Solid performers without the hefty price tag, the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earbuds aim for the sweet spot on price and sound quality.
Like many areas of tech, personal audio gear can get expensive if you’ve got golden ears and deep pockets. While Sennheiser produces some top-shelf personal audio gear like its Momentum range, it also recognises that not everyone can justify paying momentous top-shelf pricing.
Sennheiser’s mid-range Accentum line-up aims to strike a balance between price, performance and features to win over audio fans who appreciate quality but still need to shop on a budget. Below the Accentum range, you’ll find Sennheiser’s even more affordable CX range.
The Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earbuds are the first wireless earbuds in the Accentum range. At $349.95 they’re certainly not cheap compared to the likes of Sennheiser’s $199 CX True Wireless. But at the same time, the Accentum earbuds are still $150 cheaper than Sennheiser’s flagship $499.95 Momentum True Wireless 4 earbuds.
So the question is, where has Sennheiser made compromises in an effort to ensure the Accentum True Wireless earbuds hit the sweet spot?
Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless review
First impressions
Like the Momentum range, the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earbuds rely on a clamshell-style charge case which is about the size of a ring box. Unlike the Momentum carry case’s premium soft fabric cover, the Accentum opts for a matte plastic finish in the first sign that you’re sacrificing some elegance.
Thankfully the Accentum case supports both USB-C and Qi wireless charging, but you’ll need to charge them more often than the Momentum True Wireless 4. In return for slightly smaller earbuds you get smaller batteries in both the earbuds and the carry case. That said, the Accentum’s six hours of ANC playtime (21 hours with the charge case) is still enough to keep most people rocking.
Sennheiser includes a short USB-A to USB-C charge cable in the box but no AC adaptor. It’s worth noting that the charge case’s USB-C port lacks a rubber cover – such as that on the Sennheiser Momentum Sport – so it doesn’t get an IP rating, even though the earbuds themselves are IP54 splash-resistant.
As earbuds go, the Accentum True Wireless earbuds aren’t too bulky and balance nicely in your ears, thanks to a slight design tweak. They lack the stems that you find on some earbuds like Apple’s AirPods, and it takes a minute to get them sitting securely in your ears. After this, they sit firmly enough to stay put while running, and even stay in place when you jump up and down on the spot.
To help get a perfect fit in terms of sound quality and noise cancelling, Sennheiser supplies a choice of four ear tips. It’s worth experimenting with the different sizes, although frustratingly the Sennheiser app doesn’t offer the Fit Test feature available to the Momentum earbuds.
The Sennheiser app does offer a range of other advanced features, including the ability to update the earbuds to the latest firmware (for example, upgrading from the shipped 4.21.17 to 5.7.6 reportedly offers bass improvements).
Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless specifications
| Ear coupling | Ear canal |
| Speaker | TrueResponse dynamic, 7mm diameter |
| Microphone | 2 mics per earbud, beamforming for noise reduction |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 5.3 compliant, class 1, 10 mW (max) Bluetooth Classic and LE Audio supported |
| Supported profiles | A2DP, AVRCP, HFP, TMAP, PBP |
| Supported codecs | SBC, AAC, aptX, LC3 |
| Noise cancellation | Hybrid Adaptive ANC |
| Battery | Built-in Lithium-Ion rechargeable batteries Left/right earbud: 55 mAh Charging case: 400-420 mAh Up to 8 hours of playtime with ANC off (6 hours on). Up to 28 hours with charging case |
| Charging | USB-C approx. 1.5 hrs for fully charged; After 10 min charging 1 hrs music playtime Qi wireless charging |
| Weather resistance | IP54 splash resistant (earbuds only) |
| Dimensions | 49.45 x 51.72 x 28.95 mm (earbuds and charging case) |
| Weight | 52 g (both earbuds and charging case) 5.5 g (single earbud) 41 g (charging case) |
| Colours | Black, White, Blue |
| Price | $349.95 RRP |
| Warranty | Two years |
| Official website | Sennheiser Australia |
Features
Looking down the spec sheet, the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earbuds have a lot in common with the Momentum True Wireless 4. Boding well for sound quality, they both feature TrueResponse dynamic 7mm drivers with the same speaker frequency range, sensitivity and total harmonic distortion.
Apart from the battery life, one of the key hardware differences is that the Accentum sacrifices one tiny microphone per earbud, relying on only two mics per earbud with beamforming for noise reduction when on a voice call.
Opting for Bluetooth 5.3 rather than Bluetooth 5.4, you get the benefit of the SBC, AAC, aptX and LC3 codecs but miss out on the aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless audio codecs supported by the Momentum True Wireless 4. That’s not an unreasonable compromise for mid-range earbuds considering that these high-end Qualcomm aptX codes don’t tend to be supported by mid-range Android smartphones.
You do however get support for Bluetooth Low Energy’s new Auracast broadcast standard. Allowing one source to transmit audio to an unlimited number of devices, it will become more common in public spaces in the coming years. You also get multipoint Bluetooth support so you can easily switch between two devices.
When it comes to blocking out the outside world, you’ve got the advantage of hybrid adaptive noise cancellation, which automatically dials up and down according to the current environment. There’s also transparency mode, disabling noise cancellation so you can listen to music but still hear the world around you.
To make life easier, you can control these and other features by tapping on the earbuds. These tap commands are fully customisable, including accessing Siri or Google Assistant on your smartphone, but you can’t adjust the touch sensitivity of the earbuds.
As for customising the sound quality, there is a five-band graphic equaliser, with a range of presets and the ability to create your own. There’s also Bass Boost, podcast voice optimisation and Sound Check for personalising the presets.
Rather than manually switching between presets, you can create “sound zones” with your preferred noise cancellation and equaliser settings based on your location. Taking advantage of GPS, this can automatically switch between presets as you move around during the day, such as between home, the office and the gym.
Quality
When listening to music, the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earbuds offer a great full-bodied yet balanced sound. This includes juicy but not overpowering bass, helping bring music to life.
As you’d expect, those with an ear for detail will notice that the performance isn’t quite up there with the Momentum range, but the Accentum can still hold their own.
When it comes to active noise cancellation, the Accentum True Wireless earbuds are a bigger step down from Sennheiser’s top-shelf Momentum earbuds. Perhaps it’s due to relying on two microphones per ear instead of three.
Who is the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless for?
If you have expensive taste but perhaps not the deepest of pockets, the Sennheiser Accentum True Wireless earbuds might be a good fit.
The sacrifice in sound quality and features compared to Sennheiser’s top-shelf Momentum earbuds is an acceptable compromise, unless active noise cancellation is your highest priority.
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