The Sennheiser HDB 630 propelled Bluetooth headphones into the future

Sennheiser caused quite a stir with the announcement of its HDB 630 headphones in late 2025. Promising Active Noise Cancellation, 60-hour battery life and all the fine-tuning app features people loved in the popular Momentum 4 headphones, these new cans were clearly gunning to be top of the pile in consumer headphones.

The trick to offering superlative sound quality comes from an included USB-C dongle, which allows the headphones to deliver aptX, aptX HD, and aptX Adaptive audio codecs, as well as up to 24-bit/96kHz resolution. Essentially, wired quality from a wireless set of headphones. Impressive stuff!

So, Sennheiser clearly wants the title of the best Bluetooth headphones for audiophiles. And not to put too fine a point on it, they absolutely take that title. For audiophiles who really care about sound profiles, you currently can't get better than the HDB 630. But is it worth $500? I'm now going to explain in details why it absolutely is.

Sound profile

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Streaming music over Tidal using the headphones’ default profile, with that classic Sennheiser neutral sound, I fell in love. When using the dongle to deliver 24-bit/96kHz resolution, the sound is incredibly detailed; an album like Caroline Polachek’s Pang can be appreciated in all its aural fullness, with the lovely texture and detail in the midrange giving the ridiculous range of her voice room to shine.

Old favourites become new again. The coda to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’ – which we’ve all heard a million times – became a near-religious experience, with Lindsey Buckingham’s howling guitar solo occupying the trebles, distinct without being harsh, while the bass was defined enough to pick out the timbre of Mick Fleetwood’s floor tom.

If you want to take more control over your sound, the Sennheiser SmartControl Plus App will be your best friend, and it really is a standout. It puts a huge amount of control at your fingertips, with its parametric equalizer allowing for precise frequency adjustments. There are genre-based sound profiles (‘Rock’, ‘Pop’, ‘Jazz’, etc) but I'd stear clear from these. You're paying $500 for control over the sound of your music, after all, so it seems odd to immediately hand that over to a preset.

You can save your own EQ presets, which is cool. For instance, I took the headphones to the drum studio, and was able to craft a significantly bass-boosted preset specifically for that purpose. Having over-ear headphones like these are fantastic for drumming, as they allow you to hear the click or the track you're playing to extremely clearly, while also providing a bit of extra protection from the harshness of the kit. And being able to boost the bass was hugely helpful for staying in time with the music.

There’s also Crossfeed, blending left and right channels to give the impression of listening to speakers. I find this to be a little bit of a novelty. After, these are headphones, not speakers, so personally I stay away from this feature.

If you want to tailor the sound to your liking, I’d recommend the ‘Sound Check’ function. This instructs you to play a track, then presents you with three sound options, from which you pick your favourite. This process repeats four times and at the end, will deliver you a custom EQ profile based on your selections. When I did this, I ended up with a 1.3Db reduction in sub-bass, a 0.7Db reduction in bass, and other levels essentially unchanged from neutral. Read into that what you will.

Features

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When you connect to the HDB 630, the parametric EQ appears like magic on the app (Momentum 4 users have no such luck). Here, as mentioned, you can get truly granular adjustability, with five bands offering adjustments in frequency, dB and Q-factor. You can use the sliders, though for something this precise, you're probably going to want direct numerical input, which you can access by selecting the bands individually. It is very powerful, and only a small percentage of users are going to get anything out of it (the system assumes you know what you're doing, and does not trouble to explain anything).

As you would certainly expect for a pair of headphones at this price, the Sennheiser HDB 630 offers Active Noise Cancelling. I found that it worked well in most day-to-day situations; the sounds of streets and trains will fade away quite nicely, leaving you in pleasant isolation with your music. An environment that's already reasonably quiet will seem completely silent – ideal. I had the headphones on some particularly windy days, and I thought the wind noise was effectively suppressed. There's none of the unpleasant hiss you get with some ANC systems, either.

A series of pinching gestures on the right earcup will allow you to dial down the ANC and activate the transparency mode. Personally, I find the option to fine-tune the level of ANC to be a bit fussy – honestly I just want it on or off – but the transparency mode works well when you need to have a bit more awareness of your surroundings.

Price & competition

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At a starting price of $499 / £399, these headphones are firmly priced in the audiophile category – it’s the top end of what you might expect to pay for consumer headphones, and it’s a price tag that’s going to weed out the casuals. I would say these cans are markedly better than Sennheiser’s Momentum 4, but whether ‘better’ is worth almost $300 depends a lot on how seriously you take your listening.

The Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphones are also likely to be a heavily considered alternative for lots of users. They're about $100 cheaper and have much better noise cancelling, though I'd say that the Sennheisers offer superior sound quality both out of the box and in terms of customisability. The Sennheisers are better for tinkerers who like to fiddle with EQ; the Boses are better for less complicated people who want a good pair of headphones that work well straight out of the box.

Comfort & build

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The worst you could accuse the design of the Sennheiser HDB 630 of being is a little plain. The hefty, rounded earcups are pretty much exactly what you’d picture in your mind if someone said the word ‘headphones’, and the build is nice enough, considering it’s all plastic. There’s nothing to wow anyone in terms of how the headphones look, but there’s also nothing to complain about.

Another thing worth noting – when I took these things out of the box the battery was at about 60%. I’ve been using them daily for over a week, haven’t charged them once, and we’re only down to 30%. Sennheiser promises 60 hours of listening – I believe them.

Comfort-wise, I’m very impressed. I’m quite sensitive to the feel of over-ear headphones and generally need to take regular breaks, but I wore the Sennheiser HDB 630 for extended multi-hour sessions, and it took a long time before I felt any discomfort or overheating. They’re well-cushioned and well-sized, with an appropriate level of clamp force and weight distribution.

Call quality

No complaints here. There are a whole set of right-earcup touch controls for managing calls, and an auto-answer feature that can be turned on if preferred. The earcups feature omnidirectional microphones to pick up your voice, and they do a perfectly acceptable job – not studio-mic quality, but fine. I could hear my conversational partner perfectly well, and they (slightly confused) confirmed that they could hear me well too.

Should you buy it?

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If you just want a pair of good headphones to shut out the sounds of the office and listen to podcasts on your commute, you don’t need to spend this much. However, if you’re someone whose idea of a quality evening involves immersing yourself in an album from start to finish – if music for you isn’t just something to have on in the background, but an art form you invest time and energy into appreciating – then the level of quality and granular control on offer here justifies its price tag.

All this is a roundabout way of saying: these are really good headphones, and they will be appreciated by the kinds of people who appreciate a really good pair of headphones.

Would I buy them myself? Honestly, probably not. Their price tag is considerably more than I’d spend on a pair of headphones, and I don’t really need the level of granularity offered by their Parametric EQ. But I absolutely adore them; I am hitting my umpteenth play on the Sinners soundtrack through them as I type this, and I will be very sad when it’s time to send them back.