Design & Construction

After witnessing the success of the Momentum 4, Sennheiser gets ready to serve up the Accentum headphones as their budget-friendly alternative to win over their money-conscious customers looking for an update the HD450BT. While the Accentum looks nothing like the HD450BT and almost exactly like the Momentum 4, I applaud Sonova's move this time for not changing the design. Now, let's understand why. Diving straight into the design, the Accentum features similar dimensions and aesthetics to its more expensive brother. Though there are indeed differences such as the lower-cost material changes like a plastic headband in place of th fabric ones on the Momentum. The logo is now debossed and blends right into the finish, keeping it even more low-profile. Meanwhile, the earcups shunk a little compared to the Momentums while the earpads remain relatively the same size as the more expensive option. As usual, like headphones in the past 2-3 years, the Accentum can only fold flat for storage, which takes up more space as does not stow into a much more compact form such that it folds flat and upwards. There is nothing wrong with a design like this, but this time, the Accentum's come without any form of carrying case or pouch. This makes the situation a major drawback since most consumers will most likely need to shell out a few more dollars for a third-party case or pouch. The HD450BT though not as well-built as the new Accentums, came with a soft-shell pouch, hence I would think that Sonova is trying to keep their profit margins high while inconveniencing their budget-conscious customers. Now, if you have Momentum 4 Wireless, the Accentums does fit nicely into the existing hardshell case since they both share a similar design. Now, back to the headphones. as mentioned, from the top, we have a plastic headband with Sennheiser logo debossed on both sides in a very subtle finish. The underside uses a soft rubber finish that grips onto my head and hair decently well. The headband quite thick compared to the rest of the competition but it does a great job of keeping the headphones stable and secured for long period of wear. The sleek yet premium plastic arms extender are now shifted to the lower part of the headphone, nearer to the ear cups, and they are do not click in steps or make any noises. It functions like the Momentum 4 and has enough resistance for the earcups not to shift the set length. The headphones do also have much softer, thicker and grippier leather cushions than the Momentum 4 that encapsulates even large ears well and do not pose wearing fatgue for users who wear spectacles like myself. The depth of the earcups are very significant too, of which your ears will never touch any part of the inside fabric and I got to say, the headphones fits snugly around the head with little to no clamping force. Onto the exterior of the headphones, it gives off this luxurious feel and subtle elegance with a matte-like finish, although made up of mostly plastic, to keep light-weight for extended periods of wear. The headphones, however do picked up fingerprint smudges and facial oils quite easily in day-to-day use. Controlling the playback functions are on the right earcup and this time we have trusty physical old-school buttons. A single press on the multi-function button to play/pause, a double press to skip forward, a double press to skip backward. Meanwhile, a single press on the volume buttons will increase or decrease the volume respectively. Towards the bottom of the earcup, you will find the power button also acts as a bluetooth pairing button and an ANC/Transparency mode switch. To turn on the headphones, long press the button and continually hold it for 5 seconds to enter pairing mode. When connected, a double-tap swap the headphones between ANC or Transparency Mode. The power button does bring up the smart assistant of Alexa, Google or Siri depending on your OS. There is also a lack of wear sensors this time so the music will not automatically pause if you remove the headphones from your head. For calls, there is yet another set of controls. When in a call, a double press on the multi-function button will pause the call or swap between the current call to the incoming one while a single press on the power button will mute/unmute the microphone. It takes about 3 hours to charge the headphones up from a dead battery with the headphones having Quick Charge which only requires 10 minutes of charging for 5 hours of playback. Total battery life stands at 50 hours on a full charge, hence the Accentum wins hands down as one of the quickest charging and longest-lasting headphone for its price point.

 

Sound Quality

Exciting, energetic and upbeat is how I would describe the sound of the Accentum Wireless. With its large 37mm diameter drivers, the signature Sennheiser sound is back again, sounding almost identical to the Momentum 4. So let's start off with the bass response. In short, it is deep, punchy, and tight, it never distorts at maximum volumes and does not bleeds into the mids when it is at a low volume level. The bass depth is on par with the Momentum 4 Wireless but lack the head rumbling resonance of the Momentums. However, as much as the sound signature is similar, the Accentum's maximum volume is tuned a few notches lower than the Momentum 4s, such that the 100% volume on the Accentum's equates to approximately 80% of what the Momentum 4 can push at maximum. Not a bad thing for those who are looking to protect their long-term hearing but I do sometimes wish for a louder volume to jam out to my favourite tunes especially for deep rumbling bass. Overall, the sound signature of the Accentum is clean and tight too, with bright sounding highs that are filled with plenty of details and the crisp mid-range with good vocal detail especially with the help of the equaliser tuning that is found in the Smart Control app that really help to configure the sound to your ears. The soundstage isn't as wide as the mind-blowing AirPods Max's Spatial Audio but indeed wider than the Sony WH-1000XM5. The instrument separation is excellent with distinct left and right channels being heard clearly. If you are not so much of an EDM or Hip-Hop fan, I am glad to report that the headphones works perfectly with all other genres ranging from Pop to Jazz after you fiddle with the customisable sound settings in the Smart Control App available for download from the App & Play Store. In the app, you will first see the My Devices page where you can select which compatible Sennheiser device to delve into. Thereafter, you will be greeted with the selected devices' settings where the battery life status is shown as well as the option to manage your headphones' connections to your devices. It is worth noting that you can connect up to two devices so you can listen to music on your laptop and take calls on your phone. Next, there is the Equaliser setting which you can choose to customise your very own or choose from the presets. There are presets like Rock, Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, Classical and Movie and Jazz. Different presets do work well with different music genres. You may also select any presets available and further tune and rename it to become your custom setting. Additionally, there is the Bass Boost option which I greatly enjoyed using to boost my low frequencies as well as the Podcast mode where the equaliser will be disabled fully and set to Sennheiser pre-made Podcast mode. Should you happen to mess up doing custom presets, a simple tap on the Restore all Sennheiser presets will revert all changes made. Now, you can further take this experience deeper using the Sound Check feature where you can play your favourite songs in the background while you choose from the 3 options in the low, mid and high frequencies that the app boosts to compensate for your hearing needs. At the end of it, I could hear a huge difference before and after I use the Sound Check feature. Just below these options, you will see the newest feature here, known as Sound Zones where the app will automatically switches to a certain equaliser and ANC or Transparent Hearing setting when it detects that you have reached a frequent destination like your office, school or at home. You can set up to 20 different zones and each can be from a close radius accuracy of 100m to 1km from the selected location. The Noise Control settings will tap into existing equaliser presets that you have and you will need to set what happens when you arrive and leave the location. Personally, I don't use this feature as it can be quite gimmicky as well as making it a great way to give away your location to Sennheiser too. Moving on, we have the Active Noise-Cancellation option where you can switch between ANC and Transparency. However, you cannot turn off both for passive noise isolation. Transparent Hearing allows you to hear your ambient surrounding sounds so you can always hear the next train announcement or traffic noise to stay safe. Comparing the Transparency Hearing with the AirPods Max, I would give the edge to Apple's Transparency Mode as it is simply the most natural-sounding transparency that seems to know what to filter out and take in. You may also turn on/off Wind Noise-Reduction and auto pause when Transparency mode is switched on. Back to Home page, you can switch SideTone from 0%-100% depending on how loud you would like to hear yourself in your headphones when you talk to another party over the call. Onto the Discover tab, you can read and catch up on the latest Sennheiser press release and news where they will share their latest product offerings and possibly entice you to buy them? In all case, its possibly the least important and useful feature in the app. In the settings, you may update the latest firmware updates, set the duration for auto power off ranging from 15 minutes to 1 hour or never auto power off. You can change the language of the tone and voice prompts and between tones only or both. The currently used codec is shown too with some product information for your reference. At the bottom, a factory reset of the app settings is possible together with the ability to show or hide the individual tiles to show on the homepage. In terms of call quality, the headphones uses 2 beam-foaming mics to capture your voice. The caller on the other end feedback that the microphones picked up less surrounding noises but my voice does sound a little muffled and robotic. Wind noise reduction was not too bad as hardly any wind noise could get though even if it was quite strong outdoors.

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Connectivity & Portability

The Accentum Wireless support the latest and greatest AptX HD, AptX, AAC and SBC codecs together with Bluetooth Version 5.2. The battery life peaks at an impressive 50 hours per use with ANC. The headphones' connectivity to the app is perfect as it is able to detect my headphones when its already connected via Bluetooth all the time. If you try to watch videos or movies with these, they do not have any latency in audio transmission. Unlike the Momentum 4, there is no 3,5mm audio jack on the headphones for wired music playback. Fortunately, you can use the USB-C port as a wired playback option but do take note that, using the USB-C cable should only be a temporary, in the crunch kind-of moment use, as I found that there was a huge volume dip that only max out to around 80% of its full potential compared to when you use it wirelessly. In the package, there is a USB-A to USB-C cable that can be used for charging and wired playback.

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PROS

• Energetic Sound Signature

• Snug & Comfortable

• Lightweight

• Long Battery Life

• Easy Controls For Music Play & Calls

• In-App Equalizer

• Transparency Mode

• AptX Codecs Supported

• Bluetooth 5.2

• Sound Check

• USB-C Fast Charging

• Multi-device Connection

 

CONS​​​​

• No Carrying Case or Pouch

• Large Storage Footprint

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The Bottom Line

In all, the Sennheiser Accentum Wireless still represents the pinnacle of sound amongst budget ANC headphones. Decent hybrid noise-cancelling technology, lightweight sleek aesthetics and massive 50 hours battery life coupled with a comprehensive app customisation helps keep the Accentums a top choice when it comes to recommending quality. The lack of a carrying case or a pouch is perhaps the only drawback, otherwise it is a recommended choice for everyday use and daily commutes. Two colours of Black and White are available to fit users of different genders and styles.