Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM5: which headphones are best?

[What Hi-Fi?]

Sennheiser and Sony make some of the best wireless ANC headphones in the business, but whose flagship pair is best?

Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless vs Sony WH-1000XM5: which headphones are best? : Read more

 

[willtim]

Rating the Sony ahead on sound quality is surprising and not in agreement with other reviewers. I believe a magazine promoting "Hi-Fi" should be championing a more neutral sound profile, such that we can listen to music as the artist intended, not the boomy over-exaggerated bass offered by Sony. In the past there have been problems using Sony's EQ with other features, e.g. LDAC and multipoint.

 

[qba3d]

I also need to make a complaint. As a HUGE fan of Sony sound, owner of XBA-Z5, ex owner of IER-Z1R,XBA-3, WH-1000xm , and 1000xm3 , I must confess that the WH series was never super musical. Great at NC, yes, comfortable, oh yes, but artificial and soulless in their presentation. I did have a wired experience listening to xm5 at store and it really did sound very very odd, bright, yes, clear, maybe, but super flat mids ( in terms of Depth ) , with very artificial mid tones and super odd boomy base. Stage was almost non existant. In comparison to my old Momentum 3 it did sound.. well just more shouty. It has none of the qualities of more classic sony house sound I find in Z7, Z5 or Z1R , and has non one the organic musicality Sennheiser managed to push in to Momentum 3. Obviously I did not hear Momentum 4, but I seriously doubt it sounds worse than 3, and most reviewers sing prises on sound quality. I did find that odd tendency to prise Sony noise canceling headphones at What Hi Fi for some time in general and in my world it creates a long shadow in credibility of this reviews. But it could be just my ears.

 

[ChrisS]

Rating the Sony ahead on sound quality is surprising and not in agreement with other reviewers. I believe a magazine promoting "Hi-Fi" should be championing a more neutral sound profile, such that we can listen to music as the artist intended, not the boomy over-exaggerated bass offered by Sony. In the past there have been problems using Sony's EQ with other features, e.g. LDAC and multipoint.

I don't know, this whole thing sounds very subjective to me, personally I have gone to stores to try both and the sony XM5 sounded a thousand times better and equalized to my liking I can't imagine, and I don't know, if you intend to listen "Hi FI" music the most obvious part for me is to use the headphones wired in a computer, the exaggerated bass issue can be controlled in professional equalizers