Buy an Intel Knuck Barebones PC and get a limited edition t-shirt and in-game
items for Planet Side 2. Click now to learn more. So, let's go back to my
original unboxing of the Momentum for a moment. I called them fashion
headphones, and I meant that in the most derogatory possible sense, and I was
wrong. Honestly, it's a miracle Sennheiser talks to me at all at this point. I used a very flawed testing
methodology. We all learn, I suppose. I only had about an hour with them, so
they weren't properly broken in, and I was using what must be one of the worst
audio sources in the world, which is the HTC1 with the stock media player that
comes with it. I had recently switched from the iPhone 4 to this one, and I had
no reason at the time to assume that this one would be so terrible, but I
blamed it on the headphones, and I was incorrect to do so. So, like I said,
miracle of miracles. Sennheiser reached out to me about their newer Momentum
skew which at the time I didn't realize was different and that was less expensive and asked me to maybe take
another crack at the Momentum series. So this my friends is the Momentum Onar. It
is available in a variety of different colors from blue to green to ivory to
pink. It uses an onar style. So that is to say it is supraoral and sits directly
on your earlobe as opposed to around your ears sealing against your head and
uses allcantara materials instead of leather. So this is still considered a
premium material but obviously not to the same degree that leather is and
that's present on both the ear pads as well as the top of the headband. In
terms of accessories, we see some costing down here as well. So, the hard
carry case that came with the original
Momentum is replaced by a soft fabric
carry case that honestly isn't particularly rugged, but it does have
stiff boards in the front and the back, so I wouldn't expect your headphones to
get completely destroyed sitting inside them. It's rugged enough for what you're
putting inside them. It comes with a couple of different cables. So, one of them is just a straight connector cable.
So, this locking connector goes into the bottom of the headphones here. And then
there's a plain three-pole that goes into your media player. And then it also
comes with an alternative four-pole connector. So, this one is a right angle
connector and can be used to control audio on an iOS compatible device. So,
you can control volume up and down. You can skip tracks, you can pause and play
tracks and all that kind of good stuff. It also comes with a little carry pe bag
bag that has a drawstring. You can put it in this and then inside the hard
shell or you can just chuck it in this and throw it in your bag, which is what I think a lot of people are more likely
to do just because portability is key. It's called Momentum. Build quality
hasn't been degraded from the original Momentum. Every stitch is perfect. It's
got gorgeous little color shifting Sennheiser logos on either side. Little
Momentum badges that are perfectly attached and none none of it comes
apart. It's screwed together. So, they use little torque screws on the insides
of the headband to hold everything together. And it really does feel in
spite of the thinness of the metal used and the lightweightness of the whole
thing very very solid. I even I mean it's even little things like they put
holes in the metal aside from the ones that slide in order to adjust the ear
cups presumably just to reduce weight.
Now let's get into the somewhat tricky
part, a bit of a sticking point for these for me, and that's fit and comfort. out of the box within about 10
to 15 minutes, my ears would be so
tender that I could barely press on them like this. I don't tolerate Super Ral
headphones very well, and these were not any kind of exception. With that said,
the Alcantara material breathes extremely well, and they're quite
comfortable in that sense. So, and they sound really great, so I wanted to give
them a chance. After a couple weeks, they're quote unquote special foam. They
don't call it memory foam, so I don't know what kind of foam it is, but it's special foam. That's what that's what
they call it. Um, after a couple weeks, it did start to break in. It is
springier than your typical memory foam. So, I kind of saw that and I went,
"Shoot, these are going to be putting a lot of pressure on me at the start, but
maybe maybe they'll break in." And they did. And this isn't the first time I've
had that experience with Sennheiser. My HD555s fit like a glove. Now, they
sucked. When I first got them, the clamping force was way too tight. And
that is something that you can adjust quite easily with the Momentum on ears due to the metal construction of the
headband. The headband itself actually speaking of which is not really my
favorite design either. The original Momentum are a little bit cushionier but
both of them are are quite hard. It's these two somewhat hard material bands
across your head and I did find myself rather than wearing them in a more
natural position which would be closer to the crown. I did find myself shifting
them forward a little bit to get the weight distribution better, which feels a little bit more unnatural for me, but
did improve the comfort dramatically. Now that I've had them well over a
month, I'm able to easily wear them for a couple hours without them being
uncomfortable. So guys, if you do decide to buy them, buy them from a place with
a great return policy that's like 14 days or 30 days. Spend a bunch of time
with them and find out if they're going to be okay for you in the longer term.
Remember, I'm a bit of an, you know, outside sort of scenario. I wear
earrings all the time and that really doesn't help with Super Ral headphones.
Now it's into listening time. I validated with the on ears as well that
that stock HTC1 player makes them sound like junk. There are alternate solutions
out there. So Power Amp is one that's quite popular because it does have a
graphical EQ. However, EQ is not the beall and endall of making music sound
better. Just it just isn't. And I've
discovered since then that Apollo is a fantastic little music player. However,
it's not on the Play Store anymore. So, you will have to run out and look for
it, but I can no longer tell the difference between the output from my HTC1 and the one from my iPhone 4. Now,
I can't really apologize for this cuz I am what I am. I didn't listen to
classical music with it. I'm a top 40 listener. It's terribly mastered. It's,
you know, compressed. It's this, it's that, all that stuff. I'm sorry, but I
am what I am. And I believe that I'll be using these the same way that most
people who buy something like this will be using them. I plugged it into my
phone and I listen to the kind of music I listen to. And honestly, I love them.
I actually like the sound of the on ears better than the original Momentum. And
I'm not quite sure why it is, but it may have something to do with the fact that
the original Momentum don't seal quite right at the bottoms of my ears. And
that is an advantage of the superl design. It does allow them to seal
against your ears very, very effectively, even if that does cause
some discomfort at the beginning. So, this leaves us with final thoughts. You
know what? If you want something portable that looks good, the Momentum
Onears are definitely worth a look. Compared to other fashion headphones,
they sound dramatically better than other ones I've heard. And I'm not
saying, you know, I'm not even going to say Beats are terrible because if you
believe Beats are terrible, you already know that you believe that. And if you don't believe they're terrible, you
already know that, too. So, all I'm going to say is give something else a
try. go somewhere and try the original Momentum if you have a bit of a bigger
budget or try the Momentum on ears if you don't mind the Super Ral Design or
you have a bit of a lower budget. Just give it a try because they sound so much
better than many of the other solutions out there with respect to fashion
headphones. With that said, you know, are they the best value in the world?
Maybe not. Someone like some an IM lover like uh one of our employees here, Edel,
is going to say, "Well, there's better values out there. They're even less bulky. They sound better. They cost
less. Yes, IM exist. We're aware of this. For the same price as s sort of in
the same price range as these Momentum, you can get Sennheiser IE8s, which
undeniably sound better, but not everyone likes sticking things into
their ears, and some people like their headphones to be a fashion accessory.
Which leads us to yes, there are better values when it comes to over-the-ear
headphones as well, but a lot of the time they don't have that same look and
they don't have that same portability that something like a Momentum skew
does. Not everyone wants to sit around on the bus with huge, you know, studio
monitor cans on their ears. And while some people will do it, not everyone's
into that. So, if you're looking for a fashion statement from a knowledgeable
company that actually knows a thing or two about audio, consider the Momentum
Onears, give them a try. That's all I can really say about them. I really
liked them. Leave a comment with your feedback. What do you prefer? Would you
rather have IM? You know, they're going to sound great. They're going to be a
great value. Would you rather have, you know, overthe-ear large cans and just
wear those out in public at your desk, wherever you happen to be, or do you
prefer a different pair of headphones for different purposes? And would you be
a fashion headphone buyer? Let me know what you think. Like the video if you
liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, and leave a comment with the thing I
said before about commenting. And as always, don't forget to subscribe.