Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 5 Review: Flagship Sound With a Battery That Refuses to Die

Sennheiser has always sold the Momentum line on sound first, and the True Wireless 5 keeps that promise. The 7mm TrueResponse driver puts out a warm, full-bodied signature with a noticeably richer low end than the outgoing Momentum True Wireless 4. Bass reaches deep without turning into mush, the midrange is inviting rather than clinical, and there is a real sense of space to the presentation. Feed it a proper high-res source over aptX Lossless and the detail can instantly be heard. For most listeners this sounds excellent straight out of the case.

The one honest caveat is the treble. Depending on your ears and your music, the upper range can feel a touch sharp on sibilant tracks, and a small tweak in the 8-band equaliser inside the Smart Control Plus app sorts it out. That app, by the way, is one of the best in the business, offering deep EQ control, sound personalisation and fit tests without forcing you to log in for the basics.

Noise cancellation is where the marketing and the reality need separating. The ANC here is a big step up from the previous generation and it does a fine job flattening the drone of an aircraft cabin, a metro coach or an air conditioner. What it does not quite do is beat the current class leaders. The Sony WF-1000XM6 and the second-generation Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds still cancel a little more, particularly the sudden midrange chatter of an open office. Call it a strong second place rather than the throne.

Battery is the other place where you need to read the fine print. Sennheiser advertises up to 12 hours per bud, but that number is with noise cancelling switched off. Turn ANC on, which is how almost everyone actually uses these, and you get closer to six to six and a half hours. The charging case takes you to around 40 hours total, and a ten-minute top-up buys roughly an hour of playback. It is enough to get through a day, but rivals like the Sony and the Technics AZ100 will outlast it on a single charge.

Comfort has improved thanks to a new fin-free shape that sits more naturally for most people, and the buds carry an IP54 rating for sweat and light rain. That said, fit is personal here. If you have smaller ears the nozzle can feel a bit long, and some users notice a faint crackle from footsteps while walking with ANC on, which smaller tips usually fix.

This is a Sennheiser, so let us start where it counts. I ran these through a proper spread of music, old Hindi classics, Punjabi and Bollywood dance numbers, Hindi hip-hop, English rock, some EDM and a few acoustic ghazals, and the character stays consistent. The tuning leans warm and musical rather than clinical.

The lows are the headline change from the Momentum True Wireless 4. On bass-heavy Punjabi tracks and Bollywood club numbers, the low end hits with real weight and control. It goes deep and stays tight, so the thump never bleeds into the vocals or turns boomy. If you like your Diljit or your Divine loud, these deliver without falling apart.

The mids are where these really win me over. On old Kishore and Lata recordings, and on Jagjit Singh's ghazals and unplugged tracks, voices sit forward and sound natural and intimate. There is a lovely body to male and female vocals alike, and instruments like the harmonium or an acoustic guitar come through with texture rather than being flattened.

The highs are clean and detailed, picking apart cymbals, strings and the shimmer in a busy mix. This is also the one area with an honest caveat. On some sibilant English pop and bright studio tracks, the upper range can feel a touch sharp at high volume. It is minor, and a quick tweak in the app tames it completely.

Feed these a proper high-res source over aptX Lossless and the detail genuinely opens up. The catch is that most iPhones and a lot of Android phones do not support aptX Lossless natively, which is exactly why the pre-order BTD 600 dongle is more useful than it sounds. Against the field, the Momentum sits comfortably at the top table. Some may prefer the friendlier out-of-box balance of the Sony, but for the money this is a superb-sounding pair.

The adaptive hybrid ANC is a clear generational upgrade and handles low-frequency rumble with ease. On a flight or a metro ride it does the heavy lifting you want. Where it slips behind the very best is in the mid frequencies and the top end, so the odd voice or clatter still sneaks through in a way it would not on a Bose. The automatic anti-wind mode is a genuinely useful touch for anyone who takes calls outdoors. Transparency mode is decent but not the most natural I have heard, and it trails the AirPods on sheer realism.

Here is the plain truth. The headline 12-hour figure is an ANC-off number, and with noise cancelling engaged you should plan for roughly six to six and a half hours from the buds. The case brings the total to about 40 hours, fast charging is quick, and wireless charging is on board. For a daily driver this is workable, but it is not a strength, and it is actually a touch shorter than what the older Momentum managed with ANC on. If marathon runtime is your priority, the competition wins this round.

The redesigned housing drops the stabiliser fin and, for most ears, that is a comfort win. The case is smaller and pocketable, the buds feel premium, and IP54 covers you for workouts and drizzle.

The star of the show, though, is repairability. The charging case battery is almost comically easy to swap, needing a single small screw and a slide-off panel. The buds themselves are fiddlier, asking for a couple of tiny screws and a bit of patience, and this is not something everyone will be comfortable doing. Sennheiser sells the replacement cells as the BA 501 for the earbuds and the BA 502 for the case. The honest asterisk, and the one you should keep in mind before you buy on this promise alone, is that Sennheiser has not confirmed the India price of these batteries or how easily you will be able to buy them here. Until that supply chain is real and affordable in this country, treat the feature as a good intention rather than a final guarantee.

Bluetooth 6.0, two-device multipoint, Google Fast Pair and a robust connection mode make day-to-day use painless. Dolby Atmos with head tracking is present, though the recentring takes a beat longer than I would like, and plenty of people will leave it off.

The Smart Control Plus app is the real highlight and one of the best in the business. Beyond the basics, it lets you shape the sound to your exact taste with a proper 8-band equaliser, saveable presets, a sound personalisation test and fit checks. If the stock tuning is not quite your flavour, you can dial in more sparkle or more bass in minutes, and the changes are meaningful rather than cosmetic. For anyone like me who likes to tinker, this alone adds a lot of value.

Two niggles are worth flagging honestly. First, during my time with them the music occasionally paused on its own for no obvious reason, and I had to tap a bud to get it going again. It was not frequent enough to ruin the experience, but I never quite pinned down what triggered it. Second, the Auracast and LE Audio features are baked into the hardware but not switched on at launch, with Sennheiser promising a firmware update and no firm date. You are buying a small IOU there and both feel like the kind of thing a software update could iron out.

This is the most inconsistent part of the experience. In a quiet room and even on a moderately busy street, the expanded mic array and AI voice isolation keep you clear. Push it into genuinely loud environments and the processing can start to smear your voice. It is improved over the last generation and perfectly usable for regular calls, but it is not the standout that the sound is.

I also ran into an odd quirk. After some calls ended, the playback volume would drop even though the slider was sitting at full, and I had to manually nudge the volume down and back up to get it to full again. It is a mild annoyance rather than a dealbreaker, and again it smells like a firmware bug that a future update should fix.

The Momentum True Wireless 5 is a proper flagship that leads with what Sennheiser does best. The sound is rich and mature, the app is a joy, and the replaceable battery is the first serious attempt by a major brand to stop these things from becoming landfill after two years. It is held back from a perfect score by ANC that sits just below the best, a battery that looks weaker the moment you turn that ANC on, and a couple of software quirks around auto-pause and post-call volume that a firmware update should fix. There is also a sustainability promise that Sennheiser still needs to make real in India with clear pricing on those spare cells. None of that stops it being one of the most satisfying and thoughtfully built pairs of earbuds you can own today.