Audio review
Sennheiser Momentum 4 Review: Best Sound Here, Weakest Cancelling
Measured at 13.2 dB of low-frequency attenuation, against 28.9 for the AirPods Pro 2 on the same test bench. It also ran nearly a full working week on one charge.
By Paulo GerchonPublished 2 min read
Illustration, not a photo — we don’t have a licensed image of this product yet.
Sennheiser
Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless
Good · researched from 5 sources
Buy these to listen rather than to travel. The sound and the battery are the best of any headphone we have covered, and the cancelling is measurably the weakest, which is an unusual and very deliberate set of trade-offs.
- Buy if
- Long listening sessions where sound quality is the point · Anyone who resents charging headphones · Home and office use rather than aircraft
- Skip if
- Frequent flyers, where the low-frequency measurement matters most · Anyone whose headphones double as a call headset · Rain, given the absence of any IP rating
We don’t list prices, because Amazon’s change hourly.
The comparison that settles it
Four flagship headphones, one test bench, one number each for low-frequency attenuation:
AirPods Pro 2, 28.9 dB. Bose QuietComfort Ultra, 23.5 dB. Sony WH-1000XM5, 19.3 dB. Sennheiser Momentum 4, 13.2 dB.
TechGearLab measured all of them the same way, which is what makes that list worth anything. Low frequency is engine noise, train rumble, the drone of a plane at cruise. It is the thing cancelling exists for and the thing these are worst at.
Headphones.com reaches the same conclusion by ear and adds the mechanism: softer ear pads that seal less well than the Momentum 3's, which costs passive isolation before the electronics get involved.
And then the compensation
TechGearLab scored sound quality 9.0. That is the highest score they gave any of the twenty-six headphones in that group, including all three rivals above.
Battery is the same story. SoundGuys measured 56 hours 21 minutes at a standardised 75 dB with cancelling running. TechGearLab measured 49. Sennheiser claims 60. Even the pessimistic number is roughly double what the Sony and Bose manage, and it changes how you live with headphones: you stop thinking about charging them.
Comfort scored 9.5 at TechGearLab, who wore them ten hours straight.
So these are not travel headphones
That is the honest summary, and it is unusual enough to be worth stating plainly. Almost every flagship is sold on cancelling. These are sold on everything else, and the measurements back that up in both directions.
If your headphones live on a desk and you listen to music through them for hours, nothing else we have covered sounds better or lasts longer between charges. If they live in a bag and come out on a plane, the number at the top of this review is the one that will matter to you.
The microphone is the other weak point
TechGearLab scored call quality 5.8. Their description is soft and grainy but clear enough in a quiet room, and poor once there is background noise. SoundGuys found the same noise rejection problem.
On the same scale the Sony scored 9.0 and the AirPods Pro 2 also scored 9.0. If these are also your conference call headset, that gap is the second reason to think twice.
Small things that add up
No IP rating at all, which SoundGuys flags, on headphones many people will wear outdoors.
A durability score of 6.9 from SoundGuys, on a largely plastic body. Headphones.com frames the same decision more sympathetically: fewer metal parts is what makes them 25 grams lighter than the Momentum 3 and foldable, and comfort over ten hours is partly a weight story.
TechGearLab also found the touch controls oversensitive and the fit not especially stable, both consequences of the light clamping force that makes them comfortable in the first place. Almost every complaint here traces back to a decision that also produced one of the strengths.
How it scored
The overall 7.5 is the weighted average of these five criteria — we never adjust it by hand.
Sound quality
TechGearLab scored sound 9.0, the highest of any headphone in their group, describing exceptional detail and clarity across the spectrum.
Value
TechGearLab ranked it fourth of twenty-six overall. Headphones.com calls it the best current cancelling option for a new buyer while telling Momentum 3 owners not to upgrade.
Build quality
SoundGuys scored durability 6.9 and note no IP rating at all. Headphones.com observes fewer metal parts than the predecessor, trading feel for weight.
Ease of use
TechGearLab scored app and controls 8.2 but found the touch controls overly sensitive, and noted the headphones are not the most stable given light clamping.
Noise cancelling
TechGearLab scored it 6.0, measuring 13.2 dB in the low band. Headphones.com calls the performance middling and worse than the Momentum 3.
Pros and cons
What we liked
- TechGearLab scored sound quality 9.0, their highest in a group of twenty-six
- SoundGuys measured 56 hours 21 minutes of continuous playback with cancelling on
- Ten minutes of charging returns about six hours per SoundGuys
- TechGearLab scored comfort 9.5 and wore them ten hours straight
- Supports aptX, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive alongside SBC and AAC
What we didn’t
- TechGearLab measured only 13.2 dB of low-frequency attenuation and scored cancelling 6.0
- Headphones.com finds the cancelling actively worse than the Momentum 3 it replaced
- TechGearLab scored call quality 5.8, describing the microphone as soft and grainy
- No IP rating whatsoever per SoundGuys
- Headphones.com notes an 8kHz peak that treble-sensitive listeners will hear as sizzle
- Battery measurements range from 49 hours to 56 across two labs against a 60 hour claim
Specifications
| Noise cancelling | 13.2 dB low, 22.5 dB mid, 35.1 dB high per TechGearLab |
|---|---|
| Battery | 49 h measured by TechGearLab; 56 h 21 min by SoundGuys; 60 h claimed |
| Quick charge | 10 minutes for about 6 hours per SoundGuys |
| Weight | 293 g per TechGearLab; just over 290 g per SoundGuys; 295 g per Headphones.com |
| Codecs | SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive |
| Water resistance | No IP rating |
| Folding | Yes |
| Durability score | 6.9 out of 10 per SoundGuys, largely plastic construction |
How we researched this
We have not had this unit on the bench. This review synthesises the manufacturer’s published specifications, independent measurements and owner reports listed below. Every figure on this page comes from one of those sources rather than our own measurement.
5
sources reviewed
TechGearLab and SoundGuys both publish instrumented results and disagree on battery by seven hours, so both figures are reported with the test conditions each states. TechGearLab's per-frequency attenuation numbers are what make the cancelling comparison against the other headphones on this site possible, since all were measured on the same bench. Headphones.com contributed the tuning analysis and the generational comparison against the Momentum 3. An RTINGS review exists but their page did not render for us, so it is not cited.
What we read
Common questions
How weak is the noise cancelling really?
What is the actual battery life?
Are they good for calls?
How do they sound?
Should I upgrade from the Momentum 3?
The bottom line on the Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless
Buy these to listen rather than to travel. The sound and the battery are the best of any headphone we have covered, and the cancelling is measurably the weakest, which is an unusual and very deliberate set of trade-offs.
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