There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of truly wireless earbuds, with plenty of manufacturers diving in and showing just what they can do. The world of wireless earphones is truly vast, and depending on which brand you’re interested in, you may find an upgrade is just around the corner, especially if a similar model made in a larger size gets released in the months prior.
There have been a few headphones this year, but one that stands out is definitely tipped for a new truly portable incarnation.
Earlier this year, Sennheiser updated its Momentum headphones, delivering one of the best releases of the year so far, the excellent-sounding and highly capable Momentum 5. A pair of over-ear cans, they also arrived with the rather unusual feature of a replaceable battery, something headphones never get, and a feature almost every gadget misses out on.
Whether we live in a throw-away culture or not, few gadgets let you replace any battery, whereas Sennheiser’s Momentum 5 is encouraging you to just that: when the battery dies, you can simply replace the battery inside and keep on using them.
So that does that sort of thing exist in the more compact truly wireless earphone offerings?
It’s about to.
To end August, Sennheiser is announcing a pair of truly wireless earbuds with a replaceable battery, a move we think is largely unprecedented.
Following on from the fourth-gen earbuds released a few years ago, the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 appears to embody the approaches used in the Momentum 5, but on a much smaller scale.
The earbuds feature a new design built to be smaller and more stable, using an adaptive noise cancelling system with a newly designed set of eartips designed to work with a four microphone array.
Sennheiser’s focus on earbud design has come from analysing thousands of ears, building a fin-less shape so that it’s firm but less noticeable in the ears, an aspect Sennheiser says extends to the case which is also narrower and more pocket-friendly than its predecessor.
Inside each is a 7mm driver, with the processing handled by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound and able to deliver aptX Adaptive, supporting high-res sound up to 24-bit and 96kHz. That’ll be handy if you decide to listen to high resolution files, or if you’re using Apple Music Lossless or the equivalent from Tidal or Amazon Music, because there are definite streaming approaches to lossless sound, as well.
Just like the big headphones, there’s also support for head-tracked spatial audio, optimised for Dolby Atmos, though Sennheiser hasn’t said whether you’ll get that on iPhone with Dolby Atmos on Apple Music. Given that Apple Music’s Dolby Atmos playback tends to be locked to Apple- and Beats-made headphones on iPhone, our guess is probably not, but we can’t wait to try and find out.
And we’re very curious about the battery life, with Sennheiser noting that the Momentum True Wireless 5 earbuds will support up to 40 hours of playback (when charged with the case), and even a user-replaceable battery.
In short, it means when the battery starts to taper off and struggle, you’ll actually be able to replace the battery in the Momentum 5 — both the headphones and the earbuds — and keep the device in use. Forget the throwaway culture, because these buds will apparently keep on keepin’ on.
Like other high-end noise cancelling earbuds, the price is definitely up there, though, with Australians set to see a $499 price point for the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5, available in five colours from September 3.
