Well this is my early take on the Melomania-100
First the good stuff.
Sound, they sound just perfect for me. I do not use any EQ at all,and it is balanced sounding with open mids and airy treble with a slight bass lift(in flat preset).
Compared to my Technics eah-az60 they has more extended treble and sounds more airy. Mids is more open sounding and the bass is more natural sounding compared to the Technics.
Compared to my Noble Fokus Pro. If i compare them both OOTB i like the M-100s tuning more. Fokus Pro OOTB is bass heavy with a bit to much bloat in the bass and sounds a bit congested .But with a bit of eq they come alive, and sound much more tight in the bass and opens upp just great in the mids and treble.
So compare M-100 with an EQed Fokus Pro, the Focus is a bit more spacious sounding,has a bit more distinct bass hit and digs out a bit more detail compared to the M-100.
But the difference to me is not huge between the two,and once i start to play around with the EQ in the M-100 the difference between the two might be even closer.
So for me the M-100 is a step up from the Technics, and unEQed a step down soundwise from Fokus Pro. So i think they perform just great for the money.
Fit, For my ear they fit really good,but only after changing from stock silicone tips to Spiral dot tips. I am between sizes so the medium tip felt a bit loose and the Large tip was a bit to big making the tip collapse in the ears and brake the seal. So Spiral dot did the trick. they sit somewhat shallow in the ear canal,much like the Technics.The Fokus Pro compared sits much deeper. But i never feel the M-100 is about to fall out,so fit is just great for me.
From here it is a bit downhill,
Noise Cancelling is OK not good not bad. Bass frequencies is taken care of really nice, mids and voices not som much. I can clearly hear my better half when she is on the phone talking.
I'm gonna compare The M-100 to my very cheap (55Euro) Earfun Free Pro 3. When the Earfun was released a couple months ago the Anc was not very effective, but a couple of FWs later they manage to squeeze out every last drop of Anc out of them,and now performs just awsome for a cheap set of TWS.
The Earfun has about the same level of Anc in the bass as the M-100, but is actually better than the M-100 at supressing mids and highs. So hopefully Cambridge can tweek the Anc with future FWs...
BT connection,
I am very suprised that the BT connection is so shaky. Again compared to the cheap Earfun that also has aptX adaptive and BT 5.3.
With the Earfun i can place my Phone (Oneplus 12) in one room and walk around the house several rooms away without a single hiccup.
With the M-100, one room away, they suddenly degrade the quality in sound, and sounds less spacious and almost monotonic in quality. I guess that's the "adaptive" part that kicks in. Even with my phone in my front pocket outside this happens. This is NOT ok 2024, maybe like 5 years ago, not anymore.
Again,this might be fixable with FW. the Earfun has the same aptX adaptive and BT 5.3 and works flawless, so hopefully it can be fixed....
Battery life,
I have not used them long enough to confirm the specs,but they are most likely up there at the top regarding battery life. Good enough for me at least.
Transparency and phonecalls,
I have not tried any of them enough to be a good judge. Other owners can probably give better answers than me.
touch controls,
Works pretty good,not the fastest not the slowest. But could probably be fine-tuned for snappier commands.
Sadly you can't reassign the controls only turn the commands on or off
Wear detection,
As of now you have to take both buds out for it to work. I hope they fix this so you only need to take one bud out for it to pause the music.
That's it for now.
Will i keep them?
Hmm i REALLY like how they sound,and the fit is great for me.
I will keep them for now as i have 30 days for return.
I do belive most of the niggles can be fixed with Firmwares.
The most annoying thing is the BT range and it's not acceptable at any price point to be this bad!