[willtim]

We've heard the HEST request a few times here, and send these along to development as feature requests. We do have a 5-band coming soon (M4W, MTW3) and a few sound personalization enhancements for Smart Control. I don't see a change in factory M4W earpads in the future, though they have been selling like crazy so perhaps a 3rd party will find a lane to make some other options.

As I predicted way way back in this thread, just as these phones were released, not providing this feature is leading to many lower scores in the media, for example:

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/momentum-4-wireless

Audiophiles are happy to mess with EQ, but consumers (and many reviewers) don't want to. It is much more likely that they will be happy to hit a single button to get less bass emphasis and a more neutral tuning.

It's a great headphone and so it's a shame to see points deducted for what is essentially ease of configuring the DSP.

 

[hldn]

As I predicted way way back in this thread, just as these phones were released, not providing this feature is leading to many lower scores in the media, for example:

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/sennheiser/momentum-4-wireless

Audiophiles are happy to mess with EQ, but consumers (and many reviewers) don't want to. It is much more likely that they will be happy to hit a single button to get less bass emphasis and a more neutral tuning.

It's a great headphone and so it's a shame to see points deducted for what is essentially ease of configuring the DSP.

High End Sound Tuning is not needed... you can always use this in any Android device or in any computer. Yeah, not something at the hand of the people happy to hit a single button, but Sennheiser tuning the cans wont get any better than this.

What's needed, and what most have been complaining since September, its a fix in the mess that the ANC is in the latest firmware (and it doesn't get much better in previous versions). Not asking for an ANC at the level of Sony, but at least som noise cancelling. Sadly, most of the cancelling is passive due to the earpads fitting good in your ears. But lets be honest, Momentum 4s ANC sucks and its totally broken.

 

[willtim]

In the end anything that says Bluetooth and high quality sound is just marketing and snake oil.

Spot on, at least for now. Despite the price, the Bathys don't even offer LDAC, "we ran out of time" was the excuse that I read. Personally I'm not convinced I'd want to spend significant money on extra resolving power to bring out all those SBC/AptX artefacts (I have a Samsung phone).

 

[willtim]

lets be honest, Momentum 4s ANC sucks and its totally broken.

Can you elaborate? People in this very thread are saying it's great. ANC is really designed to attenuate 100-1000Hz, the frequencies of airplane, train and bus rumbling.

 

[hldn]

Can you elaborate? People in this very thread are saying it's great. ANC is really designed to attenuate 100-1000Hz, the frequencies of airplane, train and bus rumbling.

Who's saying is great? There's not much to elaborate on the ANC itself: It's just not good, even in max you still get a lot of noise in. Can't imagine living in a noisier city. Then there's the anti wind, if you set it to max the noise cancellation gets even worse.

On the latest firmware the ANC seems to be completely broken. I don't know if they tried to fix the wind issues but since the last update seems the ANC does nothing. Setting it to max you'll still get most of the noise no matter the frequency in.

If you have the M4s you should be aware of that.

Don't think it's worth comparing to the Sony's because the M4s sound honestly much much better, but in terms of ANC, with the Sony's you won't hear a thing from the outside world. And at least they work.

 

[labambia]

Who's saying is great? There's not much to elaborate on the ANC itself: It's just not good, even in max you still get a lot of noise in. Can't imagine living in a noisier city. Then there's the anti wind, if you set it to max the noise cancellation gets even worse.

On the latest firmware the ANC seems to be completely broken. I don't know if they tried to fix the wind issues but since the last update seems the ANC does nothing. Setting it to max you'll still get most of the noise no matter the frequency in.

If you have the M4s you should be aware of that.

Don't think it's worth comparing to the Sony's because the M4s sound honestly much much better, but in terms of ANC, with the Sony's you won't hear a thing from the outside world. And at least they work.

Please see my previous posts about buggy Adaptive ANC. IMHO, each time you power on your headphones, you have to go to the app, and flip the "Adaptive" switch ON, and OFF again. Sometimes it is laggy, and you will see, that the switch will flip ON an OFF again automatically few second after you did it. And then, to be sure, you can swipe ANC slider to the middle, and back max to the left. After that I always hear huuuge difference in ANC strenght. And you have to do it every time you power on the headphones, because somehow they won't rember this "Adaptive" setting. Despite it's OFF in the app, it's ON in the headphones. I really hope this will be fixed in new firmware...

 

[hldn]

Please see my previous posts about buggy Adaptive ANC. IMHO, each time you power on your headphones, you have to go to the app, and flip the "Adaptive" switch ON, and OFF again. Sometimes it is laggy, and you will see, that the switch will flip ON an OFF again automatically few second after you did it. And then, to be sure, you can swipe ANC slider to the middle, and back max to the left. After that I always hear huuuge difference in ANC strenght. And you have to do it every time you power on the headphones, because somehow they won't rember this "Adaptive" setting. Despite it's OFF in the app, it's ON in the headphones. I really hope this will be fixed in new firmware...

Saw it, but no. In my case it makes no difference...

I usually use full ANC + no adaptive. With the latest firmware there's not much difference between having them completely off (passive noise cancellation with the pads) and on at full ANC. Shame...

 

[hldn]

@ericpalonen are there any firmware beta testing programs we can enroll in, since no official firm is getting released? Alternatively, any ways to roll back to the previous firm version? Seriously thinking on returning the M4s. Yeah they sound great, but I have other non-ANC Sennys that sound better and have similar noise blocking, so what's the point on keeping them?

 

[willtim]

If you have the M4s you should be aware of that.

I use my M4 for the train during commutes. The ANC is not as good as my old XM3, but it works to reduce the majority of the low end rumble. The sound quality difference is stark though.

Don't think it's worth comparing to the Sony's because the M4s sound honestly much much better, but in terms of ANC, with the Sony's you won't hear a thing from the outside world. And at least they work.

There's likely a compromise that has to found between ANC levels and sound quality.

 

[nioh]

After some months of use now here is my advice for anyone reading this thread !

Do NOT buy this headset. You are better of getting a Shure Aonic or one of the Sony noise cancelling headsets.

Unlike most other noise cancelling headsets on the market, this one cancels out everything to a certain degree, including your own voice. This makes it extremely uncomfortable to use. I have fiddled around with the ANC, Transparency and even the “Side Tone” feature to max which is meant for this. In some very quiet environments they work, but in my office when it gets a bit noisy like people are on calls etc. none of this works as expected. The inability to hear own voice properly while on calls for hours creates an uncomfortable pressure in the head. Funny thing is you can hear other noises but the ANC on this one cancels out your own voice better than the surrounding noise.

I have already asked Sennheiser support and written here in the forums multiple times. I have no response. Obviously they don’t care about their customers. I have the headset since day 1, bought it on release date but I keep going back to my other headsets.

Summary is, stay away from this one and look elsewhere.

 

[hldn]

I use my M4 for the train during commutes. The ANC is not as good as my old XM3, but it works to reduce the majority of the low end rumble. The sound quality difference is stark though.


There's likely a compromise that has to found between ANC levels and sound quality.

I bought those as soon as they got released, and the latest issues described not only here but everywhere (check Reddit) are clearly an issue with the latest firmware. Maybe if you run those in your train commutes in the silent car they'll work for you, but since the latest update you can hear almost everything from the outside, you don't need people screaming or to be in a noisy environment.

For me is as easy as returning the headphones, but I just can not understand how such an important issue is not fixed after more than 6 months, making the ANC capabilities of the M4s totally useless.

 

[willtim]

Summary is, stay away from this one and look elsewhere.

If you have a defective headset, just send it back. Most consumer headphones, even the Bathys and 1000 dollar ML5909, are made on the cheap in China and also have their fair share of quality control issues. The grass always seems greener. Older models like the Sure Aonic 50 probably do have less firmware issues right now, but on launch day, probably not.

My Momentum 4 work fine (so far), but then I'm only ever paired to one device and using the default settings. I want to support Sennheiser, as they clearly care about sound quality and provide it at a reasonable and accessible price. M4 is clearly a new platform for them, so I'm sure the issues will get fixed.

 

[nioh]

If you have a defective headset, just send it back. Most consumer headphones, even the Bathys and 1000 dollar ML5909, are made on the cheap in China and also have their fair share of quality control issues. The grass always seems greener. Older models like the Sure Aonic 50 probably do have less firmware issues right now, but on launch day, probably not.

My Momentum 4 work fine (so far), but then I'm only ever paired to one device and using the default settings. I want to support Sennheiser, as they clearly care about sound quality and provide it at a reasonable and accessible price. M4 is clearly a new platform for them, so I'm sure the issues will get fixed.

Did you even read what I wrote ? I have it since day 1 it was released. Return window closed months ago.
Also it’s not defective. Just the ANC implementation on this is very bad + no way to turn it off. You can read the previous 30 pages and you’ll find people complaining about it.

 

[hldn]

"If you have a defective unit just send it back"

"I'm sure the issues will be fixed"

These issues affect every unit. I'm not sure if those claiming otherwise never got to try the slightly better old firmwares or are just deaf, but hope Sennheiser fixes indeed the mess.

Latest from them:

Thanks for your request. A downgrade is not possible, but there will be a big update coming in +/- one week which will solve a lot of problems and also have new features.

If this doesn't solve the problems Sennheiser is going to have one more unit available for their refurbished program.

 

[willtim]

Did you even read what I wrote ? I have it since day 1 it was released. Return window closed months ago.

Apologies, I misunderstood. Having a firmware update that makes it worse with no way to downgrade must indeed be really frustrating. The latest firmware is the only one I've used. I'm too risk averse to buy any tech gadget on release day

Also it’s not defective. Just the ANC implementation on this is very bad + no way to turn it off.

It seems common in many ANC cans that ANC cannot be turned off. I suspect the headphones need to be tuned for the ANC feedback and so it is difficult to tune well for both ANC on and off.