Sennheiser has made a lot of premium headphones out there that look and sound great, but they’ve never made a headphone that was meant to plug into your mobile device and listen to music on the go. Considering the state of the headphone market, the Momentum series is Sennheiser’s answer to high end portable fashion headphones, the kind made famous by Beats by Dre.

Design/Build Quality

The Momentum features a very lightweight and minimalist design and what you end up with is a very sleek and portable headphone. Despite its light weight, the build quality is quite good as materials such as genuine leather and stainless steel are used for construction. The headphone comes in three colorways including black, brown, and a more recent one, ivory. It definitely has a classy look and feel to it.

Comfort/Noise Isolation

The headphones are designed for an over-ear fit, so noise isolation is quite good, without feeling like you can get hit by a beeping car without hearing it. That along with the genuine leather for the earpads make for a very comrfortable headphone. The headband has very minimal padding, but the headphone itself is so lightweight that it doesn’t need excess padding.

Accessories

Out of the box, you get a nice and large hardshell carrying case that matches your headphone, as well as two cables. One is a standard cable while the other one has an apple-certified remote. Both cables have a proprietary 2.5mm locking jack, so you won’t be able to use any aftermarket cable if it breaks. One cool feature on the cable with the remote is that it has an adjustable angle jack on the opposite side. So it can be used as a straight jack, or a 90 degree jack.

Sound Quality

The sound signature of the Sennheiser Momentum is definitely tuned differently than other Sennheiser headphones. It is a very laidback and relaxed listening experience, but that’s not to say it sounds boring and unengaging. There’s a slight bass boost and the mids and highs are very clear for a closed back headphone, so it still sounds very clean and lively. The sound is very inoffensive, so it will work well with many genres of music and will make a great all-rounder headphone.

Criticisms

One thing to look out for is that for an over-ear headphone, the earpads are actually quite small so if you have slightly big ears, these might not fit, so you definitely want to try them out first. Also, there’s no folding feature on the headphone, which can be bad for some people, but folding mechanisms can also be a added point of failure on the heaphone. 

Conclusion

A lot of consumer grade headphones advertise a bunch of features, and sometimes the most important thing is forgotten, which is the sound quality. So although the Momentum has a lot of great features like the nice carry case and cables, along with the stylish design, Sennheiser did not forget the one thing they do so well. Make sure you try out the Momentums first to confirm that they fit, and once you get pass that hurdle, you will find yourself with a very comfortable and excellent sounding headphone.