Summary
- Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds offer integrated heart rate monitoring and superb sound quality. A great choice for audiophiles on the run.
- At $330, these earbuds are a luxury investment. The touch controls work well, but the app can be finicky and the price may be hard to swallow.
- If you can afford it, you won’t regret purchasing the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds. Perfect for serious exercise enthusiasts and music lovers.
The most essential part of my workout is music. Unfortunately, I work out at night after my kid goes to bed, so I can’t play any music out loud. Headphones get too hot while I’m exercising, so I don’t like to wear them if I can help it, which means my only music option is earbuds and a great workout app. Lucky for me, there are a lot of earbuds out there to choose from, but there are only a few models that I know of that offer integrated heart-rate monitoring, so I jumped at the chance to review the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds.
The Momentum Sport earbuds caused a stir at this year’s CES thanks to their integrated heart rate monitor, body-temperature sensor, IPx5 rating, and five hours of battery life (24 when topping off with the case). The sensors are in the left ear, and you can see the PPG light flashing when you take them out. Inside the box are the earbuds, the charging case, a USB-C cable, three fins to brace the earbuds in the ear, and three different-sized earbuds.
Sennheiser Momentum Sport
The Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds are built for workouts. They have an IP55 rating and can track your heart rate and temperature as you exercise. With a semi-open design and active noise cancelation, these could be a runner’s dream earbuds.
- Incredible, rich sound
- Body temperature and heart rate monitor
- Hefty price tag
- Flaky app
Price and availability
The Momentum Sports are the most expensive earbuds, and Sennheiser sells them for $330. If you’re ready to indulge, you can snag a pair from Amazon or Sennheiser.
Specifications
- Wired/Wireless
- Wireless
What I like about the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds
Keeping the beat
Right off the bat, I think the integrated heart rate and body temperature monitors are a really cool feature. I’m a big fan of new tech done well, and for the most part, Sennheiser got it right. You can monitor your biometrics via Sennheiser’s app, but it’s designed to be paired with Polar’s Flow app, which can monitor heart-rate zones and other more advanced features. And the Momentum Sport does a good job of keeping track of heart rate. None of my readings seemed off the mark and always matched my level of exertion.
I had no problems getting the heart rate monitor paired with Polar Flow, but it didn’t like my Coros Pace 3 watch (although the headphone functionality worked fine with the watch). Finally, if Google Fit is important to you, the Momentum Sports don’t directly sync with it, but Polar Flow can.
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You’ll be hard pressed to find these features for this price anywhere else
In the past, I’ve used watches to monitor my heart rate while running, but often, I don’t want to wear one just to hop on the treadmill. These headphones are great for helping me reduce my workout kit, particularly on the treadmill, where I’m not too worried about my step count.
Whether you’ll want a watch depends on what you’re using it for. If you like to take advantage of advanced GPS features for running, you’ll probably want to strap a watch on, but if you’re just out for a casual jog, you won’t miss it.
Sonic luxury
In addition to the cool technology, they sound superb. I’m not really an audiophile, but I do enjoy music and podcasts, so I’ve used a lot of headphones over the years. These are by far the best I’ve ever used. Granted, my first instinct is to buy it cheap and buy it on sale — I’ve never explored high-end headgear before — so popping in a pair of $330 earbuds from one of the top brands was a bit of a revelation.
The biggest improvement over my daily drivers was in the low end. Whereas many headphones approach bass reproduction with an aggressive, heavy hand (I love my Skullcandy Crushers, don’t judge me), the lows on the Momentum Sports were rich and fully present without trying to make a statement. When reproducing mids, many speakers and headphones get the sounds muddled, but with these, every instrumental voice is articulated clearly, and nothing is lost. At the high end, there was no clipping, and every note came through without distortion.
The touch controls are nice and, for the most part, work really well. Press and hold for volume, double tap to play/pause, triple tap to advance track, or change ANC profile. What works well for me about the Momentum Sport earbuds compared to my other earbuds is how easy it (usually) is to trigger a touch. I don’t have to hit the right spot or get a button to click; I just touch it, and it works.
What I don’t like about the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds
Great sound, but at what price
The price is the first thing that’s hard to swallow about the Momentum Sport earbuds. At $330, these are squarely in the luxury category. Are they the most expensive earbuds on the market? No, not even close, but they are the most costly earbuds in Sennheiser’s lineup. The Momentum Sport isn’t for the casual Sennheiser stan.
I’ve never used earbuds with the silicon fins that Sennheiser uses with these headphones, so there was a period of adjustment for my ears to get used to them without getting sore. I had to use the smallest ear tips and fins to wear them for extended periods. The key to longer use was getting them situated in my ears just right, which gave me some issues with accidentally triggering the buttons, particularly turning the volume up too high or too low. However, you can adjust the button sensitivity through the app, which you’ll probably want to do since just touching the back of my ear was enough to trigger a touch sometimes.
Speaking of the app, I really wish it had a widget. Being able to adjust the EQ presets on the fly would have been nice since it takes 5 to 10 seconds for the app to load. That’s when the app started working. After about two weeks, I couldn’t use the app for two days because it wouldn’t recognize that the earbuds were connected to the phone. The earbuds still worked fine; I just couldn’t access any of the advanced functionality of the app, which was a bummer because the app is excellent when it works.
Should you buy the Momentum Sport earbuds?
The Momentum Sport earbuds are not for everyone. The $330 price tag puts it in the upper echelon of earbuds, typically the domain of the audiophile in search of superior sound. On top of that, it’s also a bit of a niche device with its integrated heart rate and body temperature sensors. That makes the Momentum Sport earbuds the perfect device for audiophiles who take their exercise seriously.
There are a few other heart rate–monitoring earbuds out there, and they all cost less than half the price of Sennheiser’s. I can’t speak about the quality of these alternatives or the reliability of their heart-rate monitors, but from a consumer point of view, I would need a few very compelling reasons to drop $300 for headphones versus $100.
What I can say for sure is that if you can afford the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds, you won’t regret purchasing a pair.
Sennheiser Momentum Sport
If you’ve got the budget for the Sennheiser Momentum Sport earbuds and the lifestyle to match, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better choice of earbuds.
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