SENNHEISER Momentum 3 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones with Alexa, Auto On/Off, Smart Pause Functionality and Smart Control App, Black

My review here is going to focus mostly on sound quality (and ANC). The tech features - bluetooth, mobile app, battery life, etc. - that all works as advertised, and there isn't much more to add.I think one of the most important things to call out when discussing sound is perspective. I would call myself a "basshead audiophile". By this I mean, I enjoy focused listening and enjoying the details in music - BUT for me, this still includes bass. This is likely tied to the genres of music I listen to most, which are EDM, Hip-Hop, R&B, Alternative, Pop, some Rock. I own eight pairs of headphones right now for different purposes, and the M3s sit in what I would call the "all arounder" category - meaning they are versatile enough to enjoy any of the genres I listen to when I want to have a session of focused listening. What makes them great is that they also have the features to be a "daily driver" as well - meaning, the headphones you use in most situations overall. For the price, in my view, they are a steal. Ok, let's get into the sound, which will focus on a few categories - loudness/clarity, tonal balance, bass, mids, highs, soundstage/positioning, ANC, listening mode, other considerations.LOUDNESS/CLARITY:These headphones have relatively big dynamic drivers, and they produce big sound. Optimal listening volume for me has been around the 70-90% range, depending on how I'm feeling. These can be connected via bluetooth, USB-C or 3.5mm, and I've found USB-C gets slightly louder than bluetooth (though both are more than loud enough IMO), and of course the loudness when connected to 3.5mm will depend on the power of the device to which you're connecting the cans.Clarity is very good as well. Straight out of the box, cranked at max volume, distortion is not an issue. Since you can EQ these with the Sennhsiser app, it is possible to get them to distort by cranking up all of the EQ settings and volume to max, but that is a pretty extreme scenario.TONAL BALANCE:Out of the box, these are definitely a "warm" sound signature - meaning, the low end of the spectrum is elevated. For the M3s, this starts at the lower mids and continues to the sub-bass. This does NOT mean the mids and highs are overshadowed or not present; that is not the case. I would call the balance low-end forward, but that low end still layers into the rest of the spectrum very well. Benefit of that Sennheiser engineering. Keep in mind the smart control app allows you to adjust the tonal balance via EQ, and the headphones respond very well to EQ adjustments (and allow you to save multiple EQ profiles for quick swaps).An example here, I listen to a lot of Trance EDM that has very important low end but at also has a lot of high-end details. My most-used EQ ups the lows by 1dB and ups the highs by 3dB. They sound great out of the box, but being able to tweak to your liking is even better. Very versatile.BASS:These cans are a bass lover's dream. The bass volume and impact is there without question. Out of the box there is already significant bass volume, and it can be EQ'd to be straight up banging - to the point that your ears will vibrate. It's a woofer on your head situation. That said, the bass is not at all messy or overly boomy unless the track calls for it. The set always feels in control and cleanly layered into the mix. The bass has good depth at the mid-bass and sub-bass levels. The cans also shine on bass detail. The genres I listen to have a lot of tracks that have fast-moving, layered bass lines, and they really shine on this set.MIDS:The two things that immediately come to mind when I think about the mids on this set are recessed and smooth. The way the mids are presented in the overall soundstage (will get to that shortly) makes them feel slightly recessed, but not in a bad way. Vocals, for example, come through clearly but always in their own distinct space, and that space is very rarely "right in your face". If you've ever listened to any of the AirPods lines, they are very vocal-forward and bright; that is not the case here (unless you EQ them up). The smoothness and clarity of the mids plus the combination of the natural warmth of the set really work well together.HIGHS:The highs on these are also very good but not necessarily the star. By that I mean the lows and mids are an A, and the highs are maybe an A- or B+. This is mostly because the highs are not as sharply elevated as the lows, so there is some roll-off at the very upper ends. This can be corrected with EQ (as I mentioned above), and the results are good, but I have to be fair. What I enjoy about the highs on this set is that they are not fatiguing or overly bright - meaning, you don't get any of that intolerable high-end reverb with symbols or ambient noises. This means you can crank the volume to max and get great clarity without annoying your eardrums.SOUNDSTAGE + POSITIONING:This is another star of the show you get by dealing with Sennheiser products. The soundstage on these is VERY good and what takes them to the next level for me. I would describe it as "intimate but open." Overall, the soundstage presents a very close/intimate listening experience. Sounds appear either insider your head (often with vocals) or very close to you. The width is very good, as you'll often get sounds that appear just at the edge of your periphery. The height is also impressive, and I have more than once found myself able to separate sounds that appeared to becoming from above or below in tracks. What impresses me most about the soundstage here, however, is the fullness. Many over-ear headphones (looking at you AirPods Max), have a wide soundstage, but they are compressed - sounds all obviously originate from the far left, far right, or center. The Sennheisers do an outstanding job of blending these together. Sound truly does appear to come from all around. The combination of the soundstage and tonal clarity really impresses. I am a heavy Apple Music listener, and with these headphones, I will not use the Dolby Atmos format because the artificial soundstage produced by that actually sounds worse than the natural soundstage of these headphones (more on that below). Soundstage is a solid A, especially for the price.ANC:Again, have to be fair, the ANC here isn't great. I'd give it a B-/C+ purely because there are other options out there that are far better - Bose and AirPods Max come to mind. These do completely cover your ear, and the pads provide decent isolation without any ANC turned on. With the ANC turned on, it will block out some passive noise that I would say is good enough in most environments, as long as you have music playing, even at a low volume. If your goal is to sit on an airplane/train with headphones on in total silence with no music playing, these won't give you the best result. This is a sound quality-first headphone, and the relative weakness of the ANC showcases that. The positive about the weaker ANC is that it has a very minimal effect on the sound quality. There is a slight difference that's most noticeable in the low-end resonance, but overall, not significantly different. I tend to leave ANC off until I need it. The strength of the ANC is also adjustable in the app for those that have sensitivities to the affects of ANC, and there is a decent transparency mode, so you can ear outside noise when you have the set on.LISTENING MODES:As mentioned earlier, the M3s allow you to connect to your source in three ways: Bluetooth, USB-C and 3.5mm. In short - they are all at least very good.Bluetooth mode is likely the way most will listen, and everything I have said about the sound quality above absolutely applies in bluetooth mode. These were designed to be wireless cans, and they have great bluetooth performance. That said, if you're still reading this review that means you likely know enough to know that wired is almost better than wireless, and that is true here as well. You can use these headphones as a direct USB-C to USB-C set of headphones - for example through an iPad Pro, iPad mini or a phone that has a USB-C port. This has two advantages - #1 it allows you to listen to lossless music, as this is a purely digital transmission method that supports lossless files, and #2 it allows you to avoid the interference of wireless transmission. Listening to music in this way takes everything I said about the sound and elevates it another 1/2 letter grade. It's like going from a regular 4K tv to a 4k TV with Dolby Vision HDR. It's just a smidge clearer and more defined - and noticeably so. Also, in this mode, the device is still powered (and can charge while being used), so you still get the benefit of all of the digital features - ANC, EQ, on-set controls, etc.You can also drive these totally unpowered by plugging in an AUX 3.5mm cable directly to a source. First, I have to knock Sennheiser for including a pretty crappy aux cable for this with a weird screw-in 2.5mm end that goes into the headset itself. Odd choice that while may have a purpose, makes replacing what is a pretty crappy cable fairly difficult. The sound results you will get from this method depend largely on what you are plugging the headphones into because in this method, the headphones are off, so you are driving the headphones with your own DAC and Amp. I personally tried this with a Dragonfly Cobalt and did not get great results, but I have seen many across the net that have had good results with this connection type. I will say, this is really not the way this set was meant to be used, and if you really just want a pair of non-powered headphones to plug into a 3.5mm jack, there are better options out there from Sennheiser and others that are cheaper.OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:A few other things I want to mention as they relate to sound quality.The first is comfort. I find these headphones extremely comfortable. The cups sit snugly over the ears, but the cushions are soft enough that they are not painful. They also do not get hot. However, I have noticed two issues. They do not perform well when I am wearing glasses. The pads don't form well around the arm of the glasses, so you get obvious sound drop/off leakage. Also, depending on how they fit against your ears, if you move your head a lot while listening, it may affect the sound a bit. This is not an awful thing and is very common with over-ear headphones, but these headphones don't have any tech in them that adjusts the frequency based on the fit over your ear or objects in the way (glasses). There are benefits and costs to doing this. The benefit of doing it, like the AirPods max, is even with glasses on or moving your head a lot, the AirPods max readjust the tonal balance based on the fit at the millisecond level to minimize the impact. The trade-off is the sound is artificially modified in a way that the user does not control - and this is likely against the ethos of Sennheiser. Again, this is not a huge issue, but worth mentioning.The other thing worth mentioning is use for other things like TV, podcasts/books and gaming.In short, they are very good for all of the above, especially for general-use TV/movies/video games. Bringing the boom is a big factor there, and the excellent soundstage translates well to video and gaming.For podcasts and pure spoken word, they are fine, but I prefer more vocal-forward sets, as I just don't have a need for the recession of vocals or a big sound stage when listening to a podcast.For gaming, general gaming is great, but if I was playing a FPS or another game where extreme clarity was needed at the high end and/or on soft sounds, I'd likely go with a set more tuned for high-end detail (I have the Beyerdynamic MMX 300).All around, love these. Solid A grade.

Even though I love music and have several pair of headphones, I probably fall short of being called an audiophile as I don’t know most of the technical terms related to headphones. So here’s my decidedly layman’s review:Received these today. Been listening to these off-and-on since. Even compared them to three of my other headphones (Beats Studio Wireless, Beats Studio Wired, and B&O H4 Wireless). This certainly outperforms all three (plus my Wireless Parrots) in almost and maybe every way. So far, I can confidently say these are the best headphones I’ve ever owned.Sound - best sounding headphones I’ve ever owned with the most accuracy of sound. I used to really like headphones that emphasized the bass (thus the previous Bests headphones), but now I lean toward more accuracy of sound. The bass is still there, but it’s not overpowering.ANC - these are the first headphones I’ve owned where I think I actually prefer to listen in Noise Cancelling mode. Usually I find ANC to flatten the sound, but here I find it actually results in slightly more depth and breadth of the sound field. So far, I seem to gravitate to the Anti-Wind setting which equates to the medium ANC setting.Battery Life - they arrived out of the box with 20% battery life. After playing with them a bit, I decided I better get them to a full charge. Probably because I kept checking on them, it seemed like they might not ever get past 60%, but after leaving them alone longer they reached 100%. They dipped down to 80% earlier but another charge and they were pretty quickly back to 100%. So far, much better than my Parrots which had the worst battery life of any wireless headphones I’ve ever owned. I also like that by pressing the middle button on the right cup, it verbally tells you the remaining battery life. In addition, you can see the battery life on the app on your phone as well as on the battery section on your iPhone itself.Been listening you them over an hour since last full charge and they’re still at 100%.Controls - I find them pretty intuitive. Phone paired pretty easily with my iPhone. It took a little more persistence to pair it with the Bluetooth adapter attached to my old school home stereo system, but that probably has more to do with my adapter and my own learning curve (adapter is new too).The top button is for turning ANC on or off as well turning Transparent Hearing on or off. So far, I like ANC on and Transparent Hearing turned off. That may change once I can travel (fly) for work again.Apps - the primary app is pretty cool. There are three ANC settings - Max, Anti Wind (medium), and Anti Pressure (low). So far, I find I like the aural soundscape of Anti Wind the best.It also tells you if you have Transparent Hearing turned on or off. You can also turn TH on/off via the app.There also is an equalizer but as opposed to my B&Os, so far I find I find I like it better if I leave it alone.As noted above it also tells you your remaining battery life.There is also a separate Tile app available you can use to locate your headphones. Through the app, you can see how close you are to your headphones as well “find” them by causing them to vibrate and emit a signal. Useful for sure, but I wish they emitted a louder sound. Not sure I’d hear them if there was any other sound around like in a loud airport.A little about how I’ve used them today and what I’ve listened to:Listened to a lot of Madonna today. Ray of Light album was first thing I tried out via my iPhone (Apple Music) as it has a pretty ambient soundscape. I wasn’t quite as blown away as I had hoped, but headphones did a very good job. This might be one where tampering with equalizer might be useful.I also listened to soundtrack for movie W.E. Wow. Sounded just phenomenal.Also listened to Sinead O’Connor’s Lion and the Cobra on vinyl via Bluetooth adapter connected to old school sound system. Overall, it did a good job given I was listening via pieced together technology. I’ll probably go back to just listening to vinyl on speakers, but still need to try it out with CD player. After, I did listen to Sinead’s I Want Your (Hands on Me) on my iPhone (Apple Music) and it sounded great although I did detect a bit of white noise hiss, but I attribute that more to it being an analog recording that likely hasn’t been digitally remastered.Also, some Ben Platt (also Apple Music on iPhone). Sounds great.Now listening to Madonna Madame X (Apple Music on iPhone). Sounds pretty phenomenal and I’m finding it a bit of fun to tamper with the equalizer on this one.Also, since I have an iPhone, I didn’t bother messing with setting up Alexa as my assistant. I’ll stick with Siri.For three years, I’ve known my next headphones would probably either be Sennheiser or Master & Dynamic. After doing a lot of research again recently before purchasing these, I think I made the right choice.Update: Day 2Woke up late this morning and grabbed my headphones which have been charging overnight. Soon as I put them on, they automatically paired with my iPhone and started playing Lucky Star which I had started before I went to bed last night.I listened to rest of Madonna’s debut albumas well. Her debut isn’t the most aurally nuanced (which is one of its charms). I’ve also listened to this album a ton since it came out in 1983 so wasn’t expecting any major surprises. However, I noticed certain elements that haven’t been as prominent to me before like certain percussion elements (Borderline) or saxophone riffs (I Know It) or synthesizer flourishes (Holiday/Think of Me).I do notice the headphones being a little more “touchy” as far as turning off/pausing if I touch them or turn so one of the cups touches a pillow. Not too annoying though. Just tried to recreate making it pause with those same motions and it didn’t do it now.Also sometimes when I put them around my neck or put them down, they automatically quit playing but often I have to put them in folded up position to turn them off although using middle button on right cup also seems to work. I don’t find (as some users have) that the phones are super sensitive to how they’re folded to be turned off so I like that. As long as they’re folded, they turn off.Wireless reach - I forgot to mention that when I listened to vinyl last night, the stereo is on second floor and I was in living room and I had no loss of signal so that was good.Loudness - phones do get plenty loud (certainly loud enough). Do I wish they got a bit louder? Sure, but they get quite loud for wireless headphones and it’s probably a good thing for my hearing they don’t get louder.Another Update:I don’t really use headphones for phone calls so can’t comment on that.Case - I actually like it. Much better than no case (I had to order a third party for my B&O headphones) or just a cloth bag. I know some would prefer a harder outer shell to the case and are worried their headphones will get damaged in their bag through the case, but it’s not like I’m gonna be packing ginsu knives in my totes or duffels. The cloth case will actually help it take up less room in my bag. I also like the inner pouch to hold the charging cable and cord for wired listening.I agree the equalizer could be a little more well designed (I actually like the equalizer on the B&O app), but I’m having more fun playing with it.