2020 could be considered the rise of truly wireless earbuds. They came in different shapes, different sizes and different price range down to very affordable pairs to the super premium buds like the one Sennheiser offers and what am going to review here. The Momentum 2 is the followup to the original Momentum earbuds launched in 2018. The new gen buds promises to rectify some of the flaws of the original, but are the promises delivered? let’s find out in this Sennheiser Momentum 2 review.
What you get out of the box?
- Charging Case
- MTW2 Earbuds
- Silicone Ear Adapter Sets (In Size XS, S, M, L)
- USB-A to USB-C Charging Cable
How is the Momentum 2 Design and Fit?
Thankfully, the Moment 2 retains the very characteristic one of a kind grey fabric-wrapped exterior charging case. It stands out in the crowded TWS segment filled with plastic cases. It gives a good texture and a premium look to the device at first look. There is a USB Type-C port for charging at the back, flanked by a button and indicator light that shows you the charge status. Green is there is good amount of charge and red to remind you to charge. Nothing in-between.
The case has a magnetic lid and the earphones fit in magnetically and securely. The magnet is strong enough to keep the lid intact and the earbuds in position.
Coming to the earbuds design, again the familiar design flows into here but the Momentum 2 buds are slightly smaller than the original buds, which is a good thing. It is made of plastic but of good quality. Each buds weigh 6gm which is not only lighter than the previous but also deceiving to its size. I didn’t expect it to be this lighter when I looked at it first. The Sennheiser logo is engraved on each buds on a metal sheet with concentric circles in the front. I have tested more than a dozen earbuds since the beginning of this year and by no means this is the compact buds out there. I had seen quiet smaller tiny buds and also bigger buds that Sony dished out. The buds stick a bit out making it prominently seen. The fit is secure, again it sees a marginal improvement here and also offers slightly better passive noise cancellation.
Controls and Features of Momentum 2
Each buds come with indicator lights and proximity sensors on the inside of each one. They offer wear detection so while listening if you take out one buds out of ear, the music pauses and continues once you fit them back to the ear. It comes handy in many situations. Of course you can touch the controls and play/pause. Talking about controls, it has a touch sensor on the flat surface on the front. You can use gesture controls to navigate through.
By default the left side has play back controls play/pause and to accept/reject calls and the right side gets you into noise cancellation, transparent hearing mode and voice assistant. But all this can be customized via the app. If you are using an iPhone or Android phone, you can download the Sennheiser Smart control app. Both the buds can be individually customized for play/pause, answer / reject calls, next or previous track, volume up or down, voice assistant / transparent hearing or ANC. You can assign single tap, double tap or triple tap functionality.
Sound Quality of Momentum 2
The proof of the pudding is in the eating or in this case the listening. There are three parts to it – the general sound profile of the buds, the noise cancellation feature and the call quality.
On the technical front, The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 earphones is equipped with custom 7mm dynamic drivers, a frequency response range of 5-21,000Hz, and a single microphone in each earphone for active noise cancellation. It makes use of Bluetooth 5.1 for connectivity and supports SBC, AAC, and Qualcomm aptX Bluetooth codecs.
Let’s begin with the sound profile of the buds. The hallmark of the original Momentum was it’s distinctive clean audio profile. There is a good clarity on what you hear giving justice to individual notes. There is no artificial boosting of bass and it sticks close to the original the way music was composed. It handles well even complex music and the sound staging is good too. Even cranking the volume doesn’t hurt the ears though I would not suggest you to keep the volume high and damage your ears on a longer run regardless of whatever earphones you use. The vocals are clearer too.
I attend quiet a few calls with my earphones at work and no one complained while I was talking with these buds. I could hear them clearer too.
Then there is the new addition of noise cancellation to the buds which was not in the original. Along with that it also offers transparency hearing. Honestly it would have been tested better if life was normal and I was flying and using this buds to keep off the low humming noise of the flight. I find the noise cancellation works better for such scenarios. While I always believe with my experience, the TWS are yet to reach the same level of noise cancellation the canned headphones offer, the Momentum 2 still manages to limit the low rumbles. It does cancel out the ambient muffles. And the sound quality doesn’t take a noticeable hit too while the noise cancellation works. Then there is also this transparent hearing mode that allows ambient sound in so you can hear better while having them.
The app also has a very distinct equalizer with wave form to change how you want the music to be. You can add presets of your individual wave signature.
Battery life and connectivity of Momentum 2
One main grouse we had with the original Momentum was its poor battery life, with the Momentum 2 that part has been fixed. Sennheiser promises 7 hours of music playback per charge on the earphones with 28 hours in total on the charging case. It takes 1.5 hours for full charge of the case and a 10 min charge of the earbuds can give you 1.5 hours music playback.
In my usage, I got around 6 hours of use per charge which was pretty good. Do note the battery life takes a dip with noise cancellation on and depending on the volume levels you listen to music. With three additional charging cycle on the case, the battery life is pretty sorted on the new Momentum.
Verdict
Pros: What works for Momentum 2
- Excellent Sound profile
- Active Noise cancellation
- Battery life
- Transparency mode
- Premium finish on the charging case
Cons: What dampens Momentum 2
- Expensive
- No wireless charging
