I went to BestBuy to get my hands on a few of the top contenders. Sony XM5, Bose 700, and a few others not worth mentioning. They did not have a Sennheiser momentum 4 in the store for demo, they had to be ordered. The battery life of the Sony and the Bose were better than the others they had available in store. The sound quality was good. The materials felt cheap some more than others. I did not care for the skinny headband on some of them. After trying them out, I went on Amazon’s website and ordered the Sennheiser momentum 4. The 60 hour battery life, and fast charging is amazing. The noise canceling is excellent, I work with a lot of heavy equipment, it is loud all the time. I have used them on several long flights for both music from my phone or my tablet, or the airplanes movie selection. Several of the flights had very loud and obnoxious children, the noise canceling and good volume level made it much more pleasant. The build quality of the Sennheiser momentum 4 feels much more premium than the Sony or the Bose. The sound quality and clarity is unmatched to anything that I have tried, as far as wireless headphones. The frequency response is incredible with the 42 mm drivers. The gesture controls are intuitive, and very easy to use and get used to. I can wear them for hours my head does not get tired or sore. Everyone that I have come across that has tried them wants to set for themselves. Using them at work I often have multiple phone calls, there are gestures you can use on the side control to swap between calls. The microphones built into the headset pick up your voice clearly and eliminate background noise and wind for very clear calls. They are great for short sessions, but also long sessions as I have worn them for over 12 hours in a row. I wear glasses and they do not bother me while wearing glasses. I have had them for nearly a year. The battery life is still very strong. You can go on vacation and not have to charge the headphones until you return. I had a pair of Brookstone noise, canceling headphones years ago. When they eventually failed, I picked up a pair of Sony noise, canceling headphones. The Sony’s eventually failed as well. I replaced them with Bose they were wired the wire deteriorated very rapidly. Replaced them with a set of Bose earbuds, they are handy, but for a long flight the Sennheiser’s are definitely the way to go. Amazing sound quality. Transparency mode is also a very handy feature. Double tap the side of the headphone to activate or deactivate transparency mode so you can hear what is going on around you. The ability to lift the ear cup to pause playback is very handy. They also power down when you place them in the very nice case.

Out of the gate. They are sturdy, rugged but not super heavy (if that’s a consideration). Albeit, Barr the headband. They don’t look what they cost. But I’m somewhat glad for 2 reasons.

1) Less of a Thief Magnet. 2) The Money went into Features, Extras and Sound Quality.

Pros:

– Good Highs
– Good Mids
– Good Lows. (more to add later)
– Frequency Separation is fantastic (no muddled muddy sound)
– Auto on/off feature.
– Auto Pause feature.
– Interesting EQ Builder.
– Hard Compact Case.

Cons:

– As a bass head, I like/prefer my Bass on Music that it make sense on, sadly a little bass heavy on tracks it shouldn’t be. (occasionally) – (even with Flat EQ)
– Little boring looking, but that’s low importance.
– No LDAC/LDHC? AptX (AptX Adaptive).
– Pause Feature seems to be for Right Ear/Hand only (from what I can tell – not an issue for me as I’m Right Handed).
–

I have had these for about a week now and so far I think that they are outstanding. I was upgrading from the Sony WH1000-XM3. I also tested out the Sony WH1000hXM5 and the Bowers and Wilkins PX7 S2 and I returned both of these and kept the Momentum 4s. I found them the most comfortable (the Bowers and Wilkins clamped too tight). The battery life is ridiculous. The touch controls work well as does the on head detection (this was really bad on the PX7 S2 and sometimes they would randomly pause when I turned my head). The ANC is probably not as good as the PX7 S2 and definitely weaker than the Sony’s but it’s good enough for me not to notice other sounds when listening to music. But the main trump card is the sound. It’s leagues ahead of the Sony’s with a wide open soundstage (and I have been streaming Tidal masters using LDAC and APTX Hd). Songs I’ve listened to for years sound amazing with great instrument separation. The PX7 S2 also sound amazing albeit with a narrower more focussed sound and less pronounced highs and it was hard to decide between these and the M4s. However the PX7 S2 cost 50 more and as an overall package the Momentum 4s won out. Lets see if I develop any issues going forward but no regrets so far.

Had this for three weeks now. It is a great sound across the range and the noise cancellation is stupendous. But then having worked fine, it stopped connecting to the audio. I seem to have fixed it now but it took hours of trial and error. On the way I have had two firmware upgrades, which tells me they launched it prematurely. Each one takes at least 30 minutes and each has failed once before succeeding. I had to do a factory reset and start again when nothing else seemed to work. The problem is that there is just one button on the headphones and you have to try to work out what it’s doing from the app. Except it doesn’t always tell you. And the instructions are less than optimal. The headphones give various tones and beeps and voice messages but they are often opaque. Just hope they settle down now but I shouldn’t have to go through this. PS I note other users have had similar problems to me and some report turning off a couple of the fancy features solves the connection issues. These are the auto on-head detection and auto-on-off.