When it comes to the hyper-competitive market for truly wireless earbuds, there are three brands I think do it better than anyone else in the game. Sony, Jabra, and Sennheiser. All have their strengths (and weaknesses). Sony is the best when it comes to processing and noise cancelling, Jabra own it when it comes to fitness-friendly earbuds, and Sennheiser is typically the best all-rounder when it comes to sound and design.
The qualities I crudely ascribe to each of these brands has remained the same throughout the years, with each recognising where they excel at and iterating to stay ahead of the curb.
Some models take a step back, however. Sony took a big misstep with the chunky design of the WF-1000XM4s (the company atoned for that sin with excellent 5’s). Jabra has put out some lackluster earbuds over the past few years, that aren’t too different to what they’ve done before. But Sennheiser has always seemed to be moving forward.
So does that mean the Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds are even better than the stunning 3’s? Yes. Sennheiser has clearly lifted its game here when it comes to software, fitting a lot of high-end modern tech into these buds while still managing to maintain an attractive, functional profile that is still comfortable in the ears.
Design
Blame the brand’s German heritage, but Sennheiser’s design has never been the most exciting. The brand is the most functional of three I mentioned above, where Sony and Jabra tend to play around with form more freely.
This doesn’t matter too much if aesthetics are not your concern. And that’s not to say these earbuds are ugly by any means. They are virtually indistinguishable from the Momentum True Wireless 3 buds with an oval-like shape and three stylish colours (metallic silver, black graphite, and black copper).
The biggest changes are the ones you can’t actually see. Sennheiser has put more focus on software this time, because that’s the way Sony is currently sitting on the phone. And I daresay the Korean company could be dethroned by these.
Sennheiser has redesigned the antenna inside each bud to improve Bluetooth stability and ensure a smooth connection. This is absolutely necessary these days given software is becoming more demanding, even more so than current Bluetooth standards so maintaining a solid connection at all times is getting more difficult (and more expensive).
Sennheiser is claiming one of the biggest changes is called dynamic-load shifting, which furthers the sound quality and keeps things consistent by slightly switching connection between buds to continually optimise based on the proximity between your ears and your connected device. While I have no deep insight into the technology, I do notice I find much less dropouts than I would with some alternatives.
That being said, most of the earbud connection issues I’ve experience have happened months down the track.
I find most earbuds give you tips that are hard to wash so it’s great that Sennheiser has used a new plastic guard that wraps around these tips. It’s very simple to wash off any debris and keep them clean.
Features
That signature Sennheiser sound can do no wrong, although it appears on default the bass is slightly heightened to make the buds more palatable for a younger crowd. Some may prefer a more neutral sound profile, but Sennheiser’s companion app is excellent anyway. So getting the EQ right is just a matter of a seconds.
Sennheiser has used these drivers before. The same are used in the excellent IE 600 but I would imagine these have been refined for the wireless format.
Earbuds are more complicated than most users would care to pay attention to. Consumers only really care about the sound quality, comfort and how good the noise cancelling is. But numerous smart features are becoming just as important, playing around with all these aspects to create a seamless listening environment.
As such, Sennheiser is making a big deal out of Qualcomm’s S5 Sound Gen 2 processor with Snapdragon Sound technology. Again, processing power is always Sony’s domain, so it’s nice to see Sennheiser really step up here, promising lossless streaming up to 24-bit/48kHz.
The new chip is really the base for everything the buds do, including maintaining that strong connection so sound quality is superb at all times. And it is. On my test, I’d say these are the best sounding earbuds in the market right now, edging out to Sony XM5s given I’ve been experiencing a lot of stutter in dense places with the former king.
You’ve got a solid Bluetooth 5.4 standard with aptX lossless and LE audio as well as a latency as low as 20ms, so these things are great for gamers and other media consumption beyond just listening to music.
Each bud has three…
Read More: Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 Review: The new gold-standard