Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 – The Rapid Review
At some point, manufacturers run out of things to improve in wireless earbuds. Sound quality improves a bit. Noise cancellation gets smarter. Battery life goes up by an hour or two. The charging case becomes a little smaller.
So when Sennheiser released the MOMENTUM True Wireless 5, I was curious to see what new features it offered. The answer is pretty clever. Yes, these are premium wireless earbuds with excellent sound, adaptive noise cancellation, Dolby Atmos, Bluetooth 6.0 and plenty of other features. But what really caught my attention is something you don’t normally associate with true wireless earbuds: you can replace the batteries.
At £249.99, these earbuds are definitely in the premium range. That’s a significant price, so do the MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 live up to it?
Design and comfort
Sennheiser hasn’t tried to completely reinvent the look of its flagship earbuds. Instead, the MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 have a relatively understated design that still feels unmistakably Sennheiser. The earbuds have a premium finish, while the charging case is compact enough to carry around without becoming annoying.
Sennheiser changed the shape from the previous version, and these earbuds are comfortable enough for long listening sessions. They also stay in place when you’re on the move. You get four sizes of silicone ear tips, making it easier to find a good seal. That’s particularly important because fit noticeably affects comfort, bass performance, and passive isolation. The earbuds are also IP54 rated for dust and splash resistance, although that rating applies to the earbuds rather than the charging case.
Sound quality
Now for the most important part. They sound fantastic. Sennheiser has fitted the MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 with its 7mm TrueResponse dynamic drivers, and they produce a sound that is detailed without becoming overly clinical. There’s plenty of bass when the music needs it, but it doesn’t overpower the rest. Vocals sound natural, instruments are well separated, and there’s a great sense of space for in-ear headphones.
Little things that can disappear with cheaper earbuds are easier to notice, whether that’s the texture of a vocal, the decay of a cymbal or a quieter instrument sitting further back in the mix. And if the default tuning isn’t quite your thing, the Sennheiser Smart Control Plus app gives you plenty of options. It includes an eight-band EQ and Sennheiser’s Sound Personalisation feature, which tries to tailor the sound to your hearing preferences.
The earbuds also support aptX Lossless, so if you have compatible devices and music, you can enjoy higher-quality wireless audio. In other words, there’s a lot here for people who like to tweak their audio, but you can also just put them in and enjoy the music.
Dolby Atmos and spatial audio
The MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 supports Dolby Atmos, and it can make compatible content sound considerably more spacious. Movies benefit particularly well. Instead of everything seeming to come from two tiny speakers inside your ears, there’s a greater sense of space around the sound. For music, however, I generally preferred the more natural presentation of standard stereo. Spatial audio can be fun, but I wouldn’t buy these earbuds solely for Dolby Atmos. It’s a nice extra, not the main attraction.
Noise cancellation
The MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 use hybrid adaptive ANC, which automatically adjusts to your surroundings. In practice, the noise cancellation is very good. It’s good enough to make a busy train, office, or coffee shop considerably quieter, letting you focus on what you’re listening to rather than everything happening around you. Sennheiser has also added adaptive wind-noise suppression, which is particularly useful when you’re outside.
However, this isn’t an area where Sennheiser completely dominates the competition. Some rival premium earbuds can still provide more dramatic isolation, particularly with lowfrequency sounds. That’s not to say Sennheiser’s ANC is disappointing. Far from it. It’s just that at £249.99, you’re shopping in a class where “very good” isn’t necessarily the same thing as “best”. The transparency mode is also useful. Voices sound natural enough, making it easy to have a quick conversation without removing the earbuds.
Calls
Call quality matters more than ever with wireless earbuds, and Sennheiser has packed a lot of tech into the microphones. Each earbud has four microphones, a bone-conduction sensor, beamforming, and AI-powered noise reduction. All this tech helps separate your voice from background noise.
In everyday use, they do a good job of keeping your voice clear, even when there’s other noise around you. They won’t replace a dedicated microphone, but for everyday calls, Teams meetings, and conversations while you’re out and about, they’re more than capable.
Battery life
Battery life is another highlight. Sennheiser says you get up to 12 hours from the earbuds with ANC off, or up to 40 hours with the charging case. With ANC on, it’s about six hours for the earbuds. These numbers will vary based on volume, codec, and features, but there’s enough battery life that most people won’t have to worry. You also get wireless charging, USB-C charging, and a quick-charge feature that gives you about an hour of playback after just eight minutes of charging. But here’s the clever bit. You can replace the batteries.
We’ve got used to wireless earbuds becoming effectively disposable once their tiny internal batteries start to deteriorate. After a few years, you can end up with an hour or two of use instead of several hours, and because the batteries aren’t realistically replaceable, the earbuds effectively become disposable. The MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 take a different approach. Being able to replace those batteries means there’s a real chance of keeping the earbuds going much longer. It’s a small change, but an important one, and I’d like to see more manufacturers doing this.
Whether everyone will actually replace their batteries themselves is another question. It’s certainly more involved than plugging the earbuds into a charger, and replacement batteries aren’t included. The real long-term test will also be how easy and affordable replacement batteries are to obtain several years down the line. But the option is there, and I’d like to see it become much more common.
Connectivity and app
The MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 supports Bluetooth 6.0, multipoint connectivity, and codecs including AAC, aptX Adaptive, and aptX Lossless. Multipoint is particularly useful if, like me, you regularly switch between devices. The Smart Control Plus app is also one of the better companion apps around. You can adjust the EQ, change sound modes, customise the sound and control ANC, transparency and other features without making the whole experience unnecessarily complicated.
There are plenty of settings here, but you don’t have to spend your life configuring them either. Personally, I like having the choice. Pair them, put them in your ears and press play. That’s how it should be.
What’s not so good?
They’re not perfect. The first obvious issue is the price. At £249.99, these earbuds aren’t cheap. There’s tough competition at this price, with many great alternatives for less money, and some rivals offer better noise cancellation. The touch controls also take some getting used to. The control area is small, so you might tap the wrong spot now and then.
Also, while the earbuds are comfortable for me, fit is very personal. What works great for one person might not work for another. And even though being able to replace the batteries is a big plus, it doesn’t make these cheap to own. You’ll still have to buy new batteries when the originals wear out, and not everyone will want to replace them on their own. But those are relatively minor complaints.
The Verdict
The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 are excellent earbuds. The sound is the main highlight, but there’s a lot more to like. They’re comfortable, packed with features, have great battery life, good ANC, strong call quality, Dolby Atmos support, a solid app, and support for highquality codecs. But what I really like is the replaceable battery. It’s such an obvious idea that it’s slightly surprising it has taken the industry this long to properly embrace it.
At £249.99, the MTW5 isn’t an impulse purchase. If your main priority is having the absolute strongest possible noise cancellation, there are alternatives worth considering too. But if you want a premium pair of true wireless earbuds and care most about sound quality, the MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 are a strong choice. For me, these are the kind of earbuds that make you want to listen to your favorite albums all over again. And that’s probably the best compliment I can give.
In short: A seriously impressive pair of true wireless earbuds that combine superb sound with genuinely useful features, and finally address one of the biggest problems with wireless earbuds: what happens when the battery eventually dies.
Rapid Reviews Rating
4.5 out of 5
4.5
Check out the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 5 on the Sennheiser website.
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