Alexa support is coming to the new Sennheiser HD 450SE wireless headphones and we suspect this won’t be the last pair of headphones we find this year with that feature included. The one caveat is that the Sennheiser HD 450SE will only be available on Amazon.
The refreshed version of its HD 450BT wireless headphones adds Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant to its feature set, and probably explains why they’re an Amazon exclusive (the 450BT only supported Siri and Google Assistant).
The new Sennheiser HD 450SE are only available in a black finish, versus the 450BT which are available in either black or white. Aside from that cosmetic difference, they are identical to the HD 450BT, with Bluetooth 5.0, aptX Low Latency, and 30-hour battery life.
Apple Music lossless in hi-res is not supported as Bluetooth still can’t do lossless transmission with every bit included. One of the looming issues with all of the big 3 streaming platforms is that wireless headphones still do not support lossless and we question if consumers who try any of the new tiers will be able to appreciate the differences between lossy and lossless using Bluetooth.
You can adjust the tonal balance of the headphones using the equaliser included within Sennheiser’s Smart Control app. The app also shows you how much battery the headphones have left, provides useful tips and enables firmware updates from the cloud. Sennheiser have included a podcast mode to enhance the intelligibility and tonal balance of speech.
Sounds like a great pair of wireless headphones to enjoy the ecoustics podcast through.
Price & Availability
The Sennheiser HD 450SE is available exclusively at sennheiser.com and Amazon for $199.95 USD.
