The battery in each Momentum True Wireless 5 earbud comes out with a compact screwdriver, and so does the one in the charging case. Sennheiser puts the whole swap at a few minutes. Each bud runs twelve hours on a charge and forty with the case, and eight minutes at the outlet buys another hour of listening. The 7mm driver inside is built and tested at the company's own plant in Tullamore, Ireland. Noise cancellation works off a four-microphone array and a redesigned ear tip, the case is narrower than the one it replaces, and Sennheiser says its testers preferred the new fit to the True Wireless 4 by 73 percent. The earbuds arrive September 3 in five colorways at $300.
Most wireless earbuds follow the AirPods pattern, where the battery is fixed in place with glue and cannot be replaced. A pair lasts as long as its cell does, usually a couple of years, and then it is something you buy again rather than something you fix. Sennheiser's consumer division belongs to Sonova, a Swiss hearing aid manufacturer.