Sennheiser’s brand legacy extends from pro audio and studio to audiophile and consumer tech, and often they’re at their best in the spaces between those categories. In the same way that headphones like the HD600 have found a place in studios and audiophile collections, the Momentum series wireless headphones appeal to HiFi enthusiasts and average consumers just looking for something comfortable with ANC. Sennheiser’s new Accentum Plus aims to bring the Momentum series’ features and sound quality to a lower price point. Can it succeed in providing the perfect balance of price, features, and sonic performance?
Build and Design
Accentum Plus looks very similar to its big brother, Momentum 4, with the only obvious visual differentiation being that Accentum Plus lacks the cloth wrap around the headphone that Momentum 4 provides. In terms of the fit and comfort, Accentum Plus provides a lightweight, comfortable, secure fit – very much like Momentum 4. While it should remain stable for light exercise or doing chores around the house, I wouldn’t recommend it for more vigorous exercise like HIIT.
Along with the headphones, you get a nylon case loaded up with the necessary cables (a USB Charge/data cable and a 3.5mm cable for standard wired mode) and product information. The case provides a decent amount of protection for travel and has slots to keep cables or accessories in place. In the terms of the basic package, the case is the first improvement that you’ll notice for the Plus in "Accentum Plus,” but there’s quite a bit more under the hood.
Using Accentum Plus
When you first take Accentum Plus out of the case, you’ll notice a sticker on the right earcup explaining the touch controls for various features of the headphones. While the touch controls are nice, the real power is unlocked through the Sennheiser Smart Control App. Smart Control lets you manage the type of Noise Cancellation, Transparency strength, and EQ. The app is easy to set up and intuitive to use.
The actual touch controls on the device were more of a mixed bag for me. While the simple taps worked fine, I couldn’t get anything that involved a slide or swipe to work consistently. It seems that I might be in the minority in this issue though, as the other folks in our office who tested it out didn’t report any issues with the touch controls.
As far as the quality of calls, connectivity, and ANC, Accentum Plus improves on the original, and provides solid call quality, and a step up in the overall noise reduction from the ANC. This still isn’t quite “Bose Quietcomfort” level ANC, but it’s more than adequate for a noisy office or crowded gym blasting music that you hate, and holds up well in public transit type situations. Accentum Plus’s connectivity options are strong as well, with support for Bluetooth 5.2 and a wide variety of codecs. There are small improvements found in a number of places, like reduced latency with videos, that add up to a great user experience. Of course, what you really need to know is how the sound quality is under all that.
Sound
Sonically, Accentum Plus takes after Momentum 4 and the original Accentum with a bass boosted neutral tuning. There’s an overall strong presentation of detail with some slight veiling in the highs, and a bit of extra “oomph” in the mid to low bass. There’s a small sense of Accentum Plus being a sort of wireless, bass-boosted HD600 series, and you can even use the EQ to tone down the bass and tweak the upper mids just a little to get really close to that signature sound.
Out of the box, the emphasis is focused in the mid to low bass, with some good impact and rumble, but also some tendency for bloat. The texture and detail in the bass is decent, but a little washed out. You can definitely adjust this with EQ though, if you want a little less fun and a little more of a reference sound.
Outside of a little bleed up from the bass, the mids are generally clear and detailed, offering good instrumental balance, layering, and separation. The treble is slightly veiled, which combines with the bass bump to give the headphones a slightly dark timbre. The soundstage and imaging are better than I expected, and I felt that the more time I spent listening with Accentum Plus, the more I noticed the sense of depth to the sound and the clear positioning of instruments and voices.
Comparison: Sennheiser Accentum
Sennheiser recently launched Accentum, with Accentum Plus coming only a few months later, leaving many with questions about the differences, and whether or not you should make the upgrade to the Plus. So how do they compare in terms of sound and features? Is Accentum Plus worth the extra cost?
In terms of sound, there’s no notable difference in the core tuning or performance. Both offer the same bass boosted neutral tuning, and in my listening, I also couldn’t find any notable differences between the soundstage and imaging performance between the two, and since you have access to the same features in the Smart Control app with both headphones, you can get the same sound quality and performance with whichever you choose.
The first noticeable difference is the addition of earcup touch controls – like those found on Momentum 4 – to Accentum Plus. The touch controls provide more options to the user without having to pull out your phone, but personally I prefer the more solid feedback of physical buttons. if you look a little deeper and use them a little longer, you’ll start to notice the other, more important improvements. Probably the biggest update is support for aptX Adaptive, which provides lower latency, and better wireless transmission quality over aptX HD. While I didn’t notice a significant difference in the sound quality, there were clear improvements in audio latency, which improved the experience watching videos and playing games with Accentum Plus.
The other difference was in the ANC quality. While I’m not personally a huge ANC user, in my testing, there was a clear improvement, both in the suppression of low background noises, and in the handling of louder background noise. So basically, purely from a sound perspective, the original Accentum remains a better value, but the small differences do start adding up, especially when you consider factors like improved environmental ANC and better latency when watching videos.
The Bottom Line
Accentum Plus nicely balances solid sonic performance for music with an array of popular consumer headphone features, and improves on the original Accentum’s implementation of those features. If sound quality is important to you, but ANC, call quality, battery life, and the like are equally important to you for wireless headphones – if not more important – then Accentum Plus might be just what you’re looking for.
