Sennheiser has announced the latest entry in its Momentum wireless over-ear headphones range.
The Momentum 5 Wireless follow the five-star Momentum 4 Wireless, and offer a host of sonic upgrades that should see them really challenge the ruling Sony WH-1000XM6.
Sennheiser says it has refined the experience "without straying from the formula" that made the M4 Wireless a favourite among the What Hi-Fi? team.
At their heart, you get the same 42mm transducer as in the previous model, which is tuned for "full-bodied sound with dynamic bass." But added to that are Hi-Res Audio certification and Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sound.
The former is an official seal of approval from the Japan Audio Society (JAS) that the cans have a frequency response of at least 40kHz and support 24-bit/96 kHz hi-res audio.
Snapdragon Sound is a blanket term for a few different technologies from Qualcomm that work together to optimise how smartphones and tablets transmit sound to audio devices like headphones.
The Momentum 5 supports the aptX Lossless Bluetooth codec for higher-quality listening, though sadly, there's no adapter like with the five-star Sennheiser HDB 630 that ensures your audio source is up to scratch on the quality front.
But you can tweak the sound using the Smart Control app, which has a new 8-band equaliser, bespoke presets and an intelligent Sound Personalisation engine.
The active noise cancellation (ANC) has also been improved. There are now twice as many microphones assigned to ANC duties – four per side.
We're promised "across-the-board improvements," though you'll have to read our Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless review to see if that's true.
Dolby Atmos with head-tracking will provide a more immersive experience when listening to spatial audio content, and updates are in the pipeline to further improve the cans' capabilities. A future firmware update that will add Bluetooth 6.0 and LE Audio (they ship running Bluetooth 5.4) has been confirmed, for example.
The Momentum 4 Wireless set a new standard in wireless cans with a 60-hour battery life. The Momentum 5 Wireless can't quite match that, but still last a very impressive 57 hours with ANC on. And the battery is removable, so you can swap it for a new one when it degrades in years to come.
The case, too, has had a refresh, and is now 20 per cent smaller and made with plastic-free packaging.
The Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless are out on 30th June in Black, White and Denim colourways. They cost £330 / $400 / AU$749, which is £30 / $50 / AU$200 more than their predecessors at launch. You can read our review (linked to below) to see if they're worth the extra cash.
MORE:
Read our Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless review
Check out the best wireless headphones we've tested
The ones to beat: Sony WH-1000XM6 review
