Design & Construction

Together with the Momentum True Wireless 4, the Momentum Sport is the new incoming offer from Sennheiser as they look to target sportsmen with the new offering. This time, the sport-based earbud joins the Momentum family, so can it live up to the well-received Momentum line. Well, there is only one way to find out? The new Momentum Sport is said to have received a new design language, departing from the Momentum True Wireless 4 rectangular aesthetic to a more rounded form. Starting off with the case, the earbuds case has a squarish flat top-opening style case that is clearly not the smallest or easiest to fit in a pocket. But it is definitely durable with its matte rubberised feel and magnetic closing. Sennheiser's take on the case is probably to have you store it in your gym bag or loop it on your bag itself instead of buying one earbud and using it as daily driver. Clearly, not the most brillant idea if you are going to buy only one earbud. On the outside, the matte finish covers the top with a Sennheiser logo printed atop. The USB-C charging port is hidden behind a flap at the front of the case with an accompanying LED indicator to show you its charge. Like all true wireless earbuds, the earbuds dock in fairly easily and will not fall out when the case is flipped since there are magnets inside to keep them secure. In terms of durability, it is definitely one of the stronger cases out there that protects well against scuffs and accidental drops. As for the earbuds, the rounded design isn't the smallest but it fits well into most ear shapes and sizes. There are different sizes of ear fins and tips to ensure that you have a tight seal and secure fit. After listening for an hour or two, it is quite easy to forget that you have them in. As usual, Sennheiser went ahead with touchpads that feels responsive even when you tap them lightly. Now for the controls, a single press will not trigger any controls to prevent accidental taps. However, a double tap on either earbud will play/pause, a triple tap will skip forward on the left earbud and a change Noise Control settings on the left earbud while holding it down with increase/decrease the volume.  For calls, there is yet another set of controls that does the same command on either earbud. A double tap will pick up the call and a triple tap will reject the call. When you are in a call, a triple press will mute/unmute the microphone. Now, it is worth mentioning that though these are the original out of the box settings, you can customise the touch controls to any command you would like to either earbud and the app will sync the new settings immediately. If you need to pair another device, you can hold down both earbuds for 3 seconds to enable Bluetooth pairing. It takes about 1.5 hours to charge both the case and the earbuds from a dead battery. However, if you are in a rush, there is always quick charge which will allow for 1 hour of playback with a 10 minutes charge. Both earbuds have printed Sennheiser logos and have subtle LED indicators on the inside that will only light up when necessary such as in situations of pairing them. In normal usage of music playback or calls, they never light up to attract unwanted attention. Since the Momentum Sport is a sports earbuds, it boasts an IP55 dust and water resistance for the earbuds as well as IP55 dust and water-resistance for the case, giving users an ultimate peace of mind for those intense workouts or rainy days. The earbuds itself also do a great job at resisting fingerprints smudges with a matte finish. 

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Sound Quality

Exciting and energetic is how I would describe the sound of the Momentum Sport. Let's start off with the bass response. In short, it is punchy and tight but not as deep as the Momentum True Wireless 4. It didn't distort at loud volume and never bleeds into the mids when it is at a low volume level. The 10mm dynamic transducers produce bright highs and crisp mids after tuning the equaliser in the Sennheiser Smart Control app that really help to configure the sound to your ears. The soundstage is decent and on par with the Jabra Elite 8 Active. The instrument separation is excellent with distinct left and right channels being heard clearly. However, the Momentum Sport isn't as loud in volume or in soundstaging as compared to the Momentum True Wireless 4. I would have preferred if Sennheiser have stuck to the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' rule here as the Momentum Sport just doesn't have the kick and depth of bass and highs that you will find in TrueResponse transducers. If you are not so much of an EDM or Hip-Hop fan, I am glad to report that the Momentum Sport 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 earbuds' multipoint connection to your devices. 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, Movie and Jazz. Different presets do work well with different music genres and you may also select any presets to 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 will first do a fit test to determine if you have a good seal. Next, a series of drums, bass and strings will be played through the app to compensate for your hearing needs. Just below, Adaptive Noise Cancellation is next with the simplest option of all, just a simple Off, Anti-Wind or On. No advanced customisation here since Sennheiser have specially tune it to simplify the process for the end users. Comparing the ANC performance of the Sennheiser's to the competition, I found that the Momentum Sport isn't too far from the best of the best. If I were to rate it, I would say it is on par with the Jabra Elite 8 Active but weaker than the Sony WF-1000XM5 or the Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation). Moving on, we have the Transparent Hearing option where you can change the setting from Off to using it With Music or enable Pause Music to stop the music every time you enable it. There are also options to set the Transparency Mode from Low, Mid and High levels so you can find the middle ground between mixing in your environment and your music. Comparing it to the champions of Transparency Mode, the AirPods Pro (2nd Generation) and the WF-1000XM5, the Momentums did not manage to beat both of them since its transparency doesn't have the smarts to detect and filter out loud bursts of noises or selectively take in voices only. There are options to switch on auto-pause so you can have a clearer hearing need as well as selectlively adjusting the volume for phone call ambient sound intake. You can enable or disable the Touch Controls as well as customise each button setting to your preference. As mentioned, there is a quick access to the fit test found in the homepage that enables easy evaluation of the your eartips seal. SideTone is basically how loud you would like to hear yourself in your earbuds when you talk to another party over the call. Lastly, you will see Sound Zones which allows the app to 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. 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 can alter the audio resolution from standard to low latency for gaming, high-resolution for music listening and even lossless for the best sound quality you can get today. However, each time this setting is changed, a restart will be required to take effect. The codecs in effect will be displayed as well as the option for Battery ECO which does the opposite and turns off AptX for extended listening times. You may enable Smart Pause if you prefer the faster way of removing one earbud to pause the music to hear someone and auto accept calls when the earbuds are removed from the case as well as set the duration for auto power off ranging from 15 minutes to an hour. Moreover, you choose to use both tones and voice prompts in multiple language, use tones only or just turn it off completely and enable battery protection mode to prioritise battery longevity. 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 Momentum True Wireless 4 uses 3 beam-foaming mic array per earbud to capture your voice while eliminating ambient noises. In my opinion, the quality is comparable in quality to the Sony WF-1000XM5 and the Jabra Elite 8 Active, though in some cases, very strong winds or loud traffic noise does affect its quality and lowers the voice pickup,

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Connectivity & Portability

The earbuds support the still new AptX, AptX Adaptive, LC3, AAC and SBC codecs together with Bluetooth Version 5.2. The earbuds also automatically power on/off when docked and taken out from the case. The battery life peaks at 6 hours per use with ANC on and together with the charging case, you are able to achieve up to a maximum of 24 hours. The package also comes with a USB-C cable for charging and the case is Qi wireless charging capable. Either earbuds allow for one-sided listening, hoever, if you do want to benefit from the performance tracking sensors, you should use the left earbuds as a single earbud as the sensors are housed within that only. There is perfect connectivity to the app with it being able to detect my earbuds all the time. Additionally, multipoint is supported so you can connect two devices at once to take calls and listen to music simultaneously. If you try to watch videos or movies with these, they do not have any latency in audio transmission.

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PROS​​

• Durable Construction

• Ergonomic Fit

• Customisable Equaliser

• Energetic Sound Signature

• My Sound Check Customisation

• Strong Active Noise-Cancelling

• Transparent Hearing

• Responsive Touchpads For Music Play & Calls

• Bluetooth 5.2 with AptX Support

• Auracast Support

• Quick USB-C Charging

• Long Battery Life

• Qi Wireless Charging

• IP55/IP54 Dust & Water Resistant

• A Range of Colours​​​​​

• Multi-point Bluetooth Pairing

 

CONS

• Large Case Footprint

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The Bottom Line

In all, the Sennheiser Momentum Sport is a premium sport-ready earbud with strong yet straightforward features that keeps its users happy. The top features why it is so sought-after in a saturated market of true wireless earbuds has got to be its signature Sennheiser sound signature, unique performance tracking as well as decent Noise-Cancelling. Amidst its rather high price tag, it is indeed a seamless and hassle-free experience.

WE RATE IT!

9.5/10