Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless review - Worth buying in 2025?

These headphones are three years old,

but they're still one of the most talked

about headphones on Reddit, YouTube. I

mean, really, pick a place. So, are the

Sennheiser Momentum 4 wireless worth it

in 2025? Yes. Well, sort of. Here are

three things I really love about it and

three things that really aren't as

great. Number one, sound quality. When

you take these into the lab, the first

thing you'll notice is that they measure

really, really well. And that's not by

accident. And Sennheiser has a long

history, especially with a Momentum line

of true wireless earbuds or overear

headphones, of making really solid

products that sound good. However, their

weaknesses are usually someplace else.

And that same thing is true here. You'll

be greeted with a sound that has a

little bit more bass than we would

normally like to see, but in general,

the mids are great, the highs are

roughly where they're supposed to be,

and really are fit to taste. You can

also adjust this to your preferences. If

you use the app, whether it's the Smart

Control Plus or the regular Smart

Control app, but it depends on which

firmware version you're using and

whether or not you want to create a

Sennheiser account. Now, you can adjust

these to your own personal preferences,

but it's a lot of trial and error and I

don't really have any presets for you

because

they change. However, you shouldn't have

to need to do a whole lot out of the

box. And if you do, well, that means

your preferences are pretty divergent

from what most of the products out there

are going to sound like anyway. So,

that's not that big a deal. And I

haven't even begun to talk about other

advanced options that we'll hear more

about later. So, out of the box, without

any adjustments, without any tinkering,

modifications, or any of that garbage,

you're going to get headphones that

sound really, really good. All right,

number two, the battery life. Good lord,

these things last forever. Now,

obviously, this will change depending on

whether you use A&C all the time,

whether you use advanced features,

spatial audio, you get it. You get it.

In our lab test, though, these lasted

over 55

hours. That's with&c on, by the way.

That is nuts. And it's not a figure

that's matched by any other product,

unless you count the JBL Tour 1 M3. I

mean, at 55 hours, who's going to notice

the difference between a few minutes?

Nobody. The only caveat here is

something that we'll mention in the

negatives, but you're not really going

to have to worry about it too much.

Number three, the connection options.

Now, you might have seen me in other

videos knocking really well attested

headphones for things that seemingly

don't matter all that much, like a lack

of OraCast or not being able to listen

over USBC. Well, these three-year-old

headphones can do that. They have wired

listening over USBC and the normal TRS

jack so that you're never without a way

to listen to your headphones, which is

important if you want to use these for

both work and casual listening. You

don't always know what you're going to

be able to use your headphones with. And

having the option in your back pocket is

a really big deal because not a lot of

people with wireless headphones have the

ability to use a USBC cable. They're not

going to be aware that they can listen

to lossless audio with something

different. And the Sennheiser Momentum 4

wireless can do that straight out of the

box. All right, so I've glazed this up

pretty good. But what are the three

things that stick in my craw a bit?

Well, let's start off with the first

one. There are some really unexpected

rough edges. And by rough edges, I mean

things that don't exactly work the way

you think they will or right out of the

box, you can run into something weird,

fix it, not think about it again, and

just learn that it's a part of the

headphones. For example, sometimes the

touch controls just don't work when you

first start the headphones on. You have

to go into the app, toggle the touch

controls off, and then back on, and then

everything's fine. While that's not

really a big deal, it's still annoying.

Another thing, the band design. While

the padding works, it's not a

conventional band design. And the

padding can sometimes get uh a little

painful if you listen to the headphones

for hours and hours and hours and hours

on end, like on an intercontinental

flight. The trouble is, though, is that

you can't really pull it off or change

it for something else. So that might

annoy a few people. However, most A&C

headphones nowadays don't give you that

option. So it's really a moot point.

Drawback number two, the ANC was dated

when it came out. Sure, a lot of

headphones have really great A&C

nowadays, and the Sennheiser Momentum 4

Wireless is not one of them. They do

okay. They get rid of most sounds pretty

well, and I use this on the sky train or

the subway and intercontinental flights

with no issue. The problem is is that

it's not going to delete the world

around you. And in fact, there's going

to be a lot of sounds that make their

way in by virtue of the fact that the

ANC unit is just not as strong as

something like the Apple AirPods Max,

for example. Now, if you want hard

numbers, these were able to reduce

outside noise and loudness by about 76%

across all the samples that we took. And

Apple AirPods Max can do something like

88%. Sure. Is 12% a huge gulf? No, not

really. But it is noticeable. And that's

the thing. These differences, while they

may look huge on paper, in real life,

they're not going to be as deal-breaking

as they sound. Finally, number three.

These are old headphones and they

perform like it. There's nothing bad or

wrong with that, but the truth of the

matter is is that AEX has moved on.

Bluetooth has moved on. These have an

older standard and they use older codecs

which are going to be left behind by the

newer family of codecs that are enabled

by Snapdragon sound like appjax

lossless. There is no LDAC. There's no

other, you know, quote unquote lossless

Bluetooth standard. So, you're going to

be left wanting if you think that

lossless audio is something that you

need. Now, you could use the USBC to

USBC cable in the very convenient travel

case,

but the problem is is that if you don't

want to be tied to a cable, you're going

to have to settle for AEX or AEX HD. And

that's just the long and short of it.

And then there's also things like no

oriccast or the spatial audio kind of

weak. A lot of these things have to do

with the fact that a lot of this

hardware is well not maybe not outdated

but it is pretty old. So with that,

should you look at buying the Sennheiser

Momentum 4 wireless in 2025

on sale? These regularly dip below $300

and in a market with the Sony WH100XM6

$450 at retail or the Apple AirPods Max

at $550 at retail. Yeah, these are worth

it to limp along until the Momentum 5

wireless comes around or maybe something

else better comes around that can suit

your needs more specifically than a

generalist workhorse set of headphones.

Now, I will say that because these are

so long in the tooth, it would not shock

me if we got Momentum 5 wireless on the

shelves by the end of the year because,

well, they're due. And if that's the

case, then not only will the price of

these drop even further, but you might

actually have a better option for your

needs in the Momentum 5 Wireless. So,

it's worth waiting either way. If you

desperately need a set of headphones

right now, there are plenty of picks out

there that offer something over these

headphones at tradeoffs that may or may