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Sennheiser’s new Momentum 2 wireless earbuds will have active noise canceling

Simon Cohen
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Though it won’t come as much of a surprise to those who follow the true wireless earbuds space, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) document confirms that Sennheiser’s follow-up to its superb Momentum true wireless earbuds will be called the Momentum 2, and they’ll come with active noise-canceling (ANC) built-in.

It wasn’t hard to come to this conclusion. The FCC document is comprised of two pages from Sennheiser’s user manual for the Momentum 2, the follow-up to the company’s impressive Momentum True Wireless earbuds. Page 2 indicates how to use the touch controls for the earbuds, and the smoking gun is the ANC feature that you apparently toggle on and off with a triple-tap on the right earbud.

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At this point, not much else is known about the Sennheiser Momentum 2, including important details like battery life, water-resistance, price, and release date. Still, knowing that the new earbuds are in the works — and will feature noise cancellation — is a big deal. When we reviewed the Momentum in December 2018, they instantly shot to the top of our true wireless list for their fantastic sound quality. They maintained that top spot until one year later when the Master and Dynamic MW07 Plus claimed the sound quality throne with a heaping of feature upgrades (and, of course, killer sound).

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The MW07 Plus are no doubt excellent earbuds, but part of the reason they earned such praise is their ANC feature. We’ve hit a point in the development of these audio devices in which ANC is now an expected feature for the very best earbuds, and it even shows up on some budget-friendly models like the Amazon Echo Buds.

If the Sennheiser Momentum 2 deliver the excellent sound quality we expect, along with ANC, then improved battery life would be the one remaining feature we’d need to see improved to get them back on our shortlist. Again, the MW07 Plus set a high bar: They feature a class-leading 10 hours of performance between charges (40 hours total with the charging case), along with IPX5-rated water and sweat resistance, and tailored earfins for a great fit. Can the new Sennheiser buds step up?

Officially, of course, there’s no confirmation that the Sennheiser Momentum 2 are headed our way, but we reckon there’s a good chance we’ll hear a lot more about these true wireless earbuds soon — possibly at CES 2020 in January.

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Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
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