hour of playback with eight minutes of fast charging. You can charge the case via its USB-C port or with a wireless charging pad.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 use the Sennheiser Smart Control app, and it's great. You can look at the app here. You get adjustable ANC modes, including a wind mode. For folks who want to stay aware but also like to control the ratio of how loud your music is in relation to how loud the transparency mode is, you can adjust that, too. There's a five-band equalizer with presets and custom modes to tune their sound profile. You can control the Bluetooth codec selection and multi-device pairing. Their controls are remappable, and you can toggle on the auto-accept feature for incoming calls or lock the touch controls altogether. The earbuds' auto-off timer is adjustable in the app as well. Sound Zones requires you to make an account and allow location tracking permissions, and when enabled, you can create preset listening settings for various locations. This allows you to seamlessly move from your office, where you might have ANC maxed out, to wind mode or transparency mode when you step outside without doing anything besides setting it up in advance.

These are Bluetooth-only, so you can't use them wired. They include a USB-A to USB-C charging cable for their case.

The Bluetooth connectivity of the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 is decent. They have multi-device pairing with up to two devices, which is controllable through their app. You can use aptX Adaptive (Low Latency) to reduce the lag between audio and video media. Depending on your device, connection, and app, you'll still probably notice a bit of lag, but it's not distracting. While aptX Adaptive (High Quality) and aptX HD support higher resolution audio, they also cause more latency, but it's fine for music and podcasts. There's no LDAC support, as with the Technics EAH-AZ80 True Wireless, though.

One significant difference is that, unlike the previous generation, they support Auracast. While support for the Bluetooth feature is rare, and we don't currently test it, it's meant to allow localized Bluetooth audio broadcasts without requiring confirmation for your headphones to connect to the device streaming the audio. One example of Auracast's utility is for transmitting airport announcements, so passengers can listen to any updates without needing to remove their earbuds. The feature hasn't been widely adopted, but that doesn't mean it won't be helpful down the line.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 True Wireless can connect via Bluetooth to PCs with Bluetooth connectivity for full audio and microphone support.

Their charging case holds an extra three battery charges. You can charge it using the USB-C port or with a wireless charging pad.