Sennheiser Momentum 2 truly wireless earbuds review

I feel like this is one of the faster re-dos in tech history. I reviewed the original Sennheiser Momentum truly wireless headphones just last spring and now there’s a brand new version. Sennheiser Momentum 2 has just been released, so I’ll take a look at what it can do, how it sounds, what’s new and different from the previous version and whether it’s a worthy investment or upgrade.

Sennheiser Momentum 2 review

Sennheiser Momentum 2 truly wireless earbuds are designed to be a premium personal audio device for you. They come in a small cloth wrapped charging case, and are now available in white.

What’s new? Sennheiser Momentum 2

What’s new? There are four key changes to these earbuds:

To begin, they are ever so slightly smaller than the 1st generation Momentum, and Sennheiser promises a more comfortable fit. These were quite ear filling before and a lot of users posted that they became uncomfortable quickly, so it’s nice to see the revision. I found the fit was still pretty snug.

Another addition: Momentum 2 now have active noise cancelling, in addition to ambient mode (Transparent Hearing), which the originals had. More on those in a sec…

The battery life has also been extended in a big way from 4 hours in the buds and 8 in the case to 7 hours in the buds and 21 in the case. When I reviewed the gen 1 version, this was a key complaint I had, because at the price point these are at, I felt that the prior battery life was wimpy. Now these carry some of the longest life in truly wireless earbuds history.

They also have fast charging, which they didn’t before; 10 minutes will give you 90 minutes of playtime.

Momentum 2 are also IPX4 splash resistant.

Control & refine with Sennheiser app

To access some features you need the Sennheiser Smart Control app. The gen 1 version was buggy and couldn’t always connect. This time things seemed to work much better.

Inside the app you can use the transparent hearing settings to determine how much of ambient noise you want to hear.

You can customize your touch controls here too and adjust equalization settings to your preference.

Setting these up is quick; take the buds out of the case and push and hold one of the touchpads. You’ll hear it say, ‘Pairing’. Go to the app and start the pairing process. From there, they’re ready to go.

You can also simply use the pairing process to connect to your buds to your phone using Bluetooth and run it without the app.

Battery life is improved on Sennheiser Momentum 2

The new 7-hour battery life that can be extended up to 28 hours with the charging case is pretty sweet. Charging time takes 90 minutes for a full charge and fast charging takes 10 minutes to get 90 minutes of playtime.

In my previous experience with these, I found there was a bug that essentially didn’t let some of them them shut off. Ever. So the battery would drain overnight on you. Sennheiser replaced my pair and I had no issues after that. I have definitely not seen any similar issues this time.

Audio & sound quality: Sennheiser Momentum 2

I tested the new Momentum Buds out with a variety of music. If you want to check out my test playlist on Spotify it’s linked up here.

This probably won’t come as a surprise: these sound awesome. The bass blew me away right from the first note. It’s deep and powerful but without being buzzy and bone-jarring. The vocals sound great and overall everything is extremely well balanced. I can’t make one complaint about the audio quality.

I did notice the volume levels seemed a bit off; since I had to keep the volume about 80% just to keep them at a moderate level in my ears.

Two of the listening features with these are Transparent Hearing and noise cancelling.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless has an ambient function called Transparent Hearing which digitally lets some ambient noise into the earphones, while still playing your music and keeping the buds in your ears. To turn this feature on, tap the touch control panel of the right earbud two times or switch it on in the app.

This feature does indeed let you hear around you and its handy for commuters or for safety.

Noise cancelling feature is new

Noise cancellation is the act of using digital signals to cancel out outside noise to stop it from bleeding into your headphones.

While transparent hearing is available on the main app screen, figuring out how to access noise cancelling is less obvious. You actually need to go into settings and turn it on or off.

Surprisingly I didn’t notice a lot of effect with it on. While some other headphones noise cancelling features can really block out external noise, with these, I could still hear myself typing.

Smart pause: no interruptions

The Sennheiser Momentum 2 earbuds automatically detect whether they’re in or out of your ear and will pause accordingly. This is called smart pause. This worked quite well and the music actually does a nice little fade instead of stopping. Nice touch.

Touch Controls are easy

These earbuds also have simple touch controls. You can customize in the app and
A common issue when using truly wireless earbuds with a phone is a lag when watching videos. In gen one there was an intermittent lag. The gen 2 seems to have resolved any issues with lag.

Sennheiser Momentum 2 overall review

Overall, it seems to me Sennheiser has gone a long way to listening to the mistakes they made with the Momentum gen 1, fixing them all, and then improving on the overall product. Set up is easy, the Smart Pause works great, ambient mode is helpful, battery life is outstanding and the sound is out of this world. On the downside, I didn’t think the noise cancelling feature worked well at all, the fit is still a bit snug for my ears.

Even so, If you’re looking for a premium pair of earbuds with all the bells and whistles, you’ll love the Sennheiser Momentum 2.