In the market for some new wireless earbuds

Budget is around £100, after doing some research the Cambridge Audio Melomania 1 plus have pretty much all the features I want, only slight niggle is no noise cancellation and as they are button operated there is a chance pressing the buttons with push the earbud further into my ear (although I suffer with mis taps using touch pad headphones)

Whilst researching I came across the Sony WF-1000XM4, they get great reviews but cost over £200

Are the Sony’s worth double the price of the Cambridge Audios? would I notice that much difference between the two, I’m guessing the sound quality of the Sony’s will be better and they have noise cancelling, my music is streamed via Spotify with the bit rate set to highest setting

Would love to try both out but as pretty much everywhere wont let you return used headphones due to hygiene reasons that’s not an option

I can’t draw a comparison between the two but having just bought a set of Sony WF-1000XM4 I can confirm that they are amazing!

They should be for the price though.

Would love to try both out but as pretty much everywhere wont let you return used headphones due to hygiene reasons that’s not an option

Richer sounds store near you?

They might let you try a demo pair and wipe em down afterwards.

Slight highjack, but you don’t fancy some Sony wf-sp800n for £50 do you? I bought them and just preferred my AirPods so they are pretty much new. Otherwise they will be in the classifieds.

I have the Sony wf-1000xm4 and the sound is excellent along with the noise cancelling.

But initially I found them uncomfortable with the supplied earbud foam tips. Really hurt the ears to the point I was considering selling them and getting a different brand.

After reading up on them, I replaced the foam tips with silicone ones and now they fit perfect.

If you have massive lugholes you’ll be fine 😀

I also needed to adjust the eq settings to get a better sound.

The Cambridge ones are supposed to sound excellent as well, so if you don’t need noise cancelling save yourself some money and get those.

Just had a look on Amazon warehouse and there’s a set of wf-1000xm4 for £151.80.

Quality is used good but I’ve found the warehouse stuff is usually new with damaged box.

Could always send them back if you don’t like them.

I have the Cambridge Audio ones, sound quality is very good, but I haven’t tested back to back with the Sonys.

I haven’t noticed any problem with the buttons, I don’t know what you mean about pushing them into your ear. Pressing the button doesn’t require much force and gives clicky feedback. And putting the headphones into your ear doesn’t accidentally press the buttons because you can hold them by the edge.

The memory foam tips are a nice upgrade for comfort and improves noise blocking.

If you have a John Lewis near you, you should be able to try the Sonys there. I tried some recently and was v impressed, much lower profile than the CAs too.

Had both, and I currently have the Sony and they are significantly better. The Cambridge Audio eventually died and Richer Sounds let me upgrade (with some more money) to the Sony. The Cambridge units were very software temperamental and often cut off from bluetooth frequently, the noise cancelling on the sony is very very good and the sound quality is also very good for this type of unit.

Get the Sony 😉

Melomoania user here. Not had the issues @teifiterror mentions. The only issues I had were the memory foam tips didn’t last that long (worn from inserting to the charging case).

There isn’t really an issue with them pushing into your ears when clicking -if anything the clicky button is too easy to press.

ji
Free Member

Melomoania user here. Not had the issues @teifiterror mentions. The only issues I had were the memory foam tips didn’t last that long (worn from inserting to the charging case).

There isn’t really an issue with them pushing into your ears when clicking -if anything the clicky button is too easy to press.

Yeah sounds like he had a faulty pair or some weird incompatibility with his source device.

They’re both rated highly across the board, I don’t think you’d go wrong with either.

What about Sony XM3’s ? I picked a set up from Argos and they sound fantastic. No doubt the 4’s are better in some way but can’t see them being twice as good.

Edit to say they are £100

I’ve got the Melomaina Touch (version 2 I guess) and they have been great. No complaints at all.

Cheers for all the replies

After much deliberation ive done my usual trick of just saying ahh **** it! and ordering the most expensive version of what im looking at

So a pair of Sony XM4’s have been ordered from Richer sounds with free next day delivery (my nearest store is in Scum…i mean Southampton and as im from Pompey im forbidden from going there, joke!)

After much deliberation ive done my usual trick of just saying ahh **** it! and ordering the most expensive version of what im looking at

That was the exact same approach that I took when selecting my XM4s.

I have both XM4s and AirPod Pros and can confirm the Sonys are MUCH better in sound quality and interaction (tap functions) but worse for comfort/staying in your ears. As said above. Silicone tips make them much more comfortable and sound even better, but without the foam tips, they fall more easily from your ears when moving about. As the weight of the earphone is above the attached ent point, it’s less stable in the ear. The AirPod pros are better in this regard and in their connection to the iPhone, but that’s it.

My XM4s were £180 and the AirPod Pros with wireless charging were £125 and that feels about right.

What silicone tips are people using on their XM4’s?

There seems to be plenty of options.

@beamers

I bought a selection off Amazon. Think it was these:

Silicone ear tips

The slightly longer ear tips in that pack fit me perfectly. I can wear the earbuds for hours now with no ear pain. And the noise cancelling is still excellent

Yeah sounds like he had a faulty pair or some weird incompatibility with his source device.

I had the same disconnection issues with some Touch ones. V annoying when your phone is packed away in your Camelbak. Happened on all phones I tried, iOS and Android. CA were very good, swapped them out twice, said software updates were coming but decided to refund.

Headphones have arrived

All set up, the foam tips fit fine and seem comfy, sound quality is great, can really notice the difference compared to my old Samsung Galaxy bud lives

One downside is the volume seems to be lower, they are just not as loud as the Samsungs, the phone is set to max volume, the headphones are set to max volume in the Sony app, Spotify is set to very loud but the Sonys are noticably quieter than the Samsungs

Jamze
Full Member
Yeah sounds like he had a faulty pair or some weird incompatibility with his source device.

I had the same disconnection issues with some Touch ones. V annoying when your phone is packed away in your Camelbak. Happened on all phones I tried, iOS and Android. CA were very good, swapped them out twice, said software updates were coming but decided to refund.

Posted 6 hours ago

Fair deuce, maybe mine already have that updated firmware 🤷‍♂️ all I can say is that they work with no disconnections on any device I’ve tried.

One downside is the volume seems to be lower

Have you ever had your ears checked?! Seriously though, had mine microsuctioned last year as family were complaining my hearing was selective. The difference was startling.

No way can I listen to my XM4s at full volume.

My ears feel like they are about to explode if I go past 75%.

Thanks flyingpotatoes, I’ll check those foam tips out.

Same here. Max I listen to the buds is around 60%. Plenty loud enough.

Either you’ve got a duff pair or your ears are full of wax that might need clearing.

I’ve had the XM3s for over and year and the quality is superb but the only irritation is you can only sync to one device at a time. So when you want to switch from say, phone to tablet you have to sync every time. Do the XM4s avoid this problem?

No such problem with the XM4s. I’ve got mine synced with multiple devices.

Just got a pair of XM4’s today and suitably impressed.

Comparisons are with WH-1000XM3 over ears (excellent) and Powerbeats Pro earbuds (no ANC, or Hi-res audio, but still decent)

I wanted the middle ground between the two (portability with sound quality and ANC)

The Powerbeats will still be used for activities where I need the security of the ear loops and for bad weather conditions (better IP rating than the Sony’s)

NC on the XM4’S seems decent enough, albeit obviously not quite on a par with the over ears, despite the marketing blurb. It didn’t seem like it was working at first, but a couple of tweaks, resets and maybe luck, it seems fine now.

Music quality seems spot on to the point that I’ll happily now leave my XM3’s at home for use when I’m on the sofa/in bed, whereas I would have lugged them about in certain situations before.

One thing with the XM4’s – the function in Sony’s connect app to determine the correct tip size seems to actually work. It told me what I thought I was feeling comfort wise was actually correct in the fact that I needed a smaller tip in my left ear than the right.

Being a Samsung ecosystem adopter, it was a toss up between these or the Buds Pro 2. Not tried the Samsung’s, but kinda feel I went the right way with these. And they look nicer to boot

Thread resurrection time. I’m after some daily wear earbuds – audio quality is probably top priority, I won’t use them for calls and have Sennheiser over ear noise cancelling ones for flights so don’t need ANC. Anything new on the market or do I just go for CA Melomania Touch at 100 quid at Amazon?

Anyone tried the nothing.Tech ear sticks? Any good?