Cambridge Melomania Touch True Wireless Headphones (Earbuds) Review

Well, this took longer than I thought. And I apologize profusely for the delay. This is a quick review of the Cambridge Audio Melomania Touch. I previously had the opportunity to review the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 and 1+ and I loved them both for different reasons but the 1+ stole my heart with their superior sound quality and mobile app wizardry. The Melomania Touch is the flagship earbud offering from Cambridge Audio. And as such, it has a more premium appearance, build, and extra functionality. I mention quick review because the sound is (to my ears) exactly the same as the Melomania 1+.

The Cambridge Melomania Touch was actually released before the Melomania 1+ so their specification mirrors a lot of the tech that was packed into the 1+. So, from my end, this review feels very familiar. I was sent these for review months ago and have been using them on and off for some time. Less so these days, as it’s cold as heck here in Southern Ontario and I don’t find myself out for walks much. Unlike when the weather was nicer it was a great excuse to get out for a stroll (I sound so old!) and slip in a pair of earbuds. Aside from my usual walkabouts, I took the Melomania Touches out with me for a train ride into the city for a guy’s night out and tested some of the functionality there too. More on that below.

• Cambridge Audio Melomania 1+ True Wireless In-Ear Headphones Review
• Cambridge Melomania 1 Wireless In-Ear Headphones Review

As I mentioned, the biggest differences between the Melomania 1+ and the Touch are the design, charging case, touch functionality, and the Transparency Mode. Oh, and the price. they cost more—$149.95 vs $139.95 for the 1+. But as I write this, they are on sale for $90.

The carrying case is quite nice. My earbuds came in white and the matching, compact charging case has an upmarket feel. It’s finished in premium white microfiber leather and sports a fast-charging USB-C port. Battery life is extended to 50 Hours. In Low Power Mode, the Melomania Touch True Wireless Headphones have nine hours of battery life on a single charge. And you can fully recharge them more than four times over using the supplied charging case – resulting in a further 41 hours of truly wireless listening. In High-Performance Audio Mode, you’ll get around seven hours of battery life on the earbuds, and up to a further 33 hours via the charging case.

Like the 1+, the Touches feature an innovative High-Performance Audio Mode that uses hi-fi grade amplification technology, the same method of amplification found in the company’s award-winning CX range of amplifiers. Also like the 1+s, Cambridge Audio implemented 7mm drivers enhanced with graphene, a lightweight material selected for its outstanding strength and rigidity. These qualities offer the dynamism and response needed to deliver the Melomania Touch’s incredible sound quality – resulting in deeper controlled bass, realistic voices, and clearer highs. The Melomania app is leveraged for the Touches as well. I grew to be a fan of the app when reviewing the Melomania 1+ as I got to customize the eq to my liking.

The true wireless design incorporates Bluetooth 5.0 technology for strong signal stability and the latest AAC and aptX codecs – meaning all smartphone users can stream high-quality wireless audio without signal drops even in busy areas. Additionally, the inclusion of two high-quality microphones and Qualcomm’s Clear Voice Capture (cVc) noise-cancelling technology, ensures that voice calls over smartphones, tablets and laptops remain crisp, clear, and free from background noise during working from home meetings on Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, and the like.

The headphones “are crafted using data points from over 3,000 pairs of ears to ensure the perfect combination of long-lasting comfort, noise isolation, and immersive sound quality.” They are light, just six grams each, and supplied with multiple silicone ear tips and selectable fins for a perfect fit. The controls are built for the demands of real-world use. Control is fairly intuitive, tap on the earbuds to play and pause music, skip tracks, change volume, take hands-free calls.

Packaging is as gorgeous as Cambridge’s other products. The earbuds and accessories come packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with a magnetic enclosure. It’s the kind of box that you don’t discard and display on a shelf. In the box you also get:

• 1 x USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• 4 x Small Silicone tips
• 4 x Medium Silicone tips (2 pre-fitted)
• 4 x Large Silicone tips
• 2 x Small Silicone selectable fins
• 2 x Medium Silicone selectable fins (pre-fitted)
• 2 x Large Silicone selectable fins

Setup was as easy as it was for the Melomania Touch. Unpack the box, pick your ear tips, place the earbuds in (mine turned on automatically), and pair them via Bluetooth to your phone. Then I launched the Melomania app and went through the steps there to get them all set up and to update the firmware. It only took a few minutes, and I was off to the races. These have replaced the 1+ in my daily carry sling and even though the charging case is a tad bigger, it’s still relatively small and fits without issue.

The Melomania Touch sound (to my ears) is exactly the same as the 1+. So, if you want to know my thoughts on the sound you can read that review or a snippet below where I talk about the sound in comparison to the OG Melomanias:

“It’s a deeper, fuller, and wider soundstage than before. Especially in High-Performance mode. A ‘mode’ in which I left the Melomania 1+’s in for most of my listening unless I was listening to podcasts because, why listen to music in a lesser sound format? And when you have seemingly unlimited charge listening time, again, why not? The bass is just plain better this time around. It’s not in your face or overblown bass, but it adds to the fuller soundstage compared to Melomania 1.

The Melomania App features a graphic eq that allows you to tweak the Cambridge tuned sound of the Melomania 1+. The EQ portion of the app is something akin to the free app that Onkyo included with its HF player a few years back. It’s cool and you get to tinker to your heart’s content and even save a few of your favorite presets. I won’t lie, as soon as I got the app open, I immediately changed the eq to something I thought I would like and left it there. I barely tweaked it until I started writing this review. Only then did I mess with it a bit to see if I preferred the standard eq or something else entirely. The ‘standard’ sound mode is engaging, lively, and could quite literally be the most ideal setting to have the Melomania 1+’s set to. But I liked my custom setting and I kept going back to it. With the Melomania 1+, I do find myself listening at a higher volume than I did the original Melomania 1’s as the sound is much less shrill at higher volumes.”

As with the Melomania 1+, I left the Touches in High-Performance audio mode as I was never going to come close to utilizing the available charge ever. Nine hours is a long time.

I took the Melomania Touches out with me for a train ride into the city for a guy’s night out and a quiet one-night Hotel Staycation. Admittedly, I don’t get out much. I work from home, and most of my extracurricular hobbies entail me hiding away in the basement studio. My wife practically begs for me to get out of the house more than I do, so getting out for a night was a great change of pace. The plan was to arrive early, get a swim in at the hotel pool, shower up and have a chill night out with friends. Grab dinner, hit a comedy show, and a bar after. My wife dropped me off at the train station and my journey began. This was a great real-world test of the Melomania Touch. Testing them out on a commute that I hope to never regularly do again. There’s not much to do when you’re waiting for a train to arrive, so popping in a pair of earbuds seemed like the natural thing to do. It was also a good time to take some photos with my trusty RX100VA.

I made a conscious effort to toggle between having the Transparency mode on and off to make sure I could hear the coming train announcements. The train station is open-air, so I didn’t really need Transparency mode on because if you somehow miss the incoming train, you don’t have eyes. Transparency Mode allows you to adjust the level of the outside world. Depending on where I was, I adjusted it accordingly. Outside at the train station, I had it at about 50%. Once the train arrived and I hopped on board I was treated to an empty train car for my entire ride into the city. I didn’t need noise-canceling whatsoever. Simply having the earbuds in provided enough noise canceling. Stepping off the train and into the busy city, I adjusted the Transparency Mode to about 15% to get my bearings. My hotel was about a block away from Union Station. After a short walk outside, I was inside checking in. As rude as I find it talking to another person with my earbuds in, I was eager to try the transparency mode in conversation. With TP mode at about 80%, I was able to carry a conversation fully while still having music playing. Pretty badass. Guy’s night out was a mess. For me anyway. I drank way too much, way too fast and I regretted it the next day. By the time we hit the comedy show, I was already medicating myself with water. I’m a lightweight now.

From a user standpoint, I found myself having to remind myself that I had to utilize the touch functionality. I am so used to controlling things with my phone that I tend to do that out of habit. The touch functionality works quite well. Though I do tend to press harder than I probably need to out of habit. Plus, whenever I touch the earbud, I’m scared that it will fall out.

And fall out they did. On one of my morning walks back home after dropping off the kids to school last fall the left earbud kept popping out and I found myself digging through fallen fall leaves in search of it. I don’t believe that this is a problem with the Melomanias. I have this problem with every earbud that I use. There are countless helpful guides online that detail how to mitigate the problem of earbuds falling out or getting the best fit. Making calls was the same as the Melomania 1+, where my voice on the other end sounds like I’m calling from a parking garage. it’s passable but nothing to write home about.

The asking price of the MELOMANIA TOUCH is pretty low, and they often go on sale. If you can’t wait, the MELOMANIA TOUCH won’t break the budget at regular price and are excellent value for the money.

If I were to choose between the Cambridge Melomania Touch and the 1+ I would choose the Touch for the Transparency Mode alone. Plus, I found them to fit in my ears better (I usually have a problem with earbuds falling out in general). But if size matters at all, go for the 1+ the case is quite a bit smaller.