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. Some users may not feel they look as sleek or stylish as the previous generation's round, metallic buds. 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 three 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. If you're looking for comfortable ANC in-ears, then check out the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Truly Wireless.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 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.

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.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 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 Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 2, but is similarly sturdy and lightweight. It's made of hard plastic with a texturized 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.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 have a great 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 Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 have good stability. They come with stability fins to help keep them in place, and 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.

• 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 Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 have a bass-heavy sound profile, mostly due to the recessed 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, but vocals and lead instruments are a bit veiled. Luckily, you can customize their sound to your liking using their companion app's 3-band graphic EQ.

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 Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3's 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 True Wireless 3 have sub-par treble accuracy. The recessed treble hurts the comprehensibility 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 peaks and dips performance is very good. 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, but a dip in the low-treble weakens veils them. The uneven mid-treble makes sibilants alternatingly dull and piercing.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 3 True Wireless' imaging performance is outstanding. This test allows us to see the alignment of the left and right drivers. It indicates how well 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. It's important so that objects like voices or footsteps are accurately reproduced in the stereo image. Keep in mind that imaging can vary between units, and it can indicate a manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3's 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 Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3's noise isolation performance is excellent. They have an adaptive ANC system that adjusts to the noise around you and can block out more overall noise than the Sennheiser MOMENTUM 4 Wireless. They can block out a lot of the low rumbles of bus and plane engines. They can block out a significant amount of mid and treble-range noise, like ambient chatter and the high-pitched hum of an AC unit. However, there isn't much difference between ANC on and off when it comes to the mid to treble range.

These headphones also have an anti-wind setting. Although there's a little more white noise present than with ANC on or off, it still does a pretty good job of blocking out sounds like fan noise. That said, it seems a bit better at cutting out higher frequency sounds more than ANC on, but not as good when it comes to mid-range noise.

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, but your voice is still clear enough to follow.

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, your voice can be drowned out.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM 3 True Wireless 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 could reach 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 Sennheiser Smart Control app is great. There's a 3-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. You can 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.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 have fair Bluetooth connectivity. They don't support NFC or multi-device pairing, so you can't stay connected to your PC and smartphone at the same. They also have high latency on PCs when connected via SBC or aptX codecs. Like the Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 True Wireless, they also support aptX Adaptive, which the manufacturer advertises to help lower latency and improve audio quality, but we don't currently have a device to measure this latency. These earbuds have a low latency when connected to iOS and Android, so your audio and visuals stay in sync while watching videos. Some devices and apps compensate for latency, so your real-life experience may vary.

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 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.

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.