Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 review

The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 are the company’s latest flagship true wireless earbuds. They are a major overhaul of the previous generation Momentum True Wireless 4 in nearly every way, with the company claiming improved design, comfort, audio quality, noise cancellation, and microphone performance. And they also happen to be Sennheiser’s first wireless earbuds with user-replaceable batteries.

The Momentum True Wireless 5 are priced at $300 and go up against fierce competition in the form of the Apple AirPods Pro 3 and the Sony WF-1000XM6. How do they perform? Let’s find out.

Design

The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 design has been completely overhauled compared to the previous generation.

Starting with the case, we now have a taller, thinner design that is so much more compact and easy to carry around in your pocket than the chunky suitcase you got with the Momentum True Wireless 4. The fabric outer covering is also gone and replaced with matte plastic with a speckled finish. This material doesn’t stain as easily as the fabric but attracts smudges and also doesn’t feel as premium.

The new earbuds are dramatically smaller. Gone is the squared-off design with the fins, replaced with a much more compact jellybean design.

Of course, the outstanding thing about both the case and the earbuds' design is that they feature user-replaceable batteries, and as such can be opened up with simple tools. But more on that later.

The Momentum True Wireless 5 come in five colors: Graphite (seen here), Cream, Copper, Denim, and Lavender.

In terms of build quality, the earbuds are well-built and also feature IP54 dust and water resistance. The case, however, does not share this protection, and exhibited some creaking, especially around the hinge.

As for comfort, the earbuds sat quite well in my ears. Unlike the Momentum True Wireless 4, the new model does not go as deep in your ears and has a relatively shallow fit. This makes them much more comfortable to wear for longer durations. I'm personally not fond of earbuds that don’t have stems, as it makes grabbing them difficult and prone to accidental drops, but your mileage may vary.

Software and features

The Momentum True Wireless 5 support Sennheiser’s Smart Control Plus app, available for iOS and Android. This is largely a well-designed app with a lot of customizability on offer.

Among the things you can adjust are the ANC modes with customizable level adjustment for the transparency mode, as well as the option to let your own voice in during a phone call. There is even a toggle to disable the anti-wind mode, something I wish other brands also offered.

There’s also a lot to do with the sound. You get an 8-band custom EQ with multiple presets as well as Sennheiser’s unique Sound Personalization feature, which lets you adjust the sound based on how you like to hear different instruments in the mix by adjusting their levels. There’s also a new Dolby Atmos option here with head-tracking, which can enable spatialization for standard stereo sources. However, Atmos does not work if you have toggles for Hi-Res audio enabled, regardless of whether or not you’re currently using Hi-Res audio.

Sennheiser Smart Control Plus app

Sennheiser also lets you toggle the codec options, specifically what bit rates and sampling rates they offer, should you choose to prioritize stability over quality. The app also shows you the exact codec and sampling rate being used, which is a neat feature that could again be adopted by other brands.

Finally, you have all the other basic options, such as gesture controls, find headphones, fit test, and even a battery protection mode, which prevents the earbuds from charging to 100% to extend battery health.

Audio settings

However, as nice as the app is overall, the software experience with the Momentum True Wireless 5 isn’t the most stable or sophisticated. The way the ANC enables or disables will sometimes happen unevenly in each ear. The transparency mode just starts super loud with a jump scare and then settles down after a second or so. Even the ANC will constantly fidget with its automatic level adjustment once it kicks in. And for whatever reason, Sennheiser still doesn’t automatically enable transparency mode in the other earbud when you remove one from your ear. In fact, it won’t even let you do it manually, as somehow both earbuds need to be in your ears for transparency mode to function. There is also a popping noise that can sometimes be heard when ANC is enabled as you walk around, especially if you jump. There were also a few times when the sound was glitching out with popping sounds unrelated to the ANC, and the audio just sounded slowed down until the earbuds were rebooted.

Controls

Finally, Sennheiser still does not give you a pairing button on the case. Instead, you have to remove the earbuds from the case and then press and hold their touch surface for a few seconds to initiate pairing. There is multipoint pairing, however, and it can be managed in the app.

In terms of connectivity, the Momentum True Wireless 5 support various codecs, including SBC, AAC, aptX (up to 16-bit/48kHz), aptX Adaptive (up to 24-bit/96kHz), as well as aptX Lossless (16-bit/44.1kHz). As we have seen on other earbuds with this codec combination, there is no actual aptX HD support, regardless of what the codec screen in the Sennheiser app might say. It seems the newer Qualcomm audio chips have swapped out HD for Adaptive. This does mean, however, that on phones without a Qualcomm chip, such as the Pixel series, which only support Android’s built-in aptX and aptX HD codecs, the best you can get with these earbuds is aptX. Also, aptX Lossless continues to be elusive, with very limited device support.

Other settings

Of course, all this discussion on codecs is purely academic, as in real-world use they make next to no difference in actual listening experience any more than expensive audio cables do for speakers.

Performance

Audio quality

The Momentum True Wireless 5 have Sennheiser’s 7mm TrueResponse dynamic drivers. It’s the same driver that Sennheiser uses on a whole bunch of its audio products, including many of its wired earbuds.

The Momentum True Wireless 5 have really good audio quality, due to a combination of neutral-leaning tuning and quality drivers. However, I do have minor qualms with the tuning, which prevent the sound from achieving true greatness.

Starting with the bass region, the Momentum True Wireless 5 have a spread-out, wide-band bass boost rather than targeting specific regions of the bass. Some of this also spills over into the lower mid-range, although the mid-mid-range is generally quite neutral. Then, the upper mids take a dip, which continues into the lower and mid treble, with the upper treble region being quite accentuated.

The result of this tuning is sound that has a fair bit of warmth to it without being overly bassy and also being quite bright in the upper treble regions that bring out the ’s’ and the ’t’ sounds. Unfortunately, the dip in the lower treble regions can make some vocals and instruments sound quieter, which gives the sound a slight haziness and makes you want to bump up the volume to hear more clearly.

The overall tuning still sounds balanced and neutral-leaning, especially compared to most competing products. However, the dip in the treble region does rob some of the vocals and instruments of their agency, and would be the first thing you’d want to correct with an EQ.

The sound does change slightly whether you have ANC enabled or disabled. With the ANC disabled, the sound is more natural, with a fuller, more fleshed-out mid-range, which gives the vocals a more natural timbre. Enabling ANC brings down the lower mids to a fair degree, which can thin out the vocals a bit and make them a bit tinny. It also helps exaggerate the upper treble sizzle a bit. It’s something you would need to take into consideration if you’re EQing. I personally preferred to listen to the earbuds with the ANC disabled while listening indoors.

Aside from the tuning, the overall sound is reasonably detailed with decent imaging and soundstaging. I have to say that the Dolby Atmos mode works quite well at spatializing stereo sources. It’s subtle but does a good job of expanding the soundstage and making the sound more spacious. Too bad it can only be enabled with SBC, AAC, or the standard aptX codecs. Also, if you play actual Spatial Audio music, such as through Apple Music on an iOS device, then the Atmos toggle in the app does nothing, and the feature is enabled by default.

Microphone

Microphone performance on the Momentum True Wireless 5 is a little mixed. When tested in a quiet room, the voice quality was really good, second only to the really high-quality audio capture on the recent AirPods models.

However, things tend to go south a bit when recording in a noisy environment. The earbuds prioritize reducing background noise, which is impressively quiet and practically inaudible. However, this comes at the cost of voice quality, which sounds stifled with the occasional dropouts. You can still understand what the other person is saying for the most part, but it would be better if Sennheiser tuned the noise reduction algorithm to prioritize voice quality, even at the cost of some background noise coming through.

Noise cancellation and transparency

The noise-cancelling performance on the Momentum True Wireless 5 is really good. As mentioned before, the feature isn’t as quick or sophisticated as on the AirPods Pro 3, likely due to weaker onboard processing. But once it takes its time to dial in, you get pretty good noise isolation across the frequency range.

It’s still not as good as the AirPods Pro 3; I tested this by having both in each ear, and I could clearly hear more background noise through the Sennheiser. However, they are quite close, despite having a different insertion depth, while the Sennheiser is generally more comfortable due to its shallower fit.

The transparency mode isn’t that good in comparison. It’s cool that you can adjust its level, and that it auto-enables during calls, but I feel like it prioritizes random sounds over voices, and it was harder to hear people around me or even my own voice compared to competing products. A voice priority mode or recalibration of the feature in software by the company can fix this.

Battery and charging

Sennheiser claims the Momentum True Wireless 5 have 12 hours of battery life. This is the number that shows up most prominently in the marketing; however, it’s the figure with ANC disabled. With ANC or transparency enabled, the claimed battery life is 6 hours. We tested with ANC enabled, since that’s how we typically test it, and got 6 hours and 23 minutes, which is respectable.

The main trick with the Momentum True Wireless 5 is replaceable batteries for the earbuds and the case. The earbuds' battery can be removed by loosening the two screws on each earbud with a PH000 screwdriver, and then using the provided spudger to loosen the shell. After that, you carefully detach the two halves, and the battery just pops out. The case is simpler; simply remove the single screw on the bottom with the same screwdriver, and the lid just slides off.

There are a few things to remember here. The screws on the earbuds are captive, which is great as you don’t have to worry about losing them, but the single screw on the case isn’t. Second, there is a ribbon cable attaching the two halves of the earbuds, so you shouldn’t be looking to separate the two halves completely but rather just gently prying them open enough to get the battery out. Third, the batteries in both the earbuds and the case can be inserted in the wrong way, so make sure you make a note of their orientation when you first open them. And lastly, it is possible to lightly damage the area around the grooves where you are meant to push the spudger in to pry open the earbuds, as the plastic there is soft, so it won’t look as pristine as it was before you attempted to open it. It’s not a big deal, and I doubt it breaks the IP54 protection; it's just that it won’t look as nice when you look up close.

However, none of that is an issue when you consider what you’re getting in return. Being able to replace the batteries inside wireless earbuds is a massive win, considering how quickly they tend to die out due to constant charging. This means you can use these earbuds into perpetuity, or at least as long as Sennheiser provides the cells.

That last part is critical. The batteries used here, model number BA 501 for the earbuds and BA 502 for the case, are proprietary, and how long you are able to continue using the earbuds eventually depends on how long Sennheiser makes them available. I also couldn’t find concrete availability information for the batteries other than a vague statement saying replacement units will be available in the EU and “further selected countries”.

As a final note on the battery, the Momentum True Wireless 5 support both wired and wireless charging standards.

Conclusion

The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 are a really great pair of wireless earbuds and a comprehensive improvement over their predecessor. They have impressive audio quality with a good amount of customizability, comfortable fit, good noise cancellation, and good microphone performance in quiet environments. And the real icing on the cake is the user-replaceable batteries, something none of the direct rivals offer.

Of course, they aren’t without their faults. The software experience lacks stability and polish, the microphone performance in noisy environments could be better, and the noise cancellation, while good, isn’t class-leading. But while the competition may be better at one thing or the other, the Momentum True Wireless 5 make a good case for all-round competence. The $300 price tag might seem steep, but when you consider you can keep using these for years by swapping out the batteries, then suddenly it doesn’t seem all that bad.