Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport review

Sennheiser aims to deliver the ultimate fitness earbuds with the new MOMENTUM Sport. In addition to packing all the tech you would expect from premium wireless earbuds, these earbuds feature heart rate and body temperature tracking. Does that make these the best earbuds for fitness enthusiasts? Find out in our Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport review.

Editor’s note: this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.

What’s it like to use the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport?

From the inside out, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport are designed for athletes. The headline feature of these earbuds is the built-in photoplethysmography (PPG) heart rate sensor and body temperature sensor. You do have to use the included transparent ear tips for the sensors to work correctly — if you use third-party foam ear tips, you won’t get accurate readings.

You can view your heart rate and body temperature in the Sennheiser Smart Control app or connect the earbuds to Polar Flow and other fitness tracking apps for more detailed data tracking. I found the heart rate reading on the earbuds is always within a few beats of the reading on my Apple Watch, which gives me enough confidence in its accuracy for casual fitness tracking.

Having these sensors built into earbuds makes a lot of sense. It is often difficult to get a fitness band or smartwatch to stay in place during high-intensity workouts, but I didn’t have that problem with the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds. You could save money by getting cheaper earbuds and a separate fitness monitor, but having the sensors built into your earbuds is very convenient.

One notable tradeoff is that so much tech can only fit into an earbud of a rather large size. You must have above-average-sized ears to get a comfortable fit with the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport. You get a wide selection of ear tips and wing sizes to ensure the earbuds stay in place, but those won’t help you if you can’t get the body of the earbuds to fit into your conchas in the first place. I can wear the earbuds for about an hour before the pressure on my outer ear becomes painful. If you have small ears, you should look at the best earbuds for small ears instead.

The charging case comes with a loop for clipping onto a bag or keychain, and a flap covers the charging port to give the case an IPX4 water resistance rating. The earbuds are also water-resistant, with an IPX5 rating. You can’t submerge the earbuds, but they handle water splashes just fine. There is no dust protection rating, so you’ll need to be careful bringing them with you to the beach.

How do you control the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport?

Tap controls on each earbud control the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport. The earbuds also have a wear-detection sensor that automatically pauses your music when you take an earbud out of your ear. Within the Smart Control app, you can fully customize the triggered function with taps on either earbud. Below, we’ve outlined the default controls:

A small touch that I appreciate is the ability to customize the tap sensitivity of the controls within the companion app. This lets you choose how much force the earbuds require to register a tap. At the lowest level, you can prevent your music from being paused every time you adjust the fit of the earbuds. You can trigger the controls at the highest sensitivity by tapping your cheekbone, which is a neat gimmick.

Should you use the Sennheiser Smart Control app for the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport?

The Sennheiser Smart Control app provides one of the most comprehensive companion app experiences on the market. You can use the app to download firmware updates, view earbud and case battery information, and see your current heart rate and body temperature. Scroll down, and you’ll find an equalizer where you can select from a sound preset or create your own using the five-band EQ. You can also use the Sound Check feature to take a listening test and have the app build your own custom EQ.

Another feature that Sennheiser offers is Sound Zones. Within this section of the app, you can set up automation for your earbuds based on your geographic location. For example, you can have ANC turn on when you get to the office, or have a bass boost EQ setting enable when you get to the gym.

How do the the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport connect?

Bluetooth 5.2 connects the Sennheiser Sport MOMENTUM to devices. Unlike the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4, these earbuds don’t get the latest Bluetooth 5.4, though the differences are minimal. Regarding Bluetooth codecs, the MOMENTUM Sport supports SBC, AAC, and aptX adaptive. Select your desired codec and adjust the streaming quality within the Smart Control app.

For the most part, I experienced a stable connection to my iPhone. One day, I had connection issues, but I alleviated the problems by resetting the earbuds from the Smart Control app.

How long does the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport battery last?

In our battery test, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport lasted 6 hours and 40 minutes. This is about average for wireless earbuds. The charging case provides a few additional charges, with Sennheiser claiming you can get up to 24 hours of total battery life. You can power the case over USB-C or Qi wireless charging.

How well do the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport cancel noise?

Designed with joggers in mind, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport has three modes: Anti Wind, ANC, and Transparency. The Anti Wind mode helps to block out most of the annoying wind noise you hear while running or biking. When you don’t want to hear your surroundings, you can enable Active Noise Canceling (ANC), which reduces the loudness of most noise by about 75%. This isn’t as good as the top active noise canceling earbuds, though this is partly due to the semi-open design of the earbuds. The vents on the back of each earbud let in some outside noise, which helps make the Transparency mode sound as natural as possible at the expense of some passive isolation.

The chart above shows how the earbuds’ noise-blocking abilities were measured in our lab. The passive isolation is shown in pink, and the combined passive isolation and ANC in blue — higher values equal better performance. As expected, passive isolation is most effective at blocking external noise in the higher frequencies above 1kHz. Active noise canceling works best at canceling out low-frequency noise below 1kHz.

When you want to stay aware of your surroundings, the Transparency mode does an excellent job of amplifying noise. The app has a slider to control the exact amount of noise you want to let in. At the highest level, everything sounds louder than without the earbuds in your ears. At the lowest level, exterior noise is neither amplified nor attenuated, aside from some passive isolation from the earbuds in your ears.

How do the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport sound?

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport focuses on the low-end of music, so if you like having thumping bass to power you through workouts, you’ll like the sound.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the sound of the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.

Most casual listeners prefer an emphasis on bass, and the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport scores well in Timbre with a 4.5. The Distortion and Immersiveness scores align with what we’ve seen from other wireless earbuds. We can deduce that most people won’t mind how these earbuds sound.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

As you can see in the chart above, the frequency response of the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport deviates away from our headphone preference curve in the high frequencies. All sounds above 2kHz are underemphasized compared to our curve. As such, the bass and low-mids sound comparatively louder.

Can you use the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport for phone calls?

The microphones on board the earbuds do a great job of accurately reproducing the sound of the voice. You can hear what each voice is saying in our microphone demonstration below. Take a listen and let us know what you think.

Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport?

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport is expensive at a starting price of $329.95. You could instead buy one of the best wireless earbuds under $200 and still have more than $100 to spend on a separate fitness-tracking wearable. You should only buy these earbuds to avoid wearing a separate tracking device in the gym, such as a smartwatch.

Suppose you don’t need the biometric sensors. In that case, you can find other workout earbuds with more appealing sound quality, better noise canceling, and better battery life for less than the price of the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport. If you want an all-in-one package, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport offers a unique value proposition.

What should you get instead of the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport?

If you don’t need heart rate or temperature tracking and want earbuds for the gym, your best option is the Jabra Elite 8 Active, $199 at Amazon. These earbuds have everything an athlete needs including a secure fit, an IP68 water-proof rating, long battery life, and great sound out of the box.

If you are in search of heart-rate tracking, you can save a few bucks by going with the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4, $129 at Amazon. For less than half the price of the Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport, you get almost all the same features.

Frequently asked questions