Sennheiser Momentum 5 Review: Brand’s Best Portable Headset Yet, By Far!

Sennheiser continues to excel and innovate. Following the outstanding HDB 630 in 2025, the brand now introduces the Momentum 5, its best Bluetooth headphones to date, directly challenging top contenders like the Apple AirPods Max 2 and the Sony WH-1000X The Collexion.

Despite not having the brand recognition of Apple or Sony, German manufacturer Sennheiser has been a giant in the portable audio industry for decades. Originally, Sennheiser produced microphones for sound recording, a craft closely related to making headphone transducers: in both, a thin diaphragm vibrates—capturing sound in one, emitting it in the other. Sennheiser has always made its own transducers, which makes a significant difference compared to brands that source from third-party catalogs. From design to production, everything is controlled internally.

Where Sennheiser has made substantial advances in recent years, enough to outpace its competitors, is in digital sound processing. It’s not enough to just make good miniature speakers. Mastering the entire digital chain, from the smartphone to the headphones, to preserve the integrity of the signal is crucial. Apple has understood this for a long time: its AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods Max 2 not only have excellent transducers but also benefit from a meticulously controlled digital signal.

Then there’s spatialization. Here, the Momentum 5 truly shines: it’s arguably the best non-Apple headphone for spatial audio, supporting Dolby Atmos for an enjoyable listening experience.

Technical Specifications

This review was conducted with a headset loaned by Sennheiser.

Design and Comfort: Pure Sennheiser

Understated, subtle, and stylish. The Momentum 5 doesn’t seek attention, and that’s a good thing. Its design is nearly identical to the Momentum 4, featuring a textile headband, brushed aluminum shells, and metal hinges.

What’s immediately noticeable is how soft this headset is. The memory foam ear pads are extremely plush. The headset itself is flexible, bending without resistance yet making no noise when moved. The hinge design is well-thought-out. Parasitic noises have been well managed, which is a major plus.

At 290 grams, it’s three grams lighter than the Momentum 4. It’s so lightweight that you almost forget you’re wearing it. The clamping force is gentle, the ears are fully enveloped, and you can wear it for hours on end without feeling the urge to take it off.

Now, to the controls. There’s a single physical button on the right ear cup for power and pairing, and a capacitive touch surface for everything else. Swipe horizontally to change tracks, vertically to adjust the volume, and double-tap to switch between noise cancellation and transparency modes. The controls are responsive and react well to inputs. No complaints here.

In terms of connectivity, there’s a USB-C port for charging the battery and for listening in wired lossless audio. There’s also an audio jack input for connecting to an analog source with the included cable. It’s worth noting that it only works when the headset is powered on, as the incoming analog sound needs to be digitized to suit the headset’s transducers. This ensures consistent audio quality and tonal balance, regardless of the source.

The carrying case has also been redesigned, 20% slimmer than its predecessor, with an inner pocket and straps for cables.

Smart Control Plus: A Flawless App

The Smart Control Plus app provides access to a plethora of practical features: equalization, noise cancellation, spatial audio, and Bluetooth controls (quality, codecs).

Several sound customization profiles are available, with the default being neutral, another enhancing vocals (podcast), and particularly the third allows for personalizing sound through an 8-band frequency equalizer. For those simply looking to boost the bass, there’s also a button for that, though the equalizer allows for much finer adjustments.

Finally, Spatial Audio That’s a Pleasure to Listen To

In recent years, Sennheiser has made a name with its soundbars, which deliver enveloping sound without the need for additional rear speakers. The Ambeo soundbars, especially the Ambeo Plus, use sound processing algorithms to create audio streams above and behind the listener. This expertise is now integrated into the Momentum 5 for enjoying music in Dolby Atmos, available on Apple Music, Tidal, or Amazon Music.

By default, the headphones play music in stereo, and Spatial Audio must be activated in the app.

The Best Bluetooth Codecs

The Momentum 5 supports all major Bluetooth codecs, from basic SBC to aptX Lossless. The app allows choosing the best codec depending on the smartphone used. Regarding Bluetooth latency, there’s a slight delay in sound in video games, which is eliminated in video playback.

Active Noise Cancellation: Sennheiser Catches Up

The ANC is highly effective, almost on par with what Apple achieves with the AirPods Max 2. It’s slightly behind earbuds like the AirPods Pro 3, which are currently the best on the market, but Sennheiser has significantly improved its active noise cancellation. The isolation is better than that of the latest high-end Sony The Collexion headset, for example.

It’s not really a surprise, given Sennheiser’s expertise with microphones. The number of dedicated mics has been doubled compared to the Momentum 4: four on each side. They perform exceptionally well up to relatively high frequencies. This was a criticism of the Momentum 4: it tamed rumblings but let voices through.

The transparency mode also works well, allowing you to hear your surroundings naturally. The noise cancellation features an adaptive mode, capable of adjusting its intensity according to surrounding noise, but you can switch to manual mode in the app and set a level.

Audio: A Respect for Nuance That Feels Right

The tonal sound signature conveys a sense of neutrality and great coherence. This is unmistakably Sennheiser. The sound allows for lots of detail in the midrange, where most sounds are concentrated. It’s detailed, organic, and clean from the bass to the treble. Nothing is exaggerated. You can tell it’s been finely tuned.

The transient response is excellent, with the 42 mm transducers reacting very quickly, revealing lots of subtle details. And a direct result of this good transient response: a very impressive soundstage, very wide, with depth. Instruments don’t overlap, voices are clear, everything is distinct.

Whether it’s Bluetooth with basic transmission quality, in aptX Lossless, or via a wired USB-C connection, the Momentum 5 delivers hi-fi quality sound.

Response Curve

The curve shows a nice bump in the bass around 60 Hz. The bass is rich but trimmed in its upper part, which makes the listening experience solid and deep. Many manufacturers boost the 100 Hz (upper bass) to add impact, at the risk of muddying the entire lower spectrum. Sennheiser has opted for the opposite, and as a result, the bass allows what’s above it to breathe.

The lower midrange maintains a nearly flat line from 200 Hz to 800 Hz, where most of the fundamental frequencies of musical instruments are found. Voices are also very well placed, balanced, and they have substance. In the upper midrange, there’s a slight volume peak around 1500 Hz that adds presence and detail to guitar strings, brass instruments, without being harsh.

Importantly, at 2 kHz, a frequency to which our ears are very sensitive, there is a dip, meaning less volume. As a result, you can listen to music for hours and hours without any auditory fatigue.

Finally, the treble is forward, helping to aerate the overall sound, with a hint of brilliance around 10,000 Hz that adds finesse to cymbals, for instance.

Listening Impressions

Pink Floyd – « Wish You Were Here »

A test of acoustic timbres. The opening guitar, the one that sounds like it’s coming from a small radio, then the second guitar that enters fully, round, with the texture of the strings and the friction of fingers on the fretboard. The Momentum 5 reproduces all this without overemphasis. You can hear the wood, you can hear the room. Gilmour’s voice is positioned exactly where it should be, neither too forward nor drowned out. It’s the kind of track where a too-bright headphone would be painful after two minutes. Here, you can listen on repeat.

Massive Attack – Teardrop

For the bass and for the stage. The kick drum is heavy, dark, and it stops exactly when it should. There’s no dragging, no swelling. Elizabeth Fraser’s voice floats above, crystalline, and the sampled harpsichord stands out on the right with impeccable clarity. This is where you can really appreciate the transient response of this transducer: everything is separated, nothing smears.

Alain Bashung – Osez Joséphine

The voice, once again. Bashung’s voice is husky, soulful, with a production that leaves a lot of air around. The nearly straight-line lower midrange of the Momentum 5 does exactly what it should: the body of the voice is there, present, without ever muddying. The guitar is sharp without being aggressive. Thirty years later, the track still moves.

Daft Punk – Giorgio by Moroder

Nine minutes that build in successive layers, with strings, a live drum kit, analog synths, and a guitar solo. This is the track that puts headphones to the test at the end, when everything plays at once. The Momentum 5 doesn’t compress, doesn’t panic. In Dolby Atmos with head tracking, the spatial staging takes on another dimension.

Spatial Audio and Head Tracking

Sennheiser has unlocked Dolby Atmos with head tracking through a firmware update, and the result is really good. Ideally, you need content in Dolby Atmos (Apple Music, Netflix, etc.), and in this case, the staging of sound planes in width and depth improves compared to stereo. This mode also works from classic stereo tracks, though the effect is somewhat less pronounced. The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless is the best non-Apple headphone in this area, by far.

Call Quality: Very Good

The Momentum 5 excels at making calls. The user’s voice is well separated from the surrounding noise, without any detrimental pumping. The eight microphones and beamforming are clearly not just for show.

Battery Life: 57 Hours, and Beyond

Sennheiser promises up to 57 hours of listening with noise cancellation activated. And it even surpasses that. At a reasonable volume, about 50%, it easily lasts over sixty hours. That’s almost double what the Sony WH-1000XM6 or the Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 offer, and nearly three times as long as the AirPods Max 2. Two hours are enough for a full charge via USB-C, and a few minutes of charging can last a day.

Notably, the battery in the headphones can be replaced.

Price and Competition

The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless is priced at 399 euros, available in black, white, and blue. That’s 50 euros more than the launch price of the Momentum 4, and it seems justified by better sound quality and more effective noise cancellation.

The Apple AirPods Max 2 maintain a slight edge in digital signal mastery and spatial audio, assuming you’re invested in the Apple ecosystem and have an Apple Music subscription. Outside of this context, the Momentum 5 performs just as well, for 180 euros less.

The Sony WH-1000XM6 remains a reliable choice, lighter, with a very rich app. But in terms of pure sound quality and battery life, the Sennheiser leads.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra 2 retains its advantage in pure comfort and remains a benchmark in ANC. In terms of timbre reproduction and soundstage, the Momentum 5 takes the lead.