So the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s are a solid pair of ANC headphones from Sennheiser that have some major improvements that I have been asking for since both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s came out. They have a monstrous battery life, ANC that rivals the Sony 1000XM5’s, and a new hard shell case. On paper, these things are amazing… but if you’re a momentum 3 or PXC 550 2 counusiour, and if you upgrade to the Momentum 4’s… there will be times where you will miss your old headphones.

Regarding pricing, the Momentum 4’s have a retail price of $350, the same as the PXC 550 2’s when they first came out and $50 less than the momentum 3’s when they first came out. Now I am not entirely sure that we’ll see an upgraded version of the PXC 550 2’s… I really hope that we do… but in this review we’re going to be comparing the Momentum 4’s to both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s cause the Momentum 4’s are pulling over time here. Nonetheless, if you want to pick these headphones up they’ll be linked down below, or you can press on the YouTube shopping button.

Now first lets talk about these cases. Both of Sennheiser’s previous headphones came included with premium feeling cases. But the problem here is that these cases were soft shell, so you’d always be worried about crushing your headphones if they’re stored in your backpack… and with the momentum 3’s, their case was just super thick cause these headphones don’t lay down flat. But now we’ve got the momentum 4’s case. Now this is a very stiff, hardshell case. So your headphones are going to be perfectly safe while they’re in their case. Which is great if you’re a commuter. The momentum 4’s case is also significantly thinner than the Momentum 3’s case cause the momentum 4’s now have a lay flat design. The Momentum 4’s case is just a little thicker than the PXC 550 2’s case… you’ll barely notice it. However, what you will notice is that the Momentum 4’s case does have more surface area to it than the PXC 550 2’s. Overall, this case doable to constant traveling… But I would still prefer either the Bose QC45 or Sony 1000XM4’s constant traveling cause their cases are noticeably smaller. But overall, Sennheiser has greatly improved their carrying case on the momentum 4’s from both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s.

But also, one new feature with this new carrying case is that when you take these headphones out of their case, they will automatically power on… and when you put them back into their case… they will automatically power off. Now Sennheiser has already done a similar thing with both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 55 2’s… except, they aren’t reliant on the case. With the Momentum 3’s when you open them they’ll power on, and when you collapse them, they’ll power off. And with the PXC 550 2’s when you unfold them, they’ll power on, and when you fold them flat, they’ll power off.

Now thankfully, the Momentum 4’s aren’t reliant on their carrying case to power them off, you can still manually turn them on and off by pressing and holding their multipurpose button. But one major issue that I did find with the momentum 4’s is that if you have their case upside down while they’re inside the case… the momentum 4’s will power on and connect to your phone. And I think that this is a major issue, especially if you’re a constant commuter or flyer. This is just an inconvenience that you shouldn’t have to deal with. And unfortunately there’s no way to turn off this smart feature. So until Sennheiser fixes this, or allows you to turn off this feature… be mindful about how you hold or store these headphones.

But now lets talk about the headphones themselves. The momentum 4’s have an all new design to them that lands somewhere between the momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s. The momentum 4’s aren’t as sleek looking as the PXC 550 2’s, but they aren’t as rustic looking as the Momentum 3’s. Now definitely, one of the biggest things that you’re going to miss about the Momentum 3’s are the finer materials. The Momentum 3’s have these beautiful exposed stainless steel arms, and they’ve got this amazing feeling lamb skin leather on both the headband and ear pads. Where as with the Momentum 4’s, these headphones are a little more main stream. They have padded silicon underneath their headband, they’ve got a hit of fabric on the top of their headband, their arms are plastic and their earpads are now leatherette. And unfortunately, this leatherette feels very synthetic, very plasctiy. Similar to the leatherette on the PXC 550 2’s. However, after a few weeks of use, the leatherette on both of these headphones does soften up. But still, the leatherette on the Momentum 4’s pales in comparison to the lamb skin leather that you’ll find on the Momentum 3’s… and this leatherette doesn’t feel as good as the leatherette that you’ll find on either of Bose’s headphones… and it also doesn’t feel as good as the Sony 1000XM5’s leatherette. Now just like the PXC 550 2’s, the Momentum 4’s have a mostly plastic body… but unlike the PXC 550 2’s, the Momentum 4’s don’t have any soft touch surfaces. But thankfully, the Momentum 4’s aren’t using any recycled plastics, like the Sony 1000XM5’s. So overall, I will say that the Momentum 4’s feel more premium than the PXC 550 2’s… but they don’t feel anywhere near as premium as the Momentum 3’s.

But now lets talk about fit. Now technically yes, the momentum 4’s are big head approved. But these headphones do have a rather firm fit to them and they fit much firmer than both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s. I can wear these headphones for hours on end… but I am never happy about it. But then there’s their weight. The Momentum 4’s weigh in at 295 grams… which is an improvement from the Momentum 3’s which weigh in at 307 grams… but its a far cry from the PXC 550 2’s which weigh in at 227 grams… making them ultra light weight. And when compared to a few other headphones out there… the momentum 4’s are noticeably heavier, cause the Bose NC 700’s weigh in at 264 grams, the Sony 1000XM4’s weigh in at 254 grams, the Sony 1000XM5’s weigh in at 250 grams and the Bose QC45’s weigh in at 234 grams. But hey, at least they’re not in AirPods Max territory which weigh in at a whopping 384 grams. Overall, with the Momentum 4’s these aren’t a pair of headphones that you’ll forget that you’re wearing while you’re sitting down, and you’ll feel them shifting around if you’re walking around with them on. And then theres the matter of the padding on their headband. Like I briefly mentioned earlier, the Momentum 4’s have padded silicon underneath their headband. However, this padding isn’t the softest. So I have found that a while of use, this headband does create a pressure point. Now its not a full on hot spot like with some other headphones… but pressure points were just never an issue for either the Momentum 3’s or PXC 550 2’s. And finally there are just the earpads on these headphones. Now these ear pads will be able to accommodate average sized ears… but these ear pads are significantly smaller than either the Momentum 3’s ear pads and especially the PXC 550 2’s ear pads. So if you have really large ears or ears that stick out a lot… you’ll either want to go with the Bose QC45’s… or if you want really good sound quality, then you’ll might want to go with the Bowers And Wilkins PX7 S2. So overall, the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s are a pair of okay fitting headphones… but they are objectively less comfortable than both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s… and they wouldn’t be my top pick for long flights. The Momentum 4’s have a rather firm fit to them, their headband could use some softer padding, their earpads are less spacious, and these headphones are still on the heavier side.

Now before we move into the tech specs, I do want to let people know that they ear pads on the Momentum 4’s are replaceable… but if you take them off, you’re going to have to get a new pair with new glue, cause these earpads are glued on. They don’t snap on like either the BW PX7 S2’s or AirPods max. So don’t go trying to remove these earpads unless you already have a pair of replacements ready to go.

But now lets talk about tech specs. Regarding battery life, this is perhaps the most impressive thing about the Momentum 4’s. The momentum 4’s have an advertised battery life of 60 hours… and that’s with their active noise cancelation turned off. And I can say that it has been a real challenge to drain this battery life… cause for comparison sake, the momentum 3’s are only good for 17 hours with their ANC turned on… and the PXC 550 2’s are only good for 20 hours with their ANC turned on.

But with both the PXC 550 2’s and Momentum 3’s you could always extend their battery lives if you use them with their ANC turned off. But unfortunately as of right now, it doesn’t look like you can turn off the ANC on the momentum 4’s. Either you have to use them with their ANC turned on or with the Ambient Mode turned on. And personally I would like to be able to use these headphones with their ANC completely turned off if I wanted to.

Now when it comes to charging these headphones, the Momentum 4’s charge via a USB C port… something that I know sounds rather obvious on 2022… but I do have to point this out cause the PXC 550 2’s were still using a micro USB port, even though they came out at the same time as the Momentum 3’s which charged via a USB C port. But also, the momentum 4’s have better fast charging than these other two headphones. With the momentum 4’s they can get fully charged in 2 hours… and if you were to plug them in for 5 minutes from a dead battery, they’ll get you 4 hours of playback time.

But now, lets talk about bluetooth connectivity. The momentum 4’s are using bluetooth 5.2, but more importantly, these headphones can be connected to two devices at the same time which is good if you’re a power user. But a major issue that I have had with these headphones is that they won’t always automatically connect to your phone when they turn on. On a regular basis, I have to go into the bluetooth menu and manually connect to these headphones. And again, this is an inconvenincace that you shouldn’t have to deal with… and this was never an issue with any of Sennheiser’s previous headphones. So hopefully this gets fixed through a firmware update.

But when it comes to overall performance, these headphones have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android device… and when it comes to audio codecs, the momentum 4’s have support for SBC and AAC, very standard, but they also have support for APTX and APTX adaptive. Now whether you’re an iPhone or an android user, AAC is going to work perfectly fine. However, if you want to take advantage of APTX then you do have to be an android user.

But if you want to use you can always just use a wired connection with these headphones cause they still have a 2.5 millimeter audio jack… or you can also use their USB C port as a wired connection. And if you are using their USB C port as a wired connection, they will get charged up, you still have ANC and they will also keep their bluetooth connection. So you can easily switch between using a wired connection with your computer or using a wireless connection with your phone. However, if you use the audio jack on these headphones… you can either use them while they are powered on or passively… but they won’t keep their bluetooth connection. Nonetheless, I am very happy to see that the momentum 4’s give you connectivity options… and I also like that they now move the USB C on these headphones up, so they don’t feel as awkward as the Momentum 3’s who’s USB C port was angled backwards.

But next up, lets talk about sound. Now, the short of it is, yes, the momentum 4’s continue to sound and perform better than your more main stream options like lets say the Sony 1000XM5’s, Sony 1000XM4’s, Bose QC45 and Bose NC 700. And I do feel that the Momentum 4’s sound a little better than the PXC 550 2’s… but the momentum 4’s don’t sound as good as the Momentum 3’s. Now as you’d expect, the Momentum 4’s sound more open and have better instrument than your main stream options, and I feel that the instrument separation on the Momentum 4’s is on par with that of the PXC 550 2’s. However, the momentum 4’s just don’t sound as open or make you feel as engulfed in your music like the momentum 3’s do. There is just something about the mids on the Momentum 3’s that make them sound more present and better defined. And then there’s the bass on these headphones. Now with their stock EQ, Sennheiser’s headphones have a balanced have a balanced sound signature that allow the mids to shine through and the bass comes in strong when it has to. Now with their stock EQ, the Momentum 4’s will sometimes rattle your head a little bit… more so than the PXC 550 2’s… but the Momentum 3’s will rattle your head a little more when compared to the Momentum 4’s… and the bass on the Momentum 3’s has more resonance to it… which I feels adds to that engulfing experience that I feel the Momentum 3’s do a batter job at than with the Momentum 4’s. Now with the momentum 4’s you can go in and adjust their EQ to your liking… and if you want that head rattling bass the Momentum 4’s can do that… But they won’t do it as well as the Momentum 3’s. The bass on the Momentum 3’s simply resonates more and kicks harder. Which is something that I sometimes enjoy, depending on what I’m listening to. And there’s also the fact that the Momentum 3’s simply get a little louder than the 4’s as well. So overall, the Momentum 4’s easily sound better than your more main stream options thanks to their superior instrument separation and more dynamic bass that kicks and resonates a decent amount. I feel that the Momentum 4’s sound better than the PXC 550 2’s thanks to their more dynamic bass. But I feel the momentum 3’s sound a touch better than the Momentum 4’s. The Momentum 3’s sound more open, their mids have more character, their bass kicks harder and resonates deeper, and they get a little louder as well. If you’ve never had the Momentum 3’s, the Momentum 4’s sound great… but if you have been daily driving the Momentum 3’s… its is going to be hard to let them go for the Momentum 4’s.

But next up there’s the media controls on these headphones. Now the Momentum 4’s are using a touch pad, just like the PXC 550 2’s. And this is a noticeable change from the Momentum 3’s which are suing physical buttons. Now I like that the touch pad on the PXC 550 2’s, the Momentum 4’s have variable inputs. As in, if you do a small swipe, they will adjust your volume by one step, and if you do large swipes then they will adjust your volume by multiple steps. But the thing that I did notice about this touch pad is that it was just way to sensitive for my taste… and I did notice an above average amount of accidental inputs. This touch pad is more sensitive than the touch pad on the PXC 550 2’s which I feel is much easier to use, and its also more sensitive than the touch pads found on Sony’s headphones and Bose headphones. Honestly the touch pad on the Momentum 4’s really made me miss the physical control buttons on the Momentum 3’s.

And then, there are the wear sensors on these headphones. When you take these headphones off, they’ll automatically pause your music, and when you put them back on, they’ll start playing your music again. Now the wear sensors on these headphones work fine… when they want to work. Because half the time, it is like these headphones forget that I have their wear sensors turned on, cause they just won’t do anything. And I find this to be super weird cause I have never had this issue with either the momentum 3’s or PXC 550 2’s. But regardless, I usually turn off the wear sensors on all of my headphones, but I wanted to point that quirk out.

But now lets talk about the ANC on these headphones. Now the ANC on the Momentum 4’s is a huge improvement from the ANC on the Momentum 3’s. The Momentum 4’s block out as much noise as the Sony 1000XM5’s… which was very surprising to be honest… where as the Momentum 3’s are a pair of premium ANC headphones that block out as much noise as a pair of mid tier ANC headphones. And the Momentum 4’s block out a ton of noise with out too much cabin pressure. Which is great. But so that you can see for yourself, we’re going to jump into an ANC test.

So like you may have just seen, the Momentum 4’s block out significantly more noise than the Momentum 3’s and they block out more noise than the PXC 550 2’s. Now the PXC 550 2’s have always had decent performing ANC… but I always found it odd that they did a better job of blocking out chatter than they did blocking out road noise. Cause usually its easier for ANC headphones to block out constant low frequency sounds than it is random higher frequency sounds. But like you may have just seen, the Momentum 4’s just brutally go after those low frequency sounds, and simply just block out more road noise than the PXC 550 2’s. Which is good if you plan on using these on an airplane or bus. And when it comes to chatter, they do a better job of blocking those random higher frequency sounds. Overall, throughly impressed by the ANC on the Momentum 4’s. The Momentum 4’s are in the same league as the Sony 1000XM5’s and AirPods Max… but they don’t have as much cabin pressure.

But then, there’s the ambient mode on these headphones. Now the momentum 4’s have proper ambient mode. Meaning that you can pump in sound and play your music at the same time. Just like how you can with the momentum 3’s. But this is something that the PXC 550 2’s simply just don’t do. Now overall, I’m glad that the momentum 4’s have an ambient mode… and it gets the job done… but it is not may favorite. For starters, this microphone array lets in a lot of wind noise when your ambient mode is turned on. But it doesn’t let in that much wind noise when you’re blocking out noise. But lets say you’re using the ambient mode on these headphones while in an airport… where wind noise isn’t a factor. Its still not my favorite cause this ambient mode prioritizes noise pollution over people’s voices. Even if someone is talking directly act you, it can be a little difficult to understand them when compared to the Momentum 3’s or any other pair of headphones out there with an ambient mode. So like I said, the ambient mode on the Momentum 4’s is usable, and it gets the job done… but its not my favorite and it could use some work. And I think Sennehsier can easily fix this through a software update.

But something that I do like about the Momentum 4’s is that they now have an active ambient mode, meaning that if there’s a sudden loud noise… they will automatically turn off their ambient mode saving your ears from getting blasted like this… major headphone warning

And then, when that sudden loud noise stops, they’ll turn their ambient mode back on. Where as with the momentum 3’s, they just let in everything. Now an active ambient mode is still fairly rare… but there are a handful of other headphones and earbuds that do this… But now that Apple is prominently showcasing this feature on their AirPods Pro 2… I feel we’re going to see this feature on more headphones in the future.

But also, if properly set up, the momentum 4’s also have a conversation mode where if you double tap on their touch pad, they automatically pause your music and pump in all of the ambient sound around so that you can quickly talk to someone without having to remove your headphones, like this.

And then when you double tap on the touch pad, they’ll go back to normal again. Now like I said, the Momentum 4’s have to be properly set up to do this, but this is a feature that is also found on the  both the Momentum 3’s and PXC 550 2’s, and it really does come in handy when flying.

And also, I need to point out that the touch pad on the momentum 4’s has multitouch support. And you can pinch and zoom to either block out noise, or let noise in. Now with other headphones, you can press on their ANC button to cycle between their noise control modes… but with the Momentum 4’s, you have a little more granular control.

But finally here’s the microphone test, Now Sennheiser’s headphones have decent sounding microphones on them… but the momentum 3’s have the worst performing microphone here. I feel that with the momentum 3’s these sound a little robotic.

Where as with the PXC 550 2’s, these sound a little more natural

And I feel that the microphone on the momentum 4’s sounds very natural as well. But I feel the microphone on the PXC 550 2’s sounds a little more natural.

However, with the Momentum 4’s, these are trying to block out noise pollution. Now the Momentum 4’s are trying their best to block out this road noise… but I do feel that my voice sounds a little pushed down… and at times its gets elevated.

Where as with the PXC 550 2’s, these really aren’t trying to block out any road noise

And neither are the Momentum 3’s, cause these are just letting in everything.

And the same thing can be said about chatter, the momentum 3’s are just letting in everything.

Where as with the PXC 550 2’s, these are reducing some chatter, and they aren’t interfering with my voice too much.

And finally there are the momentum 4’s which are also blocking out some chatter. And these are doing a better job of blocking out chatter than they do blocking out road noise. My voice doesn’t sound as shallow, and this microphone sounds a little clearer than the PXC 550 2’s when they’re trying to block out chatter. Overall, the Microphone on the Momentum 4’s is decent and it is an overall improvement from its two predecessors.

But with all of that being said, on paper, the Sennheiser momentum 4’s looks like a spectacular pair of ANC headphones… and there’s a lot to like about these headphones. They truly have incredible battery life that lives up to the hype. They block out a ton of noise without a whole lot of cabin pressure. These headphones sound great. You can use them with an audio jack or USB C wired connection. And they now come included with a super sturdy carrying case. However, there are just some quirks about these headphones that are just too hard to ignore. First off, on a regular basis you’re going to have to go into your bluetooth menu and connect to these headphones, cause sometimes they just won’t do it automatically. You have to be mindful about how you store these headphones in their case, cause if your case is upside down or standing up right, then they’ll get powered on. And Sometimes your proximity sensors just refuse to work, even though you have them turned on. And then, there’s the matter of their comfort, yes these headphones are big head approved and I can wear them for long stretches at a time… But I find them to be less comfortable than both the PXC 550 2’s and Momentum 3’s. And finally, there’s the matter of their sound. Yes, the momentum 4’s sound good and they sound better than your main stream ANC headphones… but I still find myself reaching for the Momentum 3’s over the Momentum 4’s. Overall, the Momentum 4’s are a decent pair of ANC headphones… but if you’re upgrading from either the Momentum 3’s or PXC 550 2’s… you’re going to find yourself missing your old headphones from time to time.