Sennheiser’s over-ear headphones have consistently been rated as the best wireless headphones out there. The Momentum series has long gotten excellent reviews from us — and for good reason. Now, the company is back with a new pair of headphones — the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3.0 headphones.
But, like its predecessors, the headphones aren’t necessarily cheap. They come in with a price tag of almost $400, and while you’ll likely be able to get them at a discount online, that doesn’t mean that they’ll be cheap. But are they worth the cash? We put the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3.0 headphones to the test to find out.
Design
The Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3 headphones offer a similar design to its predecessors — but it’s not exactly the same. The headphones are built with a sturdy-looking metal frame, some plastic on the ear cups, and leather in the headband and on the ear cushions. Safe to say, they’re definitely sturdy headphones — and they should be able to withstand most abuse that you can throw at them.
On the right ear cup is where you’ll get the majority of controls and buttons. You’ll get normal playback controls, along with a switch to turn on noise cancellation, and even a button to control your preferred digital assistant. Then, you’ll get a USB-C charging port, and an aux port.
The headphones have some cool features built into them too. Notably, when you take the headphones off of your head, content will automatically pause — and when you put them back on, it’ll start again. It’s a cool touch.
In the box, apart from the headphones themselves, you’ll get a nice case, along with a USB-C cable and an aux cable. There’s also a USB-C to USB-A adapter, which is a nice touch. It’s not a huge selection of accessories — but it’s pretty much everything you’ll need.
Generally speaking, the Senneheiser Momentum Wireless 3 headphones offer a nice design with a good selection of accessories.
Comfort
Sennheiser has never had a huge problem with the comfort-level of its headphones, and these headphones are no exception. These headphones offer a nice memory foam in the ear cups and under the headband, and the result is that we were able to wear the headphones for hours on end without any level of discomfort. That’s good news considering the fact that you might be using these headphones for long-distance travel.
The clamp on the headphones was pretty good too. We never felt like the headphones were too tight, and they never felt like they would fall off easily either.
Sound
Of course, comfort and design are important enough — but when you buy a pair of Sennheiser headphones, you expect a solid sound quality too. Thankfully, these headphones, in classic Sennheiser fashion, sound great.
Let’s start with the bass response, which is relatively tight and punchy, without being over-the-top. If you’re a mega-bass fan, these probably aren’t the headphones for you. Instead, these are a great pair of headphones for those who want natural-sounding bass that gives things like kick drums room to breathe.
Mids are well-tuned too. Low mids are relatively warm, but never strayed into muddy territory. High-mids sounded crisp and present, which is good for things like vocals and guitars.
Perhaps the best thing about the sound-quality of these headphones, however, is the high-end. Details were crisp and sibilant, ensuring that music of all kinds sounds great.
The noise cancellation of these headphones is very good too. It’s perhaps not quite as good as the noise cancellation on the Bose QuietComfort 35 II headphones or the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones, but it’s still better than most — meaning that it’ll easily cut out things like plane noise, train noise, and so on.
Performance
If you do end up taking these headphones on long-distance travel, you’ll want them to offer a good battery life — and while the battery life here is fine, it could be a little better. You’ll get 17 hours of use out of these headphones, which should be enough for most, but may not cut it for the longest of long-haul travel.
The headphones connect to your listening device through Bluetooth 5.0, and we found that they retained a good connection throughout testing. The headphones never really skipped or jumped, and they support a range of audio codecs — including AptX.
Conclusions
So are the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3 headphones worth buying? Well, yes, they are. These are definitely worthy successors to previous models of the Momentum series, offering an excellent sound-quality, great noise-cancellation, a good-looking design, and a comfortable fit.
But are they the best wireless headphones to go for? Well, it kind of depends what you’re looking for. If you want a pair of headphones that prioritize noise-cancellation, then the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones are the way to go. That said, if you don’t care about noise cancellation as much as sound quality, then the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless 3 headphones are the way to go.
Because of their excellent sound quality and ton of features, we’re awarding these headphones the Headphone Review Gold Medal.