Cambridge Audio Melomania P100 Headphones Review

VIDEO INDEX:
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Price
00:54 - Audio Quality
02:19 - Overview
02:37 - Comfort & Build Quality
03:42 - Controls
03:57 - Bluetooth
04:41 - Audio Processor
04:57 - USB-C Port
05:48 - Bluetooth
06:12 - Weight
06:25 - Battery Life
06:47 - Noise Cancellation Issues
08:26 - App & Settings
10:47 - Conclusion

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[cesarvarela]

For $279 they do seem to be pretty worth it imo, I’m waiting on more reviews before pulling the trigger

[TheIpadfanatic]

Hello Lon. I watched your video on diminishing products to review and how it is adversely affecting your channel. Audio electronics maybe a nice way to supplement. So many "audiophiles" on Y/T make products sound inaccessible with terminology the average consumer doesn't understand. Your perspective might be just what we are looking for. My 2 cents worth. Well done!

[StillAliveAndKicking_]

I like mine a lot. As I’m 61, I adjust the EQ to allow for changes in hearing due to age. I applied a slope, increasing treble and reducing bass. Yes there is some footfall noise when walking, but it doesn’t stop me listening to podcasts on the move. My Bose QC25 has the exact same issue, and I didn’t even notice it for years, probably because of the exaggerated and mushy bass. Excellent cans, worth the money. My only criticism is that the headband cover might tear, I would have preferred painted metal.

[asrarul]

What's your take on the Class AB amplification? That's one of the selling points of these headphones, that's the same amplification of the CXA series of Cambridge Audio.

[johnbradshaw]

Nice review! My only criticism of these is they only fold flat, meaning the case is bigger than it could be. That's significant for people like me who fly a lot. Other than that sound is very good, battery life outstanding and a user replaceable battery is something which should be normal but isn’t.
I bought them in preference to the usual suspects based on the battery and value for money and don't regret it. Yes it'd be nice if they had a more compact fold but everything else is excellent. In the real world the ANC is as good as it needs to be if not technically as good as Sony or Bose.

[kamil]

Do you also hear clicks from footsteps if you set ANC to medium or low instead of high option? Does it only make noise artifacts while walking or also while moving your head sitting?

[giovanniantonio]

Hello Sir this is a very good review, straight forward and clear

Just a quick question, when it is wired can we turn on the Bluetooth and still use the ANC feature? Thank you for your answer

[JorisKeijser]

I got them a couple of days ago. After doing some EQing (upward slope towards the treble) they sound pretty damn good to me. Sounds nice and detailed, with an incredibly powerful and controlled bass. Some downsides I found are:

-Huge difference in bass volume between noise cancelling off and on (way more when off, which is my preferred setting for quiet environments like at home).
-Increasing the bass in the EQ (made a profile to mitigate the loss of bass with NC), will cause HEAVY clipping/distortion on bass heavy songs, no matter the volume (it becomes baked into the signal), so that entire feature is entirely useless.
-When NC is on, low volumes will cause audible artifacts/noise around dialog (and probably other things?). When watching videos of people speaking on below 20% volume, the voice gets a sort of harsh static enveloping every word. Very weird and distracting. NC off doesn't have this.
-Stupid design choice for skipping tracks. It's done by double pressing the volume up or down buttons, so when you try to adjust volume a LITTLE too quickly, it will reset or skip your song, just when you might be trying to quickly increase volume for a good part of a song for example. This should IMO have been a long press action, as the long press is actually used on other buttons as well. You really have to be very slow with clicking the volume buttons. (Just found out long pressing will keep changing volume, but slowly, and doesn't feel as good as clicking at your own pace IMO)
-A little tight on the head, though not a very big deal.
-Black matte color gets greasy stains easily, and can only be really wiped off with a cloth.
-Noise cancelling button is placed where I logically grab them to put them on or off, so accidental presses occur often when starting a session or a taking a short break, after which you need to slowly cycle through the 3 modes back to where you wanted it to be.
-Some issues with windows bluetooth. Connects fine but with a weird name (Bluetooth LE device <-long string of numbers and letters) but won't disconnect when trying to, so you need to either turn them off or turn off BT on your pc, and when your pc has BT enabled it will ALWAYS connect, don't know if thats the same for everyone.
-App takes annoyingly long to initialize/connect to the headphones, so you're left waiting if you want to quickly change something. (using an S24 Ultra)
-The outside of the headband is covered in extremely thin faux leather that isn't glued, so it will shift around and stretch when applying pressure with fingers, for example to adjust the fit, and I can already tell it is EXTREMELY likely that it will get damaged over time and possibly come off entirely. I already have a tiny puncture hole in it somehow after a couple days of babying it (cause I was still deciding to keep it or not). I expect the hole to grow over time, so while the battery and earpads are replaceable, I think the outer headband will wear out/rip off quickly and that's not replaceable. Should have been a nicely textured and tough material for example. Inside fabric is OK, but it is applied a little crookedly in terms of the direction of the lines in the fabric. The lines don't run perpendicular to the edge, so looks a bit off honestly, but that's not a big deal, just a little easthetic annoyance.

These things add up to make me a little hesitant about them. Sound is great, but there are annoyances and concerns regarding durability, purely due to the headband.

[noykrub]

P100, have feature side-tone to hear own voice during phone call ?

[verygoodbrother]

I've been looking at these because they support aptx lossless. I'm looking for something to use at home whilst watch TV

[alirezaNikkhah]

You now how much is this in Canada? $700, I can't even have it in my dream

[Burn_In_Oled_On_Purpose]

Lon, it requires an android device with the qualcomm snapdragon 8 gen 2 and newer devices to use apt-x lossless over bluetooth since the snapdragon 8 gen 1 does not support lossless audio but the snap 8 gen 2 supports lossless audio over bluetooth. The quality apt-x bluetooth lossless audio over bluetooth is a hardware requirement over bluetooth to achieve the lossless audio fidelity. I wish that the cambridge audio p100 would have implemented usb c dac mode like the focal bathys usb c port since the focal bathys have usb c dac mode with a switch on the headphones when being connected to a device using the usb c port like the pixel usb c port while being connected to the focal bathys headphones usb c port. The focal bathys usb c dac mode uses the internal dac on the headphones.

[ericB]

The only animal with a melon is a beluga whale. These are a whale product.