Sennheiser has been very busy over the last few months. They have revamped their whole truly wireless earbud line up, and personally, I love both the CX Plus and Momentum True Wireless 3’s. Plus, we now know that the Sennheiser Momentum 4 headphones are right around the corner. But today, we’re going to checkout Sennheiser’s first pair of truly wireless earbuds for working out, The Sennheiser Sport. Or at least that’s what I call them cause Sport true wireless just doesn’t ring.
Now regarding pricing, the Sennheiser Sport retail for $130 and basically, the Sport are a rebadged version of the entry level Sennheiser CX’s which also retail for $130 but these earbuds have different use cases. But for comparison sake, there are the CX Plus which retail for $180, and then there are the Momentum 3’s which retail for $250. Nonetheless, if you want to pick these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below.
Now first lets talk about this case. At first glance the Sennheiser Sport have the same case as Sennheiser’s other CX earbuds… except, this case is a little thicker so that it can accommodate those ear fins. But it also has an optional wrist strap, and there’s a cover for its USB C port. Overall, I would say that this case is in the same league as the Momentum 3’s case. As in its decently sized so you can daily drive these earbuds… but this case is going to be rather noticeable when its in your pocket. But besides that, the Sennheiser Sport have an all plastic body that isn’t too slippery, so handling this case isn’t hard, the lid opens and closes very easily, and the magnets in this case are decently strong so taking your earbuds out and putting them back is super easy. But unfortunately, this case does not have wireless charging. Right now wireless charging is reserved for the Momentum 3’s.
Now when it comes to battery life. The sennheiser Sport have decent battery life relative to their overall size. The Sennheiser Sport have an advertised combined battery life of 27 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for up to 9 straight hours… which is good for marathon runners or even retail workers, and the case can supply 2 additional charges. And the base CX’s also have this same battery life performance.
And I say that the Sennheiser Sport have decent battery life for their cause… cause relative to other cases out there… the Sport do have a rather larger case… But still… the Sennheiser sport have relatively good battery life. However, if this case could hold lets say 3 charges, instead of 2, that would be awesome. But something Sennheiser does need to work on is their fast charging. If you were to drop these earbuds into their case with a dead battery, a 10 minute charge is only going to get you 1 hour of playback time. Not very impressive.
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. The sculpt of the Sennheiser sport is the same as the base CX’s expect, these earbuds have optional ear fins that are going to help with lock down. Where as the sculpt of the earbuds on the CX Plus are a little smaller, and the Momentum 3’s are even smaller still. But still, all of these earbuds fit like your standard pair of in ear earbuds. As in, they go into your ear canals a decent amount. These aren’t shallow fitting in ear earbuds like lets say the AirPods Pro, Jabra Elite 85T’s, Beats Studio buds, or Beats Fit pro which do feel less intrusive. However, Sennheiser’s standard fitting in ear earbuds do help with lock down, but the Sennheiser Sport offer the most amount of lock down here thanks to their optional ear fins. Now these ear fins are relatively stiff, and unlike the ear fins on the Beats Fit Pro, which are one size fits all… these ear fins are customizable. Now the Momentum 3’s also have ear fins… and this is a new feature compared to the momentum 2’s… but even though the Momentum 3’s do have ear fins… their largest ear fins aren’t as large as the Sennheiser Sport’s ear fins. So if you’re looking for a pair of workout earbuds, then the Sennheiser Sport are a good option cause their ear fins are going to offer way more lock down. Cause even though sennheiser’s ear buds fit well… they can still wiggle out if you’re moving a lot.
But I also have to address the two different types of ear tips that come included with the Sennheiser Sport. Now the Sport come included with a set of Open ear tips and a set of Closed ear tips. Now all of these tips are silicon… cause some ear buds come included with a pair of silicon ear tips and a set of foam ear tips… but they’re all closed. Where as the silicon open ear tips on the Sport will let in ambient noise even when you have them in.
Now this is Sennheiser’s solution for their ear buds instead of simply just adding an ambient mode like the CX Plus have and the momentum 3’s have. Now this simple solution is good because it does save on battery life… and plus its going to sound as natural as it can get. And this is great if you're doing your cardio out doors. However, if you have your music very loud, its can be hard to hear your surroundings… versus having a proper ambient mode. And unlike having a proper ambient mode, you’re not going to be able to quickly switch from letting in noise to blocking out noise.
Nonetheless, if you do decided to use these open earbuds, just remember to set them to aware through their app… cause this is going to make them have a much warmer sound signature and with much more intense bass so that these earbuds still sound normal, while they have their open ear tips on. And if you want to block out noise while you’re at the gym, then you want to use the closed ear tips… and then they’ll passively block out noise like a normal pair of earbuds. But just keep in mind, these don’t have active noise cancellation.
Now when it comes to connectivity, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time, you can use either one it doesn’t matter and this is the connection set up these we expect to see from all of our earbuds nowadays. And thankfully, Sennheiser have now implemented this across the board on all of their current earbuds.
But ultimately, the Sennheiser Sport are better used with just one primary device. Unlike with other earbuds out there that can be connected to 2 devices at the same time, or that can hot swap between devices in their respective eco system, or other earbuds that will jump from one device to another, if another device asks to pair with them… if you want to switch devices with these earbuds, you either gotta do that through their app, or you gotta put them in pairing mode every single time. So these aren’t the most power user friendly earbuds out there.
But when it comes to overall performance, these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android devices… and when it comes to audio codecs, the Sport have support for SBC, AAC, and APTX. The same as the entry level CX’s. But for comparison sake Sennheiser’s more premium earbuds have support for SBC, AAC, APTX and APTX adaptive. But if you want to take advantage of APTX, you do have to be an android user.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds. Now if you want the best sound quality of these earbuds, you want to use them with their closed earbuds cause with the closed earbuds they are going to passively block out noise. But overall, the Sennheiser Sport sound that same as the bass CX’s, the CX plus and Momentum 3’s. And that’s not a bad thing at all. Just as you’d expect, these earbuds have great instrument separation so they sound very open. And with Sennheiser’s stock EQ, these earbuds sound very balanced. Versus Sennheiser’s last generation of earbuds which did skew towards a brighter sound signature. But the thing that really makes these Sennheiser earbuds stand out is their bass. The bass on all of Sennheiser’s earbuds resonates very deep and it also has a very nice punch to it. So if you’re someone that like a lot of bass in their music… then Sennheiser’s earbuds will be able to deliver. And surprisingly, Sennheiser’s earbuds have more bass than lets say the Beats Fit Pro or Beats Studio buds which are known to have a lot of bass. However, if you don’t like a lot of bass in your music, and if you want a more neutral EQ… then Sennheiser’s earbuds will also be able to deliver cause you can always just adjust their EQ to your liking… and this app works on both iPhone and Android. But overall, for me… Sennheiser’s entire lineup of earbuds that are using their 7mm true response transducers are just my preferred sounding earbuds. There is just something about their openness and hard hitting clean bass that makes all of these earbuds out perform most other earbuds when it comes to sound.
Now when it comes to the media controls… just like Sennheiser’s other earbuds, the Sport are using touch pads. and these are strictly tapped based touchpads, as in there are no swiping gesture. Overall these touchpads are very accurate and they’re easy enough to use. And through Sennheiser’s app, you can go in and customize the layout of these touchpads. But the important thing is that you have full media controls and you can also adjust the volume directly from the earbuds themselves.
But do keep in mind that these earbuds don’t have wear sensors, just like the bass CX’s. So they will not automatically play or pause your music when you take them out of your ears or put them back in like most other earbuds do. Now personally for me this is a major inconvenience but obviously this is a cost cutting measure.
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now overall, the Sennheiser Sport have a usable microphone while in a quite room. These are doing a good job of pickup up my voice and it has a brighter sound signature to it.
But for companion sake, the Sennheiser Momentum 3’s do have better clarity to them. Albeit, both of sennheiser’s earbuds have a noticeable hum to them in the background.
But the momentum 3’s do a much better job of dealing with noise pollution cause right now… they are reducing this road noise in the back ground. Cause if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clealerly hear all of this road noise… but if we were to switch back over to the Momentum 3’s, it is reduced.
Where as with the Sport wireless, these aren’t blocking out all that much road noise.
And the same thing can be said when it comes to blocking out chatter, these aren’t blocking out all that much chatter
Where as with the Momentum 3’s, these are blocking out a good amount of chatter, and they are elevating my voice. Cause again, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of the chatter, but if we were to switch back over to the Momentum 3’s it is reduced. So overall… I would only take short phone calls with the Sennheiser sport, while in a quite area.
But with all of that being said, the Sennheiser Sport Wireless are a solid pair of workout earbuds that are going to bring you amazing Sennheiser Sound quality while you workout. Thanks to the ear fins on these earbuds, the Sennheiser sport will stay in place no matter how hard you’re exercising. Plus, these earbuds have decent battery life to carry you through multiple workout sessions. Now even though I do like these earbuds, you are missing some feature that you would find if you were to look at other more expensive earbuds out there. Like for example active noise cancelation, a proper ambient mode, proximity sensors, and perhaps even wireless charging. But regardless, the Sennheiser Sport deliver amazing sound quality that will be able to please every one and personally, I think the Optional open ear tips on these earbuds could be great for people who like to workout outdoors.