The earbuds have three usage modes: “Relax,” “Conversation,” and “Broadcast.” The most important function is of course the middle function. You can think of it as a kind of extended transparency mode. The covers let sound in from outside, and you can decide how loud those outside sounds are. Unlike other earbuds, the conversation mode here only focuses on sounds in the middle part of the frequency range, where the human voice is found.

Relax, chat and broadcast

The amplification of this sound can be adjusted in fifteen steps. In addition there is one Enhance clarityFeature that you can turn on or off. This function amplifies the upper range. This makes voices sound a bit clearer, but other sounds in the same frequency range are just as amplified, from the clicking of keyboards to the rustling of paper. There is no noise cancellation in this mode, except of course the passive noise cancellation due to closing your ears.

Active noise cancellation is used in relaxation mode. This mode aims to disconnect you from the world around you for a period of time. You can also decide how much you want to hear from the outside world.

If you play music on your paired phone, Conversation Clear Plus automatically switches to streaming mode. Here too you can adjust the amount of outside noise you want to hear, from as much as possible (the music is louder and you hear almost everything that’s happening around you) to as little as possible (the music sounds louder and the noise cancellation does its best to block out outside noise).

Whichever mode you use, the earbuds constantly measure how much noise is in your environment and classify the noise level as loud, moderate, or quiet. Depending on the amount of ambient noise, they adjust the damping and amplification. When the system switches from high volume to medium volume, for example, you hear it very clearly. We didn’t find this too annoying.

Boost call

The Sennheiser range overall performs admirably during conversations The real life. The interlocutors’ voices sound very clear and natural. The focusing function, which ensures that speakers more or less directly in front of you are amplified more than, say, people speaking behind you, works precisely and intuitively. You hear the system kick in and adjust the volume when you turn your head, but you get used to it.

This does not mean that the sounds behind you are not amplified at all. If you set conversation amplification to maximum in conversation mode, you can easily hear a conversation taking place ten meters behind you. One of the Conversation Clear Plus’s strongest points is the excellent placement of the sound. You can pinpoint the source of sounds, which is impressive. All of this actually helps you follow conversations effortlessly, even in noisy situations.

However, fostering conversation has its downsides as well. These Sennheiser headphones not only tend to amplify sounds but also make them sound nice and full. This means that a fairly wide frequency range was chosen for amplification. This extends from the middle range to the beginning of the upper range. The main disadvantage of this is that in addition to the sounds, a lot of noise is also amplified. As your conversation partner leafs through their notes, you hear the loud crunching of paper. In an air-conditioned room, you hear the air-conditioning constantly sound, an ominous hum that reminds me a little of the muffled sound of the vuvuzela during the World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa thirteen years ago.

playing music

If you want to listen to music or watch streaming video, the setup options are limited. There’s no way to adjust the equalizer and you can’t choose from different codecs or activate lower latency mode. You only have control over the playback volume and mixing with ambient sound.

Playback quality is acceptable, but certainly not great. The Conversation Clear Plus feature is aimed primarily at conversations and attempts to give voices a central place in the stereo mix, to make them as easy to understand as possible. This results in a somewhat cramped stereo image which unfortunately also applies when playing normal audio.

The vocal character also suffers from the conversational focus of this group. The midrange in particular sounds very high, which is not ideal for music. For example, I heard higher notes on the bass drums and lower notes, which I had never heard before in the songs in question. In general, the streaming mode is enough to watch a video on social media or play some music. However, if you are mainly looking for a set of earphones with good music capabilities, these Sennheiser headphones are not for you.

Talking on the phone

The sound during phone conversations is very nice. Your conversation partner’s voice sounds full and the warmth of the voices remains. It works the same way and vice versa: My conversation partner was impressed by the clarity of my voice over the phone. When calling from a quiet environment, calls sound better and are visibly warmer compared to the over-ear connection from last round.

The Sennheiser headphones’ microphones also do a very good job of suppressing ambient noise. If you’re calling outside, your conversation partner will hear wind noise and traffic sounds seeping into the mix, but these sounds don’t overwhelm the conversation.

We also noticed this when we tested the microphones’ noise cancellation in our lab. We played an audio recording into the microphones of the earphones, while at the same time a loud noise was played through a speaker 95 cm away from the ears. The paired phone connected to another device with which we recorded the resulting audio. In the recording, which you can listen to below, the noise remains continuously audible. But the sound itself is almost uninterrupted, until the message is delivered. This means that the microphones’ noise suppression is quite good.

Noise cancellation

Active noise cancellation (ANC) is also disappointing. We should note that the ANC technology in these ears works a little differently than we are used to. After all, there’s no specific setting for ANC in the earbuds or the app: you play with the balance between too much, too little or too little ambient noise in the three available modes. You can’t turn off noise cancellation without switching to some form of transparency. The only way to get the most out of ANC is to set minimum ambient noise in Relax mode. We also measured this.

You can see the result in the chart below. ANC performance is very good. Compared to the Sony WF-1000XM5, damping in the mid- and high-range is slightly less aggressive. Our practical experience confirms this. While vacuuming, the motor is a little louder. When you walk outside, the passing traffic sounds like a soft noise, while the wind vibrates slightly in your ears. Passersby having a conversation also remain slightly audible, but not understood.

Battery life and latency

According to Sennheiser, these in-ear headphones last up to nine hours when using conversation mode. We tested battery life when playing music, in streaming mode, with as little ambient noise as possible to drive ANC. In this scenario, the Conversation Clear Plus achieves a battery life of 9 hours and 20 minutes. This is an excellent result. The earbuds with the longest battery life with ANC enabled in our last roundup, the JBL Tour Pro 2, stopped working after 8 hours and 45 minutes. Using the charging box, you can fully charge your Sennheisers two more times.

On our Samsung Galaxy A53, we measured a latency of 417ms when playing a video in VLC for Android. This is a fairly average result for wireless ears. Therefore, uppercase letters are not suitable for fast-action games, and when playing video, it is recommended to compensate for the delay between image and sound via the lip-sync option.

Conclusion

Sennheiser Conversation Clear Plus aims to amplify conversations The real life And this is where the kit really excels. In-ear headphones in particular amplify sounds that come directly from the front, and this actually helps you follow conversations effortlessly, especially in situations with a lot of noise. Additionally, voices come through crystal clear and full of sound, even during phone conversations. You can focus more easily on the content, making a series of conversations in difficult circumstances less stressful. The placement of the vocals is also very precise; This way you can indicate the source of the sounds.

However, I was bothered by amplified noise in conversation mode, such as clicking on keyboards, footsteps, and noise from wind and air conditioning. The last two create a constant tone that I didn’t find enjoyable. On the other hand, you can use this mode to strengthen conversations. When you speak with concentration, that noise is less annoying than when you are quiet.

However, the main question remains: is this chat buddy worth €850? The fact that the group doesn’t star when playing sound doesn’t help anyway, nor does the patchy connection to the app. Moreover, the ANC feature achieves very good results, but not as good as with in-ears that you can buy for 200-300 euros. Bottom line, this set is one of those One trick pony. The costs may be reasonable for business speakers, but otherwise I fear the Sennheiser Conversation Clear Plus, with its hefty price tag, is doomed to life as a niche product.