Sounds Awesome! 😲 Sennheiser Accentum Review (vs Sony WH-XB910N)
Reviewed by Aaron - 28 Nov 2023
The new Sennheiser Accentum is said to take what people loved about the Momentum 4, and put that in a package that’s more affordable.
It may not have the same premium build quality as the Momentum, in fact it feels like it’s made of a cheaper grade of plastic. And its clamping pressure is pretty tight. Though you can argue that this makes the headphones more secure so they don’t fall off easily when you bend over to pick up something, I do prefer the more gentle clamp from competitors like the Sony XB910N which I’m going to benchmark against in this video.
No carrying case either. But that being said, for its price it is quite feature rich, rated to have up to 50 hours of battery with ANC, supports aptX HD, Multipoint pairing, and Smart Control app with options to customize sound. Having tried and tested it, there were some areas which did hit the spot in terms of features and performance, but some areas that didn’t. But that’s okay, we’re going to listen to some sound samples, then talk about its pros and cons so that you can make a better purchase decision.
Microphone quality
Its mic pickup in a typical food court scenario was pretty decent in terms of keeping my voice sounding intelligible and clear. As for its background noise reduction, although there was a constant hiss in the background, it was also quite decent.
In a louder controlled environment, benchmarked against another popular budget pair, the Sony XB910N, it wasn’t as loud as the Sonys but I thought my voice sounded clearer in quiet conditions. In noisy, windy conditions there was a hint of background noise, but overall, its mic pickup is not bad, I do prefer it compared to the Sonys. Listen to the samples.
(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions using some really loud cafe noise, and some wind noise from a fan.)
Active noise canceling
In terms of active noise canceling, it is pretty effective at dumbing down noise in general. Not the most effective I’ve heard, but at this price it definitely is one of the better noise cancelers in the market.
Compared the XB-910N it does cancel a bit more low frequency rumble, but the Sonys do cut more of the audible mid-range frequency noise compared to the Accentum. Have a listen to the samples.
Something that I wish it had is the ability to control how much noise canceling you want, not even transparency can be tweaked to be more gentle. Neither do you have the option to switch these features off, say, if you want to conserve battery. So it’s either full noise canceling or full transparency. Speaking of full Transparency, it’s actually good! No problems having conversations with people in front of me, ambient sounds are passed through without excess hiss, and only a bit of muffling. What could be better is if it amplified my own voice a bit more so conversations feel more natural, but apart from that, great transparency.
Sound quality
And finally, we’re going to talk about its sound and they sound awesome. What’s really striking about them is that, although these aren’t delivering that heavy bass that the XB910Ns are known for, you also don’t get any boominess, no bleeding over of the bass into the mids, none of that. What you do get is a lot of crispness and clarity in the vocals. From the frequency sweeps we can see that the way it's tuned is extremely different from the 910Ns especially below 2Khz. There’s more emphasis in the mids and highs which make them sound less veiled, and more airy. This is something you can hear from these sound samples.
Some people say that the 910Ns sound too muddy, and if that’s you, you will definitely enjoy the Sennheisers more. Furthermore its bass is sweet. Yes, I still won’t call it bass heavy, because it doesn’t emphasize the mid and upper bass that much, but it’s very generous in the sub bass. And the way the drivers are tuned in that area preserves a lot of that texture and grain in bass frequencies. If you enjoy bass guitars and bass drops, it’s very satisfying to listen to, without the mud that often comes with the territory.
Smart Control App Sound Customization
But if you do prefer it to sound different from default, you can tweak its sound in the Smart Control app using EQ presets, a 5 band graphic EQ, and there’s even Sound Check, which creates a sound profile for you automatically, kind of like Sony’s Find My Equalizer, but you’ll have to create an account to do that. But even without EQ-ing, like I said, these sound awesome. That being said, these aren’t very loud. For someone like me who often listens at 50, at most 60 percent volume, I’ve had to crank it up to 65 or 70 percent to get that kick. But, you can plug them into your source device using USB and get your audio straight from your PC. I find that compared to Bluetooth, they do sound a quite a bit louder over USB.
Pros and Cons
Now we’re going to talk about its pros and cons.
For me, I don’t like its clamping pressure... What I consider a comfortable fit is if I wear a pair of cans for hours at a stretch, at the end I don’t even remember they’re there. But these ones clamp a bit too firmly for me, that I have to take a short break every couple of hours. I also don’t quite like the fact that it’s not possible to turn off the ANC. Even if these have decent battery, it’ll be nice to have a way to extend that even further in case the user forgets to charge it at the last minute, and they’ve got a whole day ahead of them with just 20% battery inside.
But overall, the Accentum does feel like fantastic value for money because they sound awesome, has great noise canceling, reliable bluetooth connectivity even with Multipoint, and a bunch of useful custom options including the ability to disable Sidetone. Some people like how natural it sounds having transparency when making phone calls, but others are annoyed by it because the transparency can be so loud that they can’t even hear the person they’re talking to. On the Accentum, you can adjust that.
So if you’re looking for a true budget alternative to the Momentum 4, and premium headphones from other brands, this is definitely worth a look. For now, that is my take. I’d love to hear your thoughts so tell me in the comments. In the meantime, you can check the latest Amazon prices of these products through the links below.
Check latest prices
Sennheiser Accentum - https://amzn.to/3MZu0dy
Sony WH-XB910N - https://amzn.to/3R3Ot3W
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