Sennheiser MOMENTUM Review - Page 44

Yeah, I saw the Momentum at a Future shop and was surprised to see it's $400 here. I don't get it. The CDN and US dollars are almost at par. Plus Senn launched the Amperior at $350 - same as the US. I also got mine from razordogdeals and am content with the price.

At $400 plus taxes, the Momentum becomes harder to recommend. I don't think it should be more expensive than the Amperior. 

Yeah, I got them from Futureshop. I prefer buying at local stores when I can, plus Futureshop has a generous return policy if I decide to return it (and it would be more convenient as it's local, instead of shipping it back and forth), so I just went with it.  So I'm not complaining so much about the price that I paid (which I decided to bite on for the sake of my own convenience anyway ) but still do feel that they are at similar sound quality levels of the cheaper HD25's. 

I tried them today. Impressive bass, very deep while still tight. The highs are textured and with some sparkle, although not dominant in the music. The mids were also balanced and natural. Good separation of instruments, effortless to focus on individual parts of the music. However I can't justify the price tag, even with the build quality.

Nice review, K_19. Your findings largely mirror mine. If I had to describe the Momentum in one word, it would be easy: easy to wear, easy to listen to, easy to like.

I agree that they are probably too expensive when considered strictly from a cost vs. sound quality aspect, but the nice case, quality construction and modern design make up for it a little bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olias of Sunhillow 

Nice review, K_19. Your findings largely mirror mine. If I had to describe the Momentum in one word, it would be easy: easy to wear, easy to listen to, easy to like.

 

I agree that they are probably too expensive when considered strictly from a cost vs. sound quality aspect, but the nice case, quality construction and modern design make up for it a little bit.

Yup, easy is a great word to describe them. Interestingly enough, my preference for sonic signature lately has been leaning more towards less harsh, smoother sound (especially after getting the Omega II's a few weeks ago)... and Momentums are similar in that sense.

Oh, and silly me, I forgot to mention the source used to do that little comparison... it was directly out of my Iphone 5, which is the source I'd be using 98% of the time when using portable headphones/IEM's.  I also did try it out of the desktop (foobar)/Ibasso D7 a bit, and it actually sounded worse than the Iphone 5 to my ears (even more laid back.. to the point of sounding too boring)...  I also have the ODAC/O2 which I can try it with, I'll report back if I hear anything different out of that combo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by K_19 

Oh, and silly me, I forgot to mention the source used to do that little comparison... it was directly out of my Iphone 5, which is the source I'd be using 98% of the time when using portable headphones/IEM's.  I also did try it out of the desktop (foobar)/Ibasso D7 a bit, and it actually sounded worse than the Iphone 5 to my ears (even more laid back.. to the point of sounding too boring)...  I also have the ODAC/O2 which I can try it with, I'll report back if I hear anything different out of that combo.

Indeed, I should have added easy to amp. I find the Momentum to be more than listenable on all of my sources (with the possible exception of my HTC EVO V phone, which has below average SQ even when the Beats Audio is turned off). Three iPods, an iPad 3, and my NuForce HDP all sound great. The flip side, of course, is the Momentum do not (IMO, of course) scale up dramatically with better equipment.

Can anyone comment on how natural drums and guitar sounds on these?

Quote:

Originally Posted by roma101 

Can anyone comment on how natural drums and guitar sounds on these?

The timbre is excellent, but a little thin on the top end for acoustic guitars. This gives the headphones a slightly more relaxed sound as though you're listening from the 10th row back. It's quite smooth. 
Electric guitars actually have just about the right amount of 'crunch' and attack without being unnatural or forward sounding like a Grado. 

Decay on these sounds natural. Whether it's good or bad (fast or slow) isn't my concern, but it sounds right, and acoustic drum decay seems better than my Grado RS2i which is just sometimes too fast.

Thank you so much for that response, just what I wanted to know. I'm more of a timbre-head than anything. :)

So ultimately I ended up returning these and keeping the HD25-1 II's. The decision basically came down to portability and price; it's simply near impossible for any headphones to beat the HD25's on portability factors IMO... it just combines those size, isolation, durability factors so well in one package.  Yes, the Momentums do well in those departments too, but you're really never going to treat the Momentums roughly like most people would do with HD25's without worry (which really makes things incredibly convenient and stress free)... because it's just too damn nice! The second factor is the price... as I mentioned earlier, at $400 IMO these were too much for the sound quality... and it didn't help that I'm currently looking to make improvements in my stat rig and needed that extra money.

However, I may very well re-acquire these headphones in the future (hopefully in $300 range next time) to use as a transportable home/work use headphone. Provided that one can get these headphones at ~$300 range, and have small ears, I would definitely recommend these headphones for people who want fatigue free, smooth sound signature.

Quote:

Originally Posted by K_19 

So ultimately I ended up returning these and keeping the HD25-1 II's. The decision basically came down to portability and price; it's simply near impossible for any headphones to beat the HD25's on portability factors IMO... it just combines those size, isolation, durability factors so well in one package.  Yes, the Momentums do well in those departments too, but you're really never going to treat the Momentums roughly like most people would do with HD25's without worry (which really makes things incredibly convenient and stress free)... because it's just too damn nice! The second factor is the price... as I mentioned earlier, at $400 IMO these were too much for the sound quality... and it didn't help that I'm currently looking to make improvements in my stat rig and needed that extra money.

 

However, I may very well re-acquire these headphones in the future (hopefully in $300 range next time) to use as a transportable home/work use headphone. Provided that one can get these headphones at ~$300 range, and have small ears, I would definitely recommend these headphones for people who want fatigue free, smooth sound signature.

I personally think Momentum is more comfortable than HD25-1 II, and also as a portable headphone, HD25-1 II is a little too hard to drive for portable device...

But totally agree with the price point. $400=bad...$300=good...as simple as that...come on, HE-400 is only $400. that's a good $400 headphone...although it's not portable,but still...

Any1 else thought these lacked a lot of detail & resolution especially midrange? I was quite underhelmed for their price, personally prefer how my M-Audio Q40 for $120 sound over these. 

"Subjective pricing value":

Q40: 200~$225

Momentum: 120~$150

I also demoed for example: AKG K272 HD, Sennheiser HD25-II and HD598 and thought all those had better sound quality (soundstage, microdetail, bass quality) than Momentum. But maybe Momentum is particularly picky about amp/source used.