So the Bose QC Ultra are a pair of headphones that are great for traveling cause they’re very comfortable to wear, they have very impressive active noise cancelation, and they have a very small case… and with immersive audio turned on, they sound very impressive… But the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s also sound very impressive, and they also have really good active noise cancellation. So today we’re going to compare the Bose QC Ultra’s to the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s and we’re going to see which ones are right for you.
Regarding pricing, the Bose QC Ultra’s retail for $430… but they can be found on sale for $380 from time to time and these are the newer headphones here. Where as with the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s these are a year and a half old now and they have a retail price of $380… but these like to go on sale for $270… which is nuts. Overall both of these headphones are good but for different reasons. Nonetheless if you want to pick either of these two headphones up they’ll be linked down below, or you can press on the YouTube shopping button.
Now first lets talk about these included carrying cases. Now both of these headphones come included with hardshell cases which is great cause they are going to remain safe even if you stuff them into a cramped back pack… my main critique here is, the case that comes with the Momentum 4’s has a large foot print cause these headphones have a lay flat design to them, and this case is also pretty thick. So I feel that traveling with the Momentum 4’s isn’t a convenient as with the Bose QC Ultra cause this case is just smaller and slimmer.
But something about this case is that if you take your headphones out, they will automatically power on, which is very cool… the problem is, at least with mine, is that if your case is vertical, the headphones can turn on and connect to your phone, which can be very annoying. And even after a year, it doesn’t look like any of the recent firmware updates has fixed this issue. Now I got these headphones when they first came out, so this might not be a problem on newer headphones… but just be warned that this could happen, which is very annoying.
But with the case out of the way lets talk about the headphones themselves. So looks wise, these two look very similar to one another… but the Bose does have a fully collapsable design, and this is why they are able to have a smaller case. But both of these headphones have mostly plastic ear cups that pivot and swivel a good amount. The Momentum 4’s swivel more than the Bose but thats fine. The headband on both of these headphones glides in and out, but the arms on the Bose are metal where as the arms on the Momentum 4’s are plastic. But the top portion of the headband on the momentum 4’s is covered in fabric, where as the top of the headband on the Bose is plastic… and underneath these headbands the bose has padded leatherette, where as the Momentum 4’s have padded silicon. So at first glance these headphones look very similar to one another, but if you look closer there are some important differences… but overall both of these headphones have solid build quality… but they aren’t using super premium materials like with other headphones out there.
Now even though these headphones look very similar, they fit very differently. Now first when it comes to clamping force, both of these headphones are big head approved… however, the Bose have a significantly loser fit to them… where as the momentum 4’s have a firmer fit to them. So if you have a really big head and or if you like to wear hats, you’re going to want to go with the Bose. But then there are the ear pads on these headphones. Now both of these earpads are very specious and they are going to have no problem accommodating most ear types, and even if you have very large ears or ears that stick out a lot, both of these ear pads will have you covered… however, the earpads on the Bose are more spacious… but also these earpads have less surface area coming in contact with your skin… so the earpads on the Bose are able to stay cooler for much longer. And then theres their weight… the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s weigh in at 295 grams… which isn’t awful… but it is noticeably heavier than the Bose QC Ultra which weigh in at 254 grams… so with the Bose, these are just less noticeable when they are on your head, they’re easier to forget that you’re wearing and you notice them shifting around less when you’re walking around with them on. So overall, the Bose QC Ultra are just a lot more comfortable than the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s cause they have less clamping force, their ear pads are more spacious, their earpads also stay cooler for longer and they’re lighter as well.
But when it comes to techspecs… the Momentum 4’s dominate the Bose QC ultra when it comes to battery life and connectivity. The Momentum 4’s have an advertised battery life of 60 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on which is very impressive and its also way above average.
Where as with the bose, this is one of their biggest weak points… the Bose QC ultra have an advertised battery life of 24 hours with their active noise cancelation turned on… and if you were to use them with their Immersive audio turned on… then they’re going to have a battery life of 18 hours… So the momentum 4’s clearly have the Bose beat here.
And in order to charge these headphones, they both charge via a USB C port as they should… but the really cool thing here is, with the Momentum 4’s you can use their USB C port as a wired connection… where as with the Bose, their USB C port is strictly used for charging. But the good thing is, at least both of these headphones have an audio jack so you can always use them with a wired connection. CHECK Can they both be used passively.
But when it comes to wireless connectivity, both of these headphones can be connected to any two bluetooth devices which is good if you’re a power user cause you can easily hot swap from one device to another regardless of eco system.
And when it comes to overall performance, both of these headphones 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 of these headphones have support for SBC AAC and APTX Adaptive… just keep in mind that if you want to tack advantage of APTX you do have to be an android user cause iPhone top out at AAC… and also, even though the Bose QC Ultra have support for APTX Adaptive… it wasn’t showing up on my pixel 7a… where as APTX adaptive does show up with the Momentum 4’s… But I daily drive an iPhone… so AAC is what matters to me.
But with all of that out of the way, lets talk about sound. Now just as you’d expect, the Bose QC ultra are a pair neutral sounding headphones… as in they have bass, but their bass is mostly on the audible side. As you can hear their bass, but they aren’t going to rattle your head all that much. Now these headphones do have an adjustable EQ so you can make them sound however you want. But even if you were to go in and raise their bass all the way up… they still aren’t going to rattle your head all that much. So these are going to be better suited for someone that likes a more neutral or vocals focused EQ. But with the bass out of the way, now we can talk about immersive audio… now with their immersive audio turned off, the Bose QC ultra are going to sound very similar to the Bose QC’s or the Bose QC45 or Bose NC 700… but with immersive audio turned on… these headphones open up a lot. Specifically, the vocals get pushed forward so theres a big emphasis on them, and the instrumentals get pushed back and they get open up as well. Overall the Bose QC Ultra sound very impressive with their immersive audio turned on… and immersive audio also does the while head tracking thing. But I feel head tracking is just a gimmick so I set their immersive audio to motion so that things stay still. Yeah the naming here is a mess. But heres the issue with immersive audio… it tacks a significant toll on the battery life. Like I mentioned earlier, the Bose QC ultra are good for 24 hours… but with their Immersive audio turned on… they go all the way down to 18 hours which I do feel is problematic.
But then theres the Sennheiser momentum 4’s… now I still feel that the Momentum 3’s sound better than the 4’s… but the Momentum 4’s still sound great. And more importantly… the Momentum 4’s have very impressive instrument separation and detail… all on their own. They dont require an special software or tricky to sound as good as they do like with the Bose QC Ultra and their immersive audio and the AirPods Max and their Spatial Audio. But another thing about the Sennheiser is that they also have a decent amount of physicality in their… so if you want to feel your bass, the Momentum 4’s can do that and their bass also has a decent amount of resonance as well. So overall the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s easily sound better than the Bose QC ultra… cause these are able to always sound great… and they also have some kick in their bass. Where as with the Bose QC Ultra… yes they sound good, but they dont have any kick in their bass, and if you want them to sound as good as possible, you’re going to have to sacrifice a considerable amount of battery life which is already in short supply to being with.
But then there are the media controls on these headphones… and personally im not the biggest fan of either of these two. With the Momentum 4’s theres a touchpad, and this touchpad works well, but it is a little overly sensitive. And with the Bose we have a hybrid system. Theres a physical button so that you can play and pause your music and so that you can skip through your music… but to adjust your volume there’s a touch pad… and I dont like this touch pad cause either the steps are too big, or they’re to small or there are just a lot of missed inputs. But if I had to pick one, I think im going with the Bose cause ill just adjust the volume on my phone or watch.
But also, both of these headphones have wear sensors, so whenever you take these headphones off they’ll automatically pause your music, and when you put them back on they’ll start playing your music again. And for the most part both of these wear sensors work well… but personally I don really care for wear sensors on my headphones so I just turn them off, but they’re there if you want them.
But now lets talk about the active noise cancellation on these… now just as you’d expect, since both of these headphones are premium ANC headphones, they both block out an impressive amount of noise, but so that you can see for yourself, we’re going to jump into an ANC Test.
ANC Test
So like you may have just seen, both of these headphone block out a lot of noise, however the Bose QC ultra are able to block out overall more noise than the Momentum 4’s. The only thing is, even though the Bose QC Ultra are blocking out a lot noise… when there’s a lot of noise to block out they do have a considerable amount of cabin pressure. Now the cabin pressure on the Bose QC Ultra isn’t as bad as the AirPods Max or Bose QC35… but it is there. Where as with the Momentum 4’s even though they are blocking out just a little bit less noise than the Bose… they also have a little less cabin pressure. But nonetheless, the ANC On both of these headphones is going to be great for flying.
And both of these headphones have an ambient mode, but these ambient modes are pretty different. Now with both of these headphones you can adjust how much noise they let in, which is nice, but I do feel that the Bose has the better ambient mode here. Specifically, the ambient mode on the Bose sounds more natural and its easier to understand people, cause I feel the ambient mode on the Momentum 4’s prioritizes noise pollution over people voices… but also, the microphone array on the Bose does a much better job of rejecting wind noise when walking out doors. So personally I prefer the Ambient mode on the Bose… just make sure that the Active Sense is turned off cause right now its more of a hassle than what its worth.
But something that I do like about the Momentum 4’s is that if you have them set to pause your music when you turn on their ambient mode… then youll have a conversation mode where your headphones will lower the volume of your music and pump in all of the ambient sound around you so that you can quickly talk to someone without having to remove the headphones…
And when you double tap on the touch pad, they go back to normal again. Now with the Momentum 4’s you can kind have both… cause if you double tap on the touch pad you’ll get your conversation mode… and if you want to have your ambient mode turned on and play music at the same time… then you can just pinch to zoom on the touch pad… so you have access to both features… but with Sony’s headphones, their set up is a lot more seamless.
But more importantly, Bose’s headphones dont have a conversation mode, which is a very big shame cause their Bose NC 700’s do have a conversation mode… but for some reason bose didn’t add this feature to their newer headphones… so I hope bose adds a conversation mode to these headphones through a firmware update cause they can easily do so.
Mic Test Momentum 4
But finally heres the microphone test… now both of these headphones have decent sounding microphones on them to take phone calls with while in a quite room.
Mic Bose
But I do feel that the microphone on the Bose QC Ultra sounds a little more natural and less robotic than the microphone found on the Momentum 4’s.
Mic bose road
But what really separates these two microphones is how well the Bose QC ultra are able to deal with noise pollution. Cause right now, this microphone is doing a decent job of reducing this road noise 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 Bose QC Ultra, it is reduced.
Mic Momentum Road
Where as with the momentum 4’s these are letting in a lot more road noise.
Mic Moemtum 4 Chatter
And its the same thing when it comes to blocking out chatter, these are letting a lot of noise pollution.
Mic Bose Ultra Chatter
Where as with the Bose QC Ultra, these are doing a better job of reducing this chatter, cause again 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 Bose QC Ultra, it is severely reduced. So overall, both of these headphones have decent sounding microphones on them to take phonecalls with while in a quite room, but the bose do a better job of dealing with noise pollution.
But with all of that being said, if you’re trying to choose between the Bose QC Ultra and Sennheiser Momentum 4’s… The Bose QC Ultra are going to be hands down the better option if you’re looking for a pair of headphones to travel with a lot. First off the bose are a lot more comfortable to wear because they have less clamping force, their ear pads are more spacious, and they stay cooler for longer and they weigh less as well. The Bose QC ultra also block out more noise, and they have the better ambient mode here and they have the better microphone to take phone calls with. And the Bose QC Ultra also have a significantly smaller case than the Momentum 4’s which I feel is very important for flying. The big issue with the Bose QC Ultra is their battery life. Cause with the momentum 4’s these things are good for up to 60 hours… and dont get me wrong… they’re also a good choice for flying… but they just aren’t as good as the Bose QC Ultra. But where the Sennheiser Momentum 4’s really shine is when it comes to sound… these sound great and they dont require any trickery. Plus you can also use their USB C port as a wired connection.