Sennheiser's Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds look like AirPods Pro beaters

New earbuds and headphones, it seems, are a bit like buses: you wait for ages and then dozens come at once. So far this week we've seen the next generation of Sony's wireless over-ears and a new model of true wireless earbuds; now Sennheiser is gunning for the best wireless earbuds crown with its third generation Momentum true wireless earbuds, which go on sale in early May.

One big change here is the design, which is more like Sennheiser's CX Plus than the previous Momentum earbuds. The drivers haven't changed, though, which may well be a good thing: in our Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 review we said that at the time, they were some of the best wireless earbuds money can buy thanks to their excellent sound quality. I've had loads of Sennheiser earbuds over the years so I'm keen to hear how these ones perform: the drivers may be unchanged but there are some important changes that'll affect what you hear.

Here's what's new.

Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 3 earbuds: new features

Sennheiser says that the third generation Momentum earbuds offer improved comfort, improved call quality and improved active noise cancellation (ANC). You can now personalise the EQ via the Sennheiser app, which is a new and useful feature, and the earbuds work with AAC, SBC and aptX Adaptive codecs. aptX Adaptive is much higher quality than plain old aptX, which is good if you like to stream at higher than MP3 quality.

The biggest change here is how the noise cancelling works. The ANC here is actually AANC: the first A stands for Adaptive, because these Sennheisers will continually adjust the level of ANC processing depending on how noisy your environment is – so if things get markedly louder or more quiet your earbuds will adjust the ANC level accordingly. You'll still be able to change the levels manually if you prefer.

The other big improvement is the move to three microphones in each earbuds, which should deliver significantly improved sound quality when you're on the phone or doing a video call.

As before there's 7 hours of battery, 28 including the case, and there's IPX4 certification for water resistance so you can use them in the gym. The US price is $249.95 (about £219 / AU$332) and they go on sale on May 10.