Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 Plus

Plus-suffixed sequels with new features and big shoes to fill

Cambridge Audio’s Melomania 1 Plus (or Melomania 1+) promise the same look and feel of their two-time What Hi-fi? Award-winning older sibling, the Melomania 1, but with additional app support, customisable EQ settings and the firm’s innovative High-performance Audio Mode. The upgrades are hard to spot to the naked eye, but then again, beauty is usually in the detail. The price hasn’t changed, with the Melomania 1 Plus launching at £120. So how do they sound, and are they worth an upgrade?

The fresh white finish of our Melomania 1 Plus charging case sample (also available in black) is a matt affair and a solid upgrade on its predecessor. It feels cool, tactile, more pebble-like and means that fingerprint smudges no longer collect on the perfectly sized case. The row of five LEDS to indicate battery life remains, just below the snappy flip-top lid. ‘L’ and ‘R’ are written on each earpiece in electric blue lettering and you now get a USB-C fast charging port.

Although multiple ear tips were promised to ensure a secure fit, Cambridge has doubled up on its standard small, medium and large offerings, so you now get two sets of each rather than one. There are also two sets of medium and large ‘memory foam’ options, but curiously no small option.

Magic bullets

The bullet-shaped buds are practically identical in build to the Melomania 1. Each weighs 4.6g, has IPX5 certification against rain and sweat, houses a 5.8mm graphene-enhanced driver and features Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity with aptx and AAC codec support.

The Melomania 1 Plus boast up to nine hours of battery life on a single charge plus four extra charges from the case, which adds up to an impressive 45 hours of total playtime when in Low Power mode. In the default High-performance mode, you’ll get seven hours from a charge or 35 hours in total courtesy of four more blasts from the case, which is still highly competitive.

Pairing is easy using the handy quick-start guide. Only one earpiece needs to be paired on your device; the second bud will simply request a connection to it – and that needs to be done only once. During our tests, the connection between both units and our device remains secure and snag-free.

Possibly the biggest upgrade with this new iteration is support for the free Melomania app, which is considerably more stable than it used to be. With it comes the ability to customise the EQ settings yourself or pick from six presets, check the battery level of each earbud, locate misplaced earbuds on a map, and receive firmware updates.

Touch controls here involve pressing the circular button on each bud, and we find these intuitive and useful. Holding down the right one increases volume, while holding down the left lowers it – simple and effective. A single press of either earpiece starts or pauses playback, two skips forward a track or back a song, and three presses of the right bud calls up Siri on our iphone – although they can also access Google Assistant. These controls are so reliable that we rarely dig out our smartphone during testing.

Switching back to High-performance Audio and with all EQ levels unaltered, we’re treated to an impactful and expansive presentation of Kate Bush’s And Dream Of Sheep on Tidal Masters. The keys feel three-dimensional in our left ear as Bush’s vocal soars through the frequencies centrally, backed by samples of seagulls, pared-back guitar picking, wind instruments and spoken word. When the brooding storm builds, the

Melomania 1 Plus deliver it with remarkable clarity for this price. This is a small but definite improvement on their predecessors for layering and detail.

Instruments such as the slinking bass, Wurlitzer and saxophone in Beck’s Debra are organised with precision and given extra space within the mix, too. The low-level vocal is often lost in muddier bass registers of lesser headphones, but not here. Beck’s distinctive voice is emotive and held masterfully in check even as the intensity builds. Through the mids and treble, we’re aware of the step up in terms of clarity and refinement over the original Melomanias.

Rain supreme

Through heavier tracks such as Eminem’s Stan, the teeming rain sounds natural at the window as Stan’s scrawl cuts through with clarity, underpinned by an accurate and regimented bassline. There are marginal gains over the originals in terms of the dynamic build too. The leading edges of notes are marginally cleaner in the updated in-ears, as shown by the initial synth strings in Dr Dre’s Forget About Dre.

Cambridge’s compact, fuss-free and affordable design was a hit with us the first time around. The addition of a slicker paint-job, app support for EQ customisation and the step up in sonic detail and refinement – without the anticipated price hike – only makes us want to heap extra praise upon the new Melomania 1 Plus. There’s no noisecancelling on board, but those who don’t need it shouldn’t hesitate to add these latest Melomanias to their shortlist.

RATING

AGAINST

• No noisecancelling

VERDICT Cambridge Audio’s Award-winning recipe has been refined to include app support and extra sonic clarity