Cambridge Audio’s first over-ear headphones pose a major challenge to Sony and Bose – including 60-hour battery life
We’re big fans of Cambridge Audio earbuds: I’ve owned a few and have been very happy with them. My colleague Becky Scarrott calls her Melomania M100 earbuds her favourite pair of noise cancelling earbuds (and they’re currently on sale).
Cambridge Audio’s recent success in the earphone sector is partly because their products sound great, partly because they’re not ridiculously expensive, and partly because they What we do in the shadows‘ Matt Berry provides spoken feedback to English speaking users.
So we’re pleased to discover that the company’s first-ever wireless over-ear headphones appear to be sticking to the same winning formula – Matt Berry included.
The new Cambridge Audio P100 promises high-quality audio and delivers a very impressive battery life. With ANC on, you can expect a whopping 60 hours of playback; turn ANC off and that number jumps to an incredible 100 hours. That’s long enough to fly around the world twice, or get you out of a parking lot after a Taylor Swift concert.
Cambridge Audio P100 headphones: key specs and price
There are two color options here, white or black, and both models have memory foam ear cushions covered in leatherette. Cambridge says that “a huge amount of time and testing has gone into selecting the ideal clamping force to fit the widest range of head sizes,” and Becky recently gave them a listen – she agrees that they felt very good on that first listen.
The P100 is built around custom 40mm, three-layer Mylar drivers and is powered by Class A/B amplification, from the same family as Cambridge Audio’s acclaimed CX Series amplifiers. There’s aptX Lossless for better quality streaming from supported devices, up to CD-quality, and customisable EQ and presets for different musical genres.
In addition to aptX Lossless, there’s also support for SBC, AAC and aptX Adaptive up to 24-bit/96kHz. You can also use the P100s as wired headphones; a USB-C to 3.5mm and a USB-C to USB-C cable are both included, opening the door to true Hi-Res Audio.
There are three ANC modes here, including a transparency mode, and the headphones also have a low latency mode for gaming that promises “near-perfect” screen/sound syncing and can correct syncing issues with some types of video content. Cambridge Audio says latency is reduced to just 80ms in this mode.
What the press release doesn’t say (but which my colleague Becky was told when she first listened to it) is that the P100’s battery is modular and user-replaceable, meaning you can buy a new power pack when it runs out. And that’s big news for headphones; big news for the environment. We’ll wait and see, but it’s groundbreaking, and something that very (very) few of the best wireless headphones out there offer right now.
The new Melomania P100 headphones will be available from July 15, with an MSRP of $299 / £229 / €299 (which is around AU$449). Watch this space for a full TechRadar review soon…
