Sennheiser ACCENTUM Plus review: Solid mid-range
The ACCENTUM Plus Bluetooth headphones from Sennheiser offer a great balance between audio quality, battery life, noise cancellation and price.
Sennheiser’s ACCENTUM Plus headphones aren’t competing with the premium Sonos Ace and AirPods Max of the world.
These headphones are designed to bring a lot of that premium experience into a lower-cost, more accessible price bracket.
And when you consider the combination of specs you get for the $399.95 RRP (but often reduced to under $280 in store), it’s difficult to find too much to complain about with these headphones.
The audio quality is solid, battery life is stellar, and the noise-cancelling is good.
The default audio mix doesn’t quite hit the right balance for my personal tastes, but the fact you can adjust it in Sennheiser’s app means that’s not an issue at all.
What is the ACCENTUM Plus offering?
The ACCENTUM Plus is, as the name suggests, a more premium version of Sennheiser’s ACCENTUM headphones.
I never tried those, but the differences aren’t insignificant. The Plus version delivers touch-controls, aptX Adaptive capability, wear detection and a carry-case in the box.
Available in both black and white colours, the ACCENTUM Plus offers a solid suite of premium audio features for a mid-range pair of headphones. Primary among that list is exceptional battery life – up to 50 hours of playback, and support for fast charging that will give you a full five hours of listening time after just 10 minutes on the charger.
The headphones offer Adaptive Hybrid ANC, which promises to adjust the ANC to dynamically adjust the cancellation levels based on the surrounding environments.
The right ear cup also houses a touch panel for controlling music playback and calls. It’s reasonably simple, though I found it difficult to swap between ANC modes (a double tap) without pausing music playback (a single tap).
The headphone cups conveniently fold both ways, so you can rest them cushion side down on your collar, and a proximity sensor in the right ear cup will automatically pause your music playback when you remove them.
From an audio specs perspective, you get a frequency range of 10 Hz to 22 kHz from the 37 mm angled driver. There are two beam-forming mics for voice calls, and the ACCENTUM Plus also supports the AptX adaptive codec for low latency, high-resolution music playback.
What does the ACCENTUM Plus do well?
The most impressive element of the ACCENTUM Plus is the battery life. I couldn’t listen to them for 50 hours straight to test that particular figure, but I’ve been using them for a bit not-quite daily for weeks and haven’t had to recharge them yet.
Compared to my experience with more premium headphones like the Sonos Ace or the AirPods Max, and Sennheiser’s battery life here is exceptional.
Obviously, the actual duration will depend on how you use the headphones as well, but in the weeks I’ve been testing, I’ve been blown away by how long the battery lasts.
The Noise Cancellation is solid, though doesn’t compete with more premium headphones in terms of blocking out external sounds. There’s an adaptive noise-cancelling mode as well, which automatically adjusts the level of the cancellation depending on the surrounding noise level.
It didn’t do as much as I expected it to, but it certainly didn’t hurt when listening to these headphones in a noisy environment.
When it comes to music quality, I was originally a bit disappointed with the balance of the sound. The bass felt washed out and muted, and the high end was missing something.
But Sennheiser’s app lets you create a custom sound profile by adjusting the different levels within some tracks. The process is easy, takes less than five minutes and gave a much more balanced experience. I still don’t think the audio quality competes with the clarity of more premium headsets, but it’s a superb sound for the price.
The headphones themselves are quite comfortable for extended listening sessions. I found that I did need a break when wearing them with glasses – which is something I’ve found with most over-ear headphones if I’m honest.
But without glasses, I could listen to the ACCENTUM Plus for hours without feeling like my skull was being squeezed in a vice.
What could the ACCENTUM Plus improve?
I don’t like touch controls on headphones. Every product I have used with touch controls, I end up doing something unintended while trying to adjust the music.
For the ACCENTUM Plus, it was switching between ANC and transparency mode. By default, that control requires a double-tap of the right ear cup. The catch is that pausing music is a single tap.
So every time I went to cycle to transparency mode, I paused the music. When I went to switch back, It would happen again.
You can turn the touch controls off in the app, though there’s no way to customise them. And despite my disappointed, being able to pause music playback on the headphones is essential in my mind.
I know physical controls can be awkward, but give me buttons, rockers or dials every day of the week over touch controls.
Verdict
As a gateway pair of Bluetooth headphones, offering solid audio and comfort at a fraction of the cost of a flagship pair of headphones, the ACCENTUM Plus does an impressive job.
Sennheiser has created a finely balanced product here, with a simple yet comfortable design, robust noise cancellation and transparency modes, and customisable audio that sounds pretty good once you’ve balanced it to your liking.
With epic battery life, these are a good, affordable partner for long-haul flights or a daily commute, though you will ultimately get better audio quality and easier controls from a more premium pair of headphones.
And they’re even better if you can pick them up for under $250, so shop around if you’re looking to pick up a pair.
Buy the Sennheiser ACCENTUM Plus online
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