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Sennheiser puts Beats in the crosshairs with its new Urbanite headphones

Read our full Sennheiser Urbanite on-ear review.

It seems Sennheiser wasn’t satisfied with letting its popular Momentum headphone series be the primary member of the family peppered with youthful style and exuberance. Today at IFA in Berlin, the company revealed its latest creation of style and sound, the Urbanite. And with a name like that, these new beauties all but directly call out Beats for a street brawl.

Related: Beats by Dre Studio review

Available as an on-ear, or in a larger over-ear model with an added “XL,” Sennheiser claims the Urbanite have been beefed up in the bass for “an intense club experience on the move.” However, while a phrase like that will send most audiophiles running for the hills, it’s important to remember this is Sennheiser we’re talking about.

We’ve had a brief opportunity to experience the Urbanites first hand, and although these headphones can get pretty deep, unlike offerings from some other headphone companies we’ve experienced, they still offer that gorgeous blend of rich detail and open stereo spacing that have come to define Sennheiser’s middle tier.

In design, the Urbanite are stylish, but also surprisingly well constructed, feeling solid in your hands. There’s a nice patch of padding up along the band, as well as along the rounded earpads. They’re also very easy to adjust to fit, and wear pretty comfortably. The ‘phones come in multiple colors, from the Captain America themed Nationals, to basic black.

Accessories include an integrated inline microphone and remote piece for either iOS, Android, or Windows, as well as a carrying case, in which the ‘phones collapse for easy travel. Sennheiser has not disclosed pricing or release dates, so for now we’ll just have to wait. Stay tuned for more hands on. We’ll have a full review coming soon.

Ryan Waniata
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Waniata is a multi-year veteran of the digital media industry, a lover of all things tech, audio, and TV, and a…
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