Cambridge Audio is not replacing its most affordable true wireless earbuds, it is refining them. The Melomania A100 SE is a special edition of the A100 that arrived in 2025, and it keeps its $149 price tag with three concrete changes: it adds Dolby Audio with spatial audio, introduces revised tuning and brings a blue finish to the existing colour range.
It is a sensible lineup decision: keep what already worked and touch only what the listener actually perceives. Anyone who already owns the A100 has no reason to switch; anyone shopping for earbuds under $150 has one more reason to take a look.
Dolby Audio, new grilles and tuning
The most visible addition is Dolby Audio with Spatial Audio, enabled from the Melomania Connect app (iOS and Android). Cambridge Audio says it improves vocal and dialogue clarity while widening the sense of space. One detail the company has confirmed is worth clearing up: there is no Dolby Atmos support in the feature set, however much the name invites confusion.
The second change is more analogue: each earbud’s grille is now less restrictive, which the brand says adds treble “airiness”. On top of that comes revised acoustic tuning promising deeper bass, a richer midrange and clearer highs than the original A100. Cosmetically, the SE adds a blue finish alongside black and white.
What carries over on the Melomania A100 SE
The hardware foundation is unchanged, and that matters because it is where the original model’s value lay. It keeps Class A/B amplification, unusual in fully wireless earbuds at this price, paired with 10 mm drivers using neodymium magnets and a dual-core 240 MHz Qualcomm Kalimba DSP handling extra signal processing to reduce distortion. The processor is the Qualcomm QCC3091 with Snapdragon Sound support.
On the wireless side it retains Bluetooth 5.4, multipoint, Google Fast Pair and latency under 80 ms in Gaming Mode from the app. Supported codecs are aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, LDAC, AAC and SBC, with 24-bit/96 kHz resolution.
Battery life carries over too: up to 39 hours in total with the case, dropping to around 21 hours with noise cancelling on. Charging is via USB-C or wirelessly (Qi-compatible but not certified), and a 10-minute fast charge delivers about 3.2 hours of playback with cancelling off. The set packs six microphones (three per earbud), Adaptive Hybrid ANC, a transparency mode, wind noise reduction and capacitive wear detection. Everything is adjusted from the app through a 7-band EQ.
Price and availability
The Cambridge Audio Melomania A100 SE is available now from Cambridge Audio’s website and authorized retailers for $149, the same launch price as the A100. The original model, already discounted below $100, remains on sale.
Is it worth it? For anyone who does not yet own earbuds in this segment, the combination of Class A/B amplification with LDAC and aptX Lossless at $149 remains hard to match. The SE’s appeal is not a generational leap but refinements you notice in daily use: a little more treble air and supposedly better-balanced sound. As a reference point for what this segment offers, the JLab Epic Sport ANC 3 also lean on LDAC and ANC, though with a sporty focus and a lower price.
