Imagine a scenario where you’ve just settled into your flight seat, and are looking forward to watching a movie or listening to your favourite music. Your tablet is fully charged with plenty of movies, web series episodes and music tracks downloaded and ready for offline viewing. Life is good! But all of a sudden, the baby in the back row starts howling. Now you can either get up from your seat, offer the kid candy, and try to alleviate the situation or just accept the fact that you will have to deal with the noise for the rest of the flight (something most of us end up doing). This is one of the situations where ANC headphones can step in to save the day. If your headphones offer good ANC, you not only get the most immersive experience but also avoid minor frustrations like these that can ruin your day.
While good ANC headphones were extremely expensive just a few years back, now you get multiple compelling options even below Rs 15,000. In this same price bracket, Sennheiser has introduced Accentum ANC headphones just a little while ago. Available at Rs 12,990 currently, these headphones seem like a great choice on paper. But are these the best ANC headphones you can buy at this price point? Read my detailed review below to find out the answer.
Design and build quality
The Sennheiser Accentum ANC come with a safe design choice. Those of you who prefer headphones that do not feature an over-the-top design would really like the Accentum ANC. These headphones offer a minimalistic design with a matte finish on both the headband and the ear cups. While the ear cups swivel inwards, the headphones do not fold up for a more compact form factor while travelling, unlike some other options. The earpads offer soft cushioning and the foam on the lower side of the headband provides a comfortable fit. As the Accentum headphones are primarily made out of plastic, these are quite lightweight.
On the design front, I had two main issues with these headphones. The first one was the clamp force. I found the clamp force to be a bit too much for my liking. After wearing the headphones for around an hour, I felt uncomfortable to the point that I had to take them off. While this clamping force ensures a better noise-cancellation listening experience, I would have preferred to have a more comfortable fit instead.
Second, the matte finish on the Accentum ANC attracts a lot of smudges and all of these scuffs are quite easily visible even after just a few days of use. This means that over time, you can expect the headphones to collect a lot of scratches (even if you use them gently).
The USB Type-C charging port, power button, play/pause button, and volume buttons are all present on the right earcup of these headphones. While I would have personally preferred for the buttons to be slightly bigger, over time, I got used to these sizes. Notably, there are no touch controls on these headphones, unlike the ones present on the Accentum Plus. So you will have to use the buttons or the Smart Control app on your phone to control the sound.
Features
To access all the features offered by the Sennheiser Accentum Wireless headphones, you need to install the Smart Control app on your phone. This app provides the following features:
- Connection management: You can look at all the devices connected with your headphones (can connect two devices simultaneously) and even delete the ones you don’t need.
- Battery level: You can check the battery percentage of your headphones.
- Equaliser: With this option, you get multiple presets – Rock, Pop, Dance, Hip Hop, Classical, Movie, Jazz etc. These options automatically adjust the equaliser to give you the required sound profile. You also get the ‘Bass Boost’ and ‘Podcast’ options here. As I mentioned earlier, I wasn’t impressed with the former option, but the latter performs well as these headphones handle mids really well.
- Sound Check: This option lets you create a library of EQ presets to offer you a customised audio experience that suits your listening preferences.
- ANC (Active Noise Cancellation): Here, you get two modes by default – ANC and Transparency (ambient sound passthrough). You can also manage wind noise reduction and choose to activate transparency while attending phone calls in this section. Further, you can toggle on the option to automatically pause your music when transparency mode is activated.
- Sound Zones: With this feature, you can assign a profile with particular sound settings to a specific location. This means that if you’re in the office and you don’t want to be completely isolated from your colleagues, you can choose to have the transparency option switched on by default. At home, you can go for ANC. As you enter the assigned location, the sound profile will switch automatically.
Sound quality
In terms of sound quality, the Accentum ANC offers a balanced sound signature that doesn’t lean too much in any particular direction. While that means these headphones offer a consistent sound experience, it also means you don’t get a wide range as far as the soundstage is concerned. Here’s what my listening experience was like with the Sennheiser Accentum ANC:
- Listening to “Bad Guy” by Billie Eilish made it clear that the bass and sub-bass performance of these headphones was going to be a bit flat. This was further confirmed when I played “Royals” from Lorde on these headphones. The important thing to note here is that even the Bass Boost feature didn’t help the headset in delivering punchy bass.
- In the midrange, the Accentum ANC performed well with impressive vocal clarity. I listened to “Hello” by Adele and while the bass was still a bit feeble, the vocals were reproduced well.
- To check the soundstage, I opted for “Bubbles” by Yosi Harikawa. The headphones did a decent job here but the instrument separation could have been better.
- To test the treble performance of the Accentum ANC, I played a few Jimi Hendrix songs and it was clear that the high frequencies were dealt well by these headphones and details were presented with precision.
- I found that the ANC (active noise cancellation) worked really well even in noisy environments and the headphones effectively cancelled out the ambient noise. The transparency mode also works quite well and you’re able to listen to most of your surrounding sounds with ease when this is switched on.
- At this price point, Accentum ANC is one of the best headphones in terms of noise cancellation. These headphones successfully cancel out a lot of surrounding noise and provide you with an isolated listening experience.
- Overall, I liked the treble performance and handling of the mids by the Accentum Wireless. However, the bass performance left a bit to be desired.
Battery life
The company claims that the Sennheiser Accentum Wireless can offer up to 50 hours of battery playtime. Unlike some other headphones that automatically switch off after not being used for a certain duration by default, for the Accentum headphones you need to enable this feature from the Smart Control app (option to auto power off after 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes). When I started using these headphones, I had not enabled this feature. As a result, I ended up draining the battery rather quickly. However, once I enabled this feature and set the headphones to automatically power off after 15 minutes of inactivity, the backup offered by the headset improved drastically.
After this, throughout the duration of my review, I usually had to charge these headphones on the third day from full discharge. This is pretty much in line with what the brand has claimed.
Verdict
Sennheiser Accentum Wireless headphones come with impressively effective active noise cancellation and on that front, they can give any headphones in this price range a run for their money. However, in terms of sound quality, the bass performance is unimpressive. The strong clamping force makes it uncomfortable to wear these headphones for long stretches too. That said, thanks to the decent battery backup and innovative features that add to the convenience, the Accentum Wireless headphones can be a good choice under Rs 15,000. In this same price bracket, you also get JBL Live 770NC and Sony WH-CH720N, which are both good options as well. Ultimately, your choice will come down to your audio and comfort preferences.
Editor’s Rating: 7 / 10
Pros
- Good battery backup
- Lightweight design
- Impressive ANC
Cons
- Bass performance is average
- Excessive Clamping force
