Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless Headphones Review

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 have the same retro sleek-looking design as the Sennheiser Momentum 2 Wireless, but in a slightly bulkier design. They have leather padding on the large oval cups. The headband is simple and quite similar to the last model, as well.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 are quite comfortable, and their design is an improvement over the last model. The cups are bigger and the padding is softer and cushier. The headband is also more comfortable and distributes the weight of the headphones well. Wearing these headphones for a while won’t be an issue for most people.

The control scheme of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 is decent. You can easily play/pause your music or answer/end calls with the middle button. You also have volume control with the top and bottom buttons, and track skipping with the middle button as well. It’s a bit hard to distinguish which button you're on, but they offer decent tactile and audible feedback. These headphones also have a button to control the level of ANC and talk-through. There’s also an extra button that triggers your voice assistant if you press it, but puts the headphones in Bluetooth pairing mode when holding it. When folding the headphones, they will automatically turn off.

Like most over-ear closed-back headphones, the Sennheiser Momentum 3 aren’t the most breathable. They trap heat inside the cups and won’t let much airflow, especially with the leather padding. These headphones won’t be a good option for working out, as you'll sweat more than usual when wearing them.

These headphones are a bit bulkier than the last model and aren’t the most portable option. On the upside, they do fold into a more compact format, which makes it easier to slide them inside a bag or inside their case.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 come with a decent soft case that protects the headphones a bit against scratches and minor water exposure. However, since the sides of the case are soft, the headphones are not entirely protected against physical damage from falls.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 are very well-built headphones. Their frame is made from solid metal and the padding is leather, which gives it an overall very premium feel. They're built like the previous model and should be able to withstand a few drops without too much damage. For slightly better-built headphones that still have a unique look, check out the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 Wireless.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 are decently stable wireless headphones. They stay on your head without issue during casual listening, but they won’t be the best option for sports as head movement makes them sway around. On the upside, their wireless design gets rid of the risk that a cable could get hooked and pull the headphones off your head.

• Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless headphones
• 1/16 to 1/8” audio cable
• USB-C to USB-C cable
• USB-C to USB adapter
• Soft case
• Manuals

The frequency response consistency of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 is good. It seems the ANC feature of these headphones checks for bass consistency, so you shouldn’t have different results when using these headphones. There’s a bit of variation in the low-treble range, but this won’t be very noticeable to most. These headphones are quite consistent with various test subjects and between reseats as well.

The bass performance of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 is very good. It's well-extended and balanced. This means these headphones are able to reproduce the deep thump and rumble of bass, common in bass-heavy music genres like EDM. However, the response is over our target curve, which results in a bit of excess thump. Some people may like this, especially if you listen to bass-heavy music.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless has a great mid-range performance. The response is very well-balanced and follows our target curve well, which results in accurate reproduction of vocals and lead instruments. The response is slightly under our target, which means vocals might sound a bit veiled and nudged to the back of the mix, but this is barely noticeable.

The treble range of these headphones is also great. It's very well-balanced and accurate. Vocals and leads have the right amount of detail and brightness, and they shouldn't sound too sharp, which is great.

The stereo imaging of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless is mediocre. The group delay goes over the audibility threshold under 50Hz, which may result in a slightly loose bass. There’s also a very small mismatch in amplitude and frequency. This can result in a stereo image with holes and the positioning of objects might not be a clear and accurate. However, this was barely audible and these results are only valid for our unit; yours may perform differently.

The soundstage of these headphones is sub-par. Although there’s a lot of pinna interaction, it isn’t really accurate. This results in a relatively large soundstage but that should feel unnatural and inside the listener’s head. These are closed-back headphones and won’t sound open.

The noise isolation of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless is decent. It does a very good job of blocking bass frequencies like the deep rumble of a bus engine, which makes them a suitable option for commuting. They also isolate well against ambient chatter in an office setting. Their treble isolation is also good and they're able to attenuate sharp S and T sounds and A/C system noise.

The leakage performance of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 is mediocre. These closed-back headphones leak quite a bit at high volume, meaning they shouldn’t be used in very quiet environments with people surrounding you, as they could be bothered by your audio leaking out.

The integrated microphone of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless is decent and quite an improvement over the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless. It sounds a bit clearer and more full-bodied than most Bluetooth headphones, so people on the other side of the line won’t have trouble understanding you in a quiet environment.

The integrated mic of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 has good noise handling. It's suitable to use in quiet and moderately loud environments, but it may struggle to fully separate speech from ambient noise in loud situations.

Update 02/14/2020: Due to an issue with the way we tested passive playback on headphones with no dedicated power button, these headphones were incorrectly listed as having passive playback when they don't. This review has been updated to reflect these changes.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 have a good battery life. With just over 17 hours of continuous playback with the ANC feature on, it should be more than enough to last a full workday. They also have a smart pause feature that enters a standby mode as soon as you take the headphones off your head. You can also use them while charging via the USB-C cable and USB adapter. The headphones also charge if you use them wired with a USB-C phone. When taking them off, you can fold them to automatically turn them off.

The Sennheiser Smart Control app is a good tool to enhance your listening experience with the Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless. You have access to a great parametric EQ and can save presets as well. You can cycle through 3 different levels of ANC and these headphones have a Tile device finder as well.

Update 12/03/2019: We fixed the issue with our dongle that was preventing us from measuring the Default SBC latency with these headphones. The review and text have been updated.

The Sennheiser Momentum 3 are Bluetooth 5.0 compatible and can connect to two devices simultaneously, which can be useful at the office if you often switch between your PC and phone. They also support NFC for a quicker and easier pairing procedure.

The latency of the Sennheiser Momentum 3 is decent over the SBC codec and is slightly lower than most Bluetooth headphones. On the upside, they also support aptX and aptX-LL, which both offer very low latency. You shouldn’t notice any delay when using those headphones for watching video content. They also support the AAC codec.

You can get audio on pretty much any device that has a 1/8” audio jack, but the integrated microphone doesn't work. Also, you can get audio via the USB adapter on a PC. You can use the USB-C to USB-C cable to get audio on phones as well.

Note: These headphones work properly with a PC when used wireless, but when connected to a PS4, they don't work properly.

These headphones don’t have a dock.