Cambridge Audio M100 Review vs Sennheiser MTW4 vs the BEST! (Sony, Jabra, Technics)
Reviewed by Aaron - 27 March 2024, Singapore
The main focus of this review about the Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 should be about its sound because Cambridge Audio has a very strong Hi-Fi reputation. But just looking at the specs of this product, it’s looking like a real doozy compared to the more popular earbuds in the market.
It supports LC3 codec with Auracast support for future-proofing, supports aptX Lossless or aptX Adaptive up to 24bit 96khz because it’s Snapdragon Sound certified, has up to 10 hours of battery in the buds, with up to 40 hours with case, that’s quite above average, it has multipoint pairing, wireless charging, and the Melomania app looks very polished, with stuff that you can customize like the sound and the controls.
After we compare their performance to the Sony WF-1000XM5, Sennheiser MTW4, Jabra Elite 10 and Technics AZ80, I will get into a lot more detail about the pros and cons of the M100, and trust me, I’ve used it for a bit, and while it’s a fantastic product, a bit more polishing is needed in some areas.
Microphone comparison
In quiet conditions I sounded good on the M100s, but in noisy conditions, it employs heavy noise gating, which is normally a good thing, but it also cuts into my voice which made it sound choppy. The others weren’t so great either but at least my voice was intelligible despite noise gating being less effective. Listen to the samples.
(Tested in both quiet and noisy conditions using some really loud cafe noise, and some wind noise from a fan.)
Active Noise Canceling
Now let’s talk about its active noise canceling. It is effective on high settings, when I tested them A-B versus the competitors in exactly the same noisy conditions, it’s less effective in the general midrange. You can improve it by switching to the included foam tips, but it’s still not actively canceling as much noise. Have a listen to the samples.
There’s also the adaptive nature of its ANC. Sometimes it's less ANC, sometimes more, and the switching is pretty abrupt. Kind of reminds me of the Sony WH-1000XM5’s adaptive noise canceling. If only Adaptive mode was an option so people can choose whether to use it or not.
Transparency Mode
In terms of transparency, it’s got 3 settings, low, high and off. I think it sounds most natural on low settings because on high, the mid to higher registers sound hissy, but on low strikes a good balance. It doesn’t have peak protection, so it does not block sudden loud noises like the beeps of barcode scanners. But it does have automatic wind protection also which cancels out the flapping noise of wind when in passthrough mode. A voice mode as well which amplifies voices a lot more than everything else. What I didn’t quite like is how ‘adaptive’ it is. It switches between different levels of transparency depending on what noise it is, and quite abruptly, so it doesn’t feel like a smooth constant flow of passthrough. I’m okay with it, but some other people might prefer it to be smoother.
Sound quality
The M100 sounds deliciously clean and textured in the bass frequencies, it had very little to no distortion in general, and track separation is on point. When I ran frequency sweeps comparing them to the flagship Sonys, Technics, Sennheisers and Jabras, it does seem muted in the bass and midrange frequencies right up to the 1.4khz mark. So its tuning is more biased towards crisper vocals and brighter mids.
When you listen to the samples later, you’ll also notice that in terms of bass response and stereo phasing, the M100’s are going to sound rather comparable to the others except for the Jabra Elite 10 which has a wider, more separated soundstage, which is better for watching movies with. The Sonys, Sennheisers and Technics do sound heavier and darker in the vocals, while the M100s will sound more sparkling in the upper mids. Have a listen to the samples.
(Visit loudnwireless.com/soundsamples to compare them to other earbuds.)
App User Experience
If you want to tame the upper mids, you can bring it down a notch in the Melomania app’s graphic EQ. It doesn’t tell you the exact frequencies of the bands, but you can try experimenting with the 4th, 5th and 6th bands. Or you can just try one of several EQ presets the app provides.
To give credit where it’s due, there’s clearly been a lot of effort in making the app as smooth and classy as possible. For example there are also presets for intensity of the noise canceling, a game mode which reduces latency, a mono mode which puts both earbuds into monoaudio, so you can share an earbud with another person without losing detail, something that you can’t do in stereo, and you can choose which language you want the voice prompts to be in.
Some areas of improvement though - Touch controls can also be customized, but only by selecting which one to turn off. So you can’t assign the functions to specific touch gestures. There’s also no way to set a connection priority for stable connection or high quality playback within the app like the Sonys or Sennheisers. For the M100s, you’ll have to do that in the Bluetooth menu or developers settings. Those are really the only areas where I think Melomania app could be better.
Pros and Cons?
Summing up with pros and cons. The main reason I would buy the M100 is definitely its clean, airy sound. Also its noise canceling is pretty effective, it has fantastic battery life above the industry average, and a clean, simple app with lots to customize. It's very sensitive to blocking wind noise, and I know many of you in the comments place a premium on that. It’s also futureproof because it supports Auracast. It includes both silicone and foam tips, whereas others only have either silicone or foam, so you can experiment with which one works best for you in terms of comfort and stability. And while its case isn’t exactly small compared to the Sonys, Jabras and Technics, it is slim enough to fit into my coins pocket. That’s not something I can say about the Sennheiser MTW4.
But some finetuning is definitely needed here. I’ve talked about not being a fan of its adaptive switching of noise canceling and transparency, the limitations of its custom options such as the touch controls, but my biggest issue with them is, how they connect to my Windows 11 PC.
Sometimes it plays fine, but there are times when it just stops playing audio 20 to 30 seconds in, and only after multiple attempts at reconnecting does it play normally again.
I need to reiterate that its bluetooth connectivity is quite reliable on mobile, so you don’t have anything to worry about if you don’t need to connect the M100 to your PC. But as of now, my experience with it on PC is lacklustre. Hopefully our friends at Cambridge Audio can look into this and improve it with an update.
Overall, the M100s aren’t perfect, but as mentioned above, there are some redeeming qualities about them that makes them worth looking at. If you want to check their latest prices, perhaps even purchase them, I’ve included links to their Amazon pages below.
Check latest price:
Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 (RRP $219) - https://amzn.to/4alhOOa
Sennheiser MTW4 - https://amzn.to/3ItesMI
Jabra Elite 10 - https://amzn.to/3EHIp9J
Sony WF-1000XM5 - https://amzn.to/3JGI1uN
Technics AZ80 - https://amzn.to/3JCNQcK
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