Sennheiser MTW4 Firmware 5.15.4 Affected Mic Quality 🤦🏻‍♂️

Firmware 5.15.4 is the biggest update to the Sennheiser MTW4 by far. It claims to improve mic pickup, fixing the high pitch noise that occurs during ANC as well as various other software improvements. But most important of all, it adds support for receiving Auracast Broadcast streams directly from the Sennheiser App.

Previously, you can only receive Auracast streams on Samsung phones with earbuds that supports LE Audio. Now, you can access nearby Auracast stream straight from the MTW4’s Smart Control app, whether you’re using an iPhone or any other Android phone.

This makes me really excited to go out there into the city just to scan around for Auracast streams, but as of this moment, I’m simply creating my own Auracast streams at home.

So let’s get into the real question, are there really any improvements to mic pickup and noise cancelling? And what about Sound quality? That’s what we’re going to find out in this article.

Microphones Test

The Sennheiser claims that this firmware update has improved voice pickup quality, and indeed, the mic quality is significantly different compared to its previous firmware version 5.6.3. It’s like a completely different earbuds! Before, my voice sounded robotic regardless of noise level. Now, it sounds more natural. However, the noise gating doesn’t effective now, and in noisy situations my voice becomes a lot softer. This could make it harder for the caller to hear your voice. So on the one hand, mic has been improved, but it got worse at the same time. Sennheiser’s on the right track, but there’s more fixing to do.

(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions using loud cafe noise and wind noise from a fan.)

👉 Have a listen to the mic pickup samples.

Active Noise Cancelling

In terms of active noise cancelling, there seems to be a further improvement. The previous firmware did already improve ANC performance, but this update made it a few dBs more quiet in general, especially in the mid range frequencies.

👉 Listen to the samples recorded under the same noisy conditions.

Transparency Mode

As for transparency, it was already quite good, but now it seems slightly cleaner, less hissing, although the difference is quite marginal. 

Sound Quality

When it comes to sound quality, there isn’t a major change in the signature itself, but I am picking up a bit more brightness in the high frequencies.

This change isn’t due to changes in the way the buds were coupled to the microphones, as the measurements and samples were taken both before and after the update without movement of the earbuds in the rig at all. As we can see, there’s been a shift into brighter territory above 2khz.

👉 Have a listen and see if you can tell.

Conclusion

Overall, except for mic quality, this is a good update. Auracast was a bonus on top of improved ANC.

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