Our editorial verdict, built on published evidence: the Melomania M100 is the mid-range earbud to pick when you sit down and actually listen — TechRadar's "sublime clarity," distortion-free full volume per Digital Trends, and a 52-hour case that reviewers keep underlining. It is not the fifth-star earbud because of real, repeated quirks: What Hi-Fi? docked a star for flat dynamics against the AirPods Pro 2, SoundGuys flagged a bouncing-noise quirk at max ANC, and the touch controls frustrate nearly everyone. At $219 it undercuts the $299 Sony WF-1000XM5 meaningfully, and it has sold for $159 before. Check the current price on Amazon.
— THE VERDICT · JUDGEANY EDITORSHi-Fi tuning in a mid-range shell
The Melomania M100 arrived in March 2024 at $219 as Cambridge Audio's flagship earbud — a hi-fi company, not a gadget brand, building its first serious ANC true-wireless set. The hardware reads like a spec sheet from a much pricier pair: 10 mm drivers, Class A/B amplification borrowed from the company's CX-series stereo amps, Bluetooth 5.3 on a Qualcomm QCC3071 chip, and aptX Lossless plus aptX Adaptive up to 24-bit/96 kHz on the Snapdragon Sound platform. The voice prompts are read by British comedian Matt Berry, which reviewers keep mentioning because it is exactly the kind of unforced detail a hi-fi house would sweat. This review is built from published reviews and owner feedback. We don't run a test lab: every measurement below belongs to the outlet that published it, and the score is our editorial judgment based on that public evidence.
Sound: clean, refined, and a little too polite
This is the reason to buy. TechRadar scored sound 4.5/5 and wrote of "sublime clarity across the frequencies," while Digital Trends listened at punishing volumes and reported distortion was all but inaudible even with the volume pinned. Out-of-the-box tuning lands warm and balanced, and a seven-band EQ (with up to 20 custom presets) covers the rest. The asterisk comes from What Hi-Fi?, which gave the earbuds four stars overall and docked the fifth almost entirely for dynamics: next to the more agile AirPods Pro 2, the M100 sounds flat — "the M100 could do with an energy shot" — and it applies the same polished character to every recording instead of flexing with the music. Our read: a lovely sit-down listening sound, just not the most exciting one at the price.
Noise cancelling: effective, with a footnote reviewers agree on
Trusted Reviews calls the ANC effective, tested it at 50% volume with 11% drain per hour (right on the rated curve), and rates the call quality as one of the strongest it has seen in true wireless — noisy-street callers heard no background noise or wind. TechRadar found the design comfortable and easy to wear. But two outlets complicate the picture, and we are putting both here because the brochures won't. SoundGuys' travel-roundup testing flagged a bouncing-noise quirk at the highest ANC setting, and Trusted Reviews independently noted the ANC can feel "a little too adaptive at times," as if the level-hunting draws attention to itself. Nobody disputes that the ANC works; the honest version is that its strongest mode is the one you may want to avoid. Transparency mode is the weak link — What Hi-Fi? called it outright "poor," with ambient sound nearly inaudible over music.
The quirks are real and they are consistent
Nearly every outlet trips over the same small failures. Touch controls are unreliable: Tom's Guide reported slow, inconsistent commands with no confirmation tones for volume or track changes, and Android Police found the touch spots hard to land. Wear detection only triggers when both earbuds come out and resumes when both go back in — Digital Trends and Tom's Guide both called the logic odd. Comfort is genuinely split: What Hi-Fi? gave comfort a full 5/5, while Android Police (on smaller ears) reported discomfort after 30 minutes. GamesRadar+ found the 80 ms game mode too slow for competitive play — these are music earbuds first. The case is bigger than rivals', there is no color but black, and IPX4 covers the buds only. None of these is fatal alone; together they explain why four stars, not five, is the consensus.
Battery life and value: the two arguments that win
Cambridge Audio claims 10 hours per charge and 33 hours total with ANC on, 16 and 52 hours with it off, plus a 10-minute charge worth roughly 1.5 hours of ANC-on listening. Trusted Reviews' drain test landed on the rated curve, and Android Police ran them loud for 7 hours and still had 40% left. At the $219 launch price (March 2024, per Digital Trends) that is already well under the $299 Sony WF-1000XM5 and $249 AirPods Pro 2 USB-C that Tom's Guide used as anchors — and TechRadar reported a Prime Day cut to $159 in the US. Cambridge Audio has earned a reputation for long battery life and it shows here. Judged against the published evidence, the M100 is the mid-range pair to pick when you sit down to listen seriously, as long as you don't mind touch controls that occasionally ignore you. Check the current price on Amazon.