Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 earbuds come with a great surprise for Britpop fans

Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 How High Edition earbuds with Tim Burgess

(Image credit: Cambridge Audio)

published 27 March 2024

Cambridge Audio has announced a new pair of true wireless earbuds that offer aptX Lossless, Class AB amplification and 10 hours of ANC battery life, but perhaps the most exciting news for Britpop and 90s indie rock fans is a niche, but rather interesting tie-in.

The British audio firm has partnered with The Charlatans front man Tim Burgess for a special edition pair of the new Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 buds, which are designed around the band's 1997 video for How High.

The standard M100 buds come in black and sport a 10mm driver in each ear. As well as lossless audio streaming, they use Snapdragon Sound tech to support aptX Adaptive at up to 24-bit/96kHz.

There's adaptive active noise cancellation on board (ANC) and users can alter the audio signature with seven-band EQ adjustment on the dedicated Melomania Connect control app for Android and iOS. There are six presets to choose from too.

Bluetooth 5.3 LE is used for wireless transmission and there is a gaming mode, to boot. This allows for negligible latency (80ms) when playing mobile games.

The buds offer up to 10 hours of playback with ANC engaged and 16 hours with it switched off. The charging case adds 23 hours extra with ANC, 36 without. That means you can get up to 52 hours out of the buds before needing to recharge the case itself.

It is Qi wireless certified and supports Fast Charge for two hours of ANC-enabled playback after just 10 minutes of charging time.

The buds are IPX4 rated for splash and sweatproofing.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 How High Edition earbuds have the same feature set and specifications but with yellow accents to reflect the jacket worn by Burgess in the music video. They also come with Hikerdelic branding on the case.

Only 300 pairs will be made, with just 50 of them also coming in a bundle with a Hikerdelic How High Tour Bag.

Cambridge Audio will donate 10% of each sale of the special edition buds to the Help Us Help Bands project, a charity supported by Burgess and the Brit audio brand.

The Cambridge Audio Melomania M100 How High Edition true wireless earbuds cost £169 and are available from the firm's website in the UK. We're awaiting pricing on the Hikerdelic bag bundle.

The all-black standard M100 buds cost the same – £169 – but are available more widely and are available in other countries too, priced at €199 / $219.

Rik is T3’s news editor, which means he looks after the news team and the up-to-the-minute coverage of all the hottest gadgets and products you’ll definitely want to read about. And, with more than 35 years of experience in tech and entertainment journalism, including editing and writing for numerous websites, magazines, and newspapers, he’s always got an eye on the next big thing.

Rik also has extensive knowledge of AV, TV streaming and smart home kit, plus just about everything to do with games since the late 80s. Prior to T3, he spent 13 years at Pocket-lint heading up its news team, and was a TV producer and presenter on such shows as Channel 4's GamesMaster, plus Sky's Games World, Game Over, and Virtual World of Sport.