I'm going to preface this review by saying that I don't consider myself and audiophile and that these are my first proper pair or over ears, coming from some fairly nice IEMs.
Design: I bought the ivory colour variant of these headphones and I think they look great, the perfect stitching on the headband, the torque screws used in the construction of the headphone, the polished plastic on the earcups and the little things like the colour matched cloth on the inside of the earcups combine to make this a very attractive set of cans. They are also very sturdy with the metal headband and earcups feeling quite durable. Unfortunately the cable is not quite as good, as it is very thin and the strain reliefs are not particularly good. One of my favourite little design features of these headphones is the jack, it can be rotated from straight to 90˚ and any point in between and is very handy. The momentums also come with a very nice, colour matched, hard carrying case. The case is very nice and I appreciate the inclusion, however it is a bit of a pain that the earcups must be adjusted to the smallest setting to fit in the case.
Comfort: I have seen people complaining about the size of the earcups, saying that they are too small for an over ear headphone and I understand these complaints but it isn't something that has affected or bothered me. The headphones are extremely light which makes them comfortable for long periods of time (I regularly wear these for around 3 hours). Due to the lightness the momentums get away with the barley padded and rock hard headband. The lamb skin leather on the earcups is very soft and supple and once broken in is fantastic. One extremely minor gripe I have with these cans is the clamping force, they clamp very lightly and for a portable headphone I feel that this is a slight problem as they don't feel the most secure when moving around.
Sound
Treble: The treble on the momentums is very clear but is slightly recessed and rolls off quite quickly. The majority of the time I have no major problems with this, but some of the really high notes in guitar solos lack the impact that I would like. Due to this I don't know if I would wholeheartedly recommend this headphone for classical music.
Mids: These headphones really shine in the mids, they are not recessed at all (unlike so many other headphones I have tried in this product category) and are crystal clear. Male vocalists sound fantastic and I really enjoy the mids of the momentums.
Bass: Straight away I'm going the say that these cans probably aren't for you if you are a bass head (I am not at all), as there is not a huge amount of base. However what is there is tight, punchy and doesn't bleed into the mids and I find the bass adequate for any sort of music.
Soundstage: This is probably my biggest complaint with the momentums, the soundstage is almost non existent. If you are looking for an open sounding headphone these are not what you want, they sound like you have two speakers strapped to your head and it is hard to determine where instruments are in recordings.
Isolation: The isolation is a strong point of the momentums, they don't leak much sound at all and once music is playing background noise is not really an issue, but due to the shape of my jawline the bottom of the earcups don't seal perfectly against my head which stops the isolation being perfect.
I am extremely happy with the momentums and would recommend them to anyone who wants a good looking portable set of headphones as long as you are willing to pay the admittedly high price of admission and don't want loads of treble or a big soundstage.
Design: I bought the ivory colour variant of these headphones and I think they look great, the perfect stitching on the headband, the torque screws used in the construction of the headphone, the polished plastic on the earcups and the little things like the colour matched cloth on the inside of the earcups combine to make this a very attractive set of cans. They are also very sturdy with the metal headband and earcups feeling quite durable. Unfortunately the cable is not quite as good, as it is very thin and the strain reliefs are not particularly good. One of my favourite little design features of these headphones is the jack, it can be rotated from straight to 90˚ and any point in between and is very handy. The momentums also come with a very nice, colour matched, hard carrying case. The case is very nice and I appreciate the inclusion, however it is a bit of a pain that the earcups must be adjusted to the smallest setting to fit in the case.
Comfort: I have seen people complaining about the size of the earcups, saying that they are too small for an over ear headphone and I understand these complaints but it isn't something that has affected or bothered me. The headphones are extremely light which makes them comfortable for long periods of time (I regularly wear these for around 3 hours). Due to the lightness the momentums get away with the barley padded and rock hard headband. The lamb skin leather on the earcups is very soft and supple and once broken in is fantastic. One extremely minor gripe I have with these cans is the clamping force, they clamp very lightly and for a portable headphone I feel that this is a slight problem as they don't feel the most secure when moving around.
Sound
Treble: The treble on the momentums is very clear but is slightly recessed and rolls off quite quickly. The majority of the time I have no major problems with this, but some of the really high notes in guitar solos lack the impact that I would like. Due to this I don't know if I would wholeheartedly recommend this headphone for classical music.
Mids: These headphones really shine in the mids, they are not recessed at all (unlike so many other headphones I have tried in this product category) and are crystal clear. Male vocalists sound fantastic and I really enjoy the mids of the momentums.
Bass: Straight away I'm going the say that these cans probably aren't for you if you are a bass head (I am not at all), as there is not a huge amount of base. However what is there is tight, punchy and doesn't bleed into the mids and I find the bass adequate for any sort of music.
Soundstage: This is probably my biggest complaint with the momentums, the soundstage is almost non existent. If you are looking for an open sounding headphone these are not what you want, they sound like you have two speakers strapped to your head and it is hard to determine where instruments are in recordings.
Isolation: The isolation is a strong point of the momentums, they don't leak much sound at all and once music is playing background noise is not really an issue, but due to the shape of my jawline the bottom of the earcups don't seal perfectly against my head which stops the isolation being perfect.
I am extremely happy with the momentums and would recommend them to anyone who wants a good looking portable set of headphones as long as you are willing to pay the admittedly high price of admission and don't want loads of treble or a big soundstage.
