So right now as of Mid 2022, sennheiser has finally finished revamping their whole truly wireless ear bud line up. We’ve got the bass Sennheiser CX’s, there are the CX plus, the momentum 3’s and the workout focused Sport True Wireless. Now all of these earbuds are using the same 7mm true response transducers and they all sound great. But if you’re trying to choose between any of these earbuds, then today we’re going to break down Sennheiser’s whole earbud line up, cause the features here are very different.
Now regarding pricing, both the entry level CX’s and Sennheiser Sport retail for $130. Where as the CX plus retail for $180 and the Momentum 3’s retail for $250. Now, even though at first glance it might not seem like its worth upgrading from the CX Plus to the Momentum 3’s cause they have relatively the same features… the performance difference between these two earbuds is large. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below… or you can also tap on the Youtube Shopping button as well. Try it out.
Now first lets talk about these cases. Now in general, sennheiser’s earbuds don’t have the smallest cases out there. The cases on both the CX and CX plus are noticeably larger than your AirPods, AirPods 3, AirPods, Pro, Galaxy Buds and Sony earbuds. Just to name a few. But both of these CX cases are decently small and you can still daily drive your earbuds without any problem. But then there are the Sennheiser Sports and Momentum 3’s cases. Now these cases are still small enough for every day carry… but you will notice these cases while they are in your pocket more than the CX cases. Nonetheless, I think these cases are small enough to consider for daily use… but any larger is unacceptable in my opinion. Now all of these cases charge via a USB C port as they should… but for right now, wireless charging is reserved for Sennheiser’s most premium earbuds, the Momentum 3’s. And personally, I think this has to change rather soon cause wireless charging can be found on plenty of more affordable earbuds.
Regarding battery life… all of these earbuds have decent battery lives relative to the size of their case. Both the entry level CX’s and Sennheiser Sport have an advertised combined battery life of 27 hours. The earbuds themselves can go for 9 straight hours which is good either if you’re a marathon runner or retail worker… and the case can supply 2 additional charges.
But then there are the CX plus which have an advertised combined battery life of 24 hours with their active noise cancelation turned off. The earbuds themselves can go for up to 8 straight hours, and the case can supply 2 additional charges. And with their active noise cancelation turned on, for me the CX plus are good for around 5 hours.
And finally there are the Momentum 3’s which have an advertised combined battery life of 28 hours with their active noise cancellation turned off. The earbuds themselves can go for 7 straight hours and the case can supply 3 additional charges. And with their active noise cancellation turned on… for me the Momentum 3’s are good for about 4 and a half hours.
Overall, all of these earbuds have decent battery life. Albeit their cases are pretty big. But something sennheiser really needs to improve on with their next generation of earbuds is their fast charging. With all of these ear buds. If you were to drop them into their case with a dead battery, a 10 minute charge is only going to get you one hour of playback time. Where as with lets say the AirPods 3’s a you’re going to get that same hour from a 5 minute charge.
But now lets talk about the earbuds themselves. Regarding sculpts, the CX’s and Sennheiser Sport have the same sculpt to them, except the Sennheiser Sport have optional ear fins that you can add. Then there are the CX plus which have a slightly smaller sculpt to them than the CX’s… and finally there are the Momentum 3’s which are even smaller than the CX Plus. But regardless all of these earbuds fit like your standard pair of in ear ear buds, as in they all go into your ear canals a decent amount like lets say the Galaxy Buds 2, Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s or Linkbuds S. Now a standard fit like what’s found on Sennheiser’s earbuds is good for lock down, but it doesn’t feel as natural as a pair of shallow fitting in ear earbuds like lets say the AirPods Pro, Jabra Elite 85T’s, Beats Studio buds, Beats Fit Pro, and even the Galaxy Buds Pro. Nonetheless, all of Sennheiser’s earbuds are comfortable enough to wear and thankfully they all come included with silicon ear tips. So none of these ear tips get super itchy like lets say the foam ear tips that you’ll find on the super popular Sony WF-1000XM4’s. But finally, we do have to address the ear fins on these earbuds. Now both the CX’s and CX Plus don’t have ear fins… but both the Sennheiser Sport and Momentum 3’s do. Now, the ear fins on the Momentum 3’s are helpful… but they’re not huge so they will might not be super helpful to some people. Where as the ear fins on the Sennheiser Sport are much larger… and these mean business. So if you’re looking for a pair of earbuds to use while you workout, then these are the ones that you want to go with.
Regarding connectivity, with all of these earbuds, each earbud establishes a connection with your phone. So if you just want to use one earbud at a time, you can use either one, it doesn’t matter. And this is the connection set up that we expect to see from all of our earbuds nowadays… and thankfully Sennheiser has finally managed to implement this on all of their earbuds.
However, all of these earbuds are better suited to be used with one primary devices, these earbuds aren’t the best option for power users cause you can’t hot swap between devices like you can with AirPods, they can’t be connected to two devices at the same time like with Jabra’s earbuds, and these earbuds won’t jump from one device to another if another device asks to pair with them like the beats studio buds do.
Instead, if you want to switch devices with any of these sennheiser earbuds, you gotta do that through their app, or you gotta put them into pairing mode every single time. So like I said, these aren’t the best for power users.
But when it comes to overall performance, all of these earbuds have zero latency across the board when watching movies or videos on your phone whether you’re using an iPhone or an android devices… and when it comes to audio codecs, both the Sport and CX’s have support for SBC, AAC, and APTX.. But Sennheiser’s more premium earbuds like the CX plus and Momentum 3’s have support for SBC, AAC, APTX, and APTX adaptive. But if you want to take advantage of APTX, then you are going to have to be an android user cause iPhones top out at AAC. Which is perfectly fine cause all of these earbuds are still going to sound great.
But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these earbuds. Like I mentioned at the top of this video. All of these earbuds are using the same 7mm true response transducers from Sennheiser. And personally for me, all of these earbuds sound and perform the same. And that isn’t a bad thing at all cause for me, this current generation of Sennheiser earbuds are my favorite sounding earbuds and they should be able to please everyone. Just as you’d expect, all of these earbuds have great instrument separation. Just like with the last generation of Sennheiser earbuds, so they all sound very open. But what really stands out on the new generation of Sennheiser earbuds is their bass. The bass on all of these earbuds resonates very deep and cleanly, but there’s also Avery good punch to it. Something that a lot of other earbuds just don’t have. Now with their stock EQ, these earbuds sound balanced… but if you want even more bass… you can always crank up the bass on any of these earbuds through their app, which works on both iPhone and android. And surprisingly, these earbuds can have more bass to them than lets say the Beats Fit Pro or Beats Studio buds. And again, there’s the punch in the bass of Sennheiser’s earbuds which just isn’t found on the beats. Or if you want a more neutral or vocals focused EQ, then you can always reduce the bass on these earbuds and raise their mids and treble. Personally for me, I just use these earbuds with their stock EQ when I’m going to listen to music with them. But when I’m going to watch a movie with them, I do like to raise the mids and treble a little bit so that dialog is easier to understand. But overall, if you’re someone that really concerned about sound quality, then any of Sennheiser’s earbuds are a great option. And whether you go with the CX’s or Momentum 3’s they’re going to sound great.
Now when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds, all of these earbuds are using touchpads. And they’re all strictly tapped based as in there are no swiping gestures here. Now all of these touchpads are very accurate and they’re easy enough to use. And through sennheiser’s app, you can customize the layout of these touch pads. But the important thing is that you can control your music and adjust the volume of your music all from the earbuds themselves.
But you do have to keep in mind that neither the CX’s or Sennheiser Sport have wear sensors. So neither of these two earbuds are going to automatically play or pause your music when you take them out of your ears or put them back in. And personally, I do feel that this is a major inconvenience. But but the CX Plus and Momentum 3’s do have wear sensors… and given their price points… they better.
But finally lets talk about the active noise cancelation and ambient mode on these earbuds… and this is where the CX Plus and Momentum 3’s really differ… and both the CX’s and Sennheiser Sport don’t have active noise cancelation. Now I do want to taper expectations here. Even though the Momentum 3’s have an ambient mode… they’re not going to block out as much noise as a proper pair of over ear ANC headphones like either the Bose QC45, AirPods Max and especially the Sony 1000XM5.
Cause right now as of Mid 2022… the Sony WF-1000XM4’s are still number one when it comes to blocking out noise albeit they do have an advantage cause of their itchy foam ear tips. And personally I am just not a fan of their foam ear tips. But right below them are the mid tier Sony Linkbuds S which also block out a ton of noise but they come with silicon ear tips. So they’re way more comfortable. Now right below them are the Sennheiser Momentum 3’s which also block out a ton of noise, right below them are the Jabra Elite 85T’s which have been bumped down. Right below them are the AirPods Pro which are starting to show their age, right below them are the Jabra Elite 7 Pro’s. Right below them are the beats fit pro, and below them are the Galaxy Buds Pro which are really trailing behind here.
Now below the Galaxy Buds Pro are the Beats Studio Buds, right below them are the Galaxy Buds 2 and right below them are the CX Plus. So overall, the Momentum 3’s rank very well when it comes to active noise cancellation… And its one of the main upgrades over the CX plus… besides simply having wireless charging.
And again, when it comes to the ambient mode… the ambient mode on the Momentum 3’s sounds much more natural than the CX Plus’s ambient mode and you can also adjust it if you want. Now the base CX’s don’t have an ambient… and neither do the Sennheiser Sport. However, the Sennheiser Sport do come included with a set of open silicone ear tips which will let in noise. So this is kind of like an ambient mode… but you can’t turn it off whenever you want at the press of a button like you can with these other earbuds, you gotta switch out the ear tips every single time.
Mic Base CX Quite
But finally here’s the microphone test. Now the microphone on the CX’s, Sennheiser Sport and CX plus are decent enough. But the microphone on the CX’s does sound a little far.
Where as the microphone on the CX Plus sounds like there’s a slight echo in the background.
Where as the Sennheiser sport do a better job of focusing on my voice.
But I do feel that the microphone on the Momentum 3’s has the best clarity here. Although, I do have to point out that all of Sennheiser’s microphones do have a slightly hissing in the background.
But where the Momentum 3’s do stand out here is when it comes to blocking out noise pollution. These are doing a good job of blocking out this road noise and elevating my voice. Cause for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise… but if we were to switch back over to the Momentum 3’s it is reduced.
Where as with all of these other earbuds, they are letting in more road noise… but at least my voice still sounds decent.
And again, here are the Sennheiser Sport which are letting in a little more noise… but my voice still sounds good.
And finally, here are the base CX’s which are also letting in a noticeable amount of road noise… and my voice isn’t as prominent here.
And its the same thing when it comes to blocking out chatter, you can hear a decent amount of chatter in the background, but my voice isn’t super promintet.
Where as with both the Sennheiser Sport and CX Plus, my voice sounds more prominent, but you can hear a decent amount of chatter
Cause here are the CX Plus, and I gotta say, these sound very similar to the Sennheiser Sport
But finally here are the Momentum 3’s which I feel are blocking the most amount of noise here and they have the best clarity here. But again for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over to the Momentum 3’s it is reduced. Now the Momentum 3’s don’t have the best microphone out there… but they have the best microphone here.
But with all of that being said, here is my break down of Sennheiser’s wireless earbud line up as of mid 2022. If sound quality is your main priority… then none of Sennheiser’s earbuds are going to disappoint cause they are all using the same 7mm true response drivers that have great instrument separation, great clarity, and they all have very deep and clean resonating bass that also has a nice punch to it. So if you’re on a tight budget and if you’re only concerned about sound… then the bass CX’s will deliver you that sound quality at a very affordable price. However, if you want the complete package with active noise cancellation, and ambient mode, and wear sensors… then you’ll might want to go with the CX Plus. Now the momentum 3’s also offer the complete package like the CX Plus, plus they also have wireless charging and those ear fins that could help with your fit… but where the Momentum 3’s really differentiate themselves from the CX plus is the effectiveness of their active noise cancelation, better sounding ambient mode and better sounding microphone for phone calls. And finally there are the Sennheiser Sport. The sport are basically a reskinned version of the base CX’s except they have those larger ear fins and larger case to accommodate those ear fins… and they also come included with open ear tips so that you can let in ambient noise if you want. But personally for me, even though they are not perfect, the momentum 3’s are currently my favorite ear buds to use.