Source
r/sennheiser•
Arcendus

The Momentum True Wireless has been a massive disappointment

First off, I pre-ordered the MTWs immediately after hearing about them and did the whole "obsessively checking tracking info" thing once they'd shipped. Transparent Hearing meant I could finally wear headphones at work and still be able to hear the phone ringing, or when someone knocked on my door. I'd be able to listen to music while walking my dog, getting exceptional audio quality and no longer having to get tangled in headphone wires or deal with the bumping sound of the wire while walking.

Needless to say I was very much looking forward to these things, and I take no joy in my disappointment.

I'm going to skip the positives, because there are plenty of comprehensive reviews of these things out there touting how great they sounds, how comfortable they are (well, at least once you upgrade to Comply tips), etc. What these reviews miss, however, is how these hold up over time — particularly for people like myself, who don't and never intended to use them every single day.

Anyway, over the past month I've used the MTW's for maybe a total of 3 hours. Upon receiving them I charged the system fully, as directed by the... directions. According to Sennheiser's marketing material the MTW buds should hold 4 hours of charge, while the case holds an additional 8. Well, on 4 occasions now I found that the charging case was drained completely, which causes the earbuds to power on. According to Sennheiser, the earbuds require power from the case to 1) power off and 2) remain powered off, so when the case is depleted the earbuds will automatically power on and... drain some more. Because there is not yet a way to power off the buds manually, at this point the only way to turn off the earbuds is to put them in the charging case and connect the charging case to a power source. If you can't access a power source when this happens, you're simply out of luck.

Recap: I've used the earbuds for 3 hours, but the charging case has depleted at least 32 hours worth of charge (8 hours on 4 occasions).

Adding to this problem is the fact that the charging case seems to be depleting at almost all times. If you're in a quiet room and you hold the charging case up to your ear, focusing on the black "lip" part, you'll likely hear the faint but recognizable digital buzzing of battery discharge. This happens regardless of whether or not the case is actually charging the buds, and explains why my charging case has depleted 3 times for no apparent reason. And this is not unique. A quick search of r/sennheiser will yield plenty of results of others who have experienced the same thing, and I've yet to find an instance where an RMA has actually solved the problem.

I emailed Sennheiser about this on January 2 but have yet to receive a response.

Anyway, the purpose of this post isn't to shit on Sennheiser or the MTWs, but to highlight the problem. I haven't seen a single official review out there that makes mention of any of this, so it needs to be said somewhere, and potential buyers deserve to know that all battery life claims of the MTW should be taken with a massive grain of something salty.

EDIT: If you're experiencing this same issue, please reach out to Sennheiser about it — whether it's a phone call, email, Facebook, or Twitter. To be clear, I'm not at all suggesting this in the "everyone grab your pitchfork" way, but rather to make sure they're aware of this issue in the hopes that they'll address it.

EDIT 2: Here's the official response from Sennheiser, received 12 days after my initial email:

"When the Momentum True Wireless earbuds are placed into the case, they go into a low power stand by state, and the case provides a trickle charge to keep the battery topped off. This way, they will power on and connect quickly when removed from the case. Starting with a fully charged case and headphone, it should take 7 days of standby time for the case and earbuds to completely drain."

My thoughts on this response:

  1. This is a poor design decision.
  2. This should have been mentioned somewhere in Sennheiser's marketing material, because it boils down to being an asterisk next to all claims of battery life. And I, for one, never would have purchased the MTW in the first place if I'd known this.
  3. At the very least it should include an option to have the earbuds power off completely when inserted in the charging case, for those of us who would gladly sacrifice initial connection speed for battery life.

EDIT 3: Sennheiser released a firmware update on March 6, but go figure it has absolutely nothing to do with the battery drain flaw.

Posted Jan 9, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC · edited

46106
darrenaw9•

I'm facing the same issue, and it's been really frustrating. I charged my pair/case fully yesterday, used the buds for about 30 minutes, this morning my case is showing under 50% battery. This is unacceptable for a $300 pair of earbuds. At this point I'm contemplating returning them, which sucks because I was so excited about them. :(

27
ArcendusOP•

50% idle drain over the course of a single day? That's nuts!

And yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be returning mine as well. I'm going to give Sennheiser a bit more time to respond and see if they can clarify anything, but for me, having to worry so much about the battery is a dealbreaker. I don't want to be charging these things every single day if I'm not using them, not only because that's tedious but because that kind of constant drain/charge will eventually tank the capacity/health of the battery to the point where the problem consistently gets worse over time.

14
darrenaw9•

Yup, and that sucks because there isn't another pair or TW buds in the market that entices me. Gonna have to keep an eye out during CES.

5
McMadface•

B&O E8? My set sits in my bag for weeks at a time and are at or close to 100% whenever I pull it out.

3
Piedra-magica•

How do the E8s sound? I’ve never tried anything from B&O. Are they water resistant (I live in Seattle so could I wear them in a light rain)?

I was dead set on the Sennheisers, but now I’m not so sure.

2
FrankSinatraYodeling•

I’ve been waiting for the Jabra Elite actives to go on sale. I can wait though.

2
enclaved•

How are you seeing the case battery level?

3
darrenaw9•

By clicking on the button at the back.

If the light flashes:

Green - More than 50% left

Orange - Less than 50% left

Red - Empty

7
jayy42•

It’s becoming quite clear why Apple basically has a small computer in each AirPod.

17
placidified•

I had the AirPods and loved them but the left airpod kept falling out of my ear. Turns out my left ear is weird :P

As I had the original Momentums headphones I decided to get the PXC550.

After using it for a few months here is what I found;

  • The Captune app is lacking to say the least. It takes a long time to detect that the PXC550 are connected.
  • There hasn't been any updates to the captune app nor a firmware upgrade to the pxc550
  • When the battery is low it keeps reminding me its low even when you switch off the voice alert
  • I had to use the Apple bluetooth dev tool to force aptX codec when I connected the pxc550 to my macbook pro
  • The touch controls barely work

I was really hoping apple would license out the W1 chip to companies like Sennheiser but this doesn't seem likely anymore.

Sorry to hijack your comment !

4
xxTheGoDxx•

yeah, marketing. I don't see why the problem OP has with the MTW has anything to do with a lack of onboard computing power. BTW, Apple is with the AirPod just one step above the absolute minimum when it comes to codec support (they support standard BT and AAC) while Sennheiser supports both aptX and aptX Low Latency on top of that.

1
Candy_Rain•

I was almost embarrassed to buy apples AirPods. Now I’m not, thank you op!!

10
ThePandazz•

Damn I was planning on buying a pair soon :(

9
Betancorea•

Same. I think I may just have to forget about true wireless buds for now and check back later in Q4 2019. Nothing else seems to fit the requirements I have.

1
Vnojan•

i bought mine 2 days ago, i havent had any issues yet with the battery draining! oh man the sound on these are crazy! the bass is so full and the treble is so crystal clear!

1
Sanity__•

Any update on this for those of us still on the fence??

2
Dasbeerboots•

So that's what's happening. Hmm. Really frustrating.

8
Piedra-magica•

I can’t thank you enough for your comments. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to afford the MTW headphones, now I’m going to wait. I have a work set up, so like you, I don’t use wireless headphones consistently. I need something that can be ready to go whenever I decide to use them. I don’t want to decide to go for a run and find my headphones are dead.

6
dandandanny•

Same issue. Returned to Best Buy. 2+ years after Airpods have been released and still no one can get this right.

6
brocahantas•

I'm totally torn. I love these things but I'm having the same issues as everyone else in this thread. Part of me wants to hang on to them, deal with the quirks, and hope they can address it via a firmware update or replace them under warranty. And the other part of me wants to return them.

1
dandandanny•

My concern is they won't be able to fix this via firmware. It sounds like more of a design issue.

1
MerryMarauder•

Seals it I'm officially not gonna grab these, sucks, considering how much I was excited about these. Huge send fan but batt life management is really important to me and these batt problem sound unacceptable for a 300 unit item.

6
Keldraga•

Your points are totally valid and that certainly shouldn't be happening, but I'd just like to add my positive experience. I've had the MTW just under a week now and I only charged them the day I received them. So far I've used them around the house, on a walk, and at the gym. The case still has a charge and I haven't experienced this problem.

They definitely need to address this issue, but it's not a problem with every pair. Just my 2 cents since more people go online to complain than praise a product.

5
mrvco•

Same positive experience for me so far. I've been using them on and off during the day and charging them periodically (maybe once every few days). I haven't run the buds or the case out of juice yet. I'm flying to Europe next week, so I'm sure I'll be running them down a lot more than I have since I got them last week.

6
Vik_epic•

Any update on the battery life?

1
ArcendusOP•

Glad to hear this! Any idea about how much time you've been actively using them?

And I couldn't agree more with your point about complaints being more prominent than praise—on brand/device-specific reddit subs in particular. It's extremely important to maintain context with things like this, so I really think your comment is important.

I do imagine that people using them frequently might not even notice the idle drain, seeing as the problem rears its ugly head primarily when they aren't in use (like with smartphone battery life, when comparing SOT [screen on time] to standby). Hopefully your unit really is flawless, and myself and others simply got a bad batch, but honestly from my experience the full system drain seems to require roughly a full week, so it's difficult to say.

If you happen to think of it though, please post a follow-up if you encounter anything!

3
Keldraga•

If I had to guess I'd say between 3 and 4 hours so far. I'll keep this post in mind in case I experience any problems in the future. They seem like such a great product (in theory) that I'd hate for them to have such glaring flaws. I hope Sennheiser can get you sorted out because these are too expensive to be anything other than perfect.

5
Keldraga•

So I wanted to come back and let you know my Momentum TW case also has an idle drain and it's annoying. Hope they can fix it :/

2
ArcendusOP•

Ah, sorry to hear that man. I did hear back from Sennheiser that they're working on a Q1 firmware update that allows the buds to be powered off manually, so at least there's that.

Personally I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'll return them. The "release it now, fix/finish it later" mentality is a huge pet peeve of mine, so it really bothers me that Sennheiser would release these as-is. I edited my original post when their Product Support finally responded, but this was their response:

When the Momentum True Wireless earbuds are placed into the case, they go into a low power stand by state, and the case provides a trickle charge to keep the battery topped off. This way, they will power on and connect quickly when removed from the case. Starting with a fully charged case and headphone, it should take 7 days of standby time for the case and earbuds to completely drain.

I sincerely don't know how that kind of battery/power behavior ever made it to a finished product... unless they just wanted to release the MTW for the holiday season to cash in, with the intention of fixing it a few months later. I have no problem with them wanting to maximize profits etc., but I can't help feeling a bit misled after reading all their claims of battery life—thinking I wouldn't have to worry about battery when they aren't in use.

2
Merppity•

What ear tips are you using? I'm trying to find a good par of foam tips for them, but the online reviews for the Comply TrueGrips (which they say is the only one that'll fit the MTW, bleh) are not good at all.

3
ArcendusOP•

Not the person you're responding to, but FWIW I'm using the TrueGrips and they work great. Most negative reviews seem to focus on the longevity of the buds, though, so I can't yet speak to that (I've only had them for a month).

One of the big positives I've found is that with the TG you aren't required to do that "twist" motion of the MTWs to lock them in your ear (which seems to reduce the effectiveness of Transparent Hearing), because the TGs hold them in great on their own.

3
Merppity•

Oh, that's good to hear. What about the size and fit? Some people say they're too small (or fall off, but I feel like that's more their own fault). I use large tips normally, so it's a little bit of a concern.

3
ArcendusOP•

I'm using the Medium tips, and honestly they fit exactly as I'd expect. The actual depth/length of the TG buds compared to another pair of Comply (non-TG) I have is less, by maybe 20%, but I'm pretty sure that's just a design requirement in order to fit inside the case. Diameter appears to be identical, though.

3
TotesMessenger•

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4
LaserM•

Ok, let me tell you about the Sennheiser's support. I've sent complaints several times with email and didn't get a single response yet. That was Nov 2018. I solved the problem by calling them, and you should call as well because they don't give a shit about emails.

4
ArcendusOP•

Yeah, that's a good point. Honestly I'm annoyed it's taken them this long to respond, considering virtually every other Support team out there is able to respond in a reasonable amount of time these days. I reached out to them on both Twitter and Facebook, since that somehow usually seems to be a good way to escalate communication, but am definitely not holding my breath.

Anyway, I'll be taking your advice and giving them a call directly next week.

2
Merppity•

In my experience with sennheiser support, they'll definitely get back to you, and they're pretty good about doing the right thing, it just takes forever

3
ArcendusOP•

Glad to hear this. They responded on Twitter and FB pretty quick saying they'd look into what was causing the holdup, but with it being Friday I didn't much expect a response today anyway. Here's hoping for sometime next week!

1
haddage•

Same issue here. There are several other threads on Reddit discussing this. I've emailed Sennheiser around 12/27 and haven't received a response. If they can't figure out a fix, I may have to return these to Amazon.

3
JLol87•

I just think true wireless isn't technologically ready for mass production yet. The air pods may be but they look so dumb and make you look dumb.

3
wadamean•

I too have been having this same issue! It’s so annoying and frustrating finding them charge fully depleted within not even half the day while not using them and especially when needing them the most they are dead and I have had them fully charged the same morning too.

3
ZathBF•

Stuck between Jabra Elite 65t, Apple Airpods or MTWs

3
Vnojan•

i say the mtw's! ive used apple airpods for 2 years very good pair of earpods! Also got the jabra elite active 65 and they are also great but comparing both to mtw? definitely not possible! sound on these is gonna blow your mind!

1
Mr_Wood1440_•

Alright, getting mine tomorrow, and since I am used to charging my older iphone 6s, as well as my laptop, I can live with it. As for it being on in the case, I don't care about since I use headphones everyday. Thanks for the info however, but if you do find any other issues just list them again. Thanks for not shitting on the headphones. Enjoy with them! :)

3
Sanity__•

Any updates on your pair?

1
asrarrazaq•

Just brought them yesterday, haven't charged them since 5pm yesterday. At 7:30pm I'm still getting a green light (>50%).

​

Seems ok so far.....

1
Sanity__•

!RemindMe 1 month

1
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1
Sanity__•

They still holding up okay? I'm still in the market for a pair

1
Hathos_•

I just called Sennheiser about this, and it looks like it isn't registered as a known issue to them, which is unfortunate. I really like the comfort and audio quality of these compared to other pairs that I've tried, but I have to take advantage of my return period as I can't have 4 hours of total use when the advertised is 12.

Note: I've been using them since the beginning of December and have never been able to charge my headphones with the case outside of it being plugged in.

3
DSWBeef•

Yep Iva ehad 2 pairs in the span of a work and I ran I to the same issues. They sound amazing but the battery issues are a killer for me. Went back to the mw07 from m&d. Will look at the TMW in a couple months and if they're fixed I'll try them again.

3
darrenaw9•

How is the mw07 compared the the MTW?

2
DSWBeef•

Sound quality is a tad worse Imo. No noise isolation and no eq so it's a bit of a step back I'm buy ita syill very good.

2
P1Pilot•

I'm experiencing the same issue. I am planning to return them to Amazon. It's ridiculous. I thought BT5.0 was supposed to be power efficient.

I think what is happening is the left bud stays on and drains power. This takes charge out of the case, and within a day or two both the left bud and case are dead.

​

Back to my trusty AirPods. May try the MW07 next.

3
Vnojan•

Guys, EDIT AS OF TODAY 14Feb: this is the reply i got:

In regards to your request, we would like to let you know the following information:

These problems are known and there will be a software update.

At this moment we are testing the beta version.

When the software is released, you will receive an automatic message via the app.

Exact release date is not yet known, planning is for end this month.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

3
Sanity__•

Any update on this?

1
Vik_epic•

Update????????

1
ArcendusOP•

Thanks for the update! Good to know they're shooting for the end of this month, as them previously saying Q1 was pretty vague.

1
Vnojan•

yeah, this reply made me wait till the end of this month! i almost returned mine! just gonna hold off a little:)

1
travonte02•

Hopefully this firmware will fix the battery drain problem as I’m waiting this to be fixed so I can go ahead with the purchase.

1