Last Friday, we reported that regulatory images of Sennheiser’s supposed Momentum 5 headphones were doing the rounds and that their existence likely meant that we would see the new headphones in the coming weeks or months.
Well, it seems like someone at the company thought it would be funny to prove us wrong. The headphones were made official today.
“With MOMENTUM 5 Wireless, we focused on refining the entire experience without straying from the formula that made its predecessor such a success,” said Product Manager Sreenath ‘Sri’ Unnikrishnan, “These enhancements enrich the overall functionality while still capturing the magic you feel every time you press play.”
Sennheiser builds Momentum
It’s been four years since the Momentum 4 launched. We’re not counting the 80th anniversary edition we reviewed last year. Those were just the Momentum 4 dressed in fancy clothes.
The Momentum 5 is built around the same 42mm drivers seen in previous models, but now they come with Hi-Res Audio certification and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound feature set.
The former is widely recognised as the Japan Audio Society’s (JAS) official seal of approval that the cans have a frequency response of at least 40kHz and support 24-bit/96 kHz hi-res audio. The latter signifies that these headphones are compatible with a range of audio technologies, including the aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec. Your source device will also need to support Snapdragon Sound to take full advantage of this one.
The Momentum 5’s sound can be tweaked via the companion app. It isn’t likely to feature the same endless customisation as we saw with the HDB 630, but you still get an 8-band equaliser, presets, and something Sennheiser calls its “intelligent Sound Personalization engine”.
Sennheiser says it has improved the Momentum 5’s active noise cancellation, with four microphones per side cutting out environmental noise. Dolby Atmos with head tracking makes an appearance with these, while a future firmware update is said to add Bluetooth 6.0 and LE Audio support.
Read More: Sennheiser HDB 630 review – The new wireless audiophile champ
Battery life is an area where the Momentum 4 excelled. According to the company, Senny’s new cans can’t quite match the 60 hours you got with those, but a claimed 57 hours with ANC enabled is nothing to scoff at.
Like the Momentum 4, these won’t fold down completely, but the case has received a few changes — it’s a little smaller and doesn’t contain any plastic.
As far as the local price and availability are concerned, we know we’ll be getting the Momentum 5 at the end of June; we just don’t know exactly how much they will cost. All signs point to them falling somewhere between the Momentum 4 (R7,840) and the flagship HBD 630 (R13,000).
