Sennheiser Momentum 3 vs Sony WH-1000XM3: Which to Buy?

feat sennheiser momentum 3 vs Sony wh 1000 xm3

This is the comparison review of Sennheiser Momentum 3 and the Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones. Both are the expensive headphones with lot more features and useful options.

 sennheiser momentum 3sony-wh-1000xm3 
Sennheiser Momentum 3Sony WH-1000XM3
BUY NOWBUY NOW
PROSPROS
Gorgeous fidelity.
Easy to use controls.
Great passive noise isolation. App-based controls.
Tile built-in.
Outstanding noise cancellation. Fantastic sound quality.
Quick Attention Mode.
30-hour battery life.
CONSCONS
Noise reduction isn’t as good as Sony and Bose.
Headband still needs better padding.
Middling battery life.
Can only be paired with one device at a time.
Mediocre call quality.
MODELSENNHEISER MOMENTUM 3SONY WH-1000XM3
BrandSennheiserSony
Series  
Model  
DETAILS SENNHEISER MOMENTUM 3 SONY WH-1000XM3
ColorBlackBlack, White
HEADPHONE SENNHEISER MOMENTUM 3 SONY WH-1000XM3
Driver Unit 40 mm, dome type
Frequency Response6Hz – 22kHz4 Hz-40,000 Hz
Impedance 47 ohm (1 kHz)
Sensitivity 104.5 dB/mW (1 kHz)
Connector  
Weight  
MICROPHONE SENNHEISER MOMENTUM 3 SONY WH-1000XM3
Impedance 16 ohm (1 kHz)
Frequency Response  
Sensitivity  
FEATURES SENNHEISER MOMENTUM 3 SONY WH-1000XM3
Features3 Active Noise Cancelling Modes.
Sennheiser Smart Control app.
17 hours battery time.
Bluetooth version 5.
Battery life: Max. 30 hours (NC ON), Max. 38 hours (NC OFF).
Bluetooth version 4.2.
Wireless freedom, Great Sound in silence.
Smart listening by SENSE ENGINE — automatically adjusts to your situation.

Expert reviews of Sennheiser Momentum 3: 

By Gadgets360   
Bose and Sony’s dominance over the high-end wireless noise cancelling headphones segment is something we’ve started to take for granted, but it’s good to see other headphone makers offering a challenge. The Sennheiser Momentum 3 Wireless headphones are…

By Gadgetsnow  
The headphones are comfortable despite being bulky and have a strong Bluetooth connectivity. The not-so-effective ANC is compensated by the clear and loud sound output and if not for that, these would have been a really overpriced pair of headphones….

By IndiaToday  
As I stated, the market is currently exposed to the Sony WH-1000MX3 and Bose QC-35 2 as the benchmark in premium audio accessories and the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless for me is an addition to this list. It is expensive but the experience that you get…

By hipsterpixel  
Once again Sennheiser is offering an impressive headset with an amazing quality both in the design and material used, as in the feature set it offers. One of the best audio quality paired with a super effective noise cancellation technology, transparent…

By APH Networks  
To say my experience in San Francisco was marred by one event would be false, especially as I still had overwhelmingly positive memories there. Similarly speaking, I think the third iteration of the Momentum Wireless displays many areas of strengths for…

Expert Reviews of Sony WH-1000XM3:  

By hardwarezone.com 
I’m an audio geek, what codecs does it support?For those fussy about sound quality, one of the most enticing features of Sony’s noise-canceling headphones is that they support a wide range of codecs – easily one of the widest. The new WH-1000XM3 is no…

By Pokde.net  
The Sony WH-1000XM3 is a great pair of noise-cancelling headphones that is suitable for anyone and everyone.

By Android Authority  
The WH-1000XM3 are a worthy successor to the popular WH-1000XM2 headphones, improving on them in a few subtle ways with the addition of USB-C charging and new ear pads.

By T3 magazine  
With the Sony WH-1000XM3 excellent sound quality meets the best noise-cancelling tech in the world, while the ‘extra’ features are useful without being gimmicky. In short, these are brilliant.

By goodhousekeeping.co.uk  
If money’s no object, then you’ll struggle to do better than the Sony WH-1000XM3. Not only do they sound great, but they offer 30 hours of listening time and have excellent noise cancelling built-in that really helps immerse you in your music or podcast. Even better, if you want to temporarily let outside noise in such as an announcement at a station, you can just cover the right ear to do that.

Deatil Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Sennheiser Momentum 3

This is the wireless headphone with many features. This sennheiser improve under active noise Cancelling. This also have app to control the audio system and also it’s light, comfortable, and durable.

Sony WH-1000XM3

This headphone has many features that all which you can’t see in all the headphones. It also have touch system instead to have buttons on it. It also has many features as useful.

sennheiser momentum 3 1

DESIGN:

Sennheiser Momentum 3  

The quality of leather that they used on this headphone, these are like on the level of Bang & Olufsen. It’s super supple provides tons of feedback when you touch it. It’s gonna smell like some damn good cowboy boots. This has beautiful metal being used in sides and more importantly metal hinges that keeps these headphones intact. Aside from the ear cups, adjusting points right giving a little bit of a chatter which is very reasonable. The Sennheiser Momentum Wireless build quality doesn’t feel cheap at all.

Sony WH-1000XM3  

It does come with a very slim and thin traveling case, it is a hard case but the reason they make these thin is these headphones are more geared towards people who travel and some people don’t have huge backpacks, they have the slimmer bags and this takes up the least amount of space. In fact, it’ll even fit in most purses.

It also comes with an airline adapter for those who actually still use. It also has a regular headphone cable because if you don’t want to use these Wireless, you can use them wired and then it comes with a USB C cable. 

The design of this headphone is very simple and stylish. It looks very simple and light and the quality of the headphone is also premium quality. The color and the way it builds is just simply impressive. 

COMFORT:  

Sennheiser Momentum 3  

Indeed the ear cups do pivot and move to conform to your head, my bigger concern is the weight. These do come in at just a little over 300 grams. If I Wearing these for several hours straight if I have these snug to my head, I can wear them for hours and especially if I do look down at my phone the weight kind of pulls forward a little bit. When snugged I don’t feel these pinching at the crown of my head and clamping force is very much reasonable. Overall, if these are good for me, they’ll be good for the majority of people out there.

Being closed back and over ear headphones with these supple leather thick padding, these were perfectly fine at room temperature. If you’re wearing these out in the middle of the day you’re going to get some ear sweat like most other headphones. In general, the momentum wireless are good for the office and at home. If it’s hot outside or if you’re using this for the gym, these are going to heat up your ears a little bit.

Sony WH-1000XM3  

When you first pick these up, they’re pretty light. This is completely premium as far as build quality, you can stretch these out, twist them, turn them, and you don’t have anything to worry. These basically can fold to any configuration that you want, it can fold down to be a small pair, they can also lay flat and then kind of turn in like they show inside the case. So, you’ll be able to get these to fit pretty much anywhere you want them.

Now the top of the headband is a pleather material. There is plenty of padding in this small area but because these don’t weigh a lot. They really don’t require a whole lot of padding and a whole lot of headband. Now, the adjustment slider are made out of an aluminum, definitely something you’re not gonna have to worry, the rest of it just kind of feels plastic. But, this is a premium plastic.

sony wh 1000xm3 1

FEATURES:  

Sennheiser Momentum 3  

On the right ear cup, you literally have eight command center. ANC has three modes:on and off, and transparency mode, NFC is still on for a near field communication. The multi-function button in the middle, if held down does give you a voice prompt on how much battery life is remaining. Although it only gives you a decent range instead of a more precise number. Now, on the very bottom has your voice assistant via your phone, tap this to have Siri or Google assistant at your service and its quite fast.

On the very bottom, there’s a two and a half millimeter port for physical connections and the USB C charging port, you can future-proof your reports or connections with this pair of headphones. In general, this is on the lower end of mainstream active noise-cancelling headphones like the Bose 700 and a Sony 1000 XM3 but compared to other higher end audio brands like Bowers and Wilkins px and Bang & Olufsen H9i and the Denon GCE30, those other competitors are achieving around 20 hours with a very similar price tag.

Battery life is rated at 17 hours of use. On my personal testing at 50% battery and active noise-cancelling on, I was able to achieve 17 hours and 27 minutes worth of battery life. Now, Bluetooth 5.0 is featured out just like USB C. This is the latest technology being used, I’m able to get about 90% coverage here at my 1100 square foot apartment having the signal go through several walls before it started to crackle. Now, additional Bluetooth performance, I love this feature. You can indeed have two devices paired at the same time, I have it connected to both my phones in which ever audio I play last the headphones will automatically switch over to that device that’s super convenient. It auto recognize the new audio source.

When you take off your headset, it automatically pauses and then when you put this back on, it automatically resumes your audio. Sennheiser partnered with tile, they’re known for making these little keychain like tiles that helps find your items. It works and it’s good for funny where you last left your headset but finding them in real time, I’ll leave with the app it’s been a little bit spotty. Sometimes, I have the headphones working on my head and the tile app says the headphones can’t be found in real time.

There’s a transparency mode with a flicker button which is on the right ear cup. The momentum Wireless turns on the microphones and pumps in your environment to audio. It sounds very natural and possibly the most natural audio pass-through that I’ve tested on ANC headphones and I love this feature for safety and awareness. You do have to download these Sennheiser app first to have music and transparency mode are working at the same time which is a little bit funky. If you do trigger the transparency mode, it just pauses your music.

Sony WH-1000XM3

These can get up to 30 hours of battery life and also if you pick them up and they’re dead and you forget to charge them, with only 10 minutes of charging you can get 5 hours of battery life. 

You immediately noticed that there’s not a whole lot of buttons. On the right hand side is where your touch controls are located, it’s basically on the outside. You just swipe your finger forward to be able to skip forward and you swipe your finger backwards to be able to go back. You also slide your finger up and down to be able to adjust the volume. You also can press and touch for three seconds to activate Siri or your Google assistant or whichever one you’re using which is pretty convenient.

Right underneath on the right-hand side is also where the USB C plug-in is located. Now on the left ear cup, you have your three-and-a-half millimeter headphone jack and power button and then you have what they label as noise canceling / ambient button but really you can go in Sony’s headphone app and just program it to do many of different things.

Also, on the outside of the left ear cup is the NFC. Basically you can just touch your phone to that ear cup and it will automatically connect to whichever NFC device you have.

Sennheiser-Momentum-Wireless-3 2

MICROPHONE:  

Sennheiser Momentum 3  

This microphone isolates the voice even in a noisy environment. It does play on both headphones and ear cuffs. You can turn on transparency mode if you’d like, in that way you can pump in your environment. Sound leaking is minimal and most of the isolation is kept within the ear cups. The ANC experience is up there with one of the best. It’s in third place in noise cancelling when compared to Bose 700 and Sony 1000xm3 and it’s still very good and it’s a significant improvement from their first generation. They’re almost indistinguishable from the other competitors unless you put them side-by-side. Active noise-cancelling on this although not the best but it’s very much within tolerance as a high recommendation.

Sony WH-1000XM3 

Now also with these if you do happen to have them on and somebody comes up to talk to you or you do need to hear some stuff in your environment, you just kind of cover the right ear cup and it turns the microphones on and amplifies what’s going on the outside into the headphones.

SOUND PERFORMANCE:

Sennheiser Momentum 3  

This is not the best depiction of audio quality but these Sennheiser momentum Wireless does get loud enough for most. I’m listening to this at around 75% BOM to fully appreciate these headphones to have it loud enough that I feel like I’m lost in my music and immersed. So, overall the audio characteristics is very similar to my Bose 700 and Bose QC 35 II. The momentum Wireless strives to be a more balanced sound signature rather than being slightly on a bass side like these sony 1000 XM3. Bass is somewhat punchy for bass heavy songs but general music, digging deeper and lower would hit the sweet spot.

Sennheiser does have their app with its own built-in equalizer, it’s really made for the average consumer that wants something very easy to manipulate rather than a fine-tuning experience and moving that will alter other areas of the audio spectrum to help keep things in balance. It does help a little with bass but again I want just a little more to hit that sweet spot and I’m not looking for a bass heavy but something with a bit more punch. If your bass focus, I recommend the 1000xm3. The Momentum Wireless really shines though where outperforms the Bose qc25 II offers more finesse than 1000XM3 and performs just a smidge under the Bose 700 is the mid-range.

Vocal work and instruments are clearly identifiable with being ever so slightly forward and if you use the app and bump it up to the slight upper right increasing trouble a bit, the Momentum has a bit of airiness to the audio signature. There is detailed fidelity present that’s very much on par with other competitors with similar balanced audio sound signatures.

The minute difference is the sound-stage audio separation in audio direction. Now, the moments of wireless sound-stage is there though not the widest they’re best I’ve heard in general but compared to some of the other main competitors, it is one of the best in that field. Audio separation can be identified and the same goes for audio direction, you can distinctly interpret between vocals, sneers, and drums, string and also music to the side, music from behind you and some what music in front of you.

Now movie watching wise, this also supports my experiences as well and added bass for action movies. The Sennheiser momentum Wireless was great for the mid to high notes experience in dialogues. So, these headphones are close actually very close to all the other competitors.

Sony WH-1000XM3 

The noise cancelling is no surprise, these simply block out just as much as the Bose. Now the noise cancelling on the Bose, some people just simply can’t use it, they put them on their ears, it’s way too much pressure, it kind of has a vacuum feel to it and for the sony, I didn’t experience that but if you do you can go within Sony’s app and you can adjust how much of the noise canceling you want it to do, basically pull away any pressure. 

Within their app, you can change a lot of different things. You can change the awareness around you, you can change the EQ, it has several different things built in but I did notice when comparing these to pixel 3 and using the L DAC and it’s using the stronger Bluetooth connections, you can’t change the EQ. Basically, it locked you in at the sound the way it is. You’re also able to turn on different locations that you want to hear more sound. You can kind of pinpoint your location and that’s a really impressive feature.

The sound is where this gets interesting, I think that this is an exciting headphone and this is where I don’t think this headphone is for everybody because anybody that’s looking for a flat response even though these do have EQ adjustments, I can never seem to get these flat. I think at all times, you kind of have a boosted bass and a pretty boosted mids where vocals and guitar riffs and things come through very clear and then I think the treble is probably the weakest point in the headphones. I think the treble could stand to be a little bit bumped up and a little bit brighter, so that it blends in more with the exciting sound.

Sound stage is one of those with noise cancelling. As soon as these headphones are blocking everything else out and all you’re hearing is music, you tend to think that it’s more open than it really is but it’s not like open back type of headphone listening but it does give you better pinpoint of instruments sound or if you’re watching a movie and giving you more of the feeling. Again, these are geared towards people who travel and are gonna watch a lot of movies.

Sony-WH-1000XM3- 2

WHICH TO BUY?  

Sony and Bose are still the masters at noise cancelling, nobody can touch them not even Sennheiser. The Sennheiser momentum wireless do offer solid noise canceling for everyday situations when you get on bus or for regular use it will be good but when you get on a plane, everything changes. It removes enough of the environmental noise that you actually can hear the sound of the headphones themselves, the quality of the headphones. These things sound amazing, they’re balanced. One of the best sounding headphones that you can buy until you get on a plane.

When the noise canceling has to come into play and it’s got to remove all of that wash and unfortunately it just doesn’t do that. On a plane, these don’t sound better than any other headphone, definitely not better than the Sony and not quite as good as the Bose either because the noise cancelling isn’t removing enough of that noise in order for you to hear that amazing sound quality which is kind of a disappointment. Especially, considering we’re talking about a $400 for this much price and the Sony 1000 XM 3 is just comes with a lesser price than this Sennheiser.

Between the two, for hardcore travelers, you can pick the Sony, I don’t think that the Sennheiser step-up well enough. However, if you’re not a frequent flyer and that’s not a big concern for you, you just need substantial noise cancelling with amazing sound quality, you can pick Sennheiser momentum. There’s no better sounding and noise cancelling a headphone on the market than this one. If you’re an audiophile and the sound quality is the number one at consideration, definitely pick Sennheiser, they’re gonna cost you a little bit extra but the sound quality is the worth one.