Sennheiser and the Mighty Urbanite – RMAF 2014

While the latest entries for Sennheiser included the new top tier HD 700 headphone, the IE 800 IEMs and the new HDVD 800 headphone amp, the headphone giant is never one to rest on its laurels. Hot on the heels of the lifestyle Momentum headphone series (which we reviewed [here]) comes the new Urbanite series, which hopes to take an even bigger piece of the market share away from the Beats crowd.

I was very impressed with the Momentum’s approach to a lifestyle headphone. The original Momentum we reviewed had a very nice frequency balance with great low-end extension. The new Urbanites are launching with both on-the-ear and around-the-ear variants, the ATE version is called “XL”, while the OTE is called simply the Urbanite. To coincide with the launch, Sennheiser also spent some solid production dollars on an ad campaign you can see a sample of below.

The Urbanites are currently on sale for $199 with the XL version available for $50 more. Comparing the two back and forth I actually found my preference to surprisingly lean a bit towards the non-XL’s but I’ll wait for the full evaluation when I can get them into the AH lab for some critical listening sessions.

One last addition to the Rocky Mountain Audiofest line up was the newcomer to the Momentum line, this time in the form of an universal fit IEM. These new $99 IEMs include all of the in-line device controls you would expect from a mobile-friendly headphone. They also come with a 15 degree adjustment angle to the ear piece, which is currently a bit of a standout feature in the $1oo range.

On Amazon:

Urbanite On Ear – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M3NZYKI/

Urbanite XL – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M3NZKA2/

Momentum In Ear – http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00N3RFFV6/