If you live for sound, the Momentum Wireless headphones may be for you.
I love music. There is rarely a time that you won’t catch me listening to (or even humming) a track of music while I work or play. Because of the increasingly mobile world we live in, I’ve taken to using Bluetooth/Wireless headphones while I do most tasks. I’m always looking for good specimens from that category of technology and today, I’m excited to review the Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear Wireless Headphones (HD-1). They are a gorgeous, well-designed product and I’ve really loved using them.
So what makes the Sennheiser headphones stand out in a sea of other headphones? In short, they produce the most amazing sound from a headphone I’ve ever heard. Here are the main features of the Momentum Wireless.
- Available in Black or Ivory
- Impedance: Passive 28 Ω, Active 480 Ω
- Frequency Response: 16 Hz – 22000 Hz
- Bluetooth 4.0 + EDR
- Supports A2DP + AVRCP + HSP + HFP
- Charging time ~ 3 hours
- Operating time ~ 22 hours
- Built with stainless steel and Alcantara
The headphones arrived in a fairly typical Sennheiser branded box. The basic specs are included on the outside fo the box along with a list of what’s included — Momentum On-Ear Wireless headphones, 1.4m audio cable/3.5mm low-profile angled plug, USB charging cable, in-flight adapter, manuals, and a carrying case. When you first open the box, you are met with a slick looking, fabric carrying case with the Sennheiser brandmark embossed on the outside. There is leather trim on the case that has classy, visible stitching on the seam. When you pull the case out, you will find the package of paperwork lodged neatly below.
The quick start guide is very visual — it has images for every step of the setup process. The guide folds out like a small poster — I’d honestly rather have a booklet as they can be a little easier to follow. Inside the carrying case are the cables and in-flight adapter, along with the headphones which are neatly tucked away in a pouch. The headphones themselves are quite a bit smaller than I imagined. They are ‘on-ear’ style which means they are meant to sit on top of your ear and not cover the entire ear, but I was still a bit surprised at how small they appear to be.
They ship with a set of black foam in each ear piece. This is done to help the ear pieces maintain their shape. Aside from the headphones being wireless, they have a very retro look and feel. The headband is covered with soft felt-like leather as are the coverings of the ear pieces. The headphones are foldable and ship in a folded state (that’s how they fit into the carrying case). After you unfold them and adjust the height of the ear pieces you are ready to start your listening experience.
Pairing the Momentum headphones is pretty standard. You press/hold the power button for a few seconds and the headphones automatically enter the pairing state. A lovely female British voice says, “Pairing,” to let you know that they are in the proper start up mode. I have to stop for a moment and say that my listening experience actually started with that British voice in my ear. Her voice was so crisp and clear that it was almost as if someone was standing next to me saying, “Pairing,” in that soft, proper tone. This could not truly prepare me for what I was about to hear — EVERYTHING.
Listening to music on the Momentum On-Ear Wireless headphones is truly and HD listening experience. You can hear every subtle nuance, every hard hitting bass beat, every chilling vocal just like it’s happening live. I typically listen to music through Pandora, not only because it is it a streaming music service, but it is also a wide variety of music selections at your fingertips. I have everything programmed from No Diggity to Samson et Dalila as my stations. The first song that came on was Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin (classical/instrumental). This track has a very wide range of highs and lows. You can hear all the subtle nuances that an orchestral track can have in this one piece of music. That’s what makes it so magical. Listening to it on the Momentum headphones made it sound like the first time. There were gorgeous tones and reverberations that I heard like never before. I almost felt as though my keys on my keyboard were dancing along with the tones from the piano.
The audio from movies and TV shows was also crisp and had a great variety of depth. Again, I use a streaming service (Netflix) to watch most of my shows. While connected to the Momentum Wireless headphones, I watched Family Guy and Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Family Guy is typically pretty tame as far as sound mixing goes. It features dialogue and music tracks, but not a lot of depth with sound effects. That said, it was very easy to hear the characters speaking and everything seemed more even than usual. With POTC, it was nominated for Academy Awards for both Sound Editing and Sound Design. It’s a very deep soundtrack with lots of dialogue, sound effects, and very heavy, bass-filled music. Watching POTC with the Momentum headphones was a lot like being in the theater again — except better. You can hear every little sound and experience every piece of dialogue with absolute clarity.
The most remarkable thing about the Momentum Wireless headphones is how they handle bass. Many headphones I’ve tried out don’t get that much bass unassisted. What I mean by that is they usually have to have an app that pushes bass to them or a bass boost button on the headset. The Momentum headphones just have nice, natural bass. It sounds like it should and it’s punchy. I’ve honestly never experience bass like this before in a headphone.
There are a couple of things I’m not a huge fan of with the Momentum headphones. First, I like the controls, but I don’t like the controls. They are located on the right ear cup of the headphones. I like them because they are tactile and not touch controls. This makes it easier to find what you need just by reaching your fingers up to the ear piece. I don’t like them because they are a little touchy. On more than one occasion I pressed the volume switch to pause a track and the song skipped instead. The other function I would like to see added to these headphones is the auto play/pause feature that many wireless headphones have now. How that works is that there is a sensor in the headband and when you remove them from your head, the headphones automatically pause what you are listening to and then they start the track back up when you place them back on your head. I find this to be a HUGE convenience and I would have loved it if Sennheiser had incorporated it with the Momentum Wireless.
I’m totally willing to overlook the dislikes that I have because there is so much going right with these headphones. They produce an awesome sound and are comfortable to wear. The Momentum Wireless headphones are very deserving of the premium headphone label.
BUY FROM AMAZON
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