Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear review - A Basshead's Joy

     The Sennheiser Momentum On-Ear review is very nicely designed and has great sound, and come in red, green, ivory, black, brown, blue and pink shades, but in a very competitive price range, retaining at S$299, is it worth it? Let us get into it.

Pros: Greatly balanced mids and highs with rich detail, nice design, extremely enjoyable emphasised bass

Cons: Might not fit everyone's ears, slightly boomy bass

     These look so phenomenal, with all that alcantara leather and the premium stitching. The earcups are so nicely and subtly styled and to finish it all up, at the bottom of each side of the leather padded headband is a Momentum word laser engraved on a piece of metal to finish up that premium feel.

     The soumd is great, with detailed, smooth and balanced mids and highs. In the short listen I took, I did not hear any particular emphasis on any frequency range within the mids and highs. The bass is quite deliciously emphasised, with all the subtlety I need enough to betray the audiophile inside of me. Once in a while, I always like a fun sounding listen. In case you are thinking though, these are true, thouroughbred basshead cans with the refinement in overall sound and emphasised bass a true basshead will want. Alas, detracting from the overall experience is that the bass can get quite boomy, loose and flabby on occasion, especially when taxed with bass-heavy tracks. Also, the purist in me does cry out for a more neutral sound, as this is a pair of cans coming from Sennheiser.    

 

      Also, to ruin the package, the Earcups do not swivel back and forth, so people may find unecessary pressure on the back of their ears and too light a pressure on the front of the ears, causing an inconsistent seal and ruining the sound quality a little as outside noise leaks in. also, library use with these are not recommended due to the high sound leakage.

     This is a disappointing drawback, but overall, these are extremely nice sounding if you like balanced and detailed mids and highs and greatly emphasised bass. Even audiophiles out there, sometimes you should be a bit more adventurous with what headphones you listen to, like what I did. You may find a wholly different but maybe an even more enjoyable sound. Advice to potential buyers though; You should try these out if possible at a store before purchasing them, so as to ensure that they can fit on your ears well without putting too much pressure on the backs of your ears, especially if you are wearing glasses.

     Great job Sennheiser, especially on balancing the precarious value between sound and design, but maybe a slight tweak to include earcups being able to tilt on the slider with the Sennheiser logo will be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: This is a frequency response graph taken from Headroom of the Sennheiser Momentum On Ear.




Graph shows neatly emphasised bass from sub-bass all the way to mid-bass without any hint of bloatedness in the mid-bass and without any hint of poor sub-bass extension, as often seen in bass-emphasised cans. Mids are fairly smooth but slightly recessed, and the 10kHz peak may result in slightly fatigueing listens over time. Treble rolls off early and results in a relaxing listen but with lesser detail then I prefer. This graph delivers about the same sonic experience with the listening test I conducted.