Sennheiser Smart Control Reviews

by Patlmac

I loved these True Momentum2 headphones until today. Out of the blue they stopped connecting and now they’re not even trying to pair to the phone. I restarted the phone, deleted SennheiserSmartControl and reinstalled it and still nothing. The method for pairing involves holding a finger on the earbud for a few seconds until it announces “pairing” in the ear. It’s not even doing that. After reading recent reviews, it seems there is an app software issue, but I’m not sure how an app issue would stop the earbuds from TRYING to perform the “pairing” function. I get “power on”, and some blips when I tap them, but that’s it. I hope there is a fix for this - because they sounded great.

by TD2992

Since the release of the 4.0.x series of updates the equalizer function hasn’t worked on either my iPad 11 pro of my iPhone 7. Neither the presets or custom function works. Sliders are glitching and not 1 db of change can be heard. Additionally, getting Bluetooth to sync the first time is tricky after the update.

by Enter Two Nicknames

I followed all the instructions, tried multiple times, SennheiserSmartControl still can’t find my device. Other reviewers have said they have the same problem; yet, the problem persists.

Wish I could give a no-star review.

by Page7even

So SennheiserSmartControl upgraded 4.0 with a new UI so I was excited that Sennsheiser has now fixed the numerous bugs.

Nope. It’s even worse. At least in previous editions my headphones would connect 50% of the time, now it’s 0%. At first it would be stuck on “Connecting”, then I’ve reset SennheiserSmartControl , and now won’t connect at all, can’t find my headphones.

It’s stunning how terrible SennheiserSmartControl, which is very necessary to control my headphones with its noise canceling and EQ settings, has just gotten worse.

by Aluisious

The last version worked ok to switch between Bluetooth devices. I have a work iPhone and personal iPhone and the on either device could connect to the “le” device and change the audio connection to the device I wanted.

Now the new app won’t connect to the le device on multiple phones, so if I go from using one to the other, I can’t manage the connection easily with the phone I’m using. This is much worse functionality.

As things are, I wouldn’t buy another sennheiser Bluetooth device that only connected to one audio source and used SennheiserSmartControl.

by Penangscubadiving

completely useless firmware downloaded 3 times taking forever even though i have top speed every time it reached 100% it said “something went wrong” how pathetically annoying this is 2022 not windows XP useless waste of time it gets zero star don’t waste your time with incompetent app!!!!

by UpsetMick

If you want an equalizer, it's somewhat usable. If you need to upgrade the firmware, OK. There's just no other reason to use your phone storage for this utterly useless app. Everything I want to change on my headset isn't there. Like turning off that ANNOYING mute beep, or changing the default of muting every call. Why would I want to begin every call muted? Seriously!
Don't bother installing SennheiserSmartControl. You will be deleting it the same day.

by Rrzimmer18

Did anyone really test this software before shipping it? Infinite download, install, discovering device, connecting, device not found loop. Three times through the loop. Ambeo Soundbar May be wonderful, but without a viable control app, it’s an expensive hunk of hardware. The user interface of the new app (4.0) is full of ambiguities, but at the most basic level it does not complete installation and actually display status or controls.

by California Swede

SennheiserSmartControl says it’s connected to my headphones but actually shows up as a different Bluetooth connection, with a different name than my Bluetooth headphones. And nothing changes when I change the equalizer. Sennheiser makes great headphones but apparently awful apps. And from what I’ve seen from other comments about SennheiserSmartControl, Sennheiser seems uninterested in solving this problem.

by Annoyed And Sending Back

I bought these headphones for the advertisement of being able to adjust the sound through the smart control app. Everything is connected, but it’s either really well hidden, or the ad for the headphones and SennheiserSmartControl were lying or the abilities are NOT available yet. I can’t find an equalizer, transparency settings, or any controls for my IE 80S BT. Looks like they will be sent back.

by Alizme2

So now I have spent 40 min of my Fri morning time trying to connect Momentum True Wireless 2 at no avail. I tried everything from forgetting the device and deleting/ reinstalling SennheiserSmartControl . So basically i had to connect buds directly my iPhone 13 pro and loose all app functionality.

I have managed to connect my Momentum Wireless headphones though. It looks all right, but the firmware update feature disappeared.

I tried setting up a Sennheiser account via SennheiserSmartControl . Texts don’t come to my phone, and email subscription/ verification froze up.

The old app was poor, but at least it was working. :( Unacceptable.

by Lazerith

OMG. Why? Oh why? Did you make SennheiserSmartControl version ? So dumb. When you have so many other apps to get ideas from also to refine your app So you can make it better. And usable. The reason why I'm saying This Is be'cause. All you did was make it look pretty. But you took out One of the most useful functions. Which is the equalizer...Which in turn sometimes it doesn't even work. Top of that, you don't even make an iPad version or tablet version for your app. Which is kind of basic Common sense. But I have to hand it to you. You made it look pretty. But took out a personalized theme Which you had. Please go back to the drawing board. And make your app the best it can be. People are spending over $300. For your. Headphones, which are fantastic. FYI. People will buy your headphones more if they can trust your app. Also, if it is awesome and offers a lot of functionality and customization. An equalizer that does amazing stuff. People will buy your headphones more than Sony's. Because your sound is one of the best . It would make them perfect if we can adjust the equalizer.

by Dirtbiker1234

It’s nearly impossible to connect my momentum true wireless earbuds to SennheiserSmartControl even if they are connected via Bluetooth. It’s on a loop of “connecting” until it times out. Again and again

by Marcel PAc

How could they launch an update with no QC. Volume goes up to max as soon as I touch my right earbud. Volume goes up and down by itself. New EQ is horrible, I can’t get the quality of music I previously had. Very frustrated.

by ShuOmega

-Sound check doesn’t work even though it is compatible.
-Graphical bugs in EQ when adjusting anything causing the blue sliders to freak out for a moment.
-Connection bug causing the buds to stay in pairing mode when it’s connected to device.

by Acknust

Worked great with my CX True Wireless at first. Had great bass boost and loved listening to music. At some point over the last couple weeks I’ve lost bass boost. The toggle button is still there, even when bumping bass all the way up on EQ, fiddling with noise cancellation and everything else my bass boost is gone. Help?

by Jerry Central

Before the update the smart control app worked perfectly for pairing and connecting my PXC-550-ii wireless headphones. I was able to use all the features without issue. The updated App won’t connect to my headphones at all. I tried everything from deleting SennheiserSmartControl to resetting my headset/phone.

This is sort of disappointing as an sennheiser. fix SennheiserSmartControl please!

by AndyD561

These were the most amazing earbuds until the latest update. Not sure if it was the firmware or software, but these now seem to be tuned for a different piece of hardware - bass is peaking when set at neutral, mids sound like they’re coming through a wet towel and highs are tinny. EQing doesn’t fix. What happened? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it guys. I love Senns but this sounds like a bargain bin drugstore headphone now.

by Joih3000

Hello, I have a bug on the newly updated iOS Smart Control app. The Noise Cancellation option on the iOS sennheiser app is backwards. The Off button actually turns on Noise Cancelation and the On button turns it off. I am using Momentum True Wireless 2.

by Oldgameguy51

SennheiserSmartControl is much quicker now. I guess due to the fact it hooks to your network.
I had no trouble getting around SennheiserSmartControl after playing with it for about 5 minutes.
I would love to see the possibility of adjusting the volume of the center channel sound.

by Loneytunes

When I try to pair the TW Momentum 2 headphones via SennheiserSmartControl they won’t play music. When I connect them through the standard Bluetooth settings, SennheiserSmartControl won’t recognize them. If I try to get SennheiserSmartControl to connect to them they will stop playing music.

So now I’m unable to use the EQ which was idiotically designed already. This is all after being sent two pairs of earbuds that didn’t work right out of the box, and then them losing my third pair. Fourth pair works... for now. But not like it’s supposed to, thanks to this piece of trash they try to pass off as an app.

What is the point of SennheiserSmartControl? Who is this company hiring? Buffoons apparently. I’ve never seen such a good company completely drop the ball as Sennheiser has done in the past year or two.

by Audiolobo8675309

UPDATE: it’s been weeks and I never heard anything back from their support team despite sending a few emails. Definitely returning these because the lack of features deem them not worth the cost.

The new momentum Bluetooth earbuds are great and I had high hopes for them since I’m a musician and the built in mics are great for controlling stage volume while still hearing clearly (sans hearplugs). Unfortunately, SennheiserSmartControl is ridiculously under developed and only allows for a simple on off switch for the ambient sound. For a $300 product that relies on an app, I expect to have full control over the level sound/microphones/eq, which other products have. The provided eq (only for music) is a pretty one finger touch thing that is somewhat useful but non-customizable. The ambient sound has no eq or level options at all so it’s pretty much unusable because your ambient environment changes through the day; airplane, bus, street, home, etc. Hopefully they will update SennheiserSmartControl with added features soon because I’ll be returning these if not.

by B16a2

I bought these headphones specifically so that I could custom tailor the equalizer. Instead of giving my frequency by frequency sliders which I can use to customize the sound character to my liking, there is the most INFURIATING ball - gravity based EQ which makes every single adjustment some sort of U shaped curve! You cannot drop one level without raising another!

My Jabra headphones have exactly what I am looking for, a multi frequency eq where I can control the sound character.

For a company that is always at the top of the charts for sound quality and neutrality, and the maker of my wired headphones, I am severely disappointed in SennheiserSmartControl and this means I can not customize the sound profile. I will be returning these headphones.

by Bd1227

Updated: Poor software limiting the performance of great hardware...

Thank you for adding a more traditional EQ to SennheiserSmartControl. I am still very disappointed though. The three band EQ with very poor choice of Q and center frequencies is as equally worthless as the silly gimmick EQ. Users cannot adjust for increased bass without increasing muddiness... oooh... just loving the 150 Hz bloat. Makes the system sound like crap. Feels like you remapped the gimmick EQ parameters to the new three band EQ sliders.

Apps for well respected headphones from your less expensive Japanese competitors have 5 bands of EQ with a separate bass adjustment that tastefully adjusts the low bass only.

I’d still give SennheiserSmartControl 0 stars if I could.

Original Review:
Sennheiser dropped the ball on SennheiserSmartControl. The user “EQ” is a audio atrocity. Whose idea was it to put a silly gimmick in place of a traditional graphic or parametric EQ? Customers are willing to spend more on Sennheiser products for the promise of sound quality, not worthless gimmicks. Try putting that EQ into any of your pro products and see how long you stay in business... Please do the right thing and add a proper EQ to SennheiserSmartControl...

by Pony2o14

The battery meter in SennheiserSmartControl , gives a single reading, and from that its not clear its the reading of the headphones or the charging case. Many a times I ended up with no charge. Also there is charge leaking. So instead of showing a single battery meter, and to bluff the users, sennheiser should really work on how to stop charge leaking, and start showing separate battery level of each headphone and the charging case, and the new firmware update also doesn’t help. Please do something, don’t make me regret my purchase decision.

by Ryanisupsetwithnhl2k

Head phones are great but SennheiserSmartControl stopped connecting to the ear buds.

The sound quality of the ear buds are great and I'm happy with them but after a few weeks they stopped fully connecting to SennheiserSmartControl . It says it's connected but says the battery is at zero when they are full charged. I also lost the ability to make any setting changes to the buds via SennheiserSmartControl , it doesn't seem to be fully connecting. I would give it 5 stars if I wasn't experiencing these issues. Currently waiting for some to respond to my support ticket at Sennheiser. Factory reset, redownloading SennheiserSmartControl and reconnecting didn't work either

by Ozzie & Teona

I have no idea how to get support for the new soundbar. The contact form doesn't even have the soundbar listed as a category. There is no category for SennheiserSmartControl, either. I am hoping that the software department will read this review. SennheiserSmartControl doesn't stay connected to the soundbar for more than 5-10 seconds at a time. I am able to initially pair, enter SennheiserSmartControl , and then a few seconds later even if I am in the middle of configuring the sound, it disconnects and says "Not Found". This literally makes SennheiserSmartControl and functionality of the soundbar useless. Please fix it. I am happy to try new firmware or software or send diagnostics for you.

by Hayden-Wu

I got a HD 450BT wireless headphone. The biggest problem is when the battery starts to drop and not in a stable battery stage, it keeps prompting the voice over on the battery life. This is especially annoying when I’m in the middle of a meeting or phone call, the voice over prompt is so loud I can’t hear the contents of my phone calls. There’s nowhere in SennheiserSmartControl that allows me to turn that off and sometimes the battery reminder repeats every 2 minutes which drives me nuts.! This is probably the biggest bug with this product and SennheiserSmartControl . Still looking forward to see if there’s an update that could fix this problem.

by Settsu

So you pay hundreds of dollars for ostensibly audiophile quality sound but you get an equalizer that is apparently designed for, who, children?? Seriously, apparently if you want to brighten the highs you absolutely aren’t allowed to bump the mids. Has no one at Sennheiser heard of jazz? I couldn’t care less about presets but why isn’t it there frequencies like any other graphic equalizer ever?? SennheiserSmartControl help for the equalizer even describes things that don’t seem to exist.

Tapping randomly anywhere on the main screen unintuitively takes you into a setting screen (for taps on Momentum True Wireless.)

Gets a 2 stars because it’s functional and doesn’t crash. But it’s an entirely unsatisfying experience after spending twice what other good wireless earbuds cost and getting an app that feels like it was made for a budget set.

by TylerMcCabe

I like this product, I overall like SennheiserSmartControl . My background is as an audio engineer so I knew going in the EQ was going to be a little too simplistic for my taste but I really like that there is one and how simple it is to use. Problem is the earbuds sound so good that any adjustment I may need to make is usually too subtle for this EQ. If I want to barely boost the bass, especially since it simultaneously lowers the high end, it snaps back to the middle making it a flat response. The amount I have to move the marker in order for it to stick is way too much, assuming what I’m listening to is actually mixed well.

I know this is likely nitpicking but considering one of the features that initially caught my attention was the EQ, it’s pretty disappointing.

by BritZ2.0

These earbuds are super comfortable and have a great sound (not that I’m an expert or anything) but there’s an issue I’ve had with them since the beginning and I’m almost to the point of returning them. I’ll charge up the case completely then leave the earbuds in the case for maybe a day or two (over the weekend while I’m working and can’t use them) and when I come back to them on Monday the battery is completely drained from the case AND the earbuds, which is super annoying because by the time I finish charging the case and the earbuds to full battery, I no longer really need them or I have somewhere else to be where I can’t use them. I’m tempted to switch to something different like even over the ear headphones because I really need a consistent and longer lasting battery life.

by Peter34879

SennheiserSmartControl has been working pretty consistently after the firmware update so I’m pretty happy with that. So far no issues with battery or connection, my concerns are mostly with the lack of customization in SennheiserSmartControl . The eq idea is great for the average consumer, but I seriously doubt that people buying $300 earbuds are “average” consumers; I would like to have the option to use a normal slider-style setup for the eq. I also wish the earbuds could save the eq settings instead of resetting every time I reconnect them. Transparent hearing works well but I think there should be an option to boost outside noise more since the music can still overpower what’s going on around me even if I have them at 50% volume. The only other suggestion I would make is to have the option to remap some of the touch controls.

by IPunchedMcLovin

Why not send a notification when the charging case inevitably drains the headphones. When the case runs out of charge, the headphones go live whether you are using them or not, in the case, and then when they are pulled out everything is dead. It would be nice to know when the case is out. Battery life isn’t quite what’s advertised but I’ve had these for a bit over a year. Love them but the battery life is suspect. Have them on for no more than 90 minutes, place them in the case and that cycle may last 3 days before the case drains them.

by Paksungho

I have a pair of Momentum True Wireless 2 Earbuds, which I love. The one notable flaw was how clunky these were switching between devices. I had to disconnect from one device before I was able to connect to a new one.
The new Connections feature lets you swap between devices with a single tap! I never had any issues with the neutral (default) sound profile, but it’s nice that we also have a true EQ as well! Bravo Sennheiser for actually taking customer feedback and making improvements in your product!

by Bdnchr

I'm using SennheiserSmartControl with the Momentum True Wireless. Most importantly, read the paper instructions that come with the earbuds. This is 90% of what you need to know, and SennheiserSmartControl is the other 10%. SennheiserSmartControl does some basic config and setup stuff, the rest you do with the earbuds, which I prefer because I want to control my earbuds by tapping them, not pulling out my phone and fiddling with an app.

If you're buying earbuds for tap-and-play ease and top-notch sound quality, this is a solid helper app. If you're buying earbuds so you can fiddle around with SennheiserSmartControl , this isn't SennheiserSmartControl for you.