Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ Wireless Earphones Review

The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ are an updated version of the Melomania 1 which were the British company’s first release in the true wireless earphone market. We reviewed them back in 2019 and since then the company has gone on to release the excellent Melomania Touch.

One feature the Melomania Touch introduced that the original Melomania 1 lacked was an accompanying app for your smartphone which offered additional features such as an EQ and the ability to update the firmware.

With this update, Cambridge Audio have now brought this feature to the Melomania 1+ but as we found out while reviewing, the sound performance has also been markedly improved. We’ve been testing the Melomania 1+ for the last couple of weeks. Read on to see how we got on.

What’s in the Box

Inside the box, you get a charging case, a USB C cable along with a set of silicone and a set of foam tips.

Melomania 1+ Design and Specs

The overall design of the Melomania 1+ hasn’t changed from the original version. The earphones are bullet-shaped and considering the sound they can produce they are very small overall.

Unlike earbuds, the Melomania 1+ rely on of the ear tips being inserted properly in your ear to secure a good fit and for best sound performance. It can take some experimentation with tips to find the best fit but when you find a size or material that works best for you they stay in your ears without much fuss. There are some third-party XELASTEC tips that would work great here and would be well worth picking up if you are buying the Melomania 1+.

As you need to insert them well into your ear canal there can be some fatigue when wearing them first. It takes some time for your ears to get used to them and this would be reduced with the ear tips I mentioned above.

Each earphone weighs just 4.6 grams so they are incredibly light and for me when they were inserted properly it doesn’t really look like you are wearing earphones at all as they only just protrude from my ear. The majority of the time I was reviewing these co-workers walked up to me and started talking not realising I had earphones in at all.

A feature the Melomania 1+ have that I love is an actual clickable button that sits on the top face. I review a lot of wireless earphones and the implementation of touch controls on a lot of them leaves a lot to be desired. Accidental touches are pretty much eliminated with the physical button. Touch controls are of course more suited to other form factors but with the bullet shape of the Melomania 1+, the physical button works well.

The Melomania 1+ are rated for 9 hours playtime with the charging case providing another 36 hours. There are 5 LED lights on the front of the case to show the charge level. The case can now be fast-charged using USB C. When the case got down to one light we charged the case and it took about 75 minutes to fully charge.

The Melomania 1+ uses Bluetooth 5.0 to connect to your device. We have had no issues at all with pairing them to any of our devices. They connected the first time and stayed connected with no dropouts in connection at all.

App

The addition of the app brings many new features to these headphones which are not commonly available at this price point.

From a sound point of view, there is now an equaliser available so you can adjust the sound to your liking along with being able to pick from a number of presets.

There are also sound modes available now. A high-performance mode for best sound and a low-performance mode which is aimed at increasing the battery life. If you were going on a long flight this may be of use or if your charging case was dead but for the most part, I would only ever use the high-performance mode.

Also available are firmware updates. From my experience with previous Cambridge Audio earphones, they release firmware updates fairly regularly which address some of the bugs that have come to light. Again another excellent feature to have at the price.

From within the app, you can also control what actions are available from the different button presses or indeed turn them off altogether if you prefer.

If you were unlucky enough to lose your earphones there is a “Find My Earphones” function that will show you where you were on a map when you last connected to them.

The firmware updates and the ability to change the sound signature are the stand-out features here.

Sound

It would be easy to think that adding the App functionality would have been the limit of this update but Cambridge Audio has given the sound performance a big boost in the Melomania 1+ and it’s now in line with their other wireless earphones, the Melomania Touch.

One of the criticisms I had of the original model was that volume was a little on the low side and I found with a lot of tracks I was having the turn them up full. Not only has that been corrected here but there just seems to be a much more powerful and impactful sound produced by the 5.8mm driver now.

Bass is tight and has punch but with the extra power now available the whole soundstage opens up and it becomes a much more immersive listening experience. Considering their size and indeed their price point, the Melomania 1+ is now an impressive little package.

The tips you choose and how well you can get them to fit have a huge impact on the sound so it’s really important to spend some time experimenting with the different sizes and materials. While I am not fond of foam tips, these provided the best seal for me and likewise the best sound performance.

Conclusion

With the Melomania 1+ and the Melomania Touch Cambridge Audio now have a compelling offering of true wireless earphones at very competitive prices.

A lot of people don’t like the idea of walking around with wireless earphones sticking out of their ears so the tiny size of the Melomania 1+ should appeal.

The addition of the app functionality and the improved sound performance make this an excellent update. If you are in the market for a set of wireless earphones they are definitely worth considering.

The Melomania 1+ are available directly from the Cambridge Audio website for €129.95.