Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 Truly Wireless Headphones Review

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 are truly wireless in-ears with an earplug-like design that protrudes quite a bit out of your ear. They’re still quite stylish, though, especially next to their case, thanks to their polished semi-matte finish and metal accents. Each earbud has a circular LED light which gives their battery status and shows when they’re in pairing mode. They come in either an all-black or stone, which is off-white, design.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania wireless earbuds are okay in terms of comfort. They enter exceptionally deeply into the ear canal, which can be uncomfortable for some people, especially those who struggle with wearing earplugs. The earbuds aren’t too bulky, though, so once you position them correctly, they don’t put very much pressure on the inside of the ear. If you have small ears, though, you’re likely to find them fatiguing. On the upside, they come with one pair of foam tips that you can try if the silicone tips don’t feel right, and their controls are easy to press, so you don’t need to push them further into your ears when pausing or skipping tracks.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have okay controls. They have a physical button on each earbud that you can press to register standard call/music commands as well as volume controls. The buttons are clicky and provide good tactile feedback, but since they cover the top of each earbud, it’s possible to press them accidentally when putting the earbuds in/pulling them out of their case or your ears.

Note: We had initial difficulties pairing the earbuds with our test devices. It took three factory resets before we could pair them successfully. This issue may not affect all units and could be due to factors unrelated to the earbuds themselves.

Like most truly wireless in-ears, the Cambridge Audio Melomania True Wireless are very breathable headphones. They hardly trap any heat inside your ears, which makes them great for use while working out since they’re very unlikely to make you sweat more than usual.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 are very portable, truly wireless earbuds. Their earplug-like design takes up very little space, and their case is also compact, so they’re easy to stash inside your pockets when you’re on the go. The earbuds are so small that it can be hard to get a good grip on them when pulling them out of their case or putting them in your ears, but this won’t be an issue for everybody.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania True Wireless have a great hard charging case. It’s very compact and resembles the Anker SoundCore Liberty Air Truly Wireless' case. It also has a magnetic lid and LED indicator that shows the battery status. The lid shuts more securely than that of the Anker but is still easy to open. The case feels fairly durable and has an IPX5 rating for water spray resistance like the earbuds. Although we don’t yet test water resistance internally, the case can still help protect the earbuds while in your pockets or bag from scratches and light damage from daily use.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 feel well-built. They’re rated IPX5 for water spray resistance, but we don’t yet test for this internally. They have a fairly premium look thanks to their semi-matte finish, but they still feel a bit plasticky. The plastic used in the earbuds feels quite dense, though, and they feel solid and robust, but the case feels a bit weaker.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have good stability. Once you achieve a proper fit, their earplug-like design stays firmly in place even during more vigorous movements. However, if you struggle with getting them to fit right, they can fall out of your ears quite easily. That said, their wireless design gets rid of a cable, which could have yanked the headphones out of your ears.

• Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 headphones
• Hard charging case
• 3x silicone tip options
• 1x foam tip option
• Micro-USB charging cable
• Cambridge Audio stickers
• Manuals

As with most in-ears, the frequency response consistency on the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 is excellent, provided you can achieve a proper fit. If you can get an air-tight seal using the assortment of tips that come with the headphones, then you should be able to get consistent bass and treble delivery every time.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have great bass. Their low-frequency extension (LFE) is down to 10Hz, which is great and indicates that they can produce very deep bass. Their low and mid-bass performance follows our target curve accurately which means they produce an appropriate amount of thump and rumble, but they have a bit of overemphasis in high bass, which makes them also sound slightly boomy and muddy.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1's mid-range performance is great, but there's a slight tilt favoring lower frequencies. It'll result in slightly thick and cluttered-sounding vocals and lead instruments. However, they should still sound present and detailed.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1's treble accuracy is sub-par. There’s underemphasis across the low and mid-treble, which negatively affects the presence and articulation of vocals and lead instruments. Sibilants like S and T sounds are also dull and lispy.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1's imaging is outstanding. Their weighted group delay is at 0.09, which is excellent since it’s very low. The group delay graph shows that the entire response is well below the audibility threshold, ensuring a tight bass and transparent treble. The left and right drivers of our test unit were also very well-matched in frequency, amplitude, and phase response. This is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

Like all closed-back in-ear headphones, the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have a poor soundstage. This is because creating an out-of-head and speaker-like soundstage is largely dependent on activating the resonances of the pinna (outer ear). The design of in-ears and earbuds is in such a way that fully bypasses the pinna and doesn't interact with it. If you prefer a more spacious sound, consider open-back earbuds like the Apple AirPods (2nd generation) Truly Wireless or the Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have an excellent noise isolation performance. Even though they don’t have active noise cancelling, they passively block a good amount of ambient noise. They isolate noises in the bass range, like the low rumble of bus or plane engines, by about 14 dB, which is quite good, but like most passively isolating in-ears, they have a weak spot around the 200Hz mark. They isolate in the mid-range, which includes ambient chatter, by about 23dB, which is very good. Lastly, they isolate sounds produced by A/C systems or sibilants like S and T sounds in the treble range by over 54dB, rendering them nearly inaudible, which is excellent.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have superb leakage performance. They hardly leak any sound at all, so there's no need to worry about disturbing people around with your music, even if you listen at very loud volumes. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away averages at 21dB SPL and peaks at 32dB SPL, roughly as loud as a very calm room and well under the noise floor of an average office.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1’s microphone has a sub-par recording quality. The LFE (low-frequency extension) of 364Hz means speech recorded or transmitted sounds noticeably thin. The HFE (high-frequency extension) of 2.3kHz is poor and results in speech that sounds muffled and lacking in detail. However, your voice should still be decently understandable in very quiet environments.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1's integrated microphone has mediocre noise handling, even though it has a noise gate. In our SpNR test, it achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 11dB, which is okay, but indicates that it’s best-suited for quiet environments since it struggles to separate speech from ambient noise in moderate and loud environments.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 measured just over six hours of battery life on a single charge, which is decent, especially for truly wireless in-ears. However, this is quite a bit less than the advertised nine hours. Since the case is supposed to offer four additional charges, they’re more likely to provide around 24 extra hours of battery life instead of the advertised 36 hours, which is quite disappointing. That said, you can use one earbud independently leaving the other to charge, which can be helpful if you don’t mind listening to music in only one ear.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 aren’t compatible with a companion app. However, if you're looking for similar headphones with an app, consider the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ True Wireless.

These truly wireless in-ears are Bluetooth compatible. Although they don’t support NFC or multi-device pairing, if your audio source supports Bluetooth 5.0, you may notice improved wireless range or latency results than what we measured here.

Unfortunately, the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 have very poor latency. Most Bluetooth headphones measure between 200-220 ms of delay, so 344 ms is quite above average. Even with aptX enabled, 319 ms is still very poor performance. You’re likely to notice a significant amount of audio delay if you watch videos or play mobile games with these earbuds. That said, some devices and apps seem to offer some latency compensation, so it may not be as noticeable to you, especially if your audio source supports Bluetooth 5.0.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 in-ears can’t be used wired.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 come with a hard case that doubles as a charging dock for the earbuds and is advertised to provide four full complete recharges. The case recharges via micro-USB and doesn’t have any other inputs.