Winter is upon us. The days are shorter, the nights longer and everything is a whole lot colder, so I have been looking for headphones that also doubled as earmuffs to keep my ears nice and toasty. So, it was a delightful surprise when on arrival to the Lady Geek office I was greeted by a rather large delivery from Sennheiser, containing their new headphones - the Momentum's.
Prior to delving into the review, I would like to highlight my own personal experiences on purchasing headphones where in most cases it can be bit of a mine field. Too often I have been cursed with headphones that have terrible tinny and unremarkable sound (I'm looking at you Apple's bundled earphones) or on the other hand find a sublime pair of headphones to help my ears enjoy pure audio bliss, only for them to have terrible build quality and break after a month or two.
The Sennheiser Momentums arrived in a rather large and unattractive box, which if it wasn't sitting on my desk I would find it hard to grab my attention like the sleek and attractive packaging of Apple products. Opening the box I was pleasantly surprised by the shockingly beautiful design of the headphones with its mix of a lightweight stainless steel headband and a pair of leather ear cups it not only makes it look like a luxury product but also feel like a luxury product.
So yes the sound quality is fantastic and would appease any audiophile looking for well-balanced sound. And the build quality of the Momentum also feels premium, where the high quality leather feels soft and hard wearing and the steel headband feels light and strong. The Momentum's emphasis is certainly on style and comfortable wearing whilst out and about. A feature that I was particularly impressed by is the detachable connection cable, where the cable with the smart remote (Apple compatible) can be quickly swapped out for a standard cable - a lifesaver as a major weak point in any headphone is the cable breaking.
But I can't help but think the packaging still lets the product down, and when you are spending around £260 on a set of headphones, I expect the highest level of luxury at every aspect of the product.
For me here in lies a huge missed opportunity. Packaging often gets overlooked but is incredibly important to both men and women - I believe this to be a fatal error. As Apple have demonstrated, packaging is everything. From the look, feel and slow seductive movement of opening the box - you are appealing across all senses. With good packaging I would argue that it is just as exciting opening up a package as it is playing with the product for the first time.
Our proprietary research has found, that women notice 70% more attention to detail than men. So things like the quality of the packaging do not go unnoticed amongst women.
Is it any surprise that luxury brands that appeal to women take great care on their packaging?! Every Jo Malone product is wrapped in silky smooth tissue paper, delicately placed in an elegant box with a beautiful bow neatly tied around, which is placed in a beautifully structured bag secured tightly with smooth ribbon.
So why should a company like Sennheiser care? Well women represent a missed financial opportunity of 0.6 billion pounds. The packaging is a missed opportunity for Sennheiser to show off their products to women to convey the excitement of opening a new gadget as if opening an oyster to reveal a pearl. Something that taps into my emotions and provides giddy surprises - a trick that Apple products learnt a long time ago.
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