Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 Review

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Presentation and Design

 

The Momentum Wireless 2 arrives in fairly nice retail packaging, which is rather functional but entirely acceptable for its $299 asking price. Inside, you’ll find the two earbuds themselves, a storage-cum-charging case, four sets of silicone tips (L; M = fitted by default; S; XS), quick-start + instruction manual, plus a short-ish 15cm USB-C charging cable. 

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

The charging case is a terrific little piece of kit. It’s wrapped in a nice plaid fabric outer layer and looks very much the business as a serious and well-designed lifestyle accessory. Its hinged lid is magnetised shut, and pops-open to reveal the two earbuds resting snugly inside, securely attached via a light magnetic force. Whilst it’s quite small and can easily be hidden in the palm of your hand, the charging case is a somewhat awkward kinda shape when it comes to keeping on you. You see, it’s not quite flat, meaning it bulges-out a few centimetres when placed in your pockets. While this isn’t a problem if you’re carrying a bag while you’re out and about, if you’re out exercising or heading out shopping, it’s a little bit problematic as you’re definitely going to want to have it on you if you need to take them out and store them. 

On the back of the case is the female USB-C connector to allow for charging, as well as a button + indicator light to tell you the battery status of the earbuds as well as the case itself. Green = full; yellow = charging; red = empty. It’s not the most informative system, in that there’s no hint as to whether you’re closer to 0% or 100% while charging (and it did catch me out a couple of times), but thankfully they do recharge pretty quickly – 10 minutes of charge will give you around 1.5 hours of playback, while a full top-up of the earbuds and the case takes 1.5 hours.   

As for the earbuds themselves, they’re relatively small (around 6g apiece), and like their predecessor the Momentum True Wireless 2 is designed to stay in place with the friction of the tips and bore in the ear canal alone – there are no hooks or other supports. Made chiefly of plastic, the Momentum True Wireless 2 is available in both black and white colour schemes, each finished with a flat, aluminium beveled fascia that houses both the Sennheiser logo as well as the touch-sensitive control scheme. 

Wear and comfort

I was happy to find that the ‘medium’ silicone tips (which are fitted by default on the earbuds) were an absolute ‘Cinderella’ fit right out of the box. Finding a snug fit is dead-simple – simply insert while you twist them 90 degrees until the bulk of the shell’s body rests within the cavity of your outer ear. I was surprised to find that I found the fit to be extremely secure despite no secondary restraint to hold them in place, and I’m happy to report that they’re more than well-suited for vigorous exercise. Lengthy road-running, push-ups, and the general dynamics of daily life didn’t manage to dislodge them even once. How confident am I in their fit? Let’s just say that I wore them with confidence in the kitchen over pots of boiling liquid more than once. Although apprehensive at first, I did even wear them outside a couple of times during light rain (that’s a ‘splash’, right?), and didn’t experience any issues whatsoever. Update: I’m happy to admit that I do listen to the Momentum TW2’s from time to time while taking a bath(!), and I accidentally dropped one of the earbuds in the water. It was submerged for a good 5 seconds or so underwater, but after giving it an hour or so to dry out it works as good as it did out of the box. But please, don’t try this at home… 

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

As well as a secure fit, the Momentum True Wireless 2 are also super comfortable. I didn’t get any pressure or discomfort wearing them for five-hour+ stints, and there’s no rubbing of the plastic shell on any parts of my ear at all – they just seem to magically ‘float’ there, and I genuinely forgot I was wearing them. 

Touch control + user interface

The aforementioned metal faceplates are the only physical controls on the earbuds themselves. Calls and music playback are controlled via the left-hand earbud, while voice assistant, transparent hearing, and ANC control are managed via the right-hand side. Pairing is managed by holding both sides down together, and volume is controlled by holding down one side at a time – left = down, right = up. On the whole, I found the touch system “ok”. The hardest part about using it is trying to fumble around and find the flat part of the earbuds with your hands, and then tap away until you get a haptic ‘beep’ response. I found that the easiest way to ensure solid contact with the touch-control was to use the flat palm of my hand – slapping the side of your head three times for me to enter a command must have looked a little strange to passers-by. 

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

One feature I did appreciate is that music auto-pauses when you take the right earbud out of your ear. To be honest, I actually found this to be a more useful way to play/pause than tapping the left-hand shell. And this is where things get a little clumsy – because the touch-controls aren’t instantaneous, in addition to being somewhat vague. The feature that I use more than any other is play/pause – a single ‘tap’ of the left-hand shell. Because the device doesn’t know whether you’re going to make an additional one or two ‘taps’ to enter a command, it doesn’t pause your music or movie immediately – making for some awkward and stilted moments while trying to make conversation with people in my vicinity who were trying to get my attention. 

Smart Control app

On the plus side, users are able to program the control scheme on each earbud via the Sennheiser Smart Control companion app, allowing you to make more frequently used commands more easily accessible via one, two, or three taps. The app is also used to update the device’s firmware and switch ‘transparent hearing’ on/off, which allows you to hear ambient noise from around you transmitted into the playback signal via earbuds’ microphones and mixed into your music. The experience is rather strange and does tend to overemphasize noises in a jarring, exaggerated kind of way. While I appreciate that it might be useful for people in public or outdoor spaces, it’s not something I’m ever likely to need. 

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

The tuning of the Momentum True Wireless 2 can be customised thanks to an in-built equaliser within the Smart Control app. Or rather, I should say that you can try to customise sound within the app but might end up throwing your phone away out of frustration, because it’s not great. Users are able to control a nice-looking blue swirly line on the screen to emphasise certain points on the frequency response ‘graph’, for example, add more low-end or reduce the amount of presence in the mid-range. But, doing so creates ‘equal and opposite reactions’ elsewhere in the response graph, because adding a peak creates troughs elsewhere – there’s no ability to create minute adjustments of individual bands. Unless you miraculously land on a sound that you like, I’d recommend leaving it ‘flat’ in the default tuning, or simply use a third party EQ app. Update: the 4.13.0 firmware update released in October 2020 includes an update to the Smart Control app’s EQ setting,  allowing the user more precise control over the levels of highs, mids, and lows. It’s not the most precise of tools, but it does allow for a more easily customisable sound profile rather than relying on the vagaries of the ‘blue wave’.

Head over to Page Three to continue our review, just CLICK HERE.

4.4/5 - (30 votes)
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Hailing from Sydney's eastern beaches, Matty runs his own beer business, 'Bowlo Draught', as well as working in creative advertising. When he's not enjoying his hifi and vinyl collection at home, he can probably be found rolling-up on the green at his beloved Bondi Bowling Club.

4 Comments

  • Reply June 9, 2020

    Carl

    Where’s the review? This is just a brochure.
    How did they sound… Compared to others?

  • Reply June 11, 2020

    Tolan

    Can you do a review on the Beoplay E8 3.0’s? I find them quite comparable to the Senheiser Momentum TW’s and would like an in depth review from HFN. Thanks!

  • Reply August 17, 2020

    Brendan

    How does it compare to the Noble Falcon?

  • Reply July 11, 2021

    Benny

    Which are the best Sound TWS for audiophiles?
    falcon pro? Senheiser momentum 2? PI7 of B&W?

    I like bass and listen to operas/classic as well as vocals and heavy/nuclear rock.

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