Sennheiser rarely surprises. Although aesthetically, their headphones look pretty simple, the sound signature is always memorably Sennheiser with its warm bass and soft and natural sounding profile. So, here’s the Accentum, which is a budget friendly alternative to the Momentum 4. Does it come anywhere close to the performance to the Brand’s flagship model? And what can you expect in terms of design and functionality?

What’s in the Box?

• Accentum Headphones
• USB-C charging cable
• User guide and Sennheiser literature

Look and Feel

As is usual for Sennheiser, the Accentum offers a quality, yet no frills design. Even the packaging is minimal. Although perhaps not as solidly built as the Momentum 4, the yoke feels pretty well made. But there are a couple of elements that visibly separate the Accentum from the Momentum, such as the pleather ear pads and smaller ear cup size. The clamping force is also notably firm, but I soon forgot about it after wearing the headphones for a while. Still, if you have a particularly large head, the Accentum might be a tight fit.

Design and Functionality

Bluetooth

The Accentum is Bluetooth 5.2 compliant, and I experienced no drop outs, even in midtown Manhattan. Pairing was also quick and uneventful. Finally, in terms of hi-res codecs, the Accentum supports aptX and aptX HD.

Call Clarity

No problems here. Although there was a slight thickness to the caller’s voice, the level clarity was more than sufficient for an extended conversation. 

Battery Life

The 50 hours of battery life is perhaps the most impressive aspect of this headphone, almost rivaling the Momentum 4, which offers 60 hours.

Active Noise Cancellation

The ANC comes on automatically, but also allows you to switch to transparency mode through the companion app, which opens up the sound of the surrounding environment. The ANC effectiveness was decent, and did a good job of minimizing low-pitched sounds and ambient noise. But don’t expect complete silence, as not even the most expensive ANC headphones can achieve total noise cancellation. 

Controls

Sennheiser has strayed away from fancy touch controls for this model. Instead, you’ll find some ol’ fashioned buttons that navigate the usual controls, including play/pause, track skipping, volume control and call answering.

Extra Features

The Accentum has an accompanying app that allows you to switch between ANC and transparency mode. It also comes with a customizable equalizer. In addition, you can set Sound Zones, so that the headphones automatically adjust sound settings depending on your location.

Sound Impressions

Soundstage

There’s some good height to the stage, though the sense of depth is a little less obvious. While the soundscape might not sound thoroughly multidimensional, there’s a good deal of precision with respect to instrument placement along the stereo and vertical fields. So, you will hear some spacial color, even if it’s not the most vibrant. And for a wireless headphone in this price range, a mild sense of dimension is about what you’d expect.

Low-End

The sub-bass frequencies deliver a visceral response, vibrating the jaw on EDM and hip-hop tracks. As the bass creeps up the frequency range, it gets slightly less prominent, taking a more moderate presence within the mix. Still, the low-end often feel substantial. While acoustic instruments sound minimally colored, there’s still ample warmth here. At the same time, the bass also always stays in its lane, never bleeding into the higher frequencies or outshining the mids. So, the low-end is perfect for those who don’t reach bass-head status but still enjoy a generous bass response.

Mids

Sennheiser is known for presenting a gentle and natural sound signature, and such is the case here. There’s a softness to the resolve that makes for a really easy listening experience. You’ll hear some decent body in the mids too, although the upper-midrange takes slight precedence, giving a bit of kick to percussion. But if you like fleshy, all encompassing profile, you’ll certainly get some of that with the Accentum. Acoustic instruments especially shine in this range, presenting a life-like delivery that’s unsaturated or overly refined. The Accentum is also pretty clean in the mids, showing great definition within singular instruments like guitars, even in the lower midrange frequencies.

Highs

The high frequencies are quite smooth and give a velvety quality to strings and other soprano elements. You might hear a touch of sparkle in this range, though the treble is not incredibly extended, and it peaks more at a level of crispness. Classical music fans might find the highs are slightly lacking in transparency, but the slightly polished feel is welcome to sensitive ears, especially if you tend to listen for extended periods.

Final Verdict

The Sennheiser Accentum performs as well as expected, even if it's perhaps 20 bucks overpriced. You’ll hear some of the qualities that are present in the Momentum 4, such as the rich low-end and natural and doughy sounding presentation. But you’ll get a little less resolution, especially in the high frequencies. Still, there’s little to dislike about this crowd-pleasing sound signature. And when you combine the quality sound performance with a generous 50 hour battery life and customizable equalizer, the Accentum turns out to be a worthy purchase. For those in need of a simple, yet reliable sounding set of cans for their commute, its hard to find much fault in this solid model.

You can buy the Sennheiser Accentum at Audio 46.