Wireless Gains Momentum in new Sennheiser Headphones
Wrap your dome in some luxurious leather
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Momentum headphones from Sennheiser have gone wireless at 2015 International CES. The newest Momentum version is a no-tether, no-tangle pair of luxury cans.
Momentum Wireless headphones glide when you adjust the size
They use Bluetooth 4.0, with a range of about 30 ft. from the source according to Sennheiser reps. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us walk out of their CES booth with the expensive headphones, so we'll have to take them at their word.
We can confirm the Momentum Wireless headphones are incredibly comfortable. They felt lightweight and secure, and the adjustable size slider on the side moved smoothly into a snug fit. The padding of the circumaural earpiece was memory foam wrapped in luxurious brown leather (the same leather used in Bentley car seats) that felt soft and luxurious, even over glasses. Sennheiser also offers another Momentum model with supra-aural ear coupling for a different kind of fit.
The stainless steel head strap is also wrapped in leather for both a comfortable feel and stylish appearance, plus they collapse down for some portability. The ear pieces fold into a more compact crescent shape to save some space, but there’s no denying these are still sizable headphones that'll need to be carried in a case or bag.
Momentum Wireless headphones fold into more compact shape for portability
Portability, comfort, and style are all well and good, but how do they sound? Pretty good, we suppose. They sound rich and full for easy listening, but we expect the wireless aspect will be problematic for hardcore audiophiles. Bluetooth lacks the throughput for high resolution audio, not to mention issues with connectivity and distance.
The Momentum Wireless headphones also feature Noisegard hybrid active noise cancellation. Maybe it was just the chaos and volume of the show floor, but the only way I could completely block out the voices around me was to crank the volume up to the max. These headphones might be able to cancel out sound on an airplane with just the ambient hum of jet engines, but until we test them in our labs, we won’t know exactly how the sound quality and noise cancellation features stack up.
Profile view of new Momentum Wireless headphones
These headphones aimed at professionals, like audio engineers, who spend all day between the speakers, so if you only need headphones for your bus ride to work, there are cheaper and probably better alternatives to suit your needs. But if an all-day comfortable fit, luxurious style, and wire-free experience is worth $499 to you, definitely explore what Sennheiser Momentum Wireless has to offer. Just remember to heed our warnings about Bluetooth.