About this item Auto on:off and smart pause never miss a beat with seamless on:off and pause functionality; Plays your music faster than any other headphone Active noise cancellation and transparent hearing Momentum 3 wireless adapts to your environment wherever you find yourself Exceptional comfort soft ear pads and headband crafted from genuine leather insure exceptional wearing comfort during long listening sessions Three button interface provides easy operation without having to read a manual Automatic pairing mode makes setting up Momentum 3 wireless easy on the first activation
SENNHEISER Momentum 3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones with Alexa
Product Dimensions 7.8 x 6.7 x 1.78 inches Item Weight 10.8 ounces ASIN B07VW98ZKG Item model number M3AEBTXL Batteries 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included)
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SENNHEISER Momentum 3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones with Alexa, Auto On/Off, Smart Pause Functionality and Smart Control App, Black
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer No
Manufacturer Sennheiser
Charging Time 3 Hour
Item Weight 10.75 Ounces
Units 1.0 Count
About this item Auto on:off and smart pause never miss a beat with seamless on:off and pause functionality; Plays your music faster than any other headphone Active noise cancellation and transparent hearing Momentum 3 wireless adapts to your environment wherever you find yourself Exceptional comfort soft ear pads and headband crafted from genuine leather insure exceptional wearing comfort during long listening sessions Three button interface provides easy operation without having to read a manual Automatic pairing mode makes setting up Momentum 3 wireless easy on the first activation
With active noise cancellation, innovative transparent hearing and Sennheiser’s proprietary neodymium transducers the Momentum 3 wireless deliver exceptional sound like no other Bluetooth headphone to date. Enjoy advanced Features including smart pause and auto on/off, Bluetooth 5. 0 compliant connectivity and 17 hour battery life, all with timelessly elegant design and premium craftsmanship.
| Product Dimensions | 7.8 x 6.7 x 1.78 inches |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 10.75 Ounces |
| ASIN | B07VW98ZKG |
| Item model number | M3AEBTXL |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Customer Reviews | /* .cm-cr-review-stars-spacing-big { 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 2,389 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when('A', 'cf').execute(function(A) { 4.2 out of 5 stars |
| Best Sellers Rank | #88,554 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics) #1,389 in On-Ear Headphones #2,353 in Over-Ear Headphones |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | September 6, 2019 |
| Manufacturer | Sennheiser |
| Charging Time | 3 Hour |
| Units | 1.0 Count |
| Number Of Items | 1 |
JL –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Crisp and clear sound. Needs improvement
I use them for daily commute and listening on my iPhone. Noise canceling is acceptable when riding on the bus, it has 3 settings.I like physical buttons, less confusing to use.I returned first pair because disconnecting too often for no reason or just after a simple head movement.Sound on first pair was superb, outstanding sub lows And clarity of sounds, well defined, rich but not overpowering. Soundstage feeling pretty amazing. It reminded me the sound from HD 800.Replacement set so far doesn’t disconnect. However sound is not as top notch as first pair, diminished sub lows, tested with same music and equalizer settings and volume. I even compared both sets before returning first set(if it wouldn’t disconnect so much I would have kept first one) that low rumbling low base that spreads around with enough force to feel it but subtle at same time and extremely hard to reproduce with regular speakers/headphones is almost non existing on the second pair. I’m considering returning it and buying another brand or maybe trying my luck with a third set?Pros: Great sound quality, materials, look and feeling. Clamping force is just enough to hold them in place without squishing my ears/head. I don’t feel them at all even after wearing them for hours. Noise canceling can be turned of and on. They are not a huge size. Balanced sound doesn’t cause fatigue after prolonged use. Ear pads are made of leather and foam , plush and very comfortable.Cons: no lock on sliders to adjust and keep size. Don’t fold flat. No power button to turn them off(they turn off by folding them of pressing volume button for several seconds) Variable quality of manufacturing, comparing both I had one with more sub lows and beautiful sound than the other) phone Application need improvement, disconnect after every single action taken even though it was just looking at options. Horrible.If you are a perfectionist would notice ear pads are not even made,With some improvements could be a great pair of headphones one of the top three!I still like the sound
One person found this helpful
Michael Vartan –
3.0 out of 5 stars
I wanted to love them
On paper these headphones seem like they have a lot going for them. In practice, they fall short.I don’t know if mine have a defective battery, but it seems like i can never keep these things charged. I will plug them in overnight, and then pull out the charger to charge another device, while keeping these things closed (which turns them off — i’ll get to that in a bit). to my surprise the next time i use them a few days later, they’ll be immediately bugging me to plug them in. this has happened to me multiple times unfortunately, including this morning. while writing this i just charged them for 20 minutes using my 96 watt usb c charger and when i tried to use them, it asked me to recharge the headset, which means it will repeatedly if i try to use them.The multi device pairing works but it gets pretty frustrating to hear notifications of it repeatedly unpairing/repairing to my computer in the next room while i’m listening to music on my phone.there’s a feature to pause automatically when you take the headphones off. at first i found this seemed very broken, pausing my music whenever i bent over or turned my head. then when i updated the headphones (which took an hour of tapping my phone screen to make sure it didn’t turn off while leaving the sennheiser app open), i was informed that this feature requires you to not move your headphones during the first five seconds of turning it on. it seems to me like this feature wasn’t ready for production, and shouldn’t be advertised. more of a neat trickwhich brings us to what surprisingly has been the most annoying “feature” for me. the only way to turn the device on is to fold it open. so you need to pick up your headphones, fold them open, put them down, then pause for five seconds before putting it on your head.i thought the headphones were broken the first day i got them after i turned them off by holding the main button. pressing the buttons did nothing to wake the device, charging them did nothing. after i gave up, i happened to close them and open them again and they turned on to my surprise. this also means if you turn them off while they’re around your neck, you have to take them off and close and open them, which feels silly.the sound quality is pretty great, but the device is so frustrating that i can’t recommend spending this much money on it.
marty –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent noise cancelling, range, sound with some drawbackd
*** I AM MOSTLY A PC USER which isn’t really apart of the target market for these things, but I was looking for something wireless and light because I travel around a lot with a computer and I hate wires.LACK OF PC software: I know Pc users often get gaming headsets and they’re not the target, but having no software is frustrating. See next sectioSMART PAUSE: first let me say, I was ready to return these things. Every time I looked down to my paper when taking notes, it would turn the head set off, then when I looked back up, it would go back on. That’s smart pause. As I understand it, the feature serves to turn the headset off when you’ve dropped them to your shoulders or take them off, but Once you break the headset in and it starts getting uncalibrated from putting it on difference surfaces, the pauses happen at even less deliberate movements of your head. Small tilts of the head would cause it to pause. I tried turning off smart pause on the iPhone app but after I closed the app the settings would never save when I connected to my pc and disconnected from phone Bluetooth . I almost gave up but after a software update, I was able to turn off smart pause permanently by toggling it off in the app!The noise cancelling on these headphones is extremelyIt’s hard to describe but it feels as though the noise cancelling completely mutes ambient noises without making you feel like you’re on completely silenced from everything going on around you. If the door bell rings or something, I usually can still hear it if the volume isn’t too high which is a feature I appreciate.That said, if you’re using them to block out all noise, like on an airplane or something, I’d prefer something a little stronger – but these are perfect for my usage.Range; I can still hear these things in my bathroom upstairs, surprisingly excellentSound quality: very high for wireless, but I’m not much of an audiophile.Battery life: once you turn off smart pause( which is a must if you intend on moving your head at all while using these) it’s pretty bad. It’s been 2 months and I think I get 10 hours of battery on a full charge ? Maybe it’s the industry standard but I’m constantly needing to charge these.Build quality; feels great at first but even after a few months of use, I can tell the frames feels flimsy, I feel like it would snap immediately if I stepped on them or something. Looks good, but definitely cheap materials outside actual ear pad radius
Jeremy Modjeska –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound but serious bluetooth problems and lots of other annoyances
These headphones sound great. Even with a low-quality bluetooth source you still get a solid listening experience. I’m happy with the noise cancelation, comfort, real leather that doesn’t flake off, and the aesthetic style.There are, unfortunately, two bluetooth-related issues that substantially detract from the listening experience and subtract at least one star from what would otherwise be a solid set of headphones: First, they strongly prefer pairing to MacBooks. I’ve had to permanently unpair them from my MacBook because anytime it’s within range, asleep or not, the headphones abandon whatever other device they’re actively paired with in favor of the laptop, resulting in playback stopping. Second, when paired with multiple Apple devices (such as an iPhone and an iPad), the headphones pause upon *any* notification — regardless of your notification settings and even if both devices are set to DND mode. It’s incredibly annoying. Both of these issues are discussed on Reddit if you want to learn more. Both issues have workarounds, but they are cumbersome and disruptive.In addition to the bluetooth challenges, there are quite a number of poor design choices and other inconveniences that, while not bearing on the sound quality, interfere with usability, including: the app adds no value and introduces needless complexity; Smart Pause is a gimmick that, if it’s even necessary to include at all, ought to be disabled by default; the metal hinges can pinch your skin when you unfold them if you aren’t careful; the headphones only charge with the USB-C cable provided and not any other USB-C cable in the universe; likewise, the analog audio input is a proprietary 2.5mm jack with a locking mechanism that makes it incompatible with normal headphone cables and unnecessarily difficult to use.I’m a simple person who just wants some normal headphones that play my dang music and don’t give me a hard time about it. These sound fantastic but they don’t play nice with bluetooth without a lot of hassle, and their software and interfaces leave a lot to be desired.
One person found this helpful
Mike Pratt –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great, with a few things to discuss
After using them for a month or so…It came with a warning, but when they pinch you…all you think about is that warning. It hurt so bad, I would really keep out of reach of children..The off “button” is folding the left speaker in. So, if they aren’t folded, they are on. I would prefer an on button or switch.Audio quality is awesome, 8/10. Not too much bass.Bluetooth seems to cut in and out on all devices I use it on (Steamdeck, Laptop, phone). It’s not all the time and I can’t quite tell if it’s something with the headphones or the environment I’m in, so I didn’t dock anything for this.The wire , to make them a ‘wired headset’, seems to be a propriety wire, so don’t lose it.Using them in wired mode disables the Bluetooth, so it won’t waste battery.They are very comfortable for me, I wear them all day at my shops. It’s really easy to swap between music and phone calls.You can pair two devices at the same time, but only plays audio from one at a time. It automatically changes when it detects audio from the other source.All in all I would buy again, on sale, not for MSRP.
One person found this helpful
Ismael Wayne –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great headphones with a couple of issues
I’ve been rocking Sennheiser headphones for years so when I saw that they had an upgrade for the Momentum 2, I went and bought the Momentum 3. First off, the sound quality is superb. Very vibrant with good bass. The build quality is definitely great and a staple for Sennheiser headphones. I love the fact that they added physical buttons on the headphones instead of the toggle in the hd1. Closing the headphones to turn them off is a great feature as well. The noise canceling is cool, but there are other headphones that do it a bit better. One issue that I had was the autoplay/pause when taking off your headphones is incredibly fickle. There were times where I would just move my head and the music would pause and it would take way too much adjustments to get the music to play again without auto pausing. I ended up turning off the feature altogether. Also, another issue or maybe I don’t understand the point of the transparent hearing feature. There’s not really a difference with it on or off. Outside of those two issues, these headphones are fantastic. Battery power is good. I keep them charged so I don’t have an issue with it. It doesn’t have aptHD which is unfortunate, but the sound is still great nonetheless. Definitely cop these as a suitable replacement for your headphones and hopefully, if possible, there’s perhaps an update for them to fix those isdies
tomgar –
4.0 out of 5 stars
The versatile one
After a lot of searching I settled on these because I was looking for these requirements:- aptx LL for single player gaming and watching videos on my laptop on my nintendo switch and PC- good sound reproduction- bluetooth multi-point pairing and easy switching between devices- Good call quality- Good comfort- Decent portability- Transparent hearingI think when all these points are taken together, these headphones seem to be the best option of the ones I’ve seen (assuming price isn’t too much of a constraint). It’s not fantastic sounding (there are better sounding wireless headsets) and it doesn’t have the best feature set (ldac or aptx hd or aptx adaptive would’ve been nice), but because it hit all the points above I’m pretty happy with it. Here are a few highs and lows:Highs- Built in equalizer that can be configured via the phone app (set it once and it’s saved directly into the headphones, no matter what device you’re connected to). This was a lifesaver because the bass region on these headphones are overly emphasized. Applying -3dB helped them sound a little more neutral.- Multi-point pairing is a little wonky (can be slow in connecting/disconnecting) but generally works really well- App allows easily switching between connected bluetooth devices- 3 Different levels of ANC, plus ability to turn ANC and transparent hearing off- Folds for portability- usb c charging- lightweightLows- No track skip button on headphones, only play/pause and volume. Disappointing that volume buttons can’t be used for this.- Overemphasized bass (although EQing gets it down to an acceptable level)- No aptx-hd or ldac streaming. Realistically there are probably other elements in the audio chain that are limiting this though (e.g. Spotify).- Only way to power off is to fold in headphones (no power button)
Michael –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could have been great (I compared to a few models now)
So I really wanted these to be amazing for the $350 price tag. Overall they’re a beautiful product, here are my thoughts.Look: They look awesome and have a really cool style to them.Feel: Very comfortable, the cushions don’t put too much pressure on your ears or the top of your head. Your entire ear will fit in the cushion which was a huge selling feature for me.Music: These things rock when it comes to soundBattery: Battery life sucks of these… The advertised hours are a joke, you’ll be lucky if you get 4 hours before they die on you.Charging: You have to fold them for them to charge, which is annoying if you have a headphone stand or under desk hanger.USB-C: The USB-C charger was a great featureBluetooth: Yeah the bluetooth would get super confused when connected to two devices, which they advertise as a feature. It’s just not smart enough yet there.ANC: Not great, and honestly very upsetting. Depending on how you move your head the ANC changed… and it didn’t do much.Power-On/Off: So you can’t leave them unfolded if you want them to power off and charge, you need to fold them up for that to work, and like i said before, it’s very annoying. The engineers try too hard to be “progressive” with their tech, without regular people testing the product first.Final thoughts: I decided to go with the Sony WH-1000XM4 ANC which were $299 and were almost perfect in every category but a handful: Style was ‘eh’ and the cushions are pleather and small, so they put pressure on your ear and make you sweat. For someone who wears glasses the Sony’s were very uncomfortable for long term use. However the battery life and literally every other feature was UNREAL. I would wear the sonys for 14 hours straight and still have battery left over for the next day. After Apple announced their new AirPod Max (over-ear ANC headphones) I decided to try them out. Turns out they are EVEN BETTER than the Sony. Ears fir inside the cushion, cushion is fabric and you don’t sweat, the ANC is actually much better, and the bluetooth easily connected between my apple iphone and macbook. The price was steep, and the weird purse thing is a joke, but if you can get past that I have to say I was really impressed with the Apple product so they made the cut and are now my final choice.
2 people found this helpful
Nathanael Roberts –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing Product Through and Through
I think this is a superior alternative to the popular ANC headphone brands (Sony, Bose, Beats), as the sound quality is on another level. The Sony 1000Xm4’s don’t sound bad by any means, but these have so much more track separation and nuance. This becomes immediately apparent when you’re listening to music with multiple layers.Bass resonates deep and is clear. The highs sparkle. The mids are recessed a bit but lush, giving you a warm, clear sound all the way through. Easy to listen to for hours. I LOVE these!The earcups are also rather roomy. My ears don’t touch anything at all. However, the bottom of the ear cushion has just a bit too much force against my head, and my head is on the narrow side. It’s not uncomfortable though.ANC is pretty effective. Not as much as the Sony 1000Xm4’s, but it’s on the upper end of things.IMO the volume buttons on the right earcup are too similar. It’s hard to tell if you’re pressing the pause button or the volume button. You eventually learn which is which though, and you can feel around to figure it out. It would help if Sennheiser gave the middle button a different texture or elevation. Shouldn’t be that hard of an R&D fix.There’s 2 things I really don’t like about this product:1. The carrying case is trash for headphones this expensive. The top and bottom are hard shelled, but it’s a compressible case, so I wouldn’t completely trust it to protect the headphones. It’s a good thing they have exceptional build quality.2. The headphones automatically turn on and off by opening and closing the headphones. I think this is stupid. If I want to wear the headphones around my neck while they’re off. I should be able to. Sennheiser should have put on a power button and made the auto-on/off feature optional through the app.Overall though, these are amazing. Even at the original retail price of $400, I would consider these to be pretty good, but at $277 here, it’s no question. They’re worth it, for sure. I think they’re better quality headphones than the Sony 1000X m4 and the Bose NC 700’s due to superior sound and build quality. They’re headphones after all. Audio is the reason we use them in the first place.
3 people found this helpful
Andy Finley –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent sound, if a bit warm
I ordered this set as well as a pair of Beyerdynamic Amion Wireless headphones to compare against each other. After a considerable period of online research and review-reading, I had narrowed my choices down to these two. Honestly, it wasn’t even close. The Sennheisers sound far better, fit better, have better BT connectivity and are MUCH cheaper. The Amions, while good, were certainly not good enough to justify the almost $600 price tag. If they were priced at closer to $200, then sure. I will say that I haven’t yet had a chance to deal with all of the various and sundry buttons on the Sennheisers, or use them on a phone call (but my main use for these will be at work, so I don’t anticipate taking calls while wearing them), so I can’t attest to those aspects–and I absolutely refuse to use the noise cancellation, so I am very happy that I can turn it off with a switch, rather than needing a software function through an app, like the Bose QC line. Sound quality is the number one variable for me and using noise cancellation is like trying to listen to music through two bowls of pea soup. Now, as the headline suggests, the sonic quality of these is excellent–especially considering these are BT headphones–but I will say that the overall character of the sound is a wee bit too warm for my taste. It’s not mushy–there is good detail and punch–but these were definitely designed to appeal to a more consumer-friendly ear (because consumers have been taught over the past 30 years that tons of bass is more important than overall sound quality). Fortunately, for me, that’s not enough of a problem to overcome all of the positives with this product. I plan to use the Sennheiser app just long enough to adjust the EQ on the headset, and then I’m done with it. If Sennheiser wants my data, they can buy it from me, not Hoover it out of my phone for free.
4 people found this helpful
Grey –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely designed, good sounding headphones, abysmal auto-pause
These are my third pair of fancy over ear headphones (the second wireless pair, since my B&O’s from like 2016 are wired). I bought them on the basis of their design, discounted price, as well as just straight up taking the chance to try a new audio-centric brand.These are beautiful headphones when you’re looking at them from a distance, but don’t really hold up to closer scrutiny. The leather that is present here seems cheap and thin, the metal serves a purpose but feels so plastic-y it might as well be a part of the rest of the plastic built into the earcups. I suppose all those statements come off harsher than they should, since at least Sennheiser is trying harder than many other companies making headphones in this category made of nothing but trashy soft touch plastic. I’m an admitted snob who wants headphones that feel like timeless expression pieces rather than chunks of disposable tech, but aside from B&O (who have always existed in the realm of absurd prices, but some of their latest stuff…ugghhh, they do not even remotely have interest in the wallets of the plebs) headphones in this premium consumer pricepoint (200-500ish) just really don’t have much of an interest in building themselves from truly premium materials. It is what it is I suppose.The sound quality is great. I’m no audiophile though. I suppose I’m kind of a wannabe audiophile since I keep returning to the well of fancy, multi-hundred dollar headphones every few years, but no matter how much money I throw down I’ve never been like “yes, this mid-range is clearly worth the additional $50 dollars.” I think that’s the trap of fancy headphone buying for the average person really. If you’re buying headphones in excess of $200 bucks, they’re going to sound really great. You’ll want to wear them to listen to your music or watch movies more so than anything less than that pricepoint, and that’s about it. There is a LEGION of people who would theoretically say that I’m extraordinarily ignorant as to the nuances of headphones and audio playback and good for them. I’m not that audience, and I don’t pretend to write for that audience now.The only real reason why I would say that you should not rush out and buy these headphones immediately is that the auto-pause is shockingly poor. There is this feature embedded in the headphones that is of course meant to auto-play when you put the set on, and auto-pause when you take them off. The sensor that is meant to detect your head is far too sensitive. When this feature is enabled, the headphones are essentially unusable unless you are the type to keep your head rigidly stiff and unmoving. To be fair, the supporting documentation does address this by saying that if you experience this problem you should simply keep the headphones flat after turning on to allow the headphones to calibrate properly. This “solution” works maybe 50% of the time (usually less), and therefore the auto-pause feature remains abysmal. And depending on the content that you are watching/listening to, sometimes the auto-pause cannot be easily corrected. I’ve had the headphones auto-pause, and I have to go so far as to turn off the headphones and turn them back on again in order to make them function properly. That is not acceptable. I updated the firmware for the headphones, and the problem persisted.You can turn off the feature entirely through the Sennheiser Smart Control app. Once you do the headphones become much more usable. You can use these headphones perfectly well once that feature is turned off, but my Microsoft Surface Headphones 2 are much more capable and reliable when it comes to its auto-pause feature. And so if there is a better alternative that offers a more reliable feature for a cheaper price, can I really recommend the Sennheiser headphones?…they look really great (from a distance). They sound really great too (but so do a bunch of headphones). Do with that what you will.
5 people found this helpful
Patrick –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Warranty replacement pair have worked flawlessly since I returned orig
Bought original pair 2.5 years ago and within 3 months of gentle use the bluetooth connection started cutting out. Refurbished, replacement headphones have worked perfectly since then. Great sound. Great bass.
Vic WUVic WU –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quality management ?
(Sorry, my English is not good, most of the following are directly presented by the translator)This is my first time shopping on Amazon, and I also chose to buy this headset when the price was reduced. I tried many wireless earphones in the earphone store. This one is my favorite with B&W PX7, followed by Sony WH1000XM4, and I chose the professional SennheiserI waited with excitement and anticipation for this headset to arrive. He came three days earlier than expected, which is great!But… I didn’t expect that when I used it for the first time, there was no sound in the left ear. No, there was a sound before. It was about 10 minutes. When I took off the headset and took a break, he didn’t make any sound anymore.In detail, the first time I used it, there was no sound in the left ear, no beep, and sound was only in the right ear when playing music. Then I tried to change the device connection, Bluetooth or 3.5mm, but failed to make the left ear sound.After tossing for an hour, I gave up, let’s charge it first,After charging, I connected the phone with 3.5mm, and found that the left ear suddenly had a sound.I was very happy at this time, but as just said, when I rested for a while, my left ear fell asleep…?! He didn’t wake up until I returned the product…WTF…When I reacted with Amazon customer service, I got many suggestions and test steps. I am very happy to be the first one to serve me. I tested it that night, resetting the headset system and updating the firmware, but I still couldn’t solve it.When I request the support of Amazon customer service again, they are willing to help me replace the new product, but in the last step, my area cannot do this replacement for me?I encountered a product defect the first time I made a purchase on Amazon, and the best thing for me was a refund…I was very polite and polite to communicate with the customer service throughout the whole process. Although my English is not good, I believe that the other party can feel my respect and politeness. (The conversation records have screenshots)In the end, I got a refund, and I had to wait for the price of the product to drop, and then re-purchase when the price I wanted was reached.I did not accuse any customer service staff, they also spent their energy and time to serve me,It’s just that I feel sad and a little angry. The shopping experience is unpleasant and disappointing.I’m not sure if it’s correct to share here, just to express my feelings. I’m going to return the product in these two days, and wait and try my luck to check the price. When the price of the headset drops again, I will buy it again…Sennheiser’s HD600/660S/IE400 are all headphones I own and like. I didn’t expect the quality of wireless products to surprise me…
Jonathan –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Before you buy, what you need to know
Summary: the Momentum 3s sound great and are well built. Fantastic for music, and good enough for calls.Sound quality: This is the reason to splurge for the Momentum 3s. Great, full-range, tight bass, clear mids and highs. Make sure you’ve enabled aptX and the maximum bitrate for AAC (search online for instructions on Mac and Android). If you install the Sennheiser app, you can change equalizer settings, like if you want Beats-level bass boost. After playing around, I decided I like the default sound best.Video: Sounds great. I’ve experienced no lag with Netflix, YouTube, or Prime Video.Comfort: Like all over-ear headphones, these can get a little warm. Fine for me. They’re also heavier than the all-plastic Bose 700 and Sony XM3, because the Momentum 3s are built with real metal and leather. Weight is similar to the B&W PX7 and B&O H9. I find it ok, and worth it for the sound quality.Bluetooth: They pair with 2 devices concurrently for audio, and I have them paired with 3 devices in total (MacBook, iPad, and Android phone). Switching works fine.Controls: They have physical buttons that you learn to find by touch. I find them more reliable and less finicky than touch gestures. (The H9 touch controls didn’t work for me at all.) The setting to auto-mute when you remove from your head just didn’t work properly for me though. It would mute and unmute if I nodded my head. I turned off the setting, and don’t miss it. Not a big deal. The transparency mode is easy to activate with a switch. Some reviewers complain about how you have to fold them to turn them off. I find it no big deal — it’s easy to see that they’re folded and off, vs not being sure if the little red light is on.Build quality: High quality. Solid. Real metal and leather. Downside: they’re a little heavier than all-plastic cans like Bose and Sony. I pinched myself with the metal when unfolding them. I can deal.Case construction: Nice round case, looks high end. It’s soft, not hard. It’s small enough for my carry on bag and commuter bag. It includes a pocket for a cable in case your battery runs down. Works for me.Call quality: Sound is great when other people are speaking. At first, I found them pretty awkward for calls, due to the lack of sidetone (hearing your own voice), and would have recommended them only for occasional calls, not if you make lots of video and phone calls. Then I discovered that the app has a setting to give you sidetone! Turn on Transparency mode, and check the box to play music at the same time. Now you can hear the outside world, including your own voice, so you know you’re not shouting. Problem solved!Noise cancellation: Not the main reason why I bought them. This is a bonus feature for me. It helps with public transit and plane noise, and definitely gets the level down enough to make the music or video sound enjoyable. If your #1 goal is noise cancellation, Bose or Sony is probably what you want.Design: It’s subjective. I like the look better than all but the Bang & Olufsen H9s. The white + brown version of the M3s is stylish, though I went with the black.Conclusion: After extensively researching the options in this price range, and trying multiple headphones, this is the pair I’m keeping. For my personal preferences, these are a winner.
36 people found this helpful
Eric –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good sound quality, pretty barebones
I’m coming from a steelseries arctis pro for my stream setup and as amazing as that headset was I’m not that much of a gamer and more of an audiophile. I wanted a wireless headset made by an actual audio engineering company. My choices were bose, sony, and sennheiser, so I went with the sennys.I dunno if it’s the best of the big 3 bluetooth headphones but the audio is definitely incredible. Very balanced and capable of all ranges, base, treble, it’s all there. Soundstage is good. I do miss my open back philips for soundstage but no close back headphone will ever compare, it’s just not a thing. Music was the number one thing I got this headset for so I’m definitely satisfied.The features aren’t great. The best thing is the noise cancellation but form reviews I guess other headsets have better noise cancel. I don’t really need this feature but when I have it on I seem to enjoy the music more so that’s good.It charges slow. In fact, when plugged into a pc, it charges unbearably slow, I’ve never seen it charge above 40% connected to one. Definitely charge this thing with an ac adapter, not a computer.The thing automatically turns off if you take the headset off. Good on paper, terrible if you just want to rest it on your neck or desk and still want audio going. If you’re in a youtube app, pc or mobile, it’s gonna freeze as soon as it looses connection and rebuffer everything. This can be disabled in the app. There’s no power button on this thing. You have to fold it to shut it off. Even more annoying is to turn it on, you have to unfold it. Sometimes it doesn’t turn on like that. So you have to fold it and unfold it and wait for the light to turn on; it’s stupid, and that can’t be disabled in the settings.Volume buttons are not sliders, they seem to take my pc volume 6 points up or down. It’s a very dramatic volume change imo. Most people aren’t gonna find this a problem, I guess I just miss my volume slider on my arctis pro.The voice that tells you when the headset powers on or off is incredibly annoying, just disable it in the momentum app.The exposed wires are also kind of ugly. I dunno if I like the look of this headphone that much in general.Again if sound is your biggest preference none of this should be issues but I kind of wish sennheiser had more passion in making their headset easy to use too.
Olivia –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great sounding, but not worth the cost
I got these to be an upgrade from my Sennheiser 4.50HD set. Looking at review comparisons, I was expecting a little more noise cancellation and a lot more audio quality.This review will focus on comparing the two sets of headphones, since there’s a multitude of reviews that focus on just these. My direct review in one sentence, though, would be: “they sound great, block a decent amount of noise, have some convenient features, but end up being too expensive and don’t have enough battery life.”*AUDIO QUALITY*These sounded really good … but I couldn’t find any difference in these vs my existing headphones. I’m not a super audiophile, but I tried critically listening to various music, including some lossless stuff. I was hoping for an upgrade in the experience.*NOISE CANCELLATION*From what I’ve read, Sony is King here. That said, ratings reported better ANC from these than the 4.50HD set. They’re better with passive, due to the ear cups, but listening to some noises like water running, it felt like my existing set won by a small margin. I’ve brought my existing set on a plane shortly before buying the M3’s, and they performed quite well. ANC without music cut out some of the harsh tones of the engine and wind noise; music on low volume was enough to forget there was any noise. Turning ANC off while the music played resulted in an abrupt return to the noise, and now I couldn’t hear the singer, resulting in higher music volume to compensate.*COMFORT*These were a little more comfortable than the HD’s as the cups went over my ears instead of on them. Both headphones suffer from an unfortunate lack of enough padding at the top of the headband, resulting in the top of my head becoming sore after long sessions. Overall, I ended up listening for hours at a time, so it wasn’t totally awful. The ear pads are really nice, soft, and comfy!*FEATURES*I really liked the USB-C charging port which doubled as a path for audio. I wish it wasn’t in that exact spot though, as listening with the cable installed ended up bumping my shoulder a bunch.Audio transparency was kind of nice, with the ability to listen to the surroundings. It wasn’t quite as accessible as I’d have liked, but better than nothing.The auto pause/resume feature is a cool concept, but it ended up not working for me. Every time I would bend over to pick something up or look up at the ceiling, it would pause. If you sit still, this feature would probably be better for you. (A firmware update offered an option to make this less sensitive, but it didn’t improve by much.) The auto option can be turned off so it doesn’t drive you crazy.*BATTERY*I definitely found myself reaching for a charger more frequently with these headphones. I think if the USB C port was slightly relocated, and if I ended up using its cable, the battery wouldn’t be as much of a concern.*CONCLUSION*I really wanted to like these headphones, but the reasons for upgrade (USB C charging+audio, improved audio quality, auto pause/resume) ended up not meeting expectations. Had I never bought the HD’s and still been using cheap headphones, I’d probably have kept the M3’s, as they do sound incredible. But so do the ones that cost me a third of the price a few years ago. Have a look at the 4.50HD headphones – I think they’re discontinued now, but still offered on Amazon.
Sri –
4.0 out of 5 stars
High-End tuning and a Geekira headband have made these my favorite ANC headphones
Sound:Pretty much the main reason to get these. But, right out of the box, the sound quality is bass-heavy, which is not for me. The custom EQ options in the app is rather limiting with its 3 band EQ. You can use Poweramp’s 10 band parametric EQ (or any other parametric EQ options) to tweak the sound, but it was not convenient as setting the EQ from the app. As a result, this headphone was sitting unused for the most part while I preferred other ANC products. With the recent addition of the High-End tuning option in the app, the sound is closer to the Parametric EQ I was using (actually, I prefer it over the EQ I was using).ANC:ANC is just ok. Sennheiser’s ANC is not like the ANC you will get with Sony, Bose or even Anker. If you want to buy these for the ANC, you should look at other ANC headphones instead. That said, I find it comfortable and sufficient. I do not feel any ANC pressure with them and they are good enough for my usage. I have no idea if they will be sufficient in an airport, in a flight or in a noisy commute, but for everyday usage, they fit the bill.Comfort:The headband creates a hot spot after a couple of hours and you get slightly sore. I was never comfortable wearing them for longer period of time. I bought a headband cover and while the comfort is improved, it is not as comfortable as it should be. Padding is an overlooked aspect with these headphones and it should have been better. I find the ear pads plush and have no complaints. While your ear might get a litte hot after a while (ear pads are leather after all), they are not as bad as Anker Q30.Calls:Mic quality is not good enough for these to be used as your daily driver for calls. They are ok for normal usage.Battery life:Battery life is ok for casual use. This headphone cannot comapre to Anker Q30 (which offers a whooping 40 hr) or Sony’s WH headphones (which offer 30+ hours).To sum up, get these if you want better sound quality and if you are willing to tweak it a bit to get more comfort.
Amazon CustomerAmazon Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great headphones – especially on sale
I bought these for 225$ on Black Friday – for this price they are amazing. they are worth it for even more.Sound quality is great although the app is really disappointing. I had been using for years Sennheiser hd-25II and needed to get used to the sound which did not take that long, now they are far better than the HD25 for me.Mic quality – I am using those for MS Teams – no one complained about how I sound. the bluetooth multipoint works flawlessly: I listen to music on my phone while answering teams on pc when needed – I needed to cancel some sounds that I do not need on the pc so the headphones don’t interrupt my music for no good reason but that would be the case with any headphones. So now when I need to answer a call on pc, once I press the answer the headphones immediately change to pc sound and calls work great. the moment the call is ended the music is back on.Comfort – I was a bit disappointed and worried with the comfort at first, they were heavy on my head and pressured my ears. give them a few days- now I barely feel them and can use them for a long time without taking them off.I love the auto play/pause – it’s working great but can be disabled for those who don’t like it. also the on/off when opening/folding them is great.Battery – this is the weak point of the headphones but it’s okay.Noise cancellation – might not be the best, but I work in an open space with a lot of talking and putting the headphones on with anti pressure setting reduces a lot of the sound – then once music starts playing I can’t hear anything at all. really happy with that.The case is not that great and I bought a 3rd party one, but the original is fine if you don’t travel much.Overall these headphones are really great, especially at the lower price that they are now. I really care about audio quality so I did not want the XM4, I have not tried them but I think besides the battery life there would not be anything better for me in the Sony’s.
Dedrick –
3.0 out of 5 stars
I don’t know if I love them or hate them
— I’ve had these for a little over a year, and I really want to love them, but there are some serious flaws:1. noise cancellation is useless if there is any wind. The shape and placement of the mics amplifies the wind2. I don’t know why nearly every set of headphones does this, but placing the controls on the back means that leaning back or laying down hits the buttons3. the mechanism for holding the pads down keeps them from going back in place if the start to slid out, making the pads fall off fairly easily4. they can only connect to two devices. At first I thought this meant, like my other devices, that it could only USE 2 devices at once, but, no: it will only connect to two devices5. the first device you pair this with is labeled “phone 1,” EVERYTHING after that is labeled “phone 2” — remember when I said it’ll only connect to 2 devices? Good luck trying to track down what devices are connecting and keeping you from connecting to your intended device6. the phone app has only ever worked once for me, though, tbh, this seems on-par with all other bt headsets7. when on a call or using the mic, you can’t control the volume and you can’t listen to anything else besides that call8. only one source at a time. My last headset, a Turtle Beach headset, I could connect to FOUR at once. And Xbox source, headphone jack, and 2 bluetooth sources. That was awesome for long conferences9. it’s nearly impossible to switch bluetooth sources on purpose. If I get a spam call, I’ll need to turn them off and then back on to get any audio besides other phone calls10. pass-through sound always mutes the audio. If the app worked, it would be nice to be able to control the amount of pass-through sound vs audio11. WHY IN EARTH did they make the audio jack some weird tiny almost proprietary thing and not a normal jack?!The Good:1. They sound AMAZING. If I’m just sitting at my desk or relaxing at night, they are perfect2. The noise-cancellation works really well, especially when you’re actually listening to something. This along with the great sound will have me lost in my music, movies, or games3. I really like the carrying case it came with. Yeah, it’s not a solid case, but it fits all cables and chargers and the headset and fits really well in my backpack4. they seem really sturdy. I recklessly thrown these into my backpack a lot without packing them into their case, I sleep with them on, I’ve taken them camping/hiking: they’ve been through a lot5. These are hands-down the best looking headset in my opinion. Not too boring, not so flashy they look gameyThese have the potential to be my favorite headset ever, but they are ruined by lousy firmware that, hopefully, can be fixed later. I wouldn’t count on it though
7 people found this helpful
Jupiter137 –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound; decent noise canceling
I bought these as I obtained a job that would allow me to take multiple long haul flights throughout the year. I flew from Atlanta to Hanoi and these were stellar for blocking out the airplane humming and noises around me. I couldn’t even hear the flight attendants and their carts moving by. I have a rather large head at about 24.5,” and the only time these feel irritating is when I’m wearing a mask with an adjustable ear strap and the phones push down on those and my glasses behind my ears. With just my thick frames on, the headphones are noticeable and eventually that area right under just my right ear for some reason feels off from the pressure- it could be a sensory thing, however. Taking my fro out of these thin braids will determine how big-hair friendly they are. I bounced between these and the headphones provided for in-flight entertainment so I can’t speak much on the battery life during roughly 26 hours of travel. They definitely lasted at least half of that with a good bit left over once I got to my destination.When carpooling with my coworkers in a minivan, I could hear EVERYTHING they were saying while listening to my music and I got very grumpy haha. They do block out my air/con, dehumidifier, and purifier in my home- none of which are on full blast, however. These are good for toning down a sea of not too close and moderate sounds, but NOT loud adults within less than an arm’s reach. I think probably the BOSE QC that I tried a few years back would be the only ones to accomplish that- possibly the newer Sony pair as well.I’m not an audiophile, but the sound on these is extremely rich. I feel immersed in my music fully and am able to completely zone out- which is hard for me to accomplish when I notice the sound is lacking, tinny, uneven, flat, or distant sounding. I think the real test of a good sound set is acoustic music- I’ve listened to the Piano Guys, Anoushka Shankar, Arab National Orchestra, Ballaké Sissoko, and… simply phenomenal.
One person found this helpful
RalphieDalphie –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Almost Perfect!
Primary to me is sound quality. My roommate has both the old Wireless Bose and new Bose 700 and the Sennheiser sounds better. I purchased for comparison and later returned Sony’s WH-1000xm4. Sony’s app and their LDAC codec doesn’t save the WH-1000xm4 from the beating the Sennheisers Momentum 3 give it. The Sony and Bose headphones are better for traveling, but the Sennheiser PCX 550 is the best choice for commuting. The PCX 550 have smaller drivers than the Momentum 3 with a similar sound signature but not as powerful. I would have given the Momentums 5 stars but the fold down hinges on the head band can pinch and you can injure your hands (or anything else that gets caught). The Momentum 3 is capable of loud, robust sound. The sound is realistic, never shrill or tiring. The music comes from around you, not in your head. If you love bass, these deliver. I like electric music- Elderbrook, Rufus du Sol, Emerson Lake and Palmer. You will enjoy Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues, Hendrix, Prince, and come to think about it, I can’t think of any music that I didn’t enjoy on these Sennheisers! Just be careful when you open or close these cans or you WILL BE PINCHED by the headband!
One person found this helpful
Bradly Tillmann –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Using these with the cord gave me high blood pressure
If sennheiser had these things just grant you the privilege of using the analog input when they die, and not only when you turn them off with a charge, this would be 5 stars.You’re headphones died during a meeting? Lol, that sounds like a personal problem. Sennheiser’s “advanced” features will be sure to remind you how hard you just screwed up by forgetting that charge a single time. You need to turn them off the “proper” way to get that audio input working. The included port and audio cable is now just a little tease to make the impact even more painful. Time to break out the ol “bruise buds” and try your best to keep the boiling rage and frustration you just spent your tax return on from coming through on call.In short, these are terrible. Do not buy them. The audio quality is impressive, but you’re lucky if you can actually get them to work consistently. Every standard feature, every single bit of basic expected functionality you’ll find on literally anything else on planet earth is not included, or “works differently”.
One person found this helpful
Alex S –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing (besides the case)
I’m a mostly earbud user. Lately I’ve had the Sony XM3’s and I’ve just gotten some Jabra 75T’s. A little background, I’m in the electrical line industry. That means a ton of traveling, a lot of living in loud hotels, and not a lot of isolation. I loved the Sony earbuds ANC, but hated the lack of water resistance. In my industry we’re working in the rain, so I had to switch to the Jabras, which means I required a set of ANC headphones. Now let’s get to the Sennheisers!-The case sucks. You’re most likely going to be traveling with these, and a soft case is a no-go. I bought a separate hard case for them on amazon, problem solved, just something to be aware of. If you’re not traveling a lot, the case should be fine.-the sound is insane. Crystal clear, bass is plenty FOR MOST but I’m beyond impressed. I just got them but I’ve played six genres already and they all sounded great.-Coming from the Sony Earbuds, the ANC is really good, but if you’re someone whose had top of the line ANC headphones in the past, I’m not sure how it would stack up. I did notice that the Sony 1000 series over the war set did have better ANC than these, though these will drown out plenty.-Aesthetically, these look better than 95% of the market in my eyes. Also the earcups feel comfortable and luxurious.-Price: they are worth it.-The app is not as good as Sony’s but the EQ is simple enough to play with and it’s easy to get to what you want.-I prefer hard buttons over touch controls, especially at the gym, so this works for me. If you want touch controls, Sony is your place.-battery life is good if you’re coming from earbuds, but bad if you’ve been rocking wireless over the ear sets. Me personally, I’m cool with it, but that’s because I have the jabra’s to pick up the slack If need be.So all in all, I’m feeling pretty great about the sennheisers. Get a hard shell case and you’ll have a great set of ANC headphones!
2 people found this helpful
Keith –
4.0 out of 5 stars
5/5 sound, 2/5 on ANC VS Sony WH-1000XM3
I am comparing the Momentum 3 with Sony WH-1000XM3 that I also own. I am using Galaxy S10, Macbook Pro 2017, Tidal Hifi to test them.Sound: It is definitely an upgrade from the Sony. Much better sound stage and warmer sound. Bass is a bit boosted but the phone app has EQ, so you can tune it the way you want. I noticed cracking/popping sound when I use it with Macbook pro. It pops for a few seconds for every song. No issue with my phone. Both MBP and GS10 are using APTX.Noise cancelling: Very disappointing. It can block some fan/AC noise. But totally unable to block datacenter server noise. The Sony won by a mile.Comfort: Material is premium. Clamming force is just about the right amount to keep it on my head securely. Heavier than Sony but not enough to bother me. I still give Sony a slight win in this department.Portability: It does not fold flat like the Sony. So the carrying case is a lot bigger than Sony’s. And the case is not hard enough to protect the headphones. And since it doesn’t fold flat, you can’t hang it around the neck. Sony +1.Features: Connect 2 devices at once. This should be industry standard, but Sony can only do 1 at a time. Momentum 3 auto pause when you take off headphones, I love it. Physical buttons, I like it more than touch ear cups on the Sony.Conclusion: I bought these headphones hoping to replace my Sony. But I think I can only use this in the office. Its difficult to carry around and noise cancelling is pretty useless. If I can only keep one pair, I will choose the Sony. One last thing, for $400, a pair of sound quality focus headphones don’t have APTX-HD support? Come on, Sennheiser!
302 people found this helpful
Joe K –
5.0 out of 5 stars
First impression review.
I want to note that this is a first use, first impression review. If I feel the need, I will update after some use.I’ve long been a fan of Sennheiser headphones; wired earbuds, wireless earbuds, wired cans, wireless cans…I’ve owned 6 or 7 different Sennheiser headphones products, and have enjoyed them all.The Momentum 3 headphones are no exception to my love of Sennheiser. I absolutely love the look and feel, the use of actual metal in the construction gives them a nice, less plastic look. The headphones comfortably sit over my ears with no crushing/pinching which leads to discomfort.Sound quality: I don’t know all the terminology people like to use when talking audio, so I’ll just say that the overall sound is nicely balanced with good bass and not overly bright on the highs. Most impressive to me, I experience a depth of sound not experienced with lesser headphones, it feels like a 3d experience.Battery life appears adequate. I have no complaints.Fit and finish is excellent. If there was one knock imo, the case is a little cheap, but it’s functional and not a detraction.I forgot these were noise cancelling. I’d say the noise cancellation is adequate but not spectacular. If that’s important to you, check some comparison reviews first.Final note: I would recommend these headphones if asked for a recommendation. And if I had to make the purchase again, I would.
Brian Koury –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic sound quality
I was looking for a great-sounding pair of ANC headphones. I read many reviews before I made my decision to go with the Sennheiser Momentum 3s. I probably own too many pairs of headphones already, but I love listening to great audio so I consider them a good investment. Have everything from Beats to Bose to JBL etc. When I looked at these I was comparing them with some of the usual big hitters in ANC – Sony XM4s and Bose 700s.My #1 interest above all was audio quality. I use them mostly at home when working on my laptop. The best ANC or call quality wasn’t my pure focus since I don’t use them much for travel or business calls. So many of the reviews I read touted the Momentum 3s as superb sound quality and a great choice if you’re looking for amazing sounding audio above all else. So I purchased these and let me say that I was not disappointed. These sound fantastic – crisp and well-balanced audio. Everything sounds so clean and yet powerful. I love them. I also really like the retro styling of these. I went with the Sandy White pair and they just look cool and classy.If you’re looking for the best all-around or more concerned with ANC and battery life, then there may be slightly better options out there – but for what I was looking for and putting audio quality above all else, these are absolutely fantastic. I listen to many different genres of music and they all sound great on these. There is plenty of bass if that’s what you’re looking for but not overwhelming and not at the cost of losing any of the balance in the mids/highs. The graphic equalizer on the Sennheiser app is nice if you want to make some tweaks to the sound.Bottom line – if you’re looking for a great sounding pair of high-quality headphones, these are an excellent choice!
One person found this helpful
ReluctantAmazonUser –
5.0 out of 5 stars
My god. It’s like I have new ears.
I’m coming from the Skullcandy Crusher Evos because I’m a child who likes two subwoofers clamped to his head. I read that these were great for bass, and uhhh I thought I received a messed up set. No, I just didn’t understand the point of audiophile headphones. It took awhile to get used to the lack of bump, but hearing music as it was originally intended to sound is just incredible. And if you think I sound like I’m sipping the koolaid, trying to justify my purchase, I get it. It’s something you just have to experience. And I really wanted to return these because it was an idiotic, unnecessary purchase that I didn’t need to make. BUT BACK TO IT the instrumental separation… I didn’t even know what that meant until today! I’m up at 2:15am relistening to and reappreciating every song in my collection. It’s like hearing them for the first time again.I’m also glad I went for these over the newer model, Momentum 4. I have no experience with it but these hit all my marks and beyond. There are three YouTube videos, somewhat hard to find due to the Momentum 3 earbuds, that go over the differences between the two. I would recommend viewing those before making your decision.
One person found this helpful
Steve –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good over all, high quality product from my experience
Basing this review off headphones I have to compare it with as a casual headphone user, I have the QC25 and Sony WH-1000XM3. Listening to music on Spotify.Sound: Sennheiser takes the win in the sound quality category for sure, when testing side by side along the other two, it provides a much more immersive experience and clearer bass than the other two.Comfort:I would rank the Sennheiser momentum 3 comfort to be under the QC25 and above the Sony. Sennheiser is a bit heavier compared to the other two, but at the same time the plush padding makes up for it, but still the Bose is more comfortable to wear for long duration.Noise isolation: Sennheiser ranks last in terms of noise cancellation, but this does not really affect me too much as my room is fairly quiet already and I don’t take these headphone out too often. but if Noise isolation is something you need to have, i would go with the Sony as a better over all pick.Connection: I havent had any issue with the sennheiser, but i do notice the wireless connection on the Sony is a stronger and more stable at longer range.I personally like the physical buttons on the Sennheiser vs the Sony, as it gives instant feed back where as touch control can activate the wrong button. Software wise I would have to give it to the Sony as the Sony has much more option and adjustment available also comes with many preset EQ.
Samantha Biuso –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bass is inferior to other, cheaper headphones.
NOTE: MY REVIEW IS BIASED TOWARD BASS LOVERS AND PC GAMING!I found myself stumbling along this product after I was recommended the Sennheiser brand. I’m pretty new to the headphone scene, but I had been using Skullcandy Crusher Evos previous to these, which had incredible bass-boosting properties and sound quality. These in comparison mostly give a crisp, clean sound—which, there’s nothing wrong with that! Just not the sound I was looking for.If you want deep, enriching bass in your headphones I’d look elsewhere, but for a more clean refreshing sound this can be nice…but for a $400 base price? Not worth it for all the overly complicated Bluetooth technology implemented in it, as well as weird buttons and inputs that were overall more annoying than anything. For instance, the headset would stop music when I take it off, but I found that it would cause my headset to just randomly turn off despite them being on my head…Yeah, not the best.As someone who uses my headset for both PC gaming and for everyday use listening to music, these won’t give you a sound that’s good for those action scenes and button inputs. Normally that would be expected since a history of Bluetooth headphones tends to underperform outside of phones, but again, Crusher Evos seem to do fine here.I bought these at a major discount and still returned them. ($250) Hopefully this review helps!
One person found this helpful
Fent –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poor noise cancellation, mediocre battery life. But surprisingly good sound
So while I would not consider myself an “audiophile”. I do like a rich and vibrant sound. This headset while having what, I personally would call a poor battery life, as its closer to 10 hours at best. As to the noise cancellation, I had to turn it off and on like 30 times to figure out if there was even a difference. The off the head sleep mode, was annoying and I had to turn that off, if the headset was even a tad off your ear it would turn off. I can see moving it down to the neck doing to sleep but even pulling it away from your ear for more than a few seconds it would turn off.The redeeming feature, to me was the sound quality. The range was very surprising for me and their was a rich and great sound (at least to my ear) on the default settings for Low, Mid and High, so was great across the range.I did notice what many complain about the popping and crackling in Bluetooth mode. However, for me this only occurs when I have it linked to more than 1 Bluetooth device. So I find myself clearing the pairing list often, as I move it between devices.With the drawbacks, maybe it should really be a 3 star. But I was impressed with the sound quality to feel it deserved less than a 4.
2 people found this helpful
Carlos B. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Basshead Audiophile’s Dream!!!
My review here is going to focus mostly on sound quality (and ANC). The tech features – bluetooth, mobile app, battery life, etc. – that all works as advertised, and there isn’t much more to add.I think one of the most important things to call out when discussing sound is perspective. I would call myself a “basshead audiophile”. By this I mean, I enjoy focused listening and enjoying the details in music – BUT for me, this still includes bass. This is likely tied to the genres of music I listen to most, which are EDM, Hip-Hop, R&B, Alternative, Pop, some Rock. I own eight pairs of headphones right now for different purposes, and the M3s sit in what I would call the “all arounder” category – meaning they are versatile enough to enjoy any of the genres I listen to when I want to have a session of focused listening. What makes them great is that they also have the features to be a “daily driver” as well – meaning, the headphones you use in most situations overall. For the price, in my view, they are a steal. Ok, let’s get into the sound, which will focus on a few categories – loudness/clarity, tonal balance, bass, mids, highs, soundstage/positioning, ANC, listening mode, other considerations.LOUDNESS/CLARITY:These headphones have relatively big dynamic drivers, and they produce big sound. Optimal listening volume for me has been around the 70-90% range, depending on how I’m feeling. These can be connected via bluetooth, USB-C or 3.5mm, and I’ve found USB-C gets slightly louder than bluetooth (though both are more than loud enough IMO), and of course the loudness when connected to 3.5mm will depend on the power of the device to which you’re connecting the cans.Clarity is very good as well. Straight out of the box, cranked at max volume, distortion is not an issue. Since you can EQ these with the Sennhsiser app, it is possible to get them to distort by cranking up all of the EQ settings and volume to max, but that is a pretty extreme scenario.TONAL BALANCE:Out of the box, these are definitely a “warm” sound signature – meaning, the low end of the spectrum is elevated. For the M3s, this starts at the lower mids and continues to the sub-bass. This does NOT mean the mids and highs are overshadowed or not present; that is not the case. I would call the balance low-end forward, but that low end still layers into the rest of the spectrum very well. Benefit of that Sennheiser engineering. Keep in mind the smart control app allows you to adjust the tonal balance via EQ, and the headphones respond very well to EQ adjustments (and allow you to save multiple EQ profiles for quick swaps).An example here, I listen to a lot of Trance EDM that has very important low end but at also has a lot of high-end details. My most-used EQ ups the lows by 1dB and ups the highs by 3dB. They sound great out of the box, but being able to tweak to your liking is even better. Very versatile.BASS:These cans are a bass lover’s dream. The bass volume and impact is there without question. Out of the box there is already significant bass volume, and it can be EQ’d to be straight up banging – to the point that your ears will vibrate. It’s a woofer on your head situation. That said, the bass is not at all messy or overly boomy unless the track calls for it. The set always feels in control and cleanly layered into the mix. The bass has good depth at the mid-bass and sub-bass levels. The cans also shine on bass detail. The genres I listen to have a lot of tracks that have fast-moving, layered bass lines, and they really shine on this set.MIDS:The two things that immediately come to mind when I think about the mids on this set are recessed and smooth. The way the mids are presented in the overall soundstage (will get to that shortly) makes them feel slightly recessed, but not in a bad way. Vocals, for example, come through clearly but always in their own distinct space, and that space is very rarely “right in your face”. If you’ve ever listened to any of the AirPods lines, they are very vocal-forward and bright; that is not the case here (unless you EQ them up). The smoothness and clarity of the mids plus the combination of the natural warmth of the set really work well together.HIGHS:The highs on these are also very good but not necessarily the star. By that I mean the lows and mids are an A, and the highs are maybe an A- or B+. This is mostly because the highs are not as sharply elevated as the lows, so there is some roll-off at the very upper ends. This can be corrected with EQ (as I mentioned above), and the results are good, but I have to be fair. What I enjoy about the highs on this set is that they are not fatiguing or overly bright – meaning, you don’t get any of that intolerable high-end reverb with symbols or ambient noises. This means you can crank the volume to max and get great clarity without annoying your eardrums.SOUNDSTAGE + POSITIONING:This is another star of the show you get by dealing with Sennheiser products. The soundstage on these is VERY good and what takes them to the next level for me. I would describe it as “intimate but open.” Overall, the soundstage presents a very close/intimate listening experience. Sounds appear either insider your head (often with vocals) or very close to you. The width is very good, as you’ll often get sounds that appear just at the edge of your periphery. The height is also impressive, and I have more than once found myself able to separate sounds that appeared to becoming from above or below in tracks. What impresses me most about the soundstage here, however, is the fullness. Many over-ear headphones (looking at you AirPods Max), have a wide soundstage, but they are compressed – sounds all obviously originate from the far left, far right, or center. The Sennheisers do an outstanding job of blending these together. Sound truly does appear to come from all around. The combination of the soundstage and tonal clarity really impresses. I am a heavy Apple Music listener, and with these headphones, I will not use the Dolby Atmos format because the artificial soundstage produced by that actually sounds worse than the natural soundstage of these headphones (more on that below). Soundstage is a solid A, especially for the price.ANC:Again, have to be fair, the ANC here isn’t great. I’d give it a B-/C+ purely because there are other options out there that are far better – Bose and AirPods Max come to mind. These do completely cover your ear, and the pads provide decent isolation without any ANC turned on. With the ANC turned on, it will block out some passive noise that I would say is good enough in most environments, as long as you have music playing, even at a low volume. If your goal is to sit on an airplane/train with headphones on in total silence with no music playing, these won’t give you the best result. This is a sound quality-first headphone, and the relative weakness of the ANC showcases that. The positive about the weaker ANC is that it has a very minimal effect on the sound quality. There is a slight difference that’s most noticeable in the low-end resonance, but overall, not significantly different. I tend to leave ANC off until I need it. The strength of the ANC is also adjustable in the app for those that have sensitivities to the affects of ANC, and there is a decent transparency mode, so you can ear outside noise when you have the set on.LISTENING MODES:As mentioned earlier, the M3s allow you to connect to your source in three ways: Bluetooth, USB-C and 3.5mm. In short – they are all at least very good.Bluetooth mode is likely the way most will listen, and everything I have said about the sound quality above absolutely applies in bluetooth mode. These were designed to be wireless cans, and they have great bluetooth performance. That said, if you’re still reading this review that means you likely know enough to know that wired is almost better than wireless, and that is true here as well. You can use these headphones as a direct USB-C to USB-C set of headphones – for example through an iPad Pro, iPad mini or a phone that has a USB-C port. This has two advantages – #1 it allows you to listen to lossless music, as this is a purely digital transmission method that supports lossless files, and #2 it allows you to avoid the interference of wireless transmission. Listening to music in this way takes everything I said about the sound and elevates it another 1/2 letter grade. It’s like going from a regular 4K tv to a 4k TV with Dolby Vision HDR. It’s just a smidge clearer and more defined – and noticeably so. Also, in this mode, the device is still powered (and can charge while being used), so you still get the benefit of all of the digital features – ANC, EQ, on-set controls, etc.You can also drive these totally unpowered by plugging in an AUX 3.5mm cable directly to a source. First, I have to knock Sennheiser for including a pretty crappy aux cable for this with a weird screw-in 2.5mm end that goes into the headset itself. Odd choice that while may have a purpose, makes replacing what is a pretty crappy cable fairly difficult. The sound results you will get from this method depend largely on what you are plugging the headphones into because in this method, the headphones are off, so you are driving the headphones with your own DAC and Amp. I personally tried this with a Dragonfly Cobalt and did not get great results, but I have seen many across the net that have had good results with this connection type. I will say, this is really not the way this set was meant to be used, and if you really just want a pair of non-powered headphones to plug into a 3.5mm jack, there are better options out there from Sennheiser and others that are cheaper.OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:A few other things I want to mention as they relate to sound quality.The first is comfort. I find these headphones extremely comfortable. The cups sit snugly over the ears, but the cushions are soft enough that they are not painful. They also do not get hot. However, I have noticed two issues. They do not perform well when I am wearing glasses. The pads don’t form well around the arm of the glasses, so you get obvious sound drop/off leakage. Also, depending on how they fit against your ears, if you move your head a lot while listening, it may affect the sound a bit. This is not an awful thing and is very common with over-ear headphones, but these headphones don’t have any tech in them that adjusts the frequency based on the fit over your ear or objects in the way (glasses). There are benefits and costs to doing this. The benefit of doing it, like the AirPods max, is even with glasses on or moving your head a lot, the AirPods max readjust the tonal balance based on the fit at the millisecond level to minimize the impact. The trade-off is the sound is artificially modified in a way that the user does not control – and this is likely against the ethos of Sennheiser. Again, this is not a huge issue, but worth mentioning.The other thing worth mentioning is use for other things like TV, podcasts/books and gaming.In short, they are very good for all of the above, especially for general-use TV/movies/video games. Bringing the boom is a big factor there, and the excellent soundstage translates well to video and gaming.For podcasts and pure spoken word, they are fine, but I prefer more vocal-forward sets, as I just don’t have a need for the recession of vocals or a big sound stage when listening to a podcast.For gaming, general gaming is great, but if I was playing a FPS or another game where extreme clarity was needed at the high end and/or on soft sounds, I’d likely go with a set more tuned for high-end detail (I have the Beyerdynamic MMX 300).All around, love these. Solid A grade.
59 people found this helpful
Kevin J. Smith –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impressive Headphones
Even though I love music and have several pair of headphones, I probably fall short of being called an audiophile as I don’t know most of the technical terms related to headphones. So here’s my decidedly layman’s review:Received these today. Been listening to these off-and-on since. Even compared them to three of my other headphones (Beats Studio Wireless, Beats Studio Wired, and B&O H4 Wireless). This certainly outperforms all three (plus my Wireless Parrots) in almost and maybe every way. So far, I can confidently say these are the best headphones I’ve ever owned.Sound – best sounding headphones I’ve ever owned with the most accuracy of sound. I used to really like headphones that emphasized the bass (thus the previous Bests headphones), but now I lean toward more accuracy of sound. The bass is still there, but it’s not overpowering.ANC – these are the first headphones I’ve owned where I think I actually prefer to listen in Noise Cancelling mode. Usually I find ANC to flatten the sound, but here I find it actually results in slightly more depth and breadth of the sound field. So far, I seem to gravitate to the Anti-Wind setting which equates to the medium ANC setting.Battery Life – they arrived out of the box with 20% battery life. After playing with them a bit, I decided I better get them to a full charge. Probably because I kept checking on them, it seemed like they might not ever get past 60%, but after leaving them alone longer they reached 100%. They dipped down to 80% earlier but another charge and they were pretty quickly back to 100%. So far, much better than my Parrots which had the worst battery life of any wireless headphones I’ve ever owned. I also like that by pressing the middle button on the right cup, it verbally tells you the remaining battery life. In addition, you can see the battery life on the app on your phone as well as on the battery section on your iPhone itself.Been listening you them over an hour since last full charge and they’re still at 100%.Controls – I find them pretty intuitive. Phone paired pretty easily with my iPhone. It took a little more persistence to pair it with the Bluetooth adapter attached to my old school home stereo system, but that probably has more to do with my adapter and my own learning curve (adapter is new too).The top button is for turning ANC on or off as well turning Transparent Hearing on or off. So far, I like ANC on and Transparent Hearing turned off. That may change once I can travel (fly) for work again.Apps – the primary app is pretty cool. There are three ANC settings – Max, Anti Wind (medium), and Anti Pressure (low). So far, I find I like the aural soundscape of Anti Wind the best.It also tells you if you have Transparent Hearing turned on or off. You can also turn TH on/off via the app.There also is an equalizer but as opposed to my B&Os, so far I find I find I like it better if I leave it alone.As noted above it also tells you your remaining battery life.There is also a separate Tile app available you can use to locate your headphones. Through the app, you can see how close you are to your headphones as well “find” them by causing them to vibrate and emit a signal. Useful for sure, but I wish they emitted a louder sound. Not sure I’d hear them if there was any other sound around like in a loud airport.A little about how I’ve used them today and what I’ve listened to:Listened to a lot of Madonna today. Ray of Light album was first thing I tried out via my iPhone (Apple Music) as it has a pretty ambient soundscape. I wasn’t quite as blown away as I had hoped, but headphones did a very good job. This might be one where tampering with equalizer might be useful.I also listened to soundtrack for movie W.E. Wow. Sounded just phenomenal.Also listened to Sinead O’Connor’s Lion and the Cobra on vinyl via Bluetooth adapter connected to old school sound system. Overall, it did a good job given I was listening via pieced together technology. I’ll probably go back to just listening to vinyl on speakers, but still need to try it out with CD player. After, I did listen to Sinead’s I Want Your (Hands on Me) on my iPhone (Apple Music) and it sounded great although I did detect a bit of white noise hiss, but I attribute that more to it being an analog recording that likely hasn’t been digitally remastered.Also, some Ben Platt (also Apple Music on iPhone). Sounds great.Now listening to Madonna Madame X (Apple Music on iPhone). Sounds pretty phenomenal and I’m finding it a bit of fun to tamper with the equalizer on this one.Also, since I have an iPhone, I didn’t bother messing with setting up Alexa as my assistant. I’ll stick with Siri.For three years, I’ve known my next headphones would probably either be Sennheiser or Master & Dynamic. After doing a lot of research again recently before purchasing these, I think I made the right choice.Update: Day 2Woke up late this morning and grabbed my headphones which have been charging overnight. Soon as I put them on, they automatically paired with my iPhone and started playing Lucky Star which I had started before I went to bed last night.I listened to rest of Madonna’s debut albumas well. Her debut isn’t the most aurally nuanced (which is one of its charms). I’ve also listened to this album a ton since it came out in 1983 so wasn’t expecting any major surprises. However, I noticed certain elements that haven’t been as prominent to me before like certain percussion elements (Borderline) or saxophone riffs (I Know It) or synthesizer flourishes (Holiday/Think of Me).I do notice the headphones being a little more “touchy” as far as turning off/pausing if I touch them or turn so one of the cups touches a pillow. Not too annoying though. Just tried to recreate making it pause with those same motions and it didn’t do it now.Also sometimes when I put them around my neck or put them down, they automatically quit playing but often I have to put them in folded up position to turn them off although using middle button on right cup also seems to work. I don’t find (as some users have) that the phones are super sensitive to how they’re folded to be turned off so I like that. As long as they’re folded, they turn off.Wireless reach – I forgot to mention that when I listened to vinyl last night, the stereo is on second floor and I was in living room and I had no loss of signal so that was good.Loudness – phones do get plenty loud (certainly loud enough). Do I wish they got a bit louder? Sure, but they get quite loud for wireless headphones and it’s probably a good thing for my hearing they don’t get louder.Another Update:I don’t really use headphones for phone calls so can’t comment on that.Case – I actually like it. Much better than no case (I had to order a third party for my B&O headphones) or just a cloth bag. I know some would prefer a harder outer shell to the case and are worried their headphones will get damaged in their bag through the case, but it’s not like I’m gonna be packing ginsu knives in my totes or duffels. The cloth case will actually help it take up less room in my bag. I also like the inner pouch to hold the charging cable and cord for wired listening.I agree the equalizer could be a little more well designed (I actually like the equalizer on the B&O app), but I’m having more fun playing with it.
15 people found this helpful
Amazon Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Durable, comfortable, good noise quality
Let me first say that I am neurodivergent with noise sensitivity so I wear my headphones near constantly, 12 hours a day or more. My priorities are comfort and noise canceling first, though sound quality is also very important.Positives:I bought these two years ago as of this review, so I can speak to the durability of these headphones. I had perviously had problems with headphone bands snapping, and these have held up great. The only sign of wear and tear on any part of the headphones is a little peeling of the material inside the ear cups.Comfort wise these are amazing, the ear cups are the most comfortable I have found, I can wear them all day with minimal discomfort. The headband is ok, not the best, but not uncomfortable. They are breathable enough to remain comfortable in hot weather, and are good insulation in cold weather too.The battery life is also very good, I can use them for about two days without needing to charge them.Sound quality is good, they have good bass and balance the vocals and instrumentals well, I haven’t had a song that doesn’t sound great in these headphones.Negatives:It is a little annoying that these appear to have a normal USBc port, but only charge with their charger. Not exactly a huge issue, but still a gripe.The noise canceling is fine for relatively quiet environments, but for a volume level like a busy street or a bus, they fail. They lower the noise, but are unable to block it out, and I usually still have to raise my volume to be able to hear my music.The positioning for the headphones can’t be secured in place. They slide to make the size adjustable, but I have found no way to keep them from continuing to slide around, which makes them basically unusable for wearing while exercising, since they will very easily fall off.The microphone is not great, it won’t pick up your voice unless you speak pretty loudly, and the quality isn’t great. I don’t find it worth using.Limited button controls for such an expensive pair of headphones. There is volume and pause, noise canceling controls, and bluetooth controls, but no ability to skip tracks, which I’ve seen on headphones far less expensive.The auto-pause has issues. The sensor for whether it’s on your head is only on the right ear, which is fine. The issue is that it will randomly become very sensitive, to the point that turning your head or chewing will make it to pause what you’re listening to. This has to be fixed by turning off the headphones and letting them stay off for a while before you use them again.Overall, I really like these headphones, but I’m coming back to write this review because they’ve started having an issue where they randomly cut out and refuse to play sound until I turn them off and on again, and I am considering replacing them.
Dr. Marc Axelrod –
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best Sennheiser sealed headphone I’ve ever heard.
I was really surprised by how awesome these sounded! I bought them with the idea that I was going to use them with the wire rather than wireless. Wired headphones usually sound better.But wow!I downloaded the app to my phone. I charged up the headphones. And then in the app, I turned on the high end sound setting. And I turned off the noise canceling, because I had heard that the noise canceling made the bass sound boomier and I was looking for neutral.By the way, you gotta turn the volume low on your phone when you open the headphone and put it on your head. And then turn the volume up on the headphone itself to get the desired volume. After that, you can control volume with your phone up and down.1. Comfort – I have medium size ears and I thought the leather ear cushions were very comfortable. The experience was like sitting back on a cushy leather sofa. Thumbs up.2. Build Quality – very well built. Nothing on it looks like it would be easy to break, unless you threw it against the wall.3. Style- I bought the white and gray headphones, I think they’re very stylish. Kind of a retro look, but I like that.4. Portability. These are the biggest Sennheiser momentums ever made. But they fold up. The soft zipped case that they come with has a a carabiner, so you can hook it onto a carry-on bag.5. Noise cancelling. The noise canceling is pretty good, but not outstanding. Certainly not as strong as the Bose 700 or the Sony XM4s. Even my little AirPod Pros are better at noise canceling. But the sound quality of the AirPod pros is nowhere near as good as the Sennheiser.6. Sound Quality. These are amazing! As I said, I had the high end setting on within the app and noise canceling turned off. I was amazed at the clarity of the midrange, that was the first thing I noticed, the smoothness of the sound was the next thing I noticed. The clarity of the treble is also very pleasant, without even the tiniest bit of piercing brightness.I tried using it with the wire, it was very good, but this headphone sounds better wireless! Crazy! I had the noise cancelling off.When I turned on the noise canceling, it did give the bass a bit of extra boom and impact. Some will like that!I would characterize the overall sound as clear, vibrant, and balanced.By comparison, I thought the Sony XM4 sounded more V shaped and boomy.And the Bose QC35 was nowhere near as awesome sounding as the Momentum 3.I own all three over ear Momentum headphones, and this one is by far the best. I like the Over ear Momentum 2 wired’s sound, but the mid range was a little muffled, the mid range of the Momentum 3 is clear as can be.I would say the weakest thing about this headphone is the firmware, it takes getting used to, it took a while for me to figure out that you should control the volume on the headset first and then turn it up on the phone.I’m not 100% sure about the battery life because I usually put it back on the charger before it goes dead. Maybe I shouldn’t do that?I own a Hifiman Ananda, the Sennheiser 650 and 600 and 58X, and I’ve owned most of the open back Sennheisers south of the 700. I personally prefer this M3 more than any of the other Sennheisers for sound quality.And if you can get it for $250 or $270, you got a slam dunk of a deal, unless you need something with the most noise canceling. For me, I was in it for the sound quality, for that smooth Sennheiser sound that I love.
6 people found this helpful
lemme14 –
5.0 out of 5 stars
The sound is awesome…
The Sennheiser Momentum 3’s are above average in most categories, and the best in one (my opinion).Noise canceling is pretty good, though nowhere near the Sony XM4, Bose NC 700 and AirPods Max. They also fall short of the B&W PX7’s. However, for me, they do knock out enough of the noise that it is acceptable. It is not adjustable, but you can select a couple different noise canceling modes through the app.Comfort – The ear cups are leather and very comfortable. They do not heat up and I barely notice they are there. The headband, however, is noticeable to me. Not painfully so, but I do have to adjust every so often.Controls – The buttons work pretty well. I wish the center media button was a little more pronounced as I sometimes hit the volume up or down buttons when I mean to do something else. The B&W PX7’s and AirPods Max have the better pushbutton controls (love the Max crown), while the Sony X4 and Bose NC 700 use more of the touch controls (this can be good and bad).Transparency Mode – This works really well, though I wish it automatically reduced the audio volume slightly if you have it set to continue playing. You can also set it up in the app to mute the music when you put it into transparency mode, but for some reason it does not pause the music like the MTW2 earbuds do. So you put it into transparency mode, have a conversation, come back to the music and a new song may be playing. Not a big deal but a little annoying. AirPods Max still takes the cake for transparency mode. Sony XM4 ambient mode works well, but it always seems to lose my setting every so often and I have to go into the app and adjust. The Bose NC 700 is really nice with adjustable noise canceling as well as going all the way to transparency mode.Battery – Battery life is not great, but sufficient for my use. I feel like battery life should be at least 20 hours these days, with ANC on. Bose NC 700 and AirPods Max hit it right on. Sony and B&W PX7 blow past it. My use with these headphones tends to be a few hours at a time and mostly in my house, so it is not an issue. However, I certainly hope that the Momentum 4’s address this issue whenever they come out.Connections – Pairing between two devices is easy, reliable and it will switch between the sources very quickly.App – The app is just ok. It always seems to take a couple tries to connect when I open it. Sony is more reliable. Bose is even more reliable and faster. I do like the EQ and being able to tweak the sound, though I do tend to listen in Neutral. You can also change noise canceling levels between Max, Anti-Wind and Anti-Pressure. My biggest complaint about this is that I have to go into the app to do it. You can turn off the noise canceling by pushing a button on the headphones, but you cannot switch between modes without opening the app.Call quality – I am told that call quality is pretty good. People can understand me clearly and I can hear them very well. Better than the Sony XM4. Much better than the B&W PX7. Not as good as the Bose NC 700 or the AirPods Max (and Airpods Pro for that matter)As I said, the Momentum 3’s do all of the above very well, but there is usually one other headset that can do it better (though not always the same one). What does it do best? Sound. These things sound awesome! I know this is very subjective, but to me, the sound stage is wide, I can hear everything crisply and clearly, and the bass is noticeable but not overwhelming. I am not an audiophile, but I do really enjoy these.
6 people found this helpful
Penpen2crayon –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound with logistical caveats.
My review after two months of weekly usage!Cons:Bluetooth implementation seems flawed and noice cancellation is just okay. Comparing to my other wireless active noise cancelling headsets that I’ve tried such as the Beyerdynamic Lagoon ANC, a couple Jabras, and the Sony XM3, my Momentum 3 unit has a noticeably raised noise floor. Thankfully I do not hear any noise during actual playback. But for sure during gaps between songs / videos, I can hear a high pitched hum, or varying pops/clicks. I only ever really noticed it in a quiet home environment vs commuting on the train. Also, there is just noticeable audio-video desync when paired with my Apple iphone or iPad, which I have never experienced with any other wireless headphones. As for the noise cancellation, it was just an added bonus for me but when I am looking for it, it could stand to be stronger or support varying toggleable levels.Battery life is average. I’ve been able to get through hours long Zoom calls on the Lagoon but the Sennheiser starts to run low under similar conditions. I think the battery readout is also too vague. “More than 40% battery left” – Does that mean 59%, or 41%?The hinge on/off mechanic is gimmicky and can actually be painful! Literally on day 2 of ownership I was a little careless and gave myself a nasty pinch on the webbing between my left thumb and forefinger. There is also the concern that when “off” (hold the multifunction button while opening the hinge and the voice tells you Power Off), that it is actually still passively draining the battery. The Beyer with its physical on/off switch instills more confidence.Unlike the Beyerdynamic Lagoon ANC, one cannot turn it on and simultaneously use the 3.5mm jack. I want to take advantage of active noice cancelling while still opting for the better sound quality by going wired, but in my tests the sound output level is extremely low and dead sounding when trying to do both at the same time. I was worried I was somehow going to break something so I stopped trying.Pros:Comfort is very good. I usually prefer headphones with larger drivers as the cups/pads tend to be larger too. I do not experience temple or jaw fatigue w headphones (so far), but rather ear-clamp fatigue. I returned the Momentum 2 because the pinch was just too distracting. The M3 cups feel more plush and overall have more surface area contacting the head so less of a gripping sensation on the actual ears.Overall build quality is pretty solid. Less creaky compared to the Beyerdynamic Lagoon. Minimal microphonics with the included 3.5mm cable.Sound is great. For a closed-back headphone targeting the market for mobility + intimacy, the bass has plenty of body but is not overpoweringly rumbling, which is my preference. I found the instrument separation to be excellent and on par with some of the more expensive audiophile grade headphones I’ve demoed. The Transparent Hearing feature opens up the soundstage even more, even though there is some trickery involved there. I feel like no frequencies in the mix are getting lost here. If I had to nitpick, on more vocal forward genres such as Hip-Hop I found certain voices a tad shouty, or certain piano tones a little sharp. I am more attuned to V-shaped profiles so take with a grain of salt. Attenuating the 1k-2k range with EQ fixed it for me.Overall, a fine, comfortable headphone for casual listening with the added convenience of decent enough wireless capability, but definitely with its quirks.
One person found this helpful
Natural –
1.0 out of 5 stars
Constant issues, deplorable customer service (Updated cause it astoundingly got worse)
I’ll probably update this review over time. It was at two stars, now down to one… maybe they’ll work their way up to two again. [*update after about 6 months at the bottom]I have since gotten a pair of Shure Aonic 50s, which are outstanding… That’s a lotta money tied up in headphones! I probably should’ve just bought the new Apple cans instead.In the meanwhile, I’ve exchanged dozens upon dozens of emails with Sennheiser about the myriad issues I’ve had with these. It all began with an apparently-software and/or firmware-related problem, which developed into further problems (Note: the app is pretty jank too, and none of the updates entirely stopped it from glitching and losing connection, etc. But, it’s a requisite in order to adjust EQ or ANC, et al.).Before I could even manage to get all of the software/firmware/app nonsense worked out, a more serious hardware problem developed. To wit: the headphones seem to believe that they are still plugged in via the (annoyingly proprietary) 3.5-2.5mm cord, which I did only a few times. As a result, they’ll no longer let me pair with anything. This is apparently a common problem people have “fixed” in various ways (“raking the pins,” etc.), many of which I’ve tried to no avail. How ridiculous: a $350 gadget with a terminally faulty switch/sensor? Please. My old school Sony Studio Monitors last a decade, even treated more carelessly.THE CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF ITSELF. They’re dismissive, misleading, often give incorrect information, don’t listen carefully to questions (instead generally replying with a prescribed response referring you to something that doesn’t work or isn’t even applicable); and I could go on.Just the other day I got a sarcastic reply from one of their people, who was actually supposed to have called me more than two weeks ago. I wrote (paraphrasing): “Hello again _____, I’ve now contacted you twice since you were supposed to call me on the telephone, but have heard nothing. Are you, or are you not, going to contact me. Please advise. Respectfully, ____” She replied, “You’re very welcome.” I thought this might have been sent to me by mistake, so I followed up… she very brusquely replied that my issue would better be handled by yet another department (the 4th so far I think).The above rude transaction took place as I’m simply trying to send them in for warranty repair given the development of this issue that is clearly a hardware problem. To be clear, I treat all my A/V gear like it’s made of antique glass (Another note: the case these come with is a joke; if you do buy them, get an actual hard case to protect your investment.).Trying to send them in has even become a rigamarole. I’m almost 2 months into that fiasco now, having sent proof of purchase, serial number, their form, etc. I don’t even have specific instructions or a shipping box yet. By the way, it appears they expect YOU to pay for the shipping to get their bunk product repaired, in England, I believe. Another slap in the face. This may explain part of my delays here as I flat out refused to do that. But, at this rate, they’ll be out of warranty before I have even sent them off… and I imagine it will take months in turnaround time too.I realize this review is darn salty; but generally, I try to be very convivial with folks. Sugar works better than vinegar and all that. This has worn me down though.If you don’t have the patience for this type of thing, don’t buy these. As others have commented, the sound quality is exceptional. Virtually everything else is a train wreck. What a shame. Sennheiser has always been so top notch in my experience. Perhaps they’re better off sticking with the old-school tech.* Update: I HAVE NEVER DEALT WITH SUCH GARBAGE CUSTOMER SERVICE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Due to a lack of response to repeated email attempts (customer service department, warranty department, sales department), I finally wrote an actual physical USPS letter on letterhead and sent it via priority mail… BEGGING them to stand behind their product. Not once have I been angry with a representative, used foul language, or anything of that sort. But I honestly wonder if they have blacklisted me, or if they have just turned into a horrible company. Do not buy any Sennheiser products if you expect any type of support or for them to stand by a clearly faulty product.Gosh I wish Amazon had 0 stars as an option.
24 people found this helpful
Ninjaman999 –
5.0 out of 5 stars
M3W’s are very awesome hardware for the money
After a bunch of hours of research, I decided to drop the big bucks on the Momentum 3’s (M3W) and was left tremendously impressed. Key points as to what I was looking forA: Good seal for travel when I’m on the trainB: Best audio quality possible within a 400$ BudgetC: Minimum of 15 hours battery life. The 7 hours I got used to from my backbeat 3100’s (Good audio quality but trash connectivity)D: Does not look objectively uglyE: Ideally metal construction to last longer (Plastic ATH M50’s snapped for no reason after 5 years)Optional: Connection to more than 1 DeviceThe M3W’s manage to have a super strong band and metal arms, great seal, excellent quality real leather ear cups, ability to connect to multiple devices, app with an equalizer so I can not get slapped by the heavy bass , best sound compared to the alternatives which keeps up with my DT 880 Premium’s (In a quiet room cause these are open back) and to top it all off is an average 20 hour battery life and they look fantastic in person. The main reason I chose the M3W’s over the Alts is because the alts had a SOLID advantage in noise canceling (Data center and network engineers, keep your eyes on those WH-1000XM3’s) but were lost in the sound quality category which was paramount for me since ANC was not a huge deal for my needs. I still came out very happy on the other end because the ANC on these are still VERY solid and I am now able to game in the living room with the AC full blast and be able to hear everything perfectly. Apparently there were issues with software but with the latest firmware available, I had almost zero issues. I’d give these bad boys a 9/10 and a super solid recommendation.NOTE: If you are bass sensitive like me, be ready to lower the bass on these and have an equalization app on windows at the ready but this is more a point of preference and not a determent.Alternative options: Sony WH-1000XM3’s – Killer ANC, great sound, full plastic frame which is a negative to me after the arm of my ATH M50’s snapped after 5 years. Now I only buy metal framed.Bose QuietComfort 35 II/QC35’s – Also a fantastic option but plastic and not a looker in my opinion.Amiron Wireless Copper’s – The build quality and alcantara fabric used in the construction are utterly breath taking but beyerdynamic (My fav company after Audio Technica’s build quality failed me) messed up one VERY important element. The seal is garbage and severely impacts the sound quality to the point where 1 song and I had to throw them in the box and return em. Maybe next time.
One person found this helpful
John Moran –
5.0 out of 5 stars
If Bose and Sony made a headphone… this is it!
I will compare these to the Bose 700s and Sony XM3s at the end if you’re interested, for now a Momentum 3 review.DESIGN: These headphones are very sturdy, they feel like a pair of $400 headphones. No squeaking or sliding around. I feel I can safely put these on my backpack without a case and they will be just fine.APP, BLUETOOTH and EASE OF USE: All you have to do to use the headphones is unfold them and they go into pairing mode, then simply connect to your phone which will ask you to download the Sennheiser app.Within the app you can change the Noise cancelling between Max, Anti Wind which is just a lower noice cancelling setting, and anti pressure which supposedly reduces the pressure feeling from noice cancelling however I found no difference between max and anti pressure. There is no difference in sound quality either between any of the modes as far as I can tell. You can also turn off noise cancelling altogether and still get the same sound quality.There is an option called transparent hearing which allows you to hear people’s voices more clearly at the cost of some sound quality, this is useful when walking around the street I suppose.Lastly there is an Equalizer (EQ) that allows you to adjust the Bass and Trebble which in terms also affects the mids. Its confusing to use and to be honest I prefer the stock setting best.I haven’t had any issues with the headphones disconnecting, cutting in and out, or not connecting to the app.NOISE CANCELLING: Noise cancelling is ok, I would say it can block out road noise, and most chatter if you turn the volume up enough. However this will not give you complete silence. Its more of a thing to help you focus on your music.I ran a small test by putting coffee shop noise on my tv which measured at 85dB. Any louder and you can start to notice the noise. I found it quite surprising that the ANC on these headphones is only a tiny bit better than the one on my Sennheiser 4.50 headphones which are 1/4 the price.SOUND: This is where these headphones shine. Their sound is crystal clear, the BASS packs a punch which doesn’t distort the music or instruments. It doesn’t drown out the mids or the vocals. The mids and the highs are also very balanced, it sounds beautiful is the best way I can describe it haha. Some headphones have such bad sound that singing almost becomes a high pitched noise, with the momentums it feels as if someone is singing to you… while musical instruments play along with that voice. With other headphones it just sounds like a bunch of noise clustered together where you cant even tell what instruments are playing and it just sounds like a beat.MOVIES: The bass from music translates nicely to media. Explosions, car chases, etc all have a punch to them in movies. I can’t think of a better headphone to listen to movies. The momentum 3s enhance your experience as opposed to just letting you listen to what is going on. Also the EQ can be adjusted with as much bass and treble you want and it will save to the headphone itself. So if you connect these via aux to the TV they will keep the EQ.COMFORT: I left comfort for last because its the biggest downfall at least in my opinion and is the only reason for these headphones getting 4 stars. They are big, bulky, heavy, and you will noice you’re wearing them. These aren’t the headphones you want to walk around with, or take on a flight, or use to study. These headphones are for when you want to enjoy music for 1-2 hours at a time. The metal headband is kind of a pain to adjust, it requires both hands, my hands touching/sliding against the metal bands is kind of concerning as it feels as if Im going to cut myself even though its just a feeling and I doubt its possible. I wish it was covered so It could also have a stealthier look that doesn’t stand out. Simple is better for some. Clamping force is also pretty strong to the point where I have to take them off to rest my ears and my jaw.Are these worth the $400? Well in my opinion they’re not… why? Because they are uncomfortable. If Im paying $400 for headphones I want to be able to wear them whenever, however long. I want to be able to take them on a walk, to chill in the couch with them, and to use them for movies. It doesn’t matter how good they sound or feel if I can’t wear them for 5+ hours at a time.Sennheiser Momentum 3 vs Bose 700 vs Sony WF1000XM3If the sennheiser were more comfortable, and looked like a more normal pair of headphone, i wouldn’t even need to write anything here. I would say run out and buy them. However each headphone has their pros and cons.If you see the term “cabin pressure” it refers to that weird feeling you get when you try ANC Headhones. That underwater feeling.Bose 700: these have the most neutral sound, they have the least bass out of all three and are also the least loudest. Even with their ANC being almost double the sennheiser I still have to increase the volume to 80% even on a quiet room. They are also the least “fun” to listen too because they sound so flat. However, because of their flat sound signature they sound very accurate and no bass, high, mid is overdone. They are good. In terms of comfort the headphones themselves are comfortable but their ANC gives you that small cabin pressure feeling.Sony xm3: these have alot of bass but its not the good kind of bass. Its the kind of bass that becomes muffled and distorted. These are by far the least accurate headphones from all 3. Their instrument separation is also bad, there are some instruments you wont even be able to hear with these unless you adjust their eq. However they are more fun to use than the Bose 700s and you will only notice their distortion if you pay close attention. These are also the most comfortable pair of headphones i’ve ever worn. It feels like you’re not even wearing anything. I have worn these for 15 hours at a time. I can fall asleep with them, walk with them, etc. They basically dont exist on my ears. They also have very little to no cabin pressure.Momentum 3: these sound the best out of the 3. If you take the Sonys “fun” factor and the Boses accuracy you get the mometum 3s. However they’re uncomfortable to wear which is the biggest downfall. The headband has very little padding which becomes bothersome, the ear ups are also super stiff. Their cabin pressure is less than the bose 700s though.In the end if you’re spending $400 because you want the ultimate headphone for music, movies, and everything sound get the sony xm3. If you want a “stay at home” headphone get the momentum 3s.If you will only use your headphones for music and you want to use them for long periods of time get the Bose 700s.
26 people found this helpful
Homer –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound, classic looks, comfortable to wear. Perfect lip sync. Updated
An unbiased review that represents my search for a multipurpose high quality over the ear headphone.See update at bottom of review As a premise that there is no single headphone that works for everyone and every situation, no single item is perfect for everyone and everything. I have wireless earbuds for working out, the Jabra 65T active, and love the Jaybird Vista wireless for use when working long term use during the day. I also have a pair of Sony over the ear headphones, the WMH 900N for sound suppression when working outdoors. I wanted improved sound and didn’t need absolute noise cancellation for the loudest of environments. I was looking for good blue tooth sync without audio/video delay, and some sound isolation. Also, the need for Bluetooth 5 was a relative need in order to allow syncing to more than one device. I did look at the Bose and the Sony WH1000XM3. Here’s my take:Design: I like the looks. They appeal to my industrial design concept that sleek and modern is not always the best. The exposed steel and wires is reminiscent of the traditional headphones. I think the style will stand the test of time. Bose and Sony are more streamlined, but the modernistic approach may appear dated in several years.Controls: I am not a Luddite, but I do not like touch control configurations. There is nothing like a physical button in increasing volume and the pause button. Even the Jabra and Jaybird wireless earbuds give tactile feedback with control. I just like buttons that I can feel and confirm, a positive click.Battery life: Not the longest but I tied it for 19 hours during one measurement. That is more than enough. The USB-C is universal, and it charges from every source I plug in.Bluetooth. There is absolutely no, none, nada, video to audio lag. When watching speaker audio and the headsets, the sound is simultaneous. Feel free to watch these with a TV and blue tooth stream. Just make certain that your Bluetooth transmitter has the most updated AptX support. When turning on the headphones, it will announce simultaneous connections to up to two Bluetooth sources. One reviewer bemoaned the fact that the announcer only identifies them as “phone one” or “phone two”. I don’t find this an issue. I know phone one is my TV and phone two is my cell phone. I have not measured the absolute blue tooth distance, but I can walk down a flight of stairs and go at least 30 feet without an issue.Pause: The pause when you tilt your head is annoying. When watching TV, it kept thinking I was trying to pause. I turned it off in the app.App: Not the best. After installing the App and syncing, it needed a firmware update that took 20 minutes. Then, the only way I could sync was to unpair the Bluetooth from my phone, uninstall the app, reinstall the app and re-sync. Then, everything was ok. Any changes in the app such as equalizer or ANC settings are maintained in the headset even if the phone is not synced to the headsets. I agree, the equalizer control is not intuitively easy, but it does the job and the neutral setting or default give great sound. As I noted, the setting is stored in the headset, not the phone so you don’t need your phone to keep the settings.ANC; Not the best, but no intrusive. I find it great for office work and daily background noise. If you don’t require absolute total isolation from a jet airplane, these will work.ANC Off: There is some isolation from the earphones. With ANC off, the sound is impressively wonderful. Crystal clear, special, dynamic. It does beat the Sony with ANC off. I felt the Sony had too much thumping or muffled bass boost.Volume: In my opinion, louder with less distortion than the Sony or Bose. The Sony and Bose have significant base distortion on max volumeWeight: The Sony seems to be lighter and easier to wear long term. I’m no a fan of the Bose fit.The Sennheiser are a little tighter than preferred when I got them out of the box. Easily fixed with some manual “unbending” of the band. The weight seems find for hour of listening and they feel better than the Bose. The Sony’s are the best, but are also all plastic.Problems: The first pair I purchased had a “white noise” feedback in the left ear when place on ambient noise. It was intermittent but continued on and off each time I wore them. And, there was a crackling in the left ear. As if there was a connection issue. I returned them and the new set was perfect. Amazon returns are easy. The app is a little cumbersome on first set up. You have to install it, connect, get the firmware. Then, in my case, I had to uninstall the paring and app and reinstall to make it reconnect. However, now all is good. Initially the headband was slightly tight. It needed a little tweaking. This is not a big deal What would be ideal would be the Sony weight, the Sennheiser sound and appearance, the Bose quality and ease of support.(there are a lot of Bose stores in the mall). Since there is no single perfect headphone, like looking for the perfect laptop, there are always slight compromises.Overall: If you want Bluetooth 5 connection, great sound, good ANC and range, good battery and classic styling, go no further. Yes, they won’t fold into a slim aerodynamic sandwich, but they give crystal clear sound and perfect video lip sync and can be worn for hours.Updated:As much as I liked the sound and fit, I ended up returning the headphones due to a never ending problem of bluetooth disconnects and drops. While listening to music or a streaming video, the bluetooth would drop after 20 minutes of use. The only way to reconnect was to either switch the ANC off and on or turn the headphones off and try to reconnect.I called Sennheiser and did a complete removal of all bluetooth devices on the transmitter, removed all bluetooth from my phone, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, reconnected the bluetooth link to the transmitter, and the problem continued. Once it occured, it would drop the signal about every 10 minutes..I have connected Jabra Active 65T, Sony SH 1000 XM3, and Jaybird Vista without any issues or drops. I removed all bluetooth connections and have no extraneous sources of interference. Sennheiser told me that the bluetooth in the headphones was not acting correctly and they should be returned.So, first set had a faulty left speaker.The second set had faulty bluetooth.Maybe it was bad luck….I loved the sound, the weight, the fit, the appearance. I just am left disappointed in the quality of the device. If you get a working model, they are great.
259 people found this helpful
Andrew Visser –
4.0 out of 5 stars
A+ for sound, D- for control & app
The sound is excellent as usual for Sennheiser. The build quality is great.So the audio and physical product guys did great.Software team sucked.The ‘Smart Control’ app is useless. It’s not an MVP it’s a ‘we have an app too’Headphones connect to two devices simultaneously. Why?Only by disconnecting through the app can you restrict listening to one device. So if you want to listen through your laptop you switch off your phone in the app… and then the app is totally disconnected – can’t do anything. No option for ‘listen through laptop’ onlyDon’t panic though. EVERYTHING will reconnect automatically when you next use the headphones. So you have to turn it off again.If you have paired with more than two devices you’ll need to turn them all off in the app (remember to do your phone last)You’re watching a news video.You pause it to go do something.Come back and you watch Netflix. That ends and the news video will start up automatically.You pause that, but don’t start anything else. The news vid will start again.No way that I’ve found to turn this totally useless feature off
2 people found this helpful
Jon –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good headphones with minor issues
I’ve trialed these headphones for a few months, and the experience has been fair. The sound is much better than the previous generation, and by aesthetics and sound alone, this pair is wonderful. However, I’d like to see a firmware update as the software is flaky. This momentum 3 pair had difficulty switching between connected devices and would lose audio. Some native apps will not work with these headphones, such as voice memos on iOS. The noise cancellation will toggle on by itself occasionally without switching it on myself.
Mike –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound, not so great noise cancellation
My wife and I both had Bose headphones for years. Hers died about a year ago and mine have recently had problems with noise cancellation. We bought them for travel but haven’t flown much since Covid but with some long haul flights coming up we decided to buy new pairs.She was happy with the Bose she had so she just purchased the same set. I wanted to try something different and being aware of the sound quality of Sennheiser products I went with this unit.My headphones arrived yesterday and to test them I put them on, with noise cancellation active, while she was watching a tv show. I noticed right away that quite a bit of sound from the tv was bleeding through the headphones. I was not satisfied but to test, I put her new set of Bose on and sure enough the noise cancellation on the Bose set was far greater.I have returned the Sennheiser set today and will be going back to Bose. Disappointed because the sound was excellent.
loki762 –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good headphones
Was looking for a good bluetooth headset with aptX LL so I could use it for watching TV without any lip-sync delay. I was surprised how hard it was to find a nice headset from a reputable manufacturer that actually has aptX LL. Apparently Sony and Bose don’t have any headphones that support this. Anyway, I found the Momentum 3 and really liked the design. I think it’s one of the nicest looking headsets and has a good build quality with a little more metal and a little less plastic than many of the other designs out there. Also, the earpads and headband use a really nice leather leather which adds to the high quality look and feel.Pros:- Supports aptX LL for TV listening without any lip-sync delay.- Nice build quality and good looks.- Good sound.- Bluetooth 5.0 when a lot of other headsets out there are still using the older version 4.2.- Supports Tile to help you find your headphones.- Supports Alexa.- Noise cancelling seems to work pretty well.- App is nice although somewhat light on features. At least it has an EQ function but it is only 3-band.- USB-C charging.Neutral:- Auto-pause. I found this annoying but luckily there is an option to turn it off so, no harm no foul.Cons:- Auto power on/off – This is done by unfolding and folding the headphones which I found rather gimmicky and annoying as it can lead to accidentally powering the headphones off. Would have much preferred a traditional power switch. If they ever come out with a Momentum 4, they should ditch this feature.- Doesn’t support high fidelity codecs like aptX HD, LDAC, or HWA LHDC. At least one of those would be nice. Really surprised and disappointed that it doesn’t have aptX HD since it’s a high end Sennheiser product and does support the standard aptX and aptX LL codecs. Another nice thing to add if they release a Momentum 4.Conclusion: If your’e looking for a nice on-ear noise cancelling headset with apt LL, look no further. If you want high fidelity codecs like aptX HD, LDAC, or HWA LHDC, or the newer aptX adaptive, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
3 people found this helpful
Brandon –
2.0 out of 5 stars
They sound good when they work. These are very susceptible to interference
Theses headphones sound pretty good when they are working, but for me personally, I have constant problems with interference and drop outs with the wireless connection. It even modulates the pitch of the audio when the connection is somewhat stable. If I use them in a different space sometimes I have no issues. My theory is that the WiFi in my house is too powerful for these to maintain a good connection and causes constant interference. Bluetooth and WiFi both operate in the 2.4GHz frequency spectrum. Even if I have the streaming device right beside me, I have connection issues. I mainly use these with iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPad Pro 3rd gen, and the latest Apple TV 4K. The audio constantly glitches and drops out mostly while using with the Apple TV. The auto/play/pause is extremely annoying. It needs a way to sum the audio from both Bluetooth connections, rather than pausing one and playing the other. The auto play/pause stays on even after disabling it. The smart pause works but also has a lot of false alarms and pauses when you don’t take the headphones off. The app is limited, but well designed. The custom eq is nice to have, but there is very limited control of frequencies. Overall they sound fantastic flat, especially with a wired connection. But the Bluetooth chip in these headphones must be complete garbage. The range is only 20-30ft. And battery life is appalling at maybe 12-15 hours tops in real world listening conditions. The hifi sound mode sounds terrible imo and I’m a sound engineer by trade lol. It sounds like it cuts the bass and bumps up the mid frequency. I also had the Momentum 2 over-ears and they were actually pretty solid with connectivity. I upgraded for the larger drivers and the usb-c support. However, the usb-c only works with a usb-c to usb-a cable. Which completely defy’s the point of usb-c. If you use the same end cable, usb-c to usb-c brick, it will not charge. It’s weird that Sennheiser also includes a usb-c to usb-c cable, but they also give you a usb-a adapter. So it isn’t as much of an upgrade as it is a inconvenience to find that specific cable. They do look cool, but I’d rather have a reliable connection. These headphones only seem to annoy me now unless they are used wired or in a room/home with less RF/wi-if noise. I’m on the hunt for something better now. I love sennheiser products, especially their microphones but this one is a bust for me. Maybe I’ll try the Momentum 4’s but if they give me any problems, I’ll return them immediately. Now I’m looking at maybe the Sony’s for casual listening, The Apple AirPods Max, or the higher end Beyerdynamics. Either way, I need something better. Bluetooth convenience is nice, but so annoying when it doesn’t work right.Edit: Went through the Sennheiser warranty program and it turns out my headphones were a lemon. I had to pay to ship them to Sennheiser and within a week I had a refurbished pair sent to me. The new pair seems to be working fine without any of the connection issues described above. The auto play/pause is still a little finicky, but at least they work now. Sennheiser does have a great 2 year warranty and they will make it right through their website.
Mirith –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overall very good!
June 2020 (purchased these November 2019).Would I buy these again? Yes.Sound quality and build quality are great. ANC is okay — not best-in-class, but that wasn’t my priority with these.Comfort: I wear glasses and have long hair. No issue with these and glasses (thin frames), but hair needs to be tied up, otherwise it gets instantly caught in the sliders. I can wear these for ~5 hours straight. More than that and the tips of my ears start to hurt/they weigh on my head too much.I’ve worn then more (closer to the 5 hours) because my SO and I are both WFH due to COVID, but usually I’d only wear them a couple hours at a time.Intermittent issues with Bluetooth and my work computer (MacBook Pro). Ie, works perfectly for weeks at a time, then I’ll randomly have to power cycle/re-pair/etc. No issues with connecting to my phone (Pixel 3) at all though.Battery life isn’t actually that much of a negative. I charge them overnight occasionally, and have only run out of battery once. Plugged them in to my computer and continued to use them while they charged.—Only issues:Relatively short battery life, as compared to other similar headphones. I haven’t really had issues with battery life though — generally just plug them in after work and they’re obviously fully charged the next morning.Will only charge with included cable… My phone and work computer both charge with usb-c, so I thought it would be convenient to have headphones that also charged with a usb-c cord. Well, these headphones input seem to charge with the included cable. Any wall plug is fine though.I’ve had some issues connecting via bluetooth to my work computer (2016 Macbook Pro). Usually this is seamless and doesn’t require me to do anything but sometimes I’ll have to manually click “connect” in the Bluetooth options. Terrible first world problem, I know.Last dislike: these are pretty expensive, honestly. But you get what you pay for, and I wanted headphones that would last me a long time.——–Overall, sound quality is good, noise cancelling is good (don’t expect 110% silence though, from these or any other headphones), transparent hearing is actually a really cool feature, and being about to connect to multiple devices fairly seamlessly without an app is really nice.I picked these over the sony and bose headphones these are often compared against because my priorities were build and sound quality. ANC and battery life were important, but ultimately things that mattered less to me than build/sound quality.I use these for work and gaming. I work from home, but travel in to the office frequently. These fit my needs really well.
7 people found this helpful
ChiTownYooper –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Download the app
Had some trouble at first with syncing, but never had a problem after downloading the app. For the quality of sound and convenience of being wireless, it was well worth the price. You cannot get this quality with earbuds.
Mark A Fisher –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Superb audio quality
Been enjoying these headphones for over a month or so. Upgraded from Momentum 2’s. Sound quality is a setup from the 2’s, which are great by the way. Had the 2’s for a couple of years. Bought the 3’s for a step up in technology. Love the nice techy features like auto pause, better ANC, folding cups, talk through feature, etc.ANC is better than the 2’s, but not up to standards of Sony 1000xm 4, as per the reviews out there. Battery life is ok, not the best. But, I bought the Momentum 3’s for one reason only and that is SOUND QUALITY. And, I got just what I wanted and expected. I don’t travel with these, so, the lack of a hard shell case doesn’t bother me. The supplied case is beautiful. The headphones are beautiful and made extremely well with the real leather and steel. These babies will last.I don’t need 30 hours of battery life. I listen daily for a couple of hours. So, no big deal to charge them every 10 days or so. I also prefer buttons to a touch pad for control.If you want all the bells and whistles and a hard case and 30 hour battery life, best ANC, etc., get the Sonys. If you want superb audio and build quality from a company that knows a thing or two about sound, then get the Sennheiser . You won’t be disappointed. Now is a great time to purchase them as Amazon has deeply discounted them. I got the white pair for a little over $200 at Christmas time. A real bargain!
Phil –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Headphones I’ve owned
Absolutely adore these things. My previous pair of headphones were Sony WHXB900N – I thought I liked those, but they broke in a bit over a year and I was pretty ticked about that.These Sennies blow them outta the water:•Better build by far. These are probably the most premium feeling things I think I’ve owned (you don’t understand how much nicer even the plastic feels compared to my sony pair) and a metal band as opposed to the crappy plastic ones that always break for me and anyone else with a big head.•Physical buttons instead of awful touch controls. Seriously, touch controls have gotta be the stupidest trend in over-ear headphones by FAR.•Better Sound, s’not even close here.•Better ANC. I’ve heard the WH-1000XM4 has probably best in class ANC, but since I’ve never owned those I can’t compare. Better than WHXB900N atleast.•Better looking. Obviously preferential, but I prefer this look over modern plastic bs by sooooo much.My only downsides so far:•Turned off the auto stop/start feature. It’s waaaaay too sensitive and would stop my music even just by me shifting my glasses a bit.•App support not *quite* as good as Sony’s. I know it’s probably silly but I do miss the Virtual Soundstage settings, I think they’re called?•Give me three more buttons please – a proper on/off switch, and a playlist forward/playlist back. The double/triple tap of the play/pause button to skip/rewind is not very intuitive, even holding down volume up/down would have been better IMO.•Battery is a little short. I have to charge these every night as opposed to every other with my old sony’s. Not the biggest deal, but worth noting. I think it does make these things a lot lighter though.Absolutely great headphones that I’ve had no issues with in the four months I’ve had them. If I ever have any real issues I’ll come back and update obviously, but right now these are probably the best headphones I own by far.
One person found this helpful
SH –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Best Bluetooth Heaphones I’ve ever had, but not without issues
These give excellent audio quality and have excellent battery life, enough to get me through nearly two work days of almost continuous use without charging. The auto pause feature was incredibly handy when I first got it, but more on that later.The noise cancelation and awareness settings are both great as well!However, the audio quality on the integrated microphone leaves much to be desired, and the headphones will frequently disconnect on calls when using apps like Discord, often punctuated with the headphones interrupting whatever your friends might be saying to chant “Call Ended” into your ears.My other major issue is with regards to the means by which these headphones tighten, a sort of sliding track built into the frame. Continuous use will make the earpieces slide around much more easily, which will cause the auto pause feature to constantly mistake your loosened headphones for a complete removal, abruptly pausing whatever you were listening to or muting your phonecalls. Thankfully, the Sennheiser mobile app allows you to disable auto pause when this problem impacts you, but in a perfect world, a few months of use shouldn’t turn a convenient feature into an inconvenience.
Amazon Customer –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quality sound; average comfort and noise cancellation
These headphones embody what seems to be Sennheiser’s reputation for balanced sound. I enjoy the way my music sounds when listening. Connectivity is solid – pairs right up to my phone (Google Pixel) when I turn them on. I probably have a slightly-larger-than-average head; for me, the fit is comfortable in short bursts — up to ~2 hours — but after that it starts to feel tight on the sides. The noise cancellation is probably average or below average — louder sounds like car horns, ambulance sirens, etc. come through unfettered.Overall, I’m happy with this purchase. I listen to a lot of music — although I am no professional / not as avid as some — and I wanted good sound from a good brand, plus, these look cool. So they are solid for me.
Benjamin Rusch –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Investing in quality
I break headphones, usually on the arm just over the cup, despite my best efforts not to (lift off both cups gently at the same time and only as far as I need to remove them). These will not have that problem, while I have concerns about the hinges in the long-term, it’s an easier fix with a screwdriver than having to break out the Gorilla Glue.The battery life averaging 17 hours is a boon as these are not intended for extremely long sessions. The padding on the headband will be giving you a headache by the time you run the battery from full to empty in a session. You can use them as wired headphones as well while charging, which is a feature I’ve leaned on a few times to save my battery.The noise cancellation is pretty decent as well, my favorite feature is the Transparent Hearing, you will want to have it set to leave the music playing in the app, this way you can have a conversation with someone without losing all audio from whatever you might be doing, it’s also helpful to keep yourself from speaking too loud when using the mic. Speaking of the mic is, it’s alright. I’m just told I sound different, but I don’t have many audiophile friends that can describe it other than, “not bad, just different.”I used the app to drag the EQ a bit up and to the left to get the bit extra bass I like, it’s simplified interface is something to get used to, I had a good idea what levels to move where when I find myself working with only a draggable button on a field.I was considering the Sony XM3s, while some aspects have me thinking the Sony’s would be better, the build quality makes up for it, plus genuine leather. Sony may set the hardware standard, but on a flagship product, they couldn’t care less if the cups breathe. Gotta keep it all in perspective. Leather.
One person found this helpful
Matthew Strom –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great features and great sound!
I’ve been looking for a better wireless headset for traveling and this thing really is an awesome headset.First of all the quality is spectacular and the design is really tasteful, what you expect from seinnheiser.The audio quality from what I’ve experienced this far exceeds my expectations honestly, but I wasn’t coming for an audiophile headset. It seems on par or better than another pair of open ear headphones I have.Noise isolation comes naturally with the over-ear set-up, but initial experiences with ambient noise cancelation is actually really cool. Also the ability to make the noise transparent is also a really neat feature. I probably won’t use it very often though since i think it detracts from the quality a little. I haven’t taken these on a plane, but I expect it will do a decent jobComfort for extended periods seem to be on par with other cushiony headsets I’ve had. To be honest it’s hard to not have any discomfort for having a headset on for any number of hours. But is is one of those headsets that you generally don’t notice on your head.Controls for phone, ANC, etc are all intuitive once you review their functions.Overall, great headset, I’m really happy with my purchase
One person found this helpful
Anna –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound, Problematic solution for flights!
Ordered a pair as soon as it was available, at the beginning, I liked it a-lot! In general this is a great pair of headphones with 2 major flaws.I will start with good – Sound is good, not amazing but definitely will please most mainstream consumers (not sure the price is mainstream though..) Build quality is amazing, the leather on the ear caps is so soft! features are in line with the time of the release, didn’t find anything missing except one major feature – on/off switch, but more about this in cons.Now to the reasons I returned these.1. Bluetooth connectivity with Android devices, for some reason, i had constant disconnections and drops when connected to my Galaxy S10+, even after disabling the auto pause function to be sure it is not a sensor sensitivity issue. but it kept disconnecting for a few seconds and then connecting back. I connected my B&O to the same phone and had a very stable connection, reboot everything and connected the Momentum, the problem came back right away. This didn’t happen at all when connected to my Ipad, it did not disconnect or skipped a bit.2. The lack of on/of switch and no Stand By option, as a frequent flier, I move through the airports an in many cases with the headphones around my neck, this is a problem with the Momentum’s as it keeps the headphones on and keep draining the battery when you are not actually using the headphones to listen to music or as an ANC set, to switch it off, you have to fold this set and to be honest with this huge and flimsy carrying case it is just basic inconvenience absolutely unnecessary due to exclusion of the on/off switch for the gimmicky fold/unfold mechanism in my opinion.One last thing to mention, the looks of the headsets on the smaller heads, when the metal holding arms extend below the bottom of the earcups, make it look as a bad fit for the otherwise gorgeously designed piece of tech! but this is very subjective.
23 people found this helpful
Mark McDonough –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent phones – excellent sound quality and OK noise cancellation
Everyone has different criteria for headphones. Mine were: must be reasonably comfortable for extended wear; must have excellent sound quality for music; must be intuitive and easy to use for work conference calls. And obviously, Bluetooth pairing had to work smoothly.In other words, I like to listen to music while working but occasionally have to take a call.I read a lot of reviews before buying these and find that the reviewers got it right. They are easy to use, sound great, and have sort of OK noise cancellation. I have used Bose noise cancelling phones in the past and those are on a whole different level – the noise cancellation is so effective that it’s almost eerie. As many others have said, the Sennheiser noise cancellation does best with droning sounds such as HVAC.So overall, if your criteria are similar to mine, you’ll be happy. Before I started using these I was using a pair of old Oppo phones which originally sold for $700 (but had no microphone or Bluetooth) so I am used to pretty good sound. I do not feel deprived listening to these.
One person found this helpful
Hans Lee –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good sound, but not good for noise cancellation
I am Sennheiser fan, so the review may have some bias.I have been used this headphone for 3 weeks. Overall, it is good product.pros:1. Excellent sound. I always has no question for Sennheiser’s sound.2. Comfort to wear. The headphones looks like a huge one, but it feels comfortable when wearing it.3. I like physical control buttons. However, all those buttons are on your right side. However, I perfer the left.4. Battery is good.Cons1. Noise Cancellation. Emmmm….I don’t think Sennheiser knows how to do noise cancellation for his product. The noise cancellation is not what I expect. Sony or Bose products are doing much better.2. This is an over-ear headphone, not works for long time wearing in the hot weather.3. Still a little bit heavy.4. Two weeks after I bought it, Amazon gives an 50 dollars off…(Can you hear my heart is crying? T_T)Conclusion.If you are looking for a good sound quality headphone, without high requirement for noise cancellation, for example, at work or study in the library. This is exactly the right product. But if you simply just looking for good noise cancellation headphone and do not care about the sound. I believe there will be many other choices for you.
Robert Piro –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Can’t reattach ear pad
The product has a really good sound and noise cancelling however, once the ear pad comes off the headphones are ruined as one can no longer attach a new pad without completely disassembling the ear phone. During a flight, one ear pad came off and the $400 headphones are practically ruined. I’ll super glue it on, now, but exchangeable ear pads for a pair of headphones of this price should be self-evident
Nate B. –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Expensive garbage
In the time it would take me to list all the ways these headphones suck, I could earn back the $250 I spent on this utter piece of garbage.TL;DR: they are overpriced trash that should cost $50 max. Got the Logitech G733 instead and love them. Here’s the highlights:1. Audio quality over Bluetooth is horrific. (I have $20 earbuds that sound better.) Same goes for mic quality.2. The “two connection source” thing is a gimmick because the headphones won’t play both simultaneously (which is fine), but when it switches sources, 90% of the time you have to unpair (completely) and repair the headset with the device. It takes more time than just disconnecting from one source and connecting to another with a normal headset.3. You may think “I’ll just connect the headset via USB!” but then the mic doesn’t work. So you say “I’ll connect it by a nice long aux cable then,” NOPE you have to use the INANE aux cable that comes with the headset, has a 1/16th inch jack (WHY???) on one side, and a normal 1/8th inch jack on the other and it is 3 feet long. WHY DID I BUY A $250 TORTURE DEVICE?!4. The Smart Pause is buggy and causes YouTube to pause every other second.5. The Transparent Hearing sounds weird.6. The headband is uncomfortable and has poor adjustability.7. The metal joints of the folding arms will legit take off skin if your finger gets pinched.8. The switch for the ANC is impossible to click into the middle position.The list goes on and on to the point of nausea.Anything redeemable about this purchase?………..the carrying case is nice I guess?! ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I’m returning these and never buying another Sennheiser product in my life. Tell your friends. Hide your kids. Hide your wife.
JJohn –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than most wireless brands
Sennheisser quality!Good sound but somewhat bass heavy. Does have that Soundstage feel to it.Noise isolation is good, blocks most sound. Sitting next to a large dehumidifier simulating a hurricane and it barely registers. Not dead silence but still good.Wireless is a bit iffy with certain devices. Windows 10 is stupid with bluetooth and sometimes bugs out then cut your sound back to speaker, happened to two laptops on the same OS. No problems with Android devices though, connection is consistent and never disconnects.Auto-pauses if it senses you’ve moved the headphones off your ear. Works on Youtube, Amazon Video, MP3 player and all.Battery life is pretty good. Have ran it for 10+ hours and it never powered off. Haven’t timed it precisely but maybe around 90 minutes to full charge. Hold the multifunction or Play button for a couple seconds to hear how much battery is left.Soundwise, I still prefer my old trusty Beyerdynamic DT-770 but that one isn’t really portable and I wanted a wireless option.
Wrap Dad –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Still subpar for the cost
I purchased these last summer after reading a lot of comparisons with the Bose QC’s & 700 as well as the Sony M3 & M4, and after waiting for them to go on sale. I knew that I was not getting the best noise cancelling or battery life in the class, but I wanted physical buttons vs. swipe controls and it had good marks for sound fidelity. Ultimately, I chose poorly, and it makes perfect sense to me that the non-sale asking price on these has dropped 100 bucks since I bought them.The noise cancelling is pretty much as expected, but the “soundstage” and fidelity are disappointing. These are sufficient to tune out your surroundings with a little soundtrack while working, or for taking zoom calls (built in mic worked fine), but not to kick back and get lost in the fine details of a musical composition. They’ve been most used for watching TV at night, and they do wear pretty comfortably for long periods of time.That said, the battery life is dismal. These lose charge quickly even when not in use, so a daily user of mid-level activity (a couple zoom calls and a movie) should expect to charge these every other day, or find the low battery warning interrupting their listening on day 3. Performance when using wired is inconsistent from phone to laptop to desktop – my phone is USB-C native and getting these to work without bluetooth was a challenge; desktop connected faster this way but then the mic didn’t want to work.I turned off the motion sensor for pausing music via the app because it was predictably annoying, but I couldn’t really get around the fold/unfold method of turning these on and off. Predictably, I would sometimes just take my headphones off or pull them around my neck to do something else and the battery would run down needlessly. About 6 months in they began to have a hard time sensing whether they were folded up or not while I was wearing them. Having the headphones turn off during use and struggling to get them to turn back on is a major problem and pretty much relegated these to the bench. After reading the other reviews about their customer service I didn’t bother.