The Accentum Plus are Sennheiser’s latest pair of noise-canceling headphones. They’re one of many two new pairs of headphones which can be 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 resembling contact controls, adaptive ANC, put on detection, and so on., and prices a bit extra. That is the mannequin we will probably be specializing in right this moment.
Design and luxury
The Accentum Plus are a full-sized pair of circumaural headphones. The headphones characteristic an all-black design with full plastic development that has a uniform matte end to it.
The earcups use delicate foam pads with a pleather masking. The earcups have about 2cm of depth earlier than you hit the delicate padding masking the speaker grille. The earcups are simply detachable however require some effort to place again on accurately.
The earcups are mounted on a swiveling mechanism that gives 180 levels of movement, permitting you to maintain the cups flat going through both facet. Nevertheless, 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 scarf. I am not notably keen on adjustable headbands with out preset notches because it’s tough to get each side precisely the identical size however after all, no regular particular person cares about that. The headscarf has an honest quantity of padding within the center with a matte rubberized coating.
The suitable earcup has all of the controls and seemingly all of the electronics. There may be one bodily button, which acts as the ability and pairing change however can even summon your voice assistant of selection. The remainder of the controls are dealt with by contact gestures by swiping on the facet 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 provided analog audio cable.
The headphones total aren’t too large. This makes it simple to put on them outdoor 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 subject. The earcups have plush padding and a very good quantity of depth to them. Nevertheless, the diameter of the pads is reasonably small. So small, in truth, that regardless of having smaller than average-sized ears, I may nonetheless really feel the earcups urgent across the edges of my ears as an alternative of sitting comfortably round them.
This made it tough to simply plop the headphones on and be on my approach. I needed to regulate them a number of occasions each time I put them on in order that they might match round my ears as an alternative of crushing some components of them. I exploit the time period ‘crush’ right here loosely because the clamping drive is not too excessive nevertheless it’s nonetheless not pleasing to have at the least some a part of your ear below the rim of the padding.
The opposite subject 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 place them on. If you happen to reside in hotter climates like me, this ends in your ears being sous vide in their very own sweat over time. In fact, should you reside in a chilly climate surroundings, you’ll respect the added masking in your ears.
Software program and options
The Accentum Plus help Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity with multi-device pairing. Additionally they help SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive codecs. Whereas aptX and aptX HD are discovered on most Android units because of their inclusion inside Android itself, aptX Adaptive is often solely discovered on units with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
The headphones could be managed with Sennheiser’s Sensible Management app. From right here, you’ll be able to 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 utilize certainly one of Sennheiser’s personal. The problem with the EQ, aside from having only a few bands, is that any adjustment causes a big drop within the audio ranges throughout the board. I discovered it higher to regulate the sound by means of every other EQ that could be there on the system or the music taking part in app.
Sensible Management app for Android
Nevertheless, the equalizer does not actually matter as Sennheiser’s Sound Personalization characteristic is a vastly higher substitute. Utilizing an ingenious technique of taking part in music samples and letting you regulate the stability of the devices you hear inside, it permits you to tailor a sound profile that may be very a lot exactly what you might be in search of. Additionally, not like 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 does not help the app (like a PC). Nevertheless, for no matter purpose, the headphones have to 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 various 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 a must to create a brand new Sennheiser account or log into an present one (which, I imply, who amongst us does 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 thankfully, faux e mail websites exist so good attempt, Sennheiser.
Sound Personalization
The app additionally permits you to create Sound Zones. This allows you to create as much as 20 sound zones, that are geo fences round areas of curiosity, resembling your private home or work, and you may have sure audio settings routinely apply as you enter or go away these zones.
You too can management the ANC by means of the app. The essential factor to notice in regards to the ANC processing on these headphones is that it can’t be disabled. The headphones can change between ANC and transparency mode and there is even a slider to allow you to easily transition between the 2. Nevertheless, at no level are you able to merely flip these options off utterly like on each different ANC headphones. The Accentum Plus mannequin features an Adaptive ANC characteristic, which routinely adjusts the extent of noise cancellation based mostly in your ambient noise ranges.
Different options embody wind noise discount, auto transparency mode when on a name (with adjustable ranges), auto pause if you allow ANC, on-head detection utilizing a sensor inside the proper 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 record of faucet and swipe gestures for the proper earcup (and solely the proper earcup) and for no matter purpose, none of those are customizable and even viewable by means of the Sensible Management app. I needed to obtain the consumer guide to determine how any of them work as a few 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 must be acquainted to anybody who has used the corporate’s non-pro fashions, which is a desire 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 provides percussion devices and bass drops a heftier thump in addition to a little bit of rumble on the bass guitars. The benefit of the bass on these headphones is that it’s not too exaggerated, so you’ll be able to 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 is not probably the most articulate bass response however it may be pleasing with out being overwhelming.
The decrease mids sound a bit recessed however have respectable timbre so deeper male vocals and drums nonetheless sound fairly pure. Sadly, the higher mid-range is sort of missing, which creates a uninteresting, darkish sound that feels prefer it’s missing intimately and backbone. This particularly impacts vocals for many singers however particularly feminine ones and string devices additionally are likely 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 selection of music, it could be not too distracting or onerous to disregard.
I discovered the sound to be most pleasing with digital music with no lyrics. This manner, you do not actually discover the shortage of higher mid-range element as a lot and might benefit from the bass affect with the slight sizzle on the prime.
Nevertheless, a variety of these observations exit the window when you allow Sound Personalization and create your individual profile. I used to be in a position to flip the bass down and dial in simply the correct amount of upper-mid frequencies to my liking after which it was like listening to a totally totally different pair of headphones. It is not excellent however the distinction could be evening and day and I’ve by no means seen audio customization options have such an affect 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 sort of tinny and considerably robotic in timbre. It is also a bit quiet so you will have to talk as much as be heard. The standard is okay for the occasional voice name however I’ve heard lots higher even from cheaper earbuds. The one good factor is that the transparency mode kicks in each time the microphone is on so you’ll be able to hear your self fairly properly, which helps lots.
Noise cancellation
The ANC on the Accentum Plus works fairly properly. The earpads passively block a variety of noise even earlier than you flip the headphones on. The ANC then kicks in and irons out the low frequencies additional. Whereas you will discover higher ANC on dearer fashions, what’s on supply right here remains to be fairly good for many use instances.
Equally, the transparency mode additionally works properly. The sleek adjustment dial within the app helps you dial in simply the correct amount of out of doors noise, which is lots 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 difficulty with the aptX Adaptive implementation, nevertheless, the place there was extreme distortion in some apps that appeared to set off a low latency mode on the headphones. This wasn’t observed on different content material together with most different video games, all of which sounded high quality. If you happen to face this subject, the answer is to change to different one other codec, which normally could 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 high quality and you may obtain 16-bit, 48kHz audio over the linked system. The headphone additionally helps its controls and microphone when used on this mode. Nevertheless, 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. If you happen to flip the headphones off or in the event that they die then you definately lose the ANC however the audio continues to work. Funnily sufficient, the sound is lots leaner and brighter when the headphones are off, which suggests the bassy, darkish signature is solely fabricated throughout 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 obtained 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 probably the most premium fashions from Sennheiser and different manufacturers. The nice factor is that the efficiency is nearer to the latter so that you get many of the strategy to the flagship fashions with out having to spend the large bucks.
The issues I favored included audio high quality, which is respectable out of the field however could be improved wildly utilizing the corporate’s intelligent Sound Personalization characteristic. The battery life can also 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 worth vary and there must be extra (or reasonably any) management supplied for customizing the contact gestures. Lastly, locking helpful options behind a compulsory account is unconscionable.
Nonetheless, for the worth 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.