Like smart cameras, modern earphones too have nothing natural about them these days, thanks to overprocessing and noise cancellation. An open design earphone takes you closer to a natural playback, and this is exactly what Sennheiser believes it will be able to impress users of its new Accentum Open with.
The Sennheiser Accentum Open has one of the smallest footprints I have seen in the truly wireless space. It is smaller than the AirPods and fits easily into the coin slit of your jeans pocket. They are also quite lightweight, making me wonder if the 28 hours of promised battery life would be possible.
Being open earphones, the Accentum Open are not in-ear and don’t come with silicone tips that keep the noise out. And, of course, they don’t come with noise cancellation either. For the past many years, I have been used to the confidence a silicone tip gives you, the confidence that the earphones won’t fall off if you decide to break into a sprint suddenly during your evening walk. But there is no need to fear, as the Accentum Open stays in place thanks to a mix of gravity and good design.
I wore the Sennheiser Accentum Open during my evening walk. To give you a bit of context, this is my alone time, when I am listening to my favourite music or podcast, but always immersed in my thoughts more than the audio that is playing. But the seclusion noise-cancelling earphones provide is very important to me.
The audio quality here is what you would expect from Sennheiser. (Image: Nandagopal Rajan/The Indian Express)
This is when I noticed the big difference an open earphone presented, unlike while on my regular walks, this time I could hear everything around me, from teenagers learning new vocabulary during a football game to someone doing puja in one of the apartments on the lower floors. Now, this was a realisation that I had been walking in a bubble of my own all this while.
But this was also when I realised that, despite being noise-aware after a long time, I was also enjoying the music on the Sennheiser Accentum Open. I could hear Dua Lipa’s vocals from Houdini with clarity; the overall composition had a balanced, natural audio profile. As the playlist switched to Hot Uptown, I could make out Drake’s sharp singing style and Camila Cabello’s even sharper voice clearly in separate tracks.
I realised I was often pressing the phone’s volume buttons, though I had topped out. I wanted the volume to go higher, so that the wonderful Sennheiser balance would fill my ears. Frankly, this open nature was not something I was used to.
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At home, one rainy morning, I felt the Sennheiser Accentum Open come to its own. In the double-glazed silence of my apartment, I could really enjoy the power of these earphones much more. Nicholas Britell’s stunning original score from The King came to life that morning, with the violins and cello ballad wrapping my head as if I was at the coronation ceremony. This free-flowing audio clarity is what sets these earphones apart.
The call quality is good, and Sennheiser has really worked on it. And this is also natural, as you don’t feel a vacuum, unlike with noise-canceling headphones. The battery lasts as long as advertised, and this is really an achievement given the size of the charging case.
However, I have to say this is an acquired taste, and I would not recommend the Sennheiser Accentum Open to those like me who have been habituated to powerful noise-cancelling over the years. This is for those who don’t enjoy being cut off from the rest of the world and want their world to blend well into the surroundings.
The audio quality here is what you would expect from Sennheiser, but you will need quieter surroundings to enjoy it — a luxury these days in urban India. I recommend these for those who like to wear earphones for calls throughout the day, maybe casually listening to podcasts or music as a backdrop to their daily life.
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