Sennheiser is one of our favorite brands in sound here at the editorial office. We have been driving their headphones in a number of different models for almost 20 years and the German sound engineers rarely disappoint us. In 2018, they came with their first True Wireless handset in the Momentum series, which suffered from a slightly short battery life and such a fit. Now they are here with the sequels Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, which we hope will improve most from the first attempt in the increasingly tight TWS market. These little beauties have been polarizing: critics have handed out everything from top marks to downright lukewarm shrugs. One of the water parts has, among other things, been the base. We return to how it sounds below (and how you can boost it).
Aesthetically, the Momentum TWS 2 is by far one of the market’s most stylish True Wireless headphones in strong competition with the Technics EAH-AZ70, which, however, is more luxurious in terms of material selection. The headphones are, funny enough, also very close to each other in price. The quality of the construction is excellent, despite the focus on plastic here, with crisp and clear sound as expected for the price. The fit? Of course very individually depending on your ear shape, but like EAH-AZ70, the “body” in the coil is slightly full, but not as heavy thanks to the plastic and here, as usual, to “screw them in” the ears properly with the largest possible silicone plop to properly attach to your ear canal.
But what about the base?
The sound of clarity
We have deliberately waited to finally review the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 as we thought the connection and the app at the beginning of the test period felt shaky and assumed it could be improved with future updates and firmware. And we were partly right – it’s more stable now, but not all bugs are erased. The headphones have improved in their connection to, for example, smartphones and especially the app’s software has been improved; above all, the equalizer is much more useful. On the other hand, the headphones behave strangely in the auto-sense mode (which is turned on by default) where they should feel if you take out one of the shells and pause the music automatically. This works – just like in Momentum Wireless 3 (over-ear) – not very well in practice. When it works the worst, the headphones disconnect without disappearing from, for example, Spotify as a source, so you just do not get any sound when you try to start everything again. Then both shells must be lowered into the box and the program restarted. Not the whole world, but leave the function off so you avoid all that meck (it is excellent to pause manually if you need to hear or talk to someone). From time to time, the connection between the Senneheiser app and the headphones is also lost, which means that you have to remove them from the Bluetooth list and pair them again with the device. No direct dealbreakers, but a little annoying on a pair of premium headphones.
If we start playing through the reference list with songs, two things quickly become very clear:
1) Sennheiser Momentum TWS 2 plays with a focus on purity. 2) The base is not very impressive, at least not in neutral EQ mode. We assume this is partly due to the construction and fit of the headphones, but also to the fact that Sennheiser consciously seems to have chosen not to emphasize the deep base (perhaps for a more “correct” representation?). That idea has its merits and works great in a pair of sturdy over-ear headphones like the Audio-Technica M50XBT. Here, however, the membranes become too small and small and the bass is therefore absent to such an extent that it affects the listening experience in certain music genres. On the other hand, the EQ is now so skilled that it can compensate for a lot of bass and provide a level of foundation that should make most people happy.
Just take the dark notes on the guitar in Carolina Wallin Perez’s acoustic Kent cover Pearls. Here is the warm beautiful song in the middle register mixed with vibrating and pure bass reproduction in the lower. Impressive for the format. If we stick to the calm in acoustic or cinematic music, such as Steve Jablonsky ‘s My name is Lincoln (from the Michael Bay film The Island), Momentum TWS 2 delivers basically perfectly. It is when the complexity of the songs and the speed of the base is turned up, as in Ludacris Get Back that Momentum TWS 2 does not really keep up. The deepest bass is missing and parts of the bass frequencies muddy together a bit, as the response is not quite as fast as you would want for this genre of music (try The Knife ‘s Silent Shout). However, you should not judge all hip hop from it, Kanye West ‘s classic 808s and Heartbreak sounds very good in both general rendition and bass.
Podcasts sound warm and comfortable, so do audiobooks – depending on the voices that read, you get a round and rooted feeling at its best.
The big plus is that the headphones support aptX (if your devices do too), which gives a better sound that also adds a little less. Bluetooth version 5.1 and IPX4 allow you to walk away from the source and still keep the connection to it and the latter protects against splashes (light rain, type).
There is ANC (active noise reduction) in the headphones, which is a bit cumbersome to press (three presses at the right rate) but which can be activated more easily from the app. It works well and easily dampens noisy environments, such as public transport, but do not expect the effect you get from the very best, over-ear headphones out there today. Also on this model you lower and raise with long presses on the different shells and this system may not be possible to do differently, but given the number of misprints that give unwanted effects, this felt easier to do directly on the phone or via the voice assistant (“Siri , turn it down”…).
The battery life is praised, we got about seven hours on a full charge of the shells and the case (which is slightly larger than most, roughly in pairs with Technics) gives another 21 hours on full charge. To say that you are doing well for a whole day is an understatement in this case.
Summary Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2
Taken as a whole, Sennheiser’s second investment in TWS headphones is a success, which has slowly matured while we evaluated them with good updates of both firmware and software (but there is room for even more here). The sound is crystal clear and the base can be turned with the right EQ settings, even if the deepest bass is missing no matter how much you fix and trick. They are stylish, have good battery life, are acceptable in weight and size and also offer some noise reduction and aptX (for you who have Android or run from a computer, iPhone does not support such innovations to audio format). It is difficult to find major errors on the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2, the minus would probably be the price tag (which is still not unreasonably high nowadays) and that the software could be better, here are some annoying small bugs left as we describe above.
But as a whole, these are a pair of very, very good true wireless headphones for you who prioritize sound quality and design and are not afraid to open your wallet a little further.