Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 Headphones Review

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 look more similar to the Sennheiser CX True Wireless than the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2. The buds have a rectangular face embossed with the manufacturer's logo. If you felt compelled by the round and sleek look of the previous generation, these chunky buds are a change of pace. These headphones come in three colors: 'Black', 'White', and 'Graphite'.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 are decently comfortable. Their fit is a step up from the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2, as they're a bit smaller, hurting the ears less. Overall, they're lightweight and come with four differently-sized pairs of ear tips. Using their controls also doesn't push the buds deeper into your ear. However, they're still bulky in design and have a deep in-ear fit. The stability fins can also be uncomfortable, depending on the shape of your ears. However, that'll vary between people, as the stability fins can distribute the weight so it doesn't rest entirely on the ear tip. If you're looking for comfortable ANC in-ears, then check out the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Truly Wireless.

The headphones have good touch-sensitive controls. Although they're a little tricky to remember, you have a lot of control with the buds right out of the box. You can also customize controls in the companion app. The controls have lots of tones and voice prompts to let you know when you've registered a command. However, it can be easy to accidentally trigger a command when adjusting the buds since the activation area covers the whole exterior. Some users have also reported that when switching from mono mode to stereo, your audio track can restart. In some cases, the buds will restart any audio, even if they're not placed in your ears, which can drain the battery.

On the left earbud:

• Single tap: Enters transparency mode, which allows you to hear your surroundings without taking the buds out of your ears.
• Double tap: Skips to the previous track.
• Triple tap: Turns the ANC on and off.
• Press and hold: Lowers the volume.

On the right earbud:

• Single tap: Plays and pauses audio.
• Double tap: Skips to the next track.
• Triple tap: Activates voice assistant.
• Press and hold: Raises the volume.

These are very portable, which is normal for in-ear headphones. They're a little more compact than the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2 and can easily fit into most pockets and bags without a problem.

The carrying case is great. It's a little smaller than the older Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2, but is similarly sturdy and lightweight. It's made of hard plastic with a tweed textured cover. There's also a magnet to keep the lid closed and a single LED light inside the case to let you know its battery status.

These have an impressive build quality. They feel similarly well-built to their predecessors and are made with dense plastic. The buds have a filter inside the ear tips. Overall, they feel sturdy enough to survive a couple of accidental drops, and they're rated IPX4 for resistance against water splashes. The case is clad in a tweedy fabric with a sturdy magnetic lid. You'll want to pay attention to the stability fins when replacing the buds in the case, as they can shift and prevent the charging contacts from aligning in the case.

These have good stability. They come with three stability fins in different sizes to help keep them in place and four silicone ear tips. You can wear them for a run in the park without them moving around in your ears. That said, they stick out of your ear a bit because the shape is chunky.

• Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 headphones
• 4x pairs of ear tips
• 3x sets of stability fins
• Charging case
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Manuals

The default frequency response of the headphones have a bass-heavy sound profile, mostly due to the recessed low-treble range. However, they still reproduce more bass than the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2, even if you swap out their ear tips for the ones that came with the third-gen. They deliver a touch of extra boom and warmth to mixes, while vocals and lead instruments sound dull. Luckily, you can customize their sound to your liking using their companion app's 5-band graphic EQ to easily make the sound more neutral, for example. When stacked up against their sibling, these are very similar to the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4, and both can be equalized to sound even more alike.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3's frequency response consistency is excellent. Once you achieve a consistent fit using the included ear tips, you'll receive consistent bass and treble delivery.

The bass accuracy is outstanding. The response is very flat, so mixes have adequate thump, rumble, and boom. The bass won't overwhelm vocals and lead instruments, though.

The mid accuracy is excellent. Both the low and high-mid ranges are flat and neutral, ensuring that vocals and lead instruments are clear and present. A small dip in the mid-mid nudges these sounds to the back of the mix, though.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 3 True Wireless have sub-par treble accuracy. The recessed treble reduces the harmonic detail of vocals and lead instruments while sibilants are dulled. In the chorus of Melanie's song, Brand New Key, her bright and lilting voice is veiled compared to the piano accompaniment.

The headphones are very good at controlling their sound profile's peaks and dips. Through the bass and low-mids they're well controlled for relatively accurate, but slightly boomy bass. A small dip in the mid-mid nudges vocals and lead instruments to the back of the mix. A peak in the high-mid makes the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments harsh and forward, but a dip in the low-treble weakens harmonic detail. The uneven mid-treble makes sibilants alternatingly dull and piercing.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 3 True Wireless' imaging performance is outstanding, indicating that the headphones accurately reproduce and place spatial objects like footsteps in the stereo image.

The group delay falls below the audibility threshold, which results in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers of our unit are matched in terms of phase, amplitude, and frequency response. Many of the other Sennheiser headphones we've tested have similar imaging performance, which is indicative of the brand's quality control and ergonomics. Keep in mind that imaging can vary between units, though.

The headphones' passive soundstage performance is bad, which is normal for in-ears. By default, sound doesn't interact with your outer ear, and as a result, the sound seems to be coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you. They also have a closed-back design, so their soundstage seems closed off.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3's weighted harmonic distortion performance is decent. There's a peak between the low to mid-treble range at both normal and high listening volumes. That said, it can be hard to hear with real-life content.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when using them in this configuration.

The headphones have a good noise isolation performance. They have an adaptive ANC system that adjusts to the noise around you. They can attenuate bass range sounds like the low rumbles of bus and plane engines well. They can also block out a significant amount of mid and treble-range noise, like ambient chatter and the high-pitched hum of a fan. Isolation, rather than ANC, does most of the work to block noises in the mid to treble range, though. If you'd like better noise cancelling performance, the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 True Wireless are a worthy upgrade with more effective attenuation in the midrange and better isolation.

Unfortunately, some users have reported hearing a clicking or glitching noise while the ANC is on. However, we couldn't get our buds into pairing mode to see if this was the case for our unit.

When it comes to everyday environments, these earbuds do a very good job of blocking out sound. They're able to reduce sounds like rumbly plane cabins and busy streets well. They also tackle ambient sounds of the office so that you can focus on your work.

These headphones have an 'anti-wind' mode, which we used to test ANC wind handling. You can see a comparison between this mode on and off here. The amount of noise depends on the wind angle because of the shape and size of the buds. However, overall, there's still wind noise present, which can be annoying.

Wind noise directly interacts with the ANC microphones, causing loud sounds from the ANC system as it tries to counter it, even though the sound doesn't reach your ears. Using this reduction feature may impact ANC performance if you're in a windy environment.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 3 True Wireless' leakage performance is fantastic. You can crank your music up without worrying that others around you will hear it, even in quiet environments.

The integrated mic's recording quality is okay. Your voice lacks a lot of depth and body because of the steep roll-off in the low-mid region and below, but speech is still clear enough to follow. It also sounds more natural than that of the Sony WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless.

The integrated mic has an okay noise handling performance. Unlike the Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2, these headphones have a noise gate. However, it doesn't seem like it improves the mic's performance compared to their predecessor. As a result, the mic struggles to separate your voice from moderate ambient noise. If you're taking a call from a busy street or subway, your voice can get drowned out.

These headphones have a good battery performance. The manufacturer advertises them to last seven hours continuously with their ANC off and with the volume at 50%. However, we reached over eight hours continuously with the ANC on. Battery life can vary depending on use, though. Their carrying case holds an extra three additional charges if you need it, and you can even use one bud while the other charges. There's an auto-off timer that you can adjust in the companion app. The case charges via a USB-C port, or wirelessly on a Qi pad.

The Sennheiser Smart Control app is very good. As of firmware version 2.12.13 there's a 5-band graphic EQ and presets to help you adjust their sound. You can also remap the controls and turn smart pause on and off. You can access Sound Zones, which automatically applies EQ and ANC presets depending on the zone you're in based on the GPS locations you set in the app. In addition, you can access multi-point connectivity, change the settings for transparency mode to play or pause music when using this mode, adjust the auto-off timer, change the voice and tone prompts, and see the battery life. You can even turn on and off the auto-accept call feature.

These are Bluetooth-only headphones, and you can't use them wired. They come with a USB-A to USB-C charging cable for the carrying case.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 have decent Bluetooth connectivity. They support multi-device pairing with up to three devices at a time, meaning you can simultaneously stay connected to your PC, tablet, and smartphone. That said, they have high latency on PCs when connected via SBC, aptX, or aptX Adaptive (High Quality) codecs, and while the aptX Adaptive (Low Latency) reduces audio lag, you might still notice some delay between your audio and video. Some devices and apps compensate for latency, though. While their codec selection is good, the Creative Aurvana Ace 2 True Wireless tops them by including aptX Lossless (which is backward compatible with aptX Adaptive) and the Low Complexity Communication Codec (LC3). If you're looking towards the future, this is a consideration for high-quality audio and low latency.

These headphones can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full compatibility. However, they can't connect to PCs in any other way.

These headphones come with a carrying case that holds roughly three additional charges. It has a USB-C port for charging and supports Qi wireless charging.