Sennheiser Momentum 5 review: My favourite headphones of the year

Sennheiser made some of my favourite headphones ever when it brought out the Momentum 4 Wireless. It updated what I'd personally found to be an off-putting design in the originals, yet retained its excellent yet neutral sound signature – with the addition of adaptive noise-cancelling (ANC). I've used those over-ears every time I've travelled for a couple of years (save for when testing the best headphones for work).

That position had recently been taken over by the Sony WH-1000XM6, though, so I was hugely interested when Sennheiser announced the Momentum 5 this summer. With the brand's long-term health a topic of some debate, I've found it fascinating to use the Momentum 5 for a few weeks to see how it stacks up to the ever-increasing competition.

Price and Availabilty

The Momentum 5 Wireless was unveiled in May and is available to order now, so you can pick it up from a range of retailers around the world. It comes in at £329 / $399 – which means that it's quite cannily priced from Sennheiser's point of view.

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While it shares a lot of its features with the likes of the Sony WH-1000XM6, and the same can be said of Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones 2, it comes in as a decent chunk cheaper than those competitors. That could give it quite an advantage among smart buyers, although the proof is obviously in the performance.

Design and Features

There are people out there who'll still tell you that the updated design Sennheiser brought in between the Momentum 3 and Momentum 4 was a total shame, and left the Momentum line looking generic and boring. I get where they're coming from (there's much less exposed metal now), but don't agree at all – I really like the refined and subtle look of the newer design.

That's lucky, since it's barely changed between 4 and 5, which suggests that Sennheiser was pleased with its work, too. In the years that have passed, all that's really changed is some minor finishing detail. This time you can buy the headphones in black (as tested here), white or "denim" blue, with the last of those being the most eye-catching (albeit not really to my taste).

The earcups here are pretty massive, yet they're nicely cushioned for comfort. The Momentum 5 comes in at 290g, so it isn't the lightest set of cans out there – but I find they sit on the head nicely and comfortably. That's something about Sennheiser's design that's always been on point for me.

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The build is almost entirely plastic, though, so if you're looking for some headphones that scream "premium" from every stitch and bolt, this isn't the answer for you. Then again, nor is the more expensive WH-1000XM6 from Sony, for some context (the WH-1000XX The Collexion push that envelope further, though).

Normally, I'd talk about on-earcup controls, since most headphones have an array of buttons and dials, but Sennheiser takes a different road. In design terms, it keeps things admirably simple – even if not everyone will like it.

On the right earcup, there's a power and pairing button, some LEDs to give you charge and status indicators, and a USB-C port for charging. That's it – everything else is controlled through swipes and taps on that same earcup's outer surface, while the other side is completely bare.

The Momentum 5 does come with a nice slim hardshell case, impressively smaller than the equivalent for the Momentum 4, and therefore great for travel. The headphones fold flat in it, rather than into any smaller arrangement.

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From a feature point of view, the battery life situation has stayed relatively stable, but at a very impressive level. You'll get around 57 hours with ANC turned on, which means the headphones can more than make it through a week of use in normal situations. One huge but less obvious upgrade is that said battery can be easily replaced, with just a Philips-head screwdriver needed to access it.

There's also fairly comprehensive codec support (SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Lossless, and aptX Adaptive), which means that LDAC is also covered, making these a great choice regardless of how you listen wirelessly. The headphones ship with Bluetooth 5.4, but a future firmware update will bring this up to 6.0, apparently.

I think the Momentum 5 is a really solid iteration on what's come before it – even if the only visible or obvious changes are some more external grilles for ANC microphones. They're still among my favourite headphones to wear from a subtlety standpoint, as much as I value crazier choices like the Nothing Headphone (1).

Sound and Performance

We don't just look at headphones and wear them without any connection, though – how the Momentum 5 actually sounds is just as important.

That does require starting with some ergonomics, though, because Sennheiser's touch controls are a factor in the headphones' performance. In short, they work ably, but I'd still much prefer some more buttons in addition. Swiping and tapping are responsive enough, once you learn what does what, but the lack of volume buttons in particular feels churlish.

Sennheiser's SmartControlPlus app is a smooth enough way to get some extra control over these features (including turning them off entirely if desired). It also lets you choose when (if ever) the headphones will turn themselves off after a period of idling, and gives you a decent amount of EQ control, too.

That last point is relevant because the Momentum 5 makes a slightly bigger change to the sound signature of the Momentum line than I'd expected, principally in the form of a boost to the low-end bass register. It's certainly beefed up, and that might cut differently for different people.

I really liked the neutrality of the Momentum 4, so the new sound tuning is a little less to my tastes straight out of the box – albeit a quick EQ tweak basically reverses it entirely (praise be the EQ controls coming to AirPods soon for similar reasons). Still, even before any tweaks, the overall sound quality is excellent.

I used the Momentum 5 to run the gamut of genres, from a little bit of Vivaldi (get me) to test the highs, to some Queens of the Stone Age to get a sense of that boosted bass – and it was a really zesty yet precise listen the whole time. Plus, there's one audio area where the upgrade is far clearer and more unequivocal – ANC.

The Momentum 4 had good ANC for its day, but that day is now years ago, and rivals have made some big steps in the intervening time, so it's reassuring to report that the Momentum 5 takes a welcome leap forward. That's not to say that this adaptive noise-cancelling is completely different from what came before, but it definitely blocks more ambient noise and does so with less of an audible static feedback, in my experience.

I used the Momentum 5 on a long trip to and from Edinburgh from my home in London as my first proper stress test of their quality, and they kept me really nicely bubbled whether I was connected to my phone or my Switch 2. This combination of really solid sound quality and much-improved ANC is a winner, in my book.

Verdict

The Momentum 5 feels like a really solid return to the top table from Sennheiser, not least because it continues to offer a sensible option to those looking for very similar features to a top-end pair of headphones, but for a little less. Sure, the asking price is hardly tiny, but it's still a chunk cheaper than much of the established competition.

Given time and sales, that advantage should be maintained, and I think that leaves the Momentum 5 positioned really nicely as a great option for those looking to spend a little more cannily. You'll still get excellent sound, and a design and fit that I personally find comfortable in the extreme – making these over-ears a pretty stellar way for Sennheiser to at least partially silence the doubters of its longer-term health.

Also consider

The obvious upgrade if you are willing to spend that extra cash, of course, is the WH-1000XM6. The Sony's ANC is just a little superior and the headphones' more compact folding options might float your boat too. I think they're in a similar bracket comfort-wise, though, so the gap is pretty small.

Another option is Sennheiser's own HDB 630, which is much more geared for home listening. You lose ANC and battery life, but gain in sound quality quite noticeably, especially when using the included dongle for your connections. If you're intending to do your listening at home, they might be a great choice.