The Accentum Plus are Sennheiser’s latest pair of noise-canceling headphones. They’re one of many two new pairs of headphones which are a part of the corporate’s new mid-range Accentum vary, the opposite one merely being titled the Sennheiser Accentum. The Plus mannequin options just a few further options similar to contact controls, adaptive ANC, put on detection, and many others., and prices a bit extra. That is the mannequin we might be specializing in in the present day.
Design and luxury
The Accentum Plus are a full-sized pair of circumaural headphones. The headphones characteristic an all-black design with full plastic building that has a uniform matte end to it.
The earcups use gentle foam pads with a pleather protecting. The earcups have about 2cm of depth earlier than you hit the gentle padding protecting the speaker grille. The earcups are simply detachable however require some effort to place again on appropriately.
The earcups are mounted on a swiveling mechanism that gives 180 levels of movement, permitting you to maintain the cups flat going through both aspect. Nonetheless, the earcups don’t bend inwards, so whereas they’ll lie flat, they can’t be folded to take up much less house.
The yokes are mounted on a easy sliding mechanism that slides into the headscarf. I am not notably keen on adjustable headbands with out preset notches because it’s tough to get either side precisely the identical size however after all, no regular particular person cares about that. The scarf has a good quantity of padding within the center with a matte rubberized coating.
The appropriate earcup has all of the controls and seemingly all of the electronics. There may be one bodily button, which acts as the facility and pairing swap however may summon your voice assistant of alternative. The remainder of the controls are dealt with by contact gestures by swiping on the aspect panel. There’s additionally a USB port right here, which can be utilized for charging in addition to audio, together with a 2.5mm connector for the equipped analog audio cable.
The headphones total aren’t too massive. This makes it simple to put on them open air with out drawing an excessive amount of consideration to them and likewise to hold them round. Talking of which, the headphones do include a carry case that may additionally maintain the charging and analog audio cable.
The consolation of the Accentum Plus was a contentious concern. The earcups have plush padding and a superb quantity of depth to them. Nonetheless, the diameter of the pads is somewhat small. So small, in reality, that regardless of having smaller than average-sized ears, I may nonetheless really feel the earcups urgent across the edges of my ears as a substitute of sitting comfortably round them.
This made it tough to simply plop the headphones on and be on my manner. I needed to regulate them a number of occasions each time I put them on in order that they may match round my ears as a substitute of crushing some elements of them. I exploit the time period ‘crush’ right here loosely because the clamping power is not too excessive nevertheless it’s nonetheless not fulfilling to have at the very least some a part of your ear underneath the rim of the padding.
The opposite concern is not unique to the Accentum Plus however being noise-cancelling headphones they have a tendency to dam all air motion as soon as you set them on. In the event you stay in hotter climates like me, this leads to your ears being sous vide in their very own sweat over time. In fact, in case you stay in a chilly climate setting, you’ll respect the added protecting to your ears.
Software program and options
The Accentum Plus help Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity with multi-device pairing. In addition they help SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive codecs. Whereas aptX and aptX HD are discovered on most Android units as a consequence of their inclusion inside Android itself, aptX Adaptive is normally solely discovered on units with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
The headphones might be managed with Sennheiser’s Sensible Management app. From right here, you possibly can handle the paired units, regulate audio and ANC, entry further options, replace the firmware, and reset the headphones.
The Equalizer characteristic has a five-band EQ, which helps you to create a number of customized presets or you should use considered one of Sennheiser’s personal. The difficulty with the EQ, aside from having only a few bands, is that any adjustment causes a major drop within the audio ranges throughout the board. I discovered it higher to regulate the sound via another EQ that may be there on the system or the music enjoying app.
Sensible Management app for Android
Nonetheless, the equalizer would not actually matter as Sennheiser’s Sound Personalization characteristic is a vastly higher substitute. Utilizing an ingenious technique of enjoying music samples and letting you regulate the steadiness of the devices you hear inside, it allows you to tailor a sound profile that may be very a lot exactly what you might be in search of. Additionally, in contrast to the EQ, this does not appear to drop audio ranges when enabled.
Just like the EQ, the Sound Personalization profile is saved on the headphones themselves so it really works even when the system you paired them to would not help the app (like a PC). Nonetheless, for no matter purpose, the headphones must load the profile each single time audio is performed, which causes about two seconds of delay the place the headphones play of their default mode earlier than the sound from the profile kicks in. This occurs each single time the audio is paused for quite a lot of seconds and ultimately will get a bit annoying.
However the greatest annoyance with this characteristic by far is that Sennheiser had the audacity to lock it behind an account. It’s important to create a brand new Sennheiser account or log into an current one (which, I imply, who amongst us would not have???), and solely then are you able to entry this characteristic. It is truly spectacular the methods firms give you to siphon your information however happily, pretend e-mail websites exist so good attempt, Sennheiser.
Sound Personalization
The app additionally allows you to create Sound Zones. This allows you to create as much as 20 sound zones, that are geo fences round areas of curiosity, similar to your property or work, and you’ll have sure audio settings routinely apply as you enter or go away these zones.
You can even management the ANC via the app. The essential factor to notice concerning the ANC processing on these headphones is that it can’t be disabled. The headphones can swap between ANC and transparency mode and there is even a slider to allow you to easily transition between the 2. Nonetheless, at no level are you able to merely flip these options off fully like on each different ANC headphones. The Accentum Plus mannequin good points an Adaptive ANC characteristic, which routinely adjusts the extent of noise cancellation primarily based in your ambient noise ranges.
Different options embody wind noise discount, auto transparency mode when on a name (with adjustable ranges), auto pause whenever you allow ANC, on-head detection utilizing a sensor inside the suitable earcup, and auto energy off when not in use.
ANC settings and Sound Zones
The very last thing I wish to point out is the contact gestures. The Accentum Plus have a considerably lengthy checklist of faucet and swipe gestures for the suitable earcup (and solely the suitable earcup) and for no matter purpose, none of those are customizable and even viewable via the Sensible Management app. I needed to obtain the consumer handbook to determine how any of them work as a number of the gestures aren’t even intuitive. You additionally can not disable any of them, which is particularly annoying as it’s fairly simple to set off them whereas merely dealing with the headphones.
Efficiency
Audio high quality
The Sennheiser Accentum Plus are decent-sounding headphones out of the field. The sound signature needs to be acquainted to anybody who has used the corporate’s non-pro fashions, which is a choice in direction of hotter sound with darker mids and highs.
Beginning with the bass response, the Accentum Plus characteristic a large enhance within the decrease octaves. This offers percussion devices and bass drops a heftier thump in addition to a little bit of rumble on the bass guitars. The advantage of the bass on these headphones is that it is not too exaggerated, so you possibly can nonetheless hear the unique sound over the rumbling, and the bass enhance begins low sufficient within the frequency vary to not spill into the decrease mids. It isn’t essentially the most articulate bass response however it may be fulfilling with out being overwhelming.
The decrease mids sound a bit recessed however have first rate timbre so deeper male vocals and drums nonetheless sound moderately pure. Sadly, the higher mid-range is kind of missing, which creates a uninteresting, darkish sound that feels prefer it’s missing intimately and determination. This particularly impacts vocals for many singers however particularly feminine ones and string devices additionally are inclined to sound a bit lifeless.
The treble, then again, could be a bit spicy at occasions. There’s a enhance within the higher frequencies that manifests as slight sibilance on sure tracks. Relying in your alternative of music, it could be not too distracting or arduous to disregard.
I discovered the sound to be most fulfilling with digital music with no lyrics. This manner, you do not actually discover the dearth of higher mid-range element as a lot and might benefit from the bass impression with the slight sizzle on the prime.
Nonetheless, lots of these observations exit the window when you allow Sound Personalization and create your individual profile. I used to be capable of flip the bass down and dial in simply the correct quantity of upper-mid frequencies to my liking after which it was like listening to a very completely different pair of headphones. It isn’t good however the distinction might be evening and day and I’ve by no means seen audio customization options have such an impression earlier than.
There may be one other benefit of tuning the sound to be brighter is it helps enhance the imaging and soundstaging of the headphones. By default, the sound feels very congested and intimate however boosting these higher mids actually helps open it up. It is nonetheless comparatively boxed in round your head by massive headphone requirements however will get much more spacious in comparison with the default tuning.
Microphone
The Accentum Plus have common microphone efficiency. The sound is kind of tinny and considerably robotic in timbre. It is also a bit quiet so you have to to talk as much as be heard. The standard is okay for the occasional voice name however I’ve heard loads higher even from cheaper earbuds. The one good factor is that the transparency mode kicks in each time the microphone is on so you possibly can hear your self fairly properly, which helps loads.
Noise cancellation
The ANC on the Accentum Plus works fairly properly. The earpads passively block lots of noise even earlier than you flip the headphones on. The ANC then kicks in and irons out the low frequencies additional. Whereas yow will discover higher ANC on costlier fashions, what’s on provide right here continues to be fairly good for many use instances.
Equally, the transparency mode additionally works properly. The graceful adjustment dial within the app helps you dial in simply the correct quantity of outdoor noise, which is loads higher than the binary on/off setting you discover on most different headphones.
Latency
The Accentum Plus have good latency efficiency. Whatever the codec used, the headphones exhibited solely a minor audio delay that was simple to get used to and ultimately ignored.
There was a problem with the aptX Adaptive implementation, nonetheless, the place there was extreme distortion in some apps that appeared to set off a low latency mode on the headphones. This wasn’t seen on different content material together with most different video games, all of which sounded positive. In the event you face this concern, the answer is to change to different one other codec, which typically can be SBC.
Connectivity
The Accentum Plus exhibited flawless Bluetooth connectivity throughout testing as there weren’t any points to report.
The headphones additionally help audio enter over USB and analog connector. The USB enter labored positive and you’ll obtain 16-bit, 48kHz audio over the linked system. The headphone additionally helps its controls and microphone when used on this mode. Nonetheless, the headphones should all the time be on to make use of this mode.
As for analog enter, the headphones can both be on or off. You possibly can nonetheless use the mic however the controls clearly don’t work. In the event you flip the headphones off or in the event that they die then you definitely lose the ANC however the audio continues to work. Funnily sufficient, the sound is loads leaner and brighter when the headphones are off, which suggests the bassy, darkish signature is only fabricated inside the DSP and never inherent to the drivers.
Battery life
The Accentum Plus have a claimed battery life of fifty hours. In my testing, utilizing the aptX HD codec, I acquired simply over 47 hours of steady playback.
Sennheiser additionally claims 5 hours of utilization after a 10-minute cost. I managed to get 5 hours and 45 minutes.
Conclusion
At $230, the Sennheiser Accentum Plus sit someplace between the entry-level wi-fi headphones and essentially the most premium fashions from Sennheiser and different manufacturers. The great factor is that the efficiency is nearer to the latter so that you get many of the option to the flagship fashions with out having to spend the large bucks.
The issues I preferred included audio high quality, which is first rate out of the field however might be improved wildly utilizing the corporate’s intelligent Sound Personalization characteristic. The battery life can be good and it is good to have wi-fi in addition to two wired strategies of utilizing the headphones. The ANC and transparency modes additionally work properly sufficient.
Sadly, the headphones merely weren’t comfy for me because the earcups had been too small. The microphone high quality is lackluster for this value vary and there must be extra (or somewhat any) management provided for customizing the contact gestures. Lastly, locking helpful options behind a compulsory account is unconscionable.
Nonetheless, for the value and particularly coupled with any future reductions, the Accentum Plus could be a good buy for these nonetheless wanting to purchase full-sized headphones for outside use.
