advertisement


Headphone suggestions - Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 or.....?

Graham B

Graham B

pfm Member
Hello all.

I'm looking for a pair of headphones for mobile listening and wondered what fishies might suggest? Source is primarily an iphone 6 but I'll use them on other devices too, so even if I change the iphone I'd want wired headphones with a 3.5mm jack. Budget is around £150 - £200.

I listened to a few pairs in Richer Sounds yesterday, and preferred the Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 over the others I tried. Two pairs of AKG's I tried were over bright for me, and there were some Sonys plus one other brand I didn't like much. I wanted to try some comparable Beyerdynamics too, but RS didn't have any of their phones in stock.

Does anyone have any experience comparing the Momentum 2.0's against say the DT770's? Or is there another, better option to try?

Thanks for any thoughts.
 
The Momentums (I heard the originals) are not a bad place to start when it comes to headphones.

Are you going to be using this on train, plane etc? If so, consider headphones with noise cancellation.
 
Thanks Darren, that's reassuring at least.

My commute involves train travel, but I've never tried headphones with noise cancellation. I currently have Beyerdynamic Byron earbuds, and have never found train or aircraft noise to be an issue. Of course this might be different without something actually stuck down my ear canals as I use presently. Does noise cancellation make much difference, and is there any negative effect on sound quality?
 
I don’t think you will find anything better than the Momentum’s in that price range.. Easy to listen to and probably the most comfortable headphones around..
 
Just make sure the cans are easy to drive (a la 32 ohms like the Momentums). I don’t know if the DT770’s comes in a mobile friendly version? For noise cancellation Bose seems to be the choice - like QC35 but Momentum (over-ear mk2) will probably better it on SQ.
 
Graham B said:
Thanks Darren, that's reassuring at least.

My commute involves train travel, but I've never tried headphones with noise cancellation. I currently have Beyerdynamic Byron earbuds, and have never found train or aircraft noise to be an issue. Of course this might be different without something actually stuck down my ear canals as I use presently. Does noise cancellation make much difference, and is there any negative effect on sound quality?
Click to expand...
I use a pair of overear momentum 2s, with my phone and with my iFi nano iDSD HP/DAC, @18 ohms they're very easy to drive, even easier than my in-ear buds...they're excellent, and have the added bonus of a removable cable, so I can use either a mic cable or a dedicated HiFi one...both apple and android compatible mic cables are available

FWIW I find noise isolation better with my momentums than with my in IEMs...
 
B&O H6? Possibly one of the most natural sounding headphones for sensible money, I’d definitely give them a try!
 
Like the OP I'm also after a new pair of headphones so will follow this thread with interest.

I often don my current headphones (Grado SR125 - open-back) when SWMBO starts to watch Emmerdale (don't go there . . . :D) and then she complains that it's so loud she can hear my music but then I retort it's only loud enough to (almost) drown out the TV! I do like my Grados but for marital continuance some closed-back ones are in order methinks. I'm also dallying with noise-cancellation for reasons that should be apparent from the above. ;) Don't need them for mobile listening in my case, however.

I've almost narrowed it down to Sony MDR-1000X just based on reviews (auditioning is very difficult here in Portugal) but I don't necessarily need wireless / Bluetooth - sources are my iMac into Audioengine D1 DAC, iPhone 6S or iPad Air 2, so anything with 3.5mm cable is also fine.

The Sonys are above the OP's budget but will probably be more affordable in the post-Christmas January sales so I'm also holding off till then for whatever I decide.

I read this comparison (Sony versus Bose versus Sennheiser) with interest as well.

Just some input to express interest - thread hijacking not intended . . . :)
 
I just got a pair in the sales and I'm enjoying them. I only used closed headphones and amost entirely on the road, although I'm now using some with an electric piano to learn. I was on the verge of buying the original Momentums a few years ago, but then I compared them with a good selection and decided in favour of the Focal Spirit Pro. This are still the best I've heard in an affordable closed headphone for tonal naturalism and neutrality. They are great for piano, in particular, and when I originally chose them I was listening to Bach on all the different headphones. The limitations of the Focal are that they are relatively heavy and cumbersome to take on the road, they are very sensitive, so getting the volume right can be tricky, and they have a relatively shut in sound. All closed cans suffer from this, but the Momentum 2 are more open.

The Momentum was something of a Black Friday whim, but I like them, and they have quite different virtues to the Spirit Pro. I find that they are very easy to listen to whilst working, and they manage to be non-intrusive but involving at the same time. If you look at the measurements they have a recessed presence region, with a very sharp dip at about 4.5Khz. I presume this is what gives them this non-intrusive quality, but this doesn't make them polite or distant, as you might expect. So far I've spent more time listening to minimal techno that classical piano or jazz, so my impressions are quite limited. I won't say any more until I've listened more extensively, but I'm glad I bought them.
 
Last edited:
I was going to suggest Hifiman HE 400i's until I saw that you were going to use them for commuting. I picked up a pair about a month ago for not much money and they've gone down in price since then, making them a veritable bargain. No good for commuting though since they're open backed.
 
I have Momentum 2 wireless and use them a lot atwork for Skype calls too. They are a really good pair of phones though not the most portable. Great on long flights though as the airline headsets are quite poor. I tried these against the similarly prices Sony and Denon. I have also tried the Bose 25's. Of them all the thing that won me over with the Momentums was their sound quality. To me they were better balanced compared to the others. The Sony had a little too much bass, the Denon lacked clarity in comarison. Bose have excellent noise cancelling as do Sony. For me there was little in it in noise cancelling that I could tell. They were all pretty good. My preference for the Momentum was that I preferred the sound over the others.

I also use a pair of Momentum 'In Ear' with an Android phone. If you don't need noise cancelling they are very portable and very good.
 
I've used Momentum 2s for a while and they are great. The over the ear design is much better than the on the ear one, which doesn't project the highs and lows as well.

Having said that mine have developed a fault. One channel intermittently goes off, so I assume it is a cable/wiring problem. Can anybody suggest where to get it fixed?

Jack
 
jackbarron said:
Having said that mine have developed a fault. One channel intermittently goes off, so I assume it is a cable/wiring problem. Can anybody suggest where to get it fixed?

Jack
Click to expand...

I had that problem with my 25 1-II - one of the channels was intermittent due to the cable. I sent them back to Sennheisser and they repaired them for free. They came back with new pads, so they might have sent me a new pair as replacement; it was hard to tell, but whatever they did the problem was resolved. I do think the way that the cables run along the bottom edge of the headclamp is a little flimsy, so its not the best aspect of the design, but at least customer service is good. I think I sent them out of warranty period too, so worth contacting them directly.
 
Elephantears said:
I had that problem with my 25 1-II - one of the channels was intermittent due to the cable. I sent them back to Sennheisser and they repaired them for free. They came back with new pads, so they might have sent me a new pair as replacement; it was hard to tell, but whatever they did the problem was resolved. I do think the way that the cables run along the bottom edge of the headclamp is a little flimsy, so its not the best aspect of the design, but at least customer service is good. I think I sent them out of warranty period too, so worth contacting them directly.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll give that a go.

Jack
 
just saw this. i have/had a pair for sale in classifieds some time ago and, despite terrific attention (!!), they didn't sell. they really are practically unused.
 
jackbarron said:
Having said that mine have developed a fault. One channel intermittently goes off, so I assume it is a cable/wiring problem. Can anybody suggest where to get it fixed?

Jack
Click to expand...
I presume you've tried removing and re-attaching the cable? That's assuming your's is removable...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top