Sennheiser Momentum 4: Superb noise-cancelling and sound — at a price

Sennheiser has been busy. The company’s Momentum 4 headphones — the fourth generation, as the name suggests — come with an all-new design and some extra technology that make them an excellent competitor in the wireless headphone market.

But they are a little on the expensive side, which in the current era of caution and economic uncertainty may be a deal-breaker for savvy shoppers.

How expensive? Well, they’re not quite as pricey as the Apple AirPods Max, but they’re not a budget buy either. Nor would you expect them to be. You do get a lot for your hard-earned cash, though, especially if your audio standards are more demanding.

They hit the right notes on several fronts. First, they’re very comfortable to wear. Even some of the better designed headphones can pinch a bit, leaving you with a bit of a headache after a while. There is a decent amount of padding on the Momentum 4, both around the band where it rests against your head and in the ear cups, with one of the aesthetic changes meaning that Sennheiser has ditched the metal sliders from the Momentum 4. Those who liked that retro vibe on the previous Momentum models will be disappointed by the change, but it makes the headphones fit a lot better, and probably more suitable for a wider range of head types.

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That padding around the ear cups can also come in handy for sealing out background noise, before the very effective noise cancellation technology gets involved. There is a good fit against the ear — the right amount of pressure and padding — and there are no obvious pressure points that get uncomfortable.

The right ear cup has some touch gestures to control music and volume, or to increase the noise-cancelling or ambient noise. The gestures feel more intuitive than others that have gone before, especially the pinch control for the active noise cancelling (ANC).

The other area it excels in is battery life. For too long now I’ve been accustomed to five- and six-hour battery life for ANC-enabled ear buds, which is fine for day-to-day use but not so much for longer days of travelling. The Momentum 4 will last for up to 60 hours with ANC turned on.

It charges over USB C, which is handy as you are bound to have a few cables lying around. And you can also use that wired connection to play audio and charge at the same time, if you connect it up to your computer, for example. It’s a convenient feature and means you don’t have to have access to the 2.5mm/3.5mm jack cable to connect it to your computer.

It goes without saying that the sound quality is top tier. Sennheiser has included support for a range of codecs, including SBC, AAC, aptX and aptX adaptive, so all your bases should be covered. It was difficult to find a genre that the Momentum 4 didn’t handle with ease. Bass sounded rich and deep, music was detailed and vocal tracks were clear. Overall, there was little to complain about.

The ANC does a decent amount of lifting here too. It tunes out the background noise quite effectively, even in environments with a lot of people or on a heavily trafficked road. It won’t cut absolutely everything out, but the ANC is above average here. Because it’s adaptive, if you are planning a return to the office soon, this could be a useful tool for the commute and for blocking out busy office chatter.

The adaptive noise cancelling will automatically turn up and down, depending on the environment you’re in. But by using the Smart Control app, you can also create your own “sound zones”, such as the gym or the office, where customised sound settings can be applied automatically as you enter or leave. You’ll need to sign up to a Sennheiser account for that particular feature, or to be able to create a library of customised equaliser presets across all your devices. But the app can also be used to control different connections, or make voice calls more natural through “side tone”.

If you plan on using the Momentum 4 for hands-free calls, there is a decent microphone built in, and sound at both ends of the call was clear.

Overall, the Momentum 4 is a worthy competitor to the likes of Sony and Apple in the noise-cancelling headphone stakes.

The good

Very comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and the battery life is excellent. The touch controls are more intuitive than some, particularly the pinch gesture for controlling the level of active noise cancelling. You can delegate full control to the adaptive system, or set up your own custom sound zones.

The not so good

The design is much more in line with the standard over-ear headphone, losing some of what set the previous Momentum headphones apart. They don’t fold as well as my Sony headphones, but they come with their own case, so packing them away for travel isn’t difficult.

The rest

The headphones support a number of different codecs and have options for connecting to your audio, both wireless and wired.

The verdict

As you’d expect from Sennheiser, the Momentum 4 sound great even if the design has become a little run-of-the-mill.