Earbuds are in all places. You should purchase them on the fuel station. You may ask Santa for them. Or you may get them organized on Amazon. They arrive in all styles and sizes, and so they present a variety of sound high quality and even health features which have allowed them to grow to be a serious staple in our fashionable lives.
I’ve used plenty of earbuds over time; wired and wi-fi varieties are staples in my on a regular basis carry (EDC) package. Whether or not it’s within the background or the main focus, music evokes me.
However there’s extra to it — I’m additionally a really lively particular person. From strolling by way of city to climbing by way of the woods, or mowing the garden, I’m all the time on the transfer. Throughout these occasions, I don’t wish to zone out; I wish to give attention to how I’m performing and enhance my efficiency. I all the time problem myself and push my limits, so monitoring my vitals has grow to be paramount to doing this sufficiently and safely.
This previous spring, Sennheiser launched the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds. In a feat of innovation, the model aimed to pair premium-quality sound with health monitoring. The consequence could be a pair of sound-thumping earbuds that observe your heartbeat and temperature simply and precisely as properly.
In brief: Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM Sport earbuds don’t simply present a premium auditory expertise. They’ll additionally observe your coronary heart fee and temperature extra precisely than a lot of the health trackers in the marketplace. For those who get pleasure from good tunes whereas being lively and wish to preserve tabs in your physique’s efficiency, then these health earbuds have been made for you.
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Sort
In-ear -
Battery
6 hours (24 hours when charging with case) -
Bluetooth model
5.2 -
Charging
1.5 hours -
Score
IP55 (Case is IP54) -
Microphones
6 (3 per earbud) -
Different options
A number of sound modes, efficiency monitoring, ecosystem compatibility -
Value
$330
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Premium sound -
Correct health monitoring -
Means to regulate a seemingly limitless quantity of settings -
Easy and dependable connectivity
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Battery life could possibly be longer -
Rubber hinge on case doesn’t appear sturdy
Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport Earbud Overview
Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM Sport earbuds carry the top-notch sound high quality that’s synonymous with the Sennheiser model. The number of sound modes and settings might be tailored to the person and their surroundings. This lets you totally escape from the world round you or nonetheless be a part of it.
The modes embody “Adaptive ANC,” a hybrid type of noise cancellation that adjusts to the surroundings round you. There’s additionally an “Anti-Wind” mode that’s nice for working or highway biking, because it blocks out the extraordinary white noise wind creates when speeding by you. Then there’s “Transparency” mode, which lets you hear the sounds round you.
Regulate any of those three settings to your liking. They can be utilized or turned off throughout telephone calls. Plus, the MOMENTUM has a “Sound Zones” setting that may change between these modes and any presets you create (extra on this later).
The massive draw to the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds, nonetheless, is their built-in efficiency trackers. These sensors monitor your coronary heart fee and physique temperature, and the information can pair with Apple, Garmin, and Google units, or Strava and Peloton merchandise. The MOMENTUM Sport earbuds also can sync with Polar’s Movement Coaching App, making them the primary non-Polar product to have the ability to achieve this.
Like most full-featured earbuds these days, the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds include a chargeable case. The case costs through USB-C or wirelessly and lets you prolong the earbuds’ 6-hour battery life to 24 hours. For each 10 minutes of charging, you get an hour of battery life.
The case and earbuds are IP54 rated. Because of this each can deal with mud, sweat, and common moisture however shouldn’t be submerged or uncovered to foul climate for extended durations.
Different settings embody the flexibility to preserve battery life, select whether or not incoming calls are mechanically answered, and have the music pause or preserve taking part in while you take away an earbud, simply to call a number of.
First Impressions
I’ve owned completely different Sennheiser headphones and earbuds over time, so I used to be acquainted with the model’s premium sound high quality.
I used to be curious to see how a lot management Sennheiser’s “Sensible Management” app would give me over the sound modes. Out of the entire earbuds I’ve used, none of them have had a devoted app. This isn’t unprecedented, however it proved a helpful addition for anybody who considers themselves an audiophile.
The MOMENTUM Sport buds include numerous measurement suggestions and wings to assist dial in the best way the earbuds slot in your ears. The way in which the buds are formed, I think they may wrestle to remain in place and hang around of my ear. I’ve had that occur earlier than, even with a cosy match, and it turns into a distraction.
Thus far, I’ve discovered a stable match combo for me (extra under), however time will inform if I encounter any points with extra trial. What I can say is that swapping suggestions and wings is straightforward to do.
Medium Suggestions / Small Wings
As with all earbuds, discovering the fitting match in your ears will decide your total expertise. I initially went with small suggestions and small wings and located that they match nice after I was doing work on my laptop computer, mendacity round within the hammock, and even biking on the highway.
However as soon as I began to do lively actions, I noticed the match was off for me. I upsized to the medium suggestions and soared to high-fidelity heaven. Even after I ran across the trails, scrambled over rocks, and scampered about just like the woodland gnome I’m, they stayed put.
Weirdly, I seen that earlier than I upgraded to the medium suggestions, the earbuds by no means truly fell out of my ears. As a substitute, they simply form of hung round, caught in place by the wings. So I by no means apprehensive concerning the earbuds falling out, although I used to be continuously distracted by having to regulate them.
Plus, the controls on the MOMENTUM Sport buds are a bit delicate, so any time I adjusted them, I by chance paused the music or skipped a observe. For a man identified for getting misplaced in 20-minute-long Fluffhead jams, this was no bueno.
Professional tip: Be certain that to examine and ensure your match whilst you’re each immobile and in movement!
Sennheiser MOMENTUM: Health Monitoring Accuracy
Not one of the different earbuds I’ve examined have been health trackers. So I used to be notably taken with simply how correct the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds’ coronary heart fee and health trackers have been compared to my Apple Watch. One of many metrics I wish to give attention to after I’m climbing, figuring out, and even strolling is my heartbeat. I search for patterns and correlations over time to see if my heartbeat stays the identical or goes down when I’m performing the identical exercise everyday.
And a part of that is contemplating how the surroundings round me impacts my physique temperature. When my temp is up, so is my coronary heart fee.
When evaluating my temperature and coronary heart fee knowledge from the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds to my Apple Watch Extremely, each readings have been extra correct with the earbuds. I additionally confirmed this with a brow thermometer.
The place the temperature readings have been shut, the heartbeat studying from the watch was 10 beats off on common.
I’ve come to comprehend that the information Apple pulls from its watches must be taken with a grain of salt. I discovered that by way of its distance monitoring when in comparison with utilizing each the iPhone 14 Professional with Gaia GPS and the Garmin eTrex Photo voltaic. The information from the telephone and the eTrex all the time matched up, whereas the watch didn’t.
The Pink Floyd Sound Take a look at
Many moons in the past, I noticed one of the simplest ways to check the standard of any speaker, headphone, or earbud was to play sure songs.
Pink Floyd’s “Darkish Facet of the Moon” album is extremely engineered. Play “Time” and let it run off into “The Nice Gig within the Sky” and also you’ll hear the usage of completely different channels placing numerous sounds on completely different sides of the music. There are components the place you may hear sounds journey from one facet to the following and again. I discover this situation is one of the simplest ways to fine-tune sound in ear buds.
There’s additionally an ideal underlying bass line in Dave Matthews’s “Keep or Depart” you can solely hear in essentially the most premium, fine-tuned sound environments. I may hear that bass line clear as day in these earbuds earlier than I even adjusted the equalizer.
I like to recommend you spend the time discovering your candy spot of sound when you get the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds to correctly match into your ears. The “Sensible Management” app that pairs with the earbuds is straightforward to make use of and lets you actually get the sound dialed in by way of a function known as “Sound Test.”
It’s like a watch examination in your ears and takes about 5 minutes to finish.
Noise Management
The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport earbuds have three noise management settings that may all be adjusted to your liking. I discovered that by way of 2 months of testing, I by no means took the earbuds off the “ANC (Energetic Noise Canceling)” setting after I was figuring out, mowing the garden, or enjoyable.
Nevertheless, the “Transparency” setting got here in helpful after I wished to stay in tune with the world round me. It makes use of built-in microphones to amplify the sound round you. That means, if one thing it’s essential to discover approaches your private house, you received’t miss it. When there’s no music taking part in, you may hear the amplification as if somebody turned up the acquire.
The third setting known as “Anti Wind” and is fairly self-explanatory. This can are available particularly helpful for individuals who highway bike. It dulls the wind noise that’s speeding at you whereas shifting at an accelerated fee. I put it on a number of occasions to try it out. The sound distinction between it and the ANC setting is minimal if something.
Sound Zones & Settings
One particularly cool function of these earbuds that ties into the noise-canceling settings is “Sound Zones.” This setting lets you create settings primarily based in your location. The earbuds will mechanically change to that preset while you enter that space. You may set the sound setting, equalizer ranges, and even the radius for when the preset activates or off.
You might have the flexibility to decide on your Noise Management setting, equalize the sound ranges inside the setting, and even create the radius or geolocation for while you change into that specific zone.
For instance, let’s say you’re strolling from work to the gymnasium. Primarily based in your enter, the earbuds will change over to your preset zone while you stroll into the gymnasium. When I’m out strolling on the town, I need to concentrate on the world round me. So I preserve my Noise Management setting on “Transparency.”
However as soon as I hit the trailhead, I wish to completely zone out and change to “ANC.” I’ve certainly one of my Sound Zones set to kick in proper after I arrive. That means, I can begin my hike with out interrupting a podcast or jam.
General Impressions
Sennheiser has actually zeroed into sound expertise. The variety of settings you may change on the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds is greater than I’ve ever seen earlier than.
These earbuds’ fitness-tracking skills are revolutionary and beneficial. Individuals who pair these earbuds with Polar, Apple, Garmin, Google, Strava, or Peloton will expertise and profit from this. If it’s essential to monitor your stats on the fly, I extremely suggest these earbuds.
However the huge crux that each earbud teeters on is how they match. I’ve owned and used the Sennheiser OCX 686G Sport wired earbuds, in addition to earbuds from Anker and Skullcandy. All of them match rather well. However not in addition to the Medium Tip/Small Wing combo matches on me with these MOMENTUMs.
And because the previous saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Have I used earbuds that price a fraction of the value of the MOMENTUM Sport buds that had premium sound? Sure, however not the extent of element that Sennheiser persistently supplies throughout its product line.
Whenever you mix that with how a lot you may modify and modify that sound, in addition to different interactive options that enhance the expertise, I feel that justifies the (substantial) $300 price ticket.