Sennheiser Momentum

These are too good for MP3s.

Credit Jimmy Iovine. He’s gonna bring back hi-fi. By marketing the hell out of the mediocre Beats brand, he’s waking the rest of the headphone industry up to the opportunities.

Who knew kids would pay $350 for a pair of headphones?

It’s an aspirational culture. Everybody wants the status items with the logos, from Louis Vuitton to Burberry to Rolex to… Jimmy was smart enough to realize there was a cadre of imitators who wanted to be just like Dre just like they wanted to be like Mike the generation before, that just as they’d paid hundreds of dollars for sneakers, they’d now pay hundreds of dollars for headphones…

To find out the music they were listening to sounded like crap.

The future of hi-fi is not vinyl, it’s headphones. Oh, STFU, I’ve still got all my LPs, vinyl sounds great, but it’s the equivalent of Civil War reenactment, a tiny laughable scene for those locked in the past who hate on the future.

Digital is portable. Get the res high enough and it blows vinyl away. Hell, so many of the LPs you’re buying today weren’t cut analog, but via Pro Tools.

But back in the seventies, when the vinyl record was king, kids ran around washing cars and working minimum wage jobs so they could purchase stereo systems that could blow up the neighborhood, they wanted to get closer to the music, they wanted to get inside it.

And then we got the lo-fi boom box, the less than stellar CD, and ultimately with the MP3, we hit rock bottom.

But then, Jimmy came along with Beats.

Be sure to read the Monster/Beats story below, it’s utterly fascinating.

But irrelevant of the genesis of the product, Jimmy applied music marketing, Beats took off.

And now kids are running around with playback equipment superseding the quality of the music they’re listening to. Yes, we’re on the verge of a hi-res revolution. All you engineers and studio rats crying in your beer, lamenting the fact that your efforts are reduced to lo-res files, that no one will pay you for your efforts, your time is gonna come again. It won’t look like it once did, people will still do most of their recording at home, but people will once again be interested in hearing how a record SOUNDS!

Yes, they’re ready.

But the industry is not.

Blame the cable companies, blame the government, bless Google. Yup, Google is scaring the bejesus out of the providers, because after wiring KC, it’s now gonna wire Austin. Ultra-high speed Internet, something that would rival what exists in South Korea and so many developing nations, is gonna come to the good old USA, and just like broadband begat YouTube, this speedy pipe is gonna bring back high quality music. That’s all that’s missing, the pipe, the delivery system, playback is now sky high, with Beats and its imitators. I’m sitting on a whole host of high quality headphones sent to me, and I’m gonna go through them one by one, but today’s model is Sennheiser’s Momentum, a direct shot at Beats, even down to the red cable.

Actually, there are two cables. Both removable. One with audio controls and one without. Hell, you can even use these headphones to speak. Not that I can understand why you’d want to do that, then again, I didn’t expect people to wear the heavy Beats headphones around in public.

The Momentum is much lighter and more comfortable than Beats. At first, the around the ear cups will seem uncomfortable, but really they’re not. Still, I don’t understand why the playback controls are so high on the cable, as if we all had arms as short as that Kristen Wiig character on SNL, but oh, THE SOUND!

You’ll positively flip when you connect them to your iPhone. BECAUSE YOU’LL WANT MORE!

You see there’s just not enough power in that slim device to get much out of the Momentum. The tunes will sound better than they ever have before, but you’ll experience tinniness, you’ll start wondering if you’ve got the same music on CD.

But then you’ll plug the headphones into your Mac Pro and the music will come alive! You’ll hear all that stuff you discovered on vinyl back in the seventies, you’ll be stunned how close to the music you’ve become…

But you still won’t be close enough.

That’s the dirty little secret of audio equipment. You want to listen to everything in your collection all over again, to discover what you’ve missed. But if all you’ve got is MP3s and streaming services, you’re gonna be disappointed, you’re gonna be left out in the cold. You’re gonna have blue balls. The finest auditory equipment and the lamest source material.

Think about that. For once, the music is behind the curve. We’ve got a ready, demanding audience, and we’re not satiating it.

Now I’m not saying people are gonna buy CDs to satisfy their listening desires, but I will say the demand is gonna have to be filled. People want high quality sound reproduction, the fact that you can’t find it in the tech and money obsessed press doesn’t mean it’s not real.

Yes, the Momentum is so damn good, you’ll be disappointed.

And you’re probably not about to cough up $349.95 to buy them.

But the young ‘uns will.

Kids are impulsive. They want it now, and they don’t want to settle.

Then again, they’re buying Beats.

But now Beats is not the only alternative.

We’re at the dawn of a golden age, you just don’t know it yet.

P.S. I wish someone would send me a headphone amp. This is a burgeoning field, they’re starting to get press. But it’s hard to decipher what’s good and what’s bad, how much money you need to spend. But those of us of a certain age know it’s all about headroom, that you need all those watts to ensure you get no distortion, that all that power is what generates pure sound.

P.P.S. Yes, I know the controls are high on the cable because they contain the mic for phone calls, but really, these headphones are for music and the height renders the controls close to useless.

“Beat By Dre: The Exclusive Inside Story of How Monster Lost the World”