[Puma Cat]

Got my Momentums in black yesterday. Pleased to report they fit very nicely and they are very comfortable. I am surprised how light they are. I was walking around outside with them plugged into my iPhone while using the Onkyo HD app, and I almost forgot they were on. 
 
I like the color scheme a lot, black with red stitching, cable and and interior of the cups, reminds me a bit of a red Jaguar F Type interior or something (I don't even know if Jaguar makes an interior like this, but it reminds me of it anyway). 
 
SQ-wise, right out of the box, they were quite neutral and tonally balanced, but a little closed-in sounding on the top. I listened to them for a couple hours, and then put them on the laptop with music playing for a few hours overnight. Using them with an AQ Dragonfly or LH Geek Out. 
 
They are opening up nicely now, and the highs are more extended and open-sounding. The mids really are very nice.  I expect by 20 hours or so, they will be "there" in terms of run-in. They seem quite transparent, so they reveal pretty much exactly the quality of the recording. 
 
More impressions later, but I am happy camper so far. 

 

[pfloyd]

Glad you like them Cat, I have had them for two years and they are the type of can that gets better with age. Never fatiguing and especially good for long listening sessions. My experience suggests better sound with no control straight cable. Even though I have both a pad and pod and like the convenience of the control cable, the sacrifice in sound is not worth it. I find the mids better with less mid-bass bleed with the straight cable and more air in the treble as well with expanded soundstage.

 

[Puma Cat]

Glad you like them Cat, I have had them for two years and they are the type of can that gets better with age. Never fatiguing and especially good for long listening sessions. My experience suggests better sound with no control straight cable. Even though I have both a pad and pod and like the convenience of the control cable, the sacrifice in sound is not worth it. I find the mids better with less mid-bass bleed with the straight cable and more air in the treble as well with expanded soundstage.

pfloyd,
Thanks for your comments. They are already notably more open-sounding after 5-6 hours than when they came straight out of the box, so looking forward to how these might improve with more hours on them. 20-30 hours is nothing; my Schiit Bifrost took a good 300-400 hours to fully burn-in, and my Conrad-Johnson CT-5 preamp for my speaker-based system took the better part of 2.5 years to fully burn-in (1000+ hours). 
 
I listened to some DSD content this morning with the LH Geek Out and Audirvana, and they sounded really, really nice. I've got a fair amount of high-res content, including 24/96, 24/192 and some DSD, and it is really nice to how these cans accurately reproduce the quality of source material.
 
I will try them with the straight-through cable today to see if I hear a difference. I've been comparing my Audioquest Dragonfly to my Light Harmonics Geek Out as to which DAC I prefer. The Geek Out supports native 2X DSD as well as 24/192 PCM content while the Dragonfly is "limited" to 24/96 PCM, but I think the Dragonfly v 1.2 may be a more natural-sounding and musical DAC/head amp (personally, I think Gordon Rankin of Wavelength, the desiger of the Dragonfly, is a genius)
 
BTW, most folks on forums just call me "PC" for Puma Cat. 
 
Best,
Stephen aka Puma Cat aka PC

 

[pfloyd]

Some pretty nice source material and equipment you got there PC. I mostly use a pad, pod or clip to power mine. I do have a DF v 1.0 but spilled coffee on the laptop and been without for a while. Will be interested in your comparison between cables using that hi-def stuff. What speakers are on the other end of the CT-5?

 

[Puma Cat]

pfloyd,
My 2-channel conventional (loudspeaker-based) system is Conrad-Johnson CT-5 preamp and C-J LP70S power amp driving Dynaudio Contour S3.4 speakers. DAC is a Schiit Gungnir, EAR 324 phono pre, turntables are Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V arm and Koetsu Urushi Vermilion MC cartridge and Rega P5 Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II MC cartridge (I'm into vinyl). Shunyata power cords and power distribution throughout.
 
Listen to the speakers most of the time, but I also am heavily into photography, so I often listen to headphones when I work at the computer editing images. I shoot for one of the racetracks in Northern California as one of their accredited photographers, and cover all their pro motorsports events. 
 
Also have a pair of Grado SR225i's, which I don't listen to very much, and a Grado headphone amp, and a pair of Shure SE535 IEMs, which I like a lot. Use a pair of Etymotic hf3's when bicycling or riding the sport motorcycle. 
 
Cheers,
Stephen aka PC

 

[pfloyd]

Which racetrack and what motorcycle? I have a zrx1200r. Been riding for 30 years, all big bore 4 cylinder japs. Not Laguna Seca, is it?
By the way, nice analog/ digital playback system.


pfloyd,
My 2-channel conventional (loudspeaker-based) system is Conrad-Johnson CT-5 preamp and C-J LP70S power amp driving Dynaudio Contour S3.4 speakers. DAC is a Schiit Gungnir, EAR 324 phono pre, turntables are Michell Gyro SE MkII, SME V arm and Koetsu Urushi Vermilion MC cartridge and Rega P5 Sumiko Pearwood Celebration II MC cartridge (I'm into vinyl). Shunyata power cords and power distribution throughout.

Listen to the speakers most of the time, but I also am heavily into photography, so I often listen to headphones when I work at the computer editing images. I shoot for one of the racetracks in Northern California as one of their accredited photographers, and cover all their pro motorsports events. 

Also have a pair of Grado SR225i's, which I don't listen to very much, and a Grado headphone amp, and a pair of Shure SE535 IEMs, which I like a lot. Use a pair of Etymotic hf3's when bicycling or riding the sport motorcycle. 

Cheers,
Stephen aka PC

 

[Puma Cat]

 

Honda VFR800. Used to ride CBR6s for many, many years. Finally got a VFR and love it. Track is Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point). Used to shoot for Laguna as official photographer for 7 years, from 2003-2009; covered a lot of MotoGP events.

 

[pfloyd]

Yeah! No two better hobbies than audio and motorcycles. MotoGP rocks!

 

[nuxos]

hi guy!
 
I am going to join the Momentum club 

 
I come from a Amperior : I didn't like the comfort and the aggressive signature for extended listening ( I usually listen 3 or 4 hours per day). So I am going to sell them.
 
I've ordered the brown Momentum (Over Ear) and it should arrive wednesday if everything goes well.
 
I've already tried them, and since my ears are quite small (only 58mm) i consider myself very lucky. The model i've tried was unfortunately in poor state but the Over Ear effect was there 

 
I've recently bought a pair of Heir Audio 4.ai.They are perfect for jazz, classical, blues, acoustic, also for metal, but I mainly listen to rock,( 60-70% of my music library)  and sometimes I feel a slight lack of warmth and bass, although they are very musical even being neutral. A insane clarity for the price ( have them for 300$ in the Summer sales) , instrument separation works very well, mids and highs are amazing.  I consider the bass a bit ligtht, even if they are accurate, punchy and fast, they don't go deeper enough.
 
That's probably the main raison why I want to buy this headphone + the fact I am looking for a warmer listening type on-the-go. In this way I will have a headphone for fun listening and another for a more analytical.
 
I will pair it with the DX90, and it will be good looking since I have a dark brown leather case

 
 
 
I can't wait wednesday 

 

[mystiqs]

guys, i m joining the momentum(over ear) club too, the SQ on this headphone is good to me, but the problem is the earcup doesn't fit on my ear, even though its over ear version. anyone know what larger earcup will fit on this sennheiser momentum, mayble like soft
material.

thx in advance guys.

 

[Koolpep]

guys, i m joining the momentum(over ear) club too, the SQ on this headphone is good to me, but the problem is the earcup doesn't fit on my ear, even though its over ear version. anyone know what larger earcup will fit on this sennheiser momentum, mayble like soft
material.

thx in advance guys.

My advice, treat them like on ears and just out them on. Don't worry about your ears not fitting. Place the center of the driver towards the center if your ear and let the momentum do the rest. The memory foam and nice leather will create a good seal and you will have great sound. Some part of your ear might not be in the cup but it doesn't matter.

That worked great for me.

Cheers,
K

 

[mystiqs]

My advice, treat them like on ears and just out them on. Don't worry about your ears not fitting. Place the center of the driver towards the center if your ear and let the momentum do the rest. The memory foam and nice leather will create a good seal and you will have great sound. Some part of your ear might not be in the cup but it doesn't matter.

That worked great for me.

Cheers,
K

thx 4 reply. i already try these way to treat momentum like on ear headphone. but after 1 hour using it i feel pain on my ears. maybe theres a soft replacement bigger pads like on ear version than can suit on this over ear version?

 

[TsukiNick]

I hate when they make headphones such low impedance, I know they are for portable devices but you know 32 ohms is still nice.

 

[Slaphead]

I hate when they make headphones such low impedance, I know they are for portable devices but you know 32 ohms is still nice.

Totally agree - there really is no reason for such low impedence, in fact it makes the Momentums less flexible with sources. I quite happily run HD25s (70ohms) and Beyer DT1350s (80ohms) from my iPod with no volume problems and both sound great. Both of these can also be used perfectly with my usb audio interface. The Momentums, however, sound awful with the USB interface - the bass is totally out of control and the whole sound is lumpy and undefined compared to using them with a portable source.

I'm actually getting to quite like the Momentums from a portable source, but they're still not up there with the HD25s and the beyers.

 

[Koolpep]

Totally agree - there really is no reason for such low impedence, in fact it makes the Momentums less flexible with sources. I quite happily run HD25s (70ohms) and Beyer DT1350s (80ohms) from my iPod with no volume problems and both sound great. Both of these can also be used perfectly with my usb audio interface. The Momentums, however, sound awful with the USB interface - the bass is totally out of control and the whole sound is lumpy and undefined compared to using them with a portable source.

I'm actually getting to quite like the Momentums from a portable source, but they're still not up there with the HD25s and the beyers.

 
Yep, I agree, all these fullsize heapdhones like the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro, the Momentums etc. with 16 Ohms (!!) when some of my IEMs have 30 Ohms, this is really weird.