Sennheiser CX True Wireless Review: Most Affordable Earbuds From Sennheiser... But My Favourite?!

The CX True Wireless are probably Sennheiser’s most affordable true wireless earbuds to date, and surprisingly, I actually like them the most.

So on the scale of price, we have the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 on top, then the CX 400BT and finally, the CX True Wireless. So it’s basically the youngest brother in the family, and while you might think that means it’s not as good, that’s not quite true. But we’ll get into that later.

First, let’s talk design. The case resembles the CX 400BT’s case a lot; in fact, it’s actually pretty identical, except that there’s a status LED on the front and the metal logo on top has been replaced with a debossed glossy logo. Other than that, it looks pretty much the same and feels pretty much the same too. You get a USB-C charging port on the rear, which is nice, but there’s no wireless charging for these earbuds.

Speaking of that, even the earbuds look pretty similar. The shape is almost exactly the same, but instead of a glossy plastic faceplate, it’s now matte with the same shiny debossed logo. I actually like this more, but it’s really personal preference.

The shells do look a bit bulky and you might think they won’t sit very well in the ear, but surprisingly, they’re perfectly fine for me. They’re lightweight and there’s pretty much no wearing fatigue even if I use them for a few hours on end. They do stick out of your ears a little bit though, but most earbuds nowadays don’t really sit flush to your ears either.

There’s also touch control here. One tap on either side for play/pause, twice on either side for track skipping, three taps pulls up the voice assistant and a long press and hold on the left brings the volume down while long press and hold on the right raises the volume. It’s super easy and honestly, Sennheiser does a really good job of letting you customise whatever you want for touch controls. I can turn any of it off, change single taps to track skipping and double-tap to play pause and more. The touch sensors are responsive and, well, there’s nothing to complain about here at all.

There’s really not much to cover in terms of features, but there’s the companion app where you can customise the touch controls, get firmware updates, check out a list of devices the CX True Wireless earbuds have connected to previously as well as access to the EQ feature! As usual, it’s pretty simplistic, just a three-bar EQ tweak, but at the bottom right, you get access to custom presets as well as Sennheiser’s presets for podcasts, movies as well as a new bass boost option. I tried that out too, but it was a more subtle bump to the low end. I found that leaving it on didn’t really affect the sound that much, but added a bit more body to the bass, so yeah.

Because this is the more affordable version, there are features that have been removed, like ANC. That being said, the passive noise isolation from the seal you get with earbuds is pretty good.

Moving on, we have Bluetooth 5.2 here, as well as support for SBC, AAC and aptX. Unfortunately, there’s no multipoint connectivity here.

Battery life is really good. Sennheiser claims 9 hours on the earbuds with an additional two charges in the case for a total of 27 hours. I typically got around 7 and a half hours on the earbuds, so pretty good.

There’s IPX4 water resistance, so no problems with the occasional drizzle or sweat.

Call quality is decent, my voice came across plenty clear to people I spoke to so there shouldn’t be any issues using these for calls.

The sound quality, though, is impressive. These are using the same 7mm drivers as the Momentum True Wireless 2 and CX400BT, so you get a very similar sound for a fraction of the price. You’re getting a really satisfying low-end, with plenty of thump even without the bass boost preset turned on, a well-balanced mid-range with a surprisingly smooth richness and highs that have plenty of sparkle and energy.

The soundstage is also wider than I expected, and separation and overall clarity is excellent. It’s just a really enjoyable listening experience all around, which is pretty much what all the Sennheiser products I’ve tried have given me.

At S$199 or around US$130, these are a steal, and they’re definitely very value for money. Not only are my ears happy, but my wallet would also be too.

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Content by Cheryl Tan