Sennheiser Momentum 5: a $400 flagship with a battery you can actually replace
Sennheiser's new Momentum 5 Wireless goes on sale June 30, and its headline feature has nothing to do with audio codecs: you can swap the battery yourself with a standard Phillips screwdriver. That one decision sets it apart from nearly every sealed-design premium headphone on the market — including the Sony WH-1000XM6 and Apple AirPods Max — and it lands just weeks before the EU's Right to Repair directive takes effect in late July 2026.
The replaceable battery
The 700 mAh cell sits behind a panel that any user can open at home. Sennheiser's argument is straightforward: a headphone that costs £330 or $400 should last a decade, not three years. The trade-off is runtime — 57 hours with ANC on, down three hours from the Momentum 4's 60. Fast charging via USB-C recovers seven hours of playback in ten minutes.
Sennheiser Momentum 5 Wireless in Denim — the user-replaceable 700 mAh battery is accessible with a standard Phillips screwdriver.
The sound and ANC
The 42mm dynamic drivers are unchanged from the M4, still made at Sennheiser's factory in Tullamore, Ireland, and tuned this time with the wired HD 600 series as a reference — the company promises a wider soundstage, cleaner mids, and tighter bass. The bigger claim is ANC: Sennheiser has doubled the microphone count to four per side (eight total) and says hybrid adaptive noise cancellation is now three times more effective at cutting speech and mid-frequency noise in offices and on public transport. That's the company's own figure — NotebookCheck notes the Momentum 4 trailed the WH-1000XM5 in the midrange, and no independent test results are published yet.
Codecs and features
Bluetooth 5.4 is on board, with a firmware update to 6.0 and LE Audio planned. The Momentum 5 carries Hi-Res Audio certification and supports aptX Lossless — but that last point comes with a catch: aptX Lossless only works with Snapdragon Sound-certified devices. iPhone and most Samsung users won't get the lossless benefit, per What Hi-Fi?. SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive are also supported. Dolby Atmos with head-tracking arrives via a day-one firmware update, managed through the new Smart Control Plus app, which adds an eight-band equaliser.
The Smart Control Plus app brings an eight-band equaliser and Dolby Atmos head-tracking controls.
Price and availability
The Momentum 5 launches June 30 in Black, White, and Denim. UK price is £330 — £70 less than the Sony WH-1000XM6 and roughly on par with the Bose QC Ultra 2. US price is $399.99, a $50 step up from the Momentum 4. The headphones weigh 290g; the carry case is 20% shallower than the M4's thanks to earcups that now fold flat.
The Momentum 5 is available in Black, White, and Denim colourways.
