Fitness Tracking and Geographic ‘Sound Zones’ Impress: Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport Earbuds Review

Earbuds are everywhere. You can buy them at the gas station. You can ask Santa for them. Or you can order them on Amazon. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they provide a range of sound quality and even fitness functions that have allowed them to become a major staple in our modern lives. 

I have used a lot of earbuds over the years; wired and wireless varieties are staples in my everyday carry (EDC) kit. Whether it’s in the background or the focus, music inspires me. 

But there’s more to it — I’m also a very active person. From walking through town to hiking through the woods, or mowing the lawn, I’m always on the move. During these times, I don’t like to zone out; I like to focus on how I’m performing and improve my performance. I always challenge myself and push my limits, so monitoring my vitals has become paramount to doing this sufficiently and safely.

This past spring, Sennheiser launched the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds. In a feat of innovation, the brand aimed to pair premium-quality sound with fitness tracking. The result would be a pair of sound-thumping earbuds that track your heartbeat and temperature easily and accurately as well.

In short: Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM Sport earbuds don’t just provide a premium auditory experience. They can also track your heart rate and temperature more accurately than most of the fitness trackers on the market. If you enjoy good tunes while being active and want to keep tabs on your body’s performance, then these fitness earbuds were made for you.

Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport Earbud Review

Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM Sport earbuds carry the top-notch sound quality that is synonymous with the Sennheiser brand. The variety of sound modes and settings can be adapted to the user and their environment. This allows you to fully escape from the world around you or still be part of it.

The modes include “Adaptive ANC,” a hybrid form of noise cancellation that adjusts to the environment around you. There is also an “Anti-Wind” mode that’s great for running or road biking, as it blocks out the intense white noise wind creates when rushing by you. Then there’s “Transparency” mode, which allows you to hear the sounds around you.

Adjust any of these three settings to your liking. They can be used or turned off during phone calls. Plus, the MOMENTUM has a “Sound Zones” setting that can change between these modes and any presets you create (more on this later).

The big draw to the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds, however, is their built-in performance trackers. These sensors monitor your heart rate and body temperature, and the data can pair with Apple, Garmin, and Google devices, or Strava and Peloton products. The MOMENTUM Sport earbuds can also sync with Polar’s Flow Training App, making them the first non-Polar product to be able to do so.

Like most full-featured earbuds nowadays, the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds come with a rechargeable case. The case charges via USB-C or wirelessly and allows you to extend the earbuds’ 6-hour battery life to 24 hours. For every 10 minutes of charging, you get an hour of battery life.

The case and earbuds are IP54 rated. This means that both can handle dust, sweat, and general moisture but shouldn’t be submerged or exposed to foul weather for prolonged periods.

Other settings include the ability to conserve battery life, choose whether incoming calls are automatically answered, and have the music pause or keep playing when you remove an earbud, just to name a few.

First Impressions

I’ve owned different Sennheiser headphones and earbuds over the years, so I was familiar with the brand’s premium sound quality.

I was curious to see how much control Sennheiser’s “Smart Control” app would give me over the sound modes. Out of all of the earbuds I have used, none of them have had a dedicated app. This is not unprecedented, but it proved a handy addition for anyone who considers themselves an audiophile.

The MOMENTUM Sport buds come with various size tips and wings to help dial in the way the earbuds fit in your ears. The way the buds are shaped, I suspect they could struggle to stay in place and hang out of my ear. I’ve had that happen before, even with a snug fit, and it becomes a distraction.

So far, I’ve found a solid fit combo for me (more below), but time will tell if I encounter any issues with more trial. What I can say is that swapping tips and wings is easy to do.

Medium Tips / Small Wings

As with all earbuds, finding the right fit for your ears will determine your overall experience. I initially went with small tips and small wings and found that they fit great when I was doing work on my laptop, lying around in the hammock, or even biking on the road.

But once I started to do active activities, I realized the fit was off for me. I upsized to the medium tips and soared to high-fidelity heaven. Even when I ran around the trails, scrambled over rocks, and scampered about like the woodland gnome I am, they stayed put.

Weirdly, I noticed that before I upgraded to the medium tips, the earbuds never actually fell out of my ears. Instead, they just sort of hung around, caught in place by the wings. So I never worried about the earbuds falling out, though I was constantly distracted by having to adjust them.

Plus, the controls on the MOMENTUM Sport buds are a bit sensitive, so any time I adjusted them, I accidentally paused the music or skipped a track. For a guy known for getting lost in 20-minute-long Fluffhead jams, this was no bueno.

Pro tip: Make sure to check and confirm your fit while you’re both motionless and in motion!

Sennheiser MOMENTUM: Fitness Tracking Accuracy

None of the other earbuds I’ve tested have been fitness trackers. So I was particularly interested in just how accurate the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds’ heart rate and fitness trackers were in comparison to my Apple Watch. One of the metrics I like to focus on when I’m hiking, working out, or even walking is my heartbeat. I look for patterns and correlations over time to see if my heartbeat remains the same or goes down when I am performing the same activity day to day.

And part of this is considering how the environment around me impacts my body temperature. When my temp is up, so is my heart rate.

When comparing my temperature and heart rate data from the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds to my Apple Watch Ultra, both readings were more accurate with the earbuds. I also confirmed this with a forehead thermometer.

Where the temperature readings were close, the heartbeat reading from the watch was 10 beats off on average.

I’ve come to realize that the data Apple pulls from its watches needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I learned that through its distance tracking when compared to using both the iPhone 14 Pro with Gaia GPS and the Garmin eTrex Solar. The data from the phone and the eTrex always matched up, whereas the watch did not.

The Pink Floyd Sound Test

Many moons ago, I realized the best way to test the quality of any speaker, headphone, or earbud was to play certain songs.

Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” album is incredibly engineered. Play “Time” and let it run off into “The Great Gig in the Sky” and you’ll hear the use of different channels putting various sounds on different sides of the music. There are parts where you can hear sounds travel from one side to the next and back. I find this scenario is the best way to fine-tune sound in ear buds.

There’s also a great underlying bass line in Dave Matthews’s “Stay or Leave” that you can only hear in the most premium, fine-tuned sound environments. I could hear that bass line clear as day in these earbuds before I even adjusted the equalizer.

I recommend you spend the time finding your sweet spot of sound once you get the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds to properly fit into your ears. The “Smart Control” app that pairs with the earbuds is easy to use and allows you to really get the sound dialed in through a feature called “Sound Check.”

It’s like an eye exam for your ears and takes about 5 minutes to complete.

Noise Control

The Sennheiser MOMENTUM Sport earbuds have three noise control settings that can all be adjusted to your liking. I found that through 2 months of testing, I never took the earbuds off the “ANC (Active Noise Canceling)” setting when I was working out, mowing the lawn, or relaxing.

However, the “Transparency” setting came in handy when I wanted to remain in tune with the world around me. It uses built-in microphones to amplify the sound around you. That way, if something you need to notice approaches your personal space, you won’t miss it. When there’s no music playing, you can hear the amplification as if someone turned up the gain.

The third setting is called “Anti Wind” and is pretty self-explanatory. This will come in especially handy for people who road bike. It dulls the wind noise that’s rushing at you while moving at an accelerated rate. I put it on a few times to test it out. The sound difference between it and the ANC setting is minimal if anything.

Sound Zones & Settings

One especially cool feature of these earbuds that ties into the noise-canceling settings is “Sound Zones.” This setting allows you to create settings based on your location. The earbuds will automatically change to that preset when you enter that area. You can set the sound setting, equalizer levels, and even the radius for when the preset turns on or off.

You have the ability to choose your Noise Control setting, equalize the sound levels within the setting, and even create the radius or geolocation for when you switch into that particular zone.

For example, let’s say you’re walking from work to the gym. Based on your input, the earbuds will switch over to your preset zone when you walk into the gym. When I am out walking in town, I want to be aware of the world around me. So I keep my Noise Control setting on “Transparency.”

But once I hit the trailhead, I want to totally zone out and switch to “ANC.” I have one of my Sound Zones set to kick in right when I arrive. That way, I can start my hike without interrupting a podcast or jam.

Overall Impressions

Sennheiser has really zeroed into sound technology. The number of settings you can change on the MOMENTUM Sport earbuds is more than I’ve ever seen before.

These earbuds’ fitness-tracking abilities are innovative and beneficial. People who pair these earbuds with Polar, Apple, Garmin, Google, Strava, or Peloton will experience and benefit from this. If you need to monitor your stats on the fly, I highly recommend these earbuds.

But the big crux that every earbud teeters on is how they fit. I have owned and used the Sennheiser OCX 686G Sport wired earbuds, as well as earbuds from Anker and Skullcandy. All of them fit really well. But not as well as the Medium Tip/Small Wing combo fits on me with these MOMENTUMs.

And as the old saying goes, “You get what you pay for.” Have I used earbuds that cost a fraction of the price of the MOMENTUM Sport buds that had premium sound? Yes, but not the level of detail that Sennheiser consistently provides across its product line.

When you combine that with how much you can adjust and modify that sound, as well as other interactive features that improve the experience, I think that justifies the (substantial) $300 price tag.