Cambridge Audio’s latest Melomania P100 wireless headphones have great sound

Just over a month ago, I reviewed the most recent and best pair of wireless earbuds from classic British brand Cambridge Audio. The Melomania M100 are the third pair of wireless earbuds to be launched under the watchful eye of Cambridge Audio chairman James Johnson Flint. Making great earbuds is a private passion and mission of Johnson Flint’s and the person is on a roll.

Now Cambridge Audio has introduced its first true wireless ANC headphones, the Melomania P100. Cambridge Audio’s engineers have learned loads about earphones over the past few years and the outcomes have been incorporated into these latest headphones, and it shows.

The Melomania P100 headphones are built on over 50 years of Cambridge Audio audio expertise, driven by an unabashed passion to deliver truly emotive sound, powered by superb premium drivers and Class AB amplification.

The latest headphones offer a powerful 60 hours of playtime on a single charge. With energetic noise cancellation turned off, this number rises to an astonishing 100 hours. Thanks to the massive capability of the battery, the headphones must be charged less often and have an extended usage time, which is nice for the environment and your wallet. With a battery lifetime of 60 hours, you possibly can easily get through a complete work week or a protracted vacation in a good looking location with the P100.

Johnson Flint is happy about what his engineers have created. “Melomania P100 is Cambridge Audio’s closest thing to a personal, portable hi-fi system. Our award-winning true wireless models gave our listeners mobile access to Cambridge sound, but we also wanted to give music lovers a premium over-ear option,” he explains.

Like all Cambridge products, P100 was designed, tuned and engineered at the corporate’s London music venue and headquarters, Melomania, by the identical team that designs the corporate’s award-winning hi-fi equipment.

At the guts of the P100 are custom 40mm drivers with neodymium magnets. The drivers are powered by Class AB amplifiers reasonably than Class D, the identical analogue technology utilized in Cambridge’s acclaimed CX series amplifiers. The result’s a warm sound with deep but controlled bass, powerful vocals and highs that add definition to the soundstage.

To ensure the mixture of premium drivers and great amplification can reach its full potential, the P100 are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound platform, which offers support for the aptX lossless audio codec, enabling CD-quality wireless playback with no lossy compression.

Like most wireless headphones in the marketplace today, the Melomania P100 offer energetic noise cancellation. The ANC feature has three user-selectable settings: No ANC, Transparency Mode, and ANC On. The modes may be switched using the ANC button positioned on the left earcup next to the facility button and Bluetooth pairing controls.

On the proper earcup, there are two volume buttons and a dedicated function button with play/pause functionality. The headphones may mechanically pause the music whenever you take them off, but this feature may be disabled using the wonderful Melomania Connect smartphone app, available for iOS and Android devices.

The three control buttons also offer quite a few other functions that may be accessed with double or triple clicks. These include skipping or repeating tracks, calling up voice assistants or accepting or rejecting phone calls.

The P100 headphones are factory set to deliver the classic Cambridge sound. It’s a transparent and natural signal that sounds unbelievable with none fine-tuning. There’s a stunning deep bass, but it surely never feels flabby or intrusive.

I attempted out my favorite test song – “Sway” by Diana Krall – and was not upset. Unlike some wireless headphones, there was loads of room to regulate the amount and there was absolutely no background noise that you just sometimes hear with Class D headphones.

The P100 feels like a disciplined orchestra that at all times follows the conductor’s beat and never wavers. The sound must be heard to be appreciated. The tuning is exquisite and is amongst one of the best wireless headphones in the marketplace and could be very just like the wonderful Melomania M100 true wireless earbuds.

The Melomania Connect app enables you to customize the sound to your taste. There is a seven-band equalizer that lets you precisely shape the sound, and there are also six presets available for various music genres.

The P100 headphones feature a Gaming Mode that ensures near-perfect synchronization with the sounds displayed on the TV or console when playing games or watching movies. Latency has been reduced to only 80 ms.

The ANC feature uses the most recent technology available and it shows. It’s comparable to Sony and Bose technology, one of the best within the industry. ANC is so good as of late that traveling without noise-cancelling headphones is unthinkable.

Perhaps an important aspect of headphones after audio quality is comfort. Again, Sony and Bose prepared the ground with headphones which might be lightweight and comfy to wear, even for hours on a long-haul flight to exotic lands. I’m pleased to say that the P100’s memory foam and leatherette ear pads have the identical buttery smoothness as Sony’s WH-1000XM5 or Bose’s QuietComfort models.

In addition to the soft ear pads, the relatively lightweight P100 incorporates a fabric-padded headband to cut back pressure on the wearer’s head. Despite its 330g weight, the P100 feels light to wear. I imagine that a cutout for the fontanelle, that prime ridge on the human skull, could have made the P100 even lighter. That’s a minor criticism of an otherwise extremely comfortable pair of headphones.

James Johnson Flint tells me that a large period of time and testing went into finding the best clamping force for a big selection of head sizes. And he is not mistaken. The P100s have just the proper clamping pressure to maintain them in place even whenever you’re training, without making your head feel prefer it’s in a vice.

The P100 headphones boast a powerful 60 to 100 hours of playtime on a single charge of the built-in battery. Thanks to the fast-charge feature, a fast five-minute burst can deliver as much as two hours of playback with ANC enabled, or 4 hours with ANC off.

Like many firms in the patron electronics industry, Cambridge Audio has met its sustainability goals. The latest Melomania P100 are produced from sustainable materials wherever possible. The headphones are produced from 50% recycled plastic and are available 100% recyclable, plastic-free packaging. Both the battery and ear pads are user-replaceable, meaning the P100 may be used for years.

The drive to create a more sustainable product is predicated on Cambridge Audio’s support as a founding donor to the eco-music charity EarthPercent, co-founded by Roxy Music’s Brian Eno.

Verdict: The Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 set a brand new benchmark in wireless ANC headphones. Not only do they sound great because of the custom drivers and Class AB amplification, however the ANC feature is top-notch and you furthermore may get great comfort and near-endless battery life in a design that can last for a few years. Considering the P100 are Cambridge Audio’s first true wireless ANC headphones, the corporate has hit the jackpot with a product that gives incredible value for money and may probably cost loads more. If you are occupied with buying ANC headphones from Sony or Bose, do yourself a favor and take heed to the Melomania P100 first. You won’t regret it. Highly really helpful.

Prices and availability: Cambridge Audio’s Melomania P100 True Wireless ANC headphones will likely be available from July 2024 at www.cambridgeaudio.com And AmazonPriced at $279 / £229 / €279 in white or black color mixtures and comes with a tough zipped case.

Technical data:

• Driver: 40 mm, 3-layer.
• Magnets: neodymium.
• Reinforcement: Class AB.
• Audio codecs: aptX Lossless, SBC, AAC and aptX Adaptive as much as 24 bit/96 kHz.
• Battery life: Up to 60 hours (100 hours with ANC off).
• Fast charging: Two hours with a five-minute charge.
• ANC modes: On, Transparent, Off.
• EQ: 7-band adjustment plus 6 EQ presets.
• Bluetooth: Version 5.3.
• Gaming mode: 80 ms latency.
• User replaceable battery and ear pads.
• Connectivity: Optional wired operation via USB-C to three.5 mm jack or USB-C to USB-C (each cables included).
• Multipoint connectivity: Yes.
• Ear pads: Vegan leather with memory foam.
• Headband: memory foam with textile cover.
• Weight: 330g.