[drey08]

If we could side-step from the bickering in this thread,
 
Does anyone know if it's in any way possible to disable noise cancellation while in wireless mode (or even wired)? This feature seems to cause a bit of crackling in Berlin's subways, in particular the doors closing tend to send out a ton of vibration in the train cart and end up causing the Momentum's to overcompensate which causes a crackling noise. I've e-mailed Sennheiser about it.
 
Other than that they work great and the noise cancellation is actually fantastic overall. Whether it's at work or at home it's been a feature I didn't even know I would appreciate. I live in a place close to a police, fire, and hospital department, IOW lots of sirens but I don't hear them anymore which is great.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  If we could side-step from the bickering in this thread,
 
Does anyone know if it's in any way possible to disable noise cancellation while in wireless mode (or even wired)? This feature seems to cause a bit of crackling in Berlin's subways, in particular the doors closing tend to send out a ton of vibration in the train cart and end up causing the Momentum's to overcompensate which causes a crackling noise. I've e-mailed Sennheiser about it.
 
Other than that they work great and the noise cancellation is actually fantastic overall. Whether it's at work or at home it's been a feature I didn't even know I would appreciate. I live in a place close to a police, fire, and hospital department, IOW lots of sirens but I don't hear them anymore which is great.

 
Unfortunately no. I dunno why that is, but if it's in BT mode it's going to be on. If you're in passive mode with the wire it SHOULD be off.

 

[drey08]

   
Unfortunately no. I dunno why that is, but if it's in BT mode it's going to be on. If you're in passive mode with the wire it SHOULD be off.

 
Hmm well, when I'm transferring 10 stations or so I'm not doing a lot of moving so I'm OK with being wired then (plus I use the LG V10 w/ it's DAC). It can be a workaround for now, in the meantime I'll see what Sennheiser has to say.
 
Btw is "passive mode" something you have to explicitly enable or is it automatic when you're wired?

 

[SomeGuyDude]

   
Hmm well, when I'm transferring 10 stations or so I'm not doing a lot of moving so I'm OK with being wired then (plus I use the LG V10 w/ it's DAC). It can be a workaround for now, in the meantime I'll see what Sennheiser has to say.
 
Btw is "passive mode" something you have to explicitly enable or is it automatic when you're wired?

 
It's automatic as long as you haven't powered them on. It just means they're off. As soon as you turn the M2 on the noise canceling activates. Not the greatest design choice IMO but can't really fix it now. XD

 

[samandhi]

   
Hmm well, when I'm transferring 10 stations or so I'm not doing a lot of moving so I'm OK with being wired then (plus I use the LG V10 w/ it's DAC). It can be a workaround for now, in the meantime I'll see what Sennheiser has to say.
 
Btw is "passive mode" something you have to explicitly enable or is it automatic when you're wired?

 
 
  SomeGuyDude is right, but incomplete in his answer to you. Yes, if you are using BT the ANC circuit is always on. If you plug in the wire, and listen, you can have 2 modes. If the power is off, you will have passive mode with no ANC. If you (while the wire is still plugged in) turn the power on, you will now have ANC. You can also play them from USB by plugging them in, then turning the power on, on the headphones. So a total of 4 different modes... heh Hope that helped a bit.
 
  No, there is nothing special you need do. Just plug the wire into the headphones, then into the jack of your player, and you have regular wired headphones. 
 
  Edit: You can even use a different cable if you want (one that has microphone and controls on it). As long as it is 2.5mm (not the standard 3.5 mm) on the input side (side that plugs into your player), you can use any cable you want.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

   
 
  SomeGuyDude is right, but incomplete in his answer to you. Yes, if you are using BT the ANC circuit is always on. If you plug in the wire, and listen, you can have 2 modes. If the power is off, you will have passive mode with no ANC. If you (while the wire is still plugged in) turn the power on, you will now have ANC. You can also play them from USB by plugging them in, then turning the power on, on the headphones. So a total of 4 different modes... heh Hope that helped a bit.
 
  No, there is nothing special you need do. Just plug the wire into the headphones, then into the jack of your player, and you have regular wired headphones. 
 
  Edit: You can even use a different cable if you want (one that has microphone and controls on it). As long as it is 2.5mm (not the standard 3.5 mm) on the input side (side that plugs into your player), you can use any cable you want.

 
Oh snap, I didn't realize these worked in USB mode. Gotta give that a try. Thanks for the heads up, man!

 

[samandhi]

   
Oh snap, I didn't realize these worked in USB mode. Gotta give that a try. Thanks for the heads up, man!

 
 
  Np! Enjoy. I think this is the best sounding of all modes. There is no driver needed for Windows, or for Android (just works). Not sure about Mac though. It seems like I heard MANY pages back that they do, but I don't remember 100%.
 
  Funny thing is; this is the best sounding mode, but is the least advertised from any Sennheiser documentation. It simply says in the manual, that you can listen to them while charging them from PC..... heh

 

[drey08]

One other thing I've noticed. While in active cancellation, if I tap with my finger my left ear-phone on the outside I will definitely hear a large crackle, but not when I do it on the right ear-phone. Can anyone else reproduce this?
 
It's beginning to feel like this is some kind of manufacturing defect.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

   
 
  Np! Enjoy. I think this is the best sounding of all modes. There is no driver needed for Windows, or for Android (just works). Not sure about Mac though. It seems like I heard MANY pages back that they do, but I don't remember 100%.
 
  Funny thing is; this is the best sounding mode, but is the least advertised from any Sennheiser documentation. It simply says in the manual, that you can listen to them while charging them from PC..... heh

 
yeah that's really odd. O_o
 
Seems like the best idea outside of having a dedicated external DAC/Amp since it lets you bypass the computer's audio hardware but also isn't subject to the problems with BT. Sounds pretty damn good, too!

 

[samandhi]

  One other thing I've noticed. While in active cancellation, if I tap with my finger my left ear-phone on the outside I will definitely hear a large crackle, but not when I do it on the right ear-phone. Can anyone else reproduce this?
 
It's beginning to feel like this is some kind of manufacturing defect.

 
 
 Yes, this doesn't sound right to me. I have 2 pairs (rev01 and rev02), and neither pair does this in any way. I hear a thud (from the sudden change in volume of sound on one of the microphones), but this is normal. No crackle though. 

 

[drey08]

  One other thing I've noticed. While in active cancellation, if I tap with my finger my left ear-phone on the outside I will definitely hear a large crackle, but not when I do it on the right ear-phone. Can anyone else reproduce this?
 
It's beginning to feel like this is some kind of manufacturing defect.

 
In fact.. it almost seems like there's something loose in the left ear-cup and that's what's making all this noise. It's extremely unpleasant to the ears though.

 

[drey08]

Ok, worst case scenario it's a manufacturing defect. I'll be in touch with Sennheiser and sort this out. I still love these phones very much, not giving up on them.

 

[drey08]

   
 
 Yes, this doesn't sound right to me. I have 2 pairs (rev01 and rev02), and neither pair does this in any way. I hear a thud (from the sudden change in volume of sound on one of the microphones), but this is normal. No crackle though. 

 
You mean you hear a thud only one one ear-piece or both? Tapping with the same force on the left or right piece there is quite a difference.

 

[samandhi]

   
You mean you hear a thud only one one ear-piece or both? Tapping with the same force on the left or right piece there is quite a difference.

 
 
  No, I mean I hear a thud on the side I hit. This is normal, because the sound is so sudden, that the circuit doesn't have time to compensate with negative noise needed to produce a cancelled sound. Having a crackle sounds like the circuit for that side is not doing its job correctly. Sennheiser is usually pretty fast at getting new ones for you, and I doubt that they will have a problem with getting you new ones. 

 

[drey08]

   
 
  No, I mean I hear a thud on the side I hit. This is normal, because the sound is so sudden, that the circuit doesn't have time to compensate with negative noise needed to produce a cancelled sound. Having a crackle sounds like the circuit for that side is not doing its job correctly. Sennheiser is usually pretty fast at getting new ones for you, and I doubt that they will have a problem with getting you new ones. 

Ok good to hear about the customer service.
 
In the meantime I have my M2 wired to enjoy until this is resolved.
 
I suspect it's actually the wire connection on the left ear-pad that's bad and is a little loose and is causing all this crackling when there's a lot of vibration (bad solid ironing job..?). If I tap it a few times the left ear pad is quite a bit quieter than the right. I initially thought it was the noise cancellation "over-compensating", but actually the crackling sounds very much like I used to hear on many wired headphones when the cable was going bad due to tear & wear.