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Forget the AirPods Pro 2, these are the best audiophile earbuds under $200
Forget the AirPods Pro 2, these are the best audiophile earbuds under $200

Tom's Guide

timea day ago

  • Entertainment
  • Tom's Guide

Forget the AirPods Pro 2, these are the best audiophile earbuds under $200

I like AirPods. They might not be my favorite earbuds on the planet, but I still like them. I have, however, set myself a mission — if I can find earbuds that provide an AirPods Pro 2-like experience at a lower price, I'll highlight them over the alternatives. I've recently been testing the Cambridge Audio Melomania A100, and I think I've just found the ultimate AirPods Pro 2 alternative. The best bit? They're $100 less than Apple's premium pair of best noise canceling earbuds, despite getting close in feature set, beating them out in battery life, and stomping their sound. It helps that Matt Berry of What We Do In The Shadows fame has voiced the alerts. Here are the key areas where the new Melomania A100 beat out the AirPods Pro 2 — and the one area they struggle with. Cambridge Audio's latest buds look more like the AirPods Pro 2 than the brand's previous models, but that only serves to make them more comfortable. 6.5 hours of battery isn't quite as good as the M100, and AirPods fans might miss Spatial Audio, but they're perhaps the best-sounding pair of earbuds you can buy for $149. You'd have thought that after decades of development, we'd have nailed down excellent fits for in-ear buds. Yet, somehow, companies still struggle — however, the Melomania are a comfortable fit for hours on end. They share a shape with the AirPods Pro 2 in some ways, although their stems are slightly longer. You'll want to try the different earbud tips in the box, because those that come pre-attached are a little on the small side. But once they're dialed in, you get that 'barely there' feel which makes the AirPods Pro 2 so eminently wearable. I've been able to wear the Melomania over the course of a full day as a result, only taking them out for lunch. They don't press in any of the key discomfort points of my ears and, unlike some options, they don't have some mad-cap shape that only fits a certain type of ear. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. AirPods Pro 2 comfort for $100 less? Not bad, Melomania A100, not bad at all. Cambridge Audio is a hi-fi company, so I'd expect good sound and a well-judged frequency curve — but I'll get to that later. What I wasn't expecting was ANC that got very, very close to the AirPods Pro 2, managing to block out some of the most annoying noises in my office, even without music playing. I say 'even without music playing', because ANC headphones have to use some of the inaudible frequencies in your music to cancel out the sounds of the world around you. As you might imagine, getting some music playing drowns out everything the inaudible white noise misses. My fan disappears, for example, and the noise of engines and tires is a distant memory. The AirPods Pro 2, with their $100 price premium, do a slightly better job of music-less noise canceling, but the Melomania get so close you'd be hard pressed to complain. The Melomania A100 don't rock the boat, but that's almost the point. They've opted for a similar look to the AirPods Pro 2 this time around, with the familiar stems and teardrop earbud section. They're not an unhandsome pair of buds, albeit one that might blend in more easily amongst the crop of similar-looking earbud options. But that's not a bad thing. No one is going to see you and think, 'there's an AirPods case in that person's pocket, time to make a quick buck.' The black and beigey-gray colorways don't do much to stand out either, and while to some that may be a drawback, I think there's something to be said about a device that puts its internals over the way it looks. The case is nice and small, and it's slim enough to fit in most jeans pockets fairly easily. Cambridge Audio's new logo adorns the top, and the front is dominated by the battery and pairing status lights. It's much better than some of the alternatives, like the Sony Linkbuds Fit, which feature a much larger, fatter cases. The A100 continue the audio legacy, while improving the rest of the feature set to match. I'd be disappointed with Cambridge Audio if it made something that didn't sound good, given the brand's excellent track record and sonic heritage. After all, previous buds might not have wowed across the board for features, but they've always set themselves apart with some of the best sound around. The A100 continue the audio legacy, while improving the rest of the feature set to match. Cambridge Audio has brought the full might of its house sound to bear with the A100. That means a slightly warmer, more welcoming sound, which retains very solid detail levels. As with the over-ear Melomania P100, the A100 in-ears outperform their price point with some of the best sound you'll get before you reach at least $300. They sound better than the AirPods Pro 2, with more purpose to their sound. The technical guitars and exacting cymbal line of Obscura's Silver Linings show just what kind of detail the A100 can extract from tracks, while still letting the fretless bass dance in the background. The kick-drum is loaded with impact, and instrument separation enables you to pick everything apart. As a result, they're a more holistic and interesting listen than the relatively flat and un-noteworthy sound of the AirPods Pro 2. The A100 are packed full of little details that show Cambridge Audio has thought about how you're going to use the buds, as well as why you're going to keep using them. The Melomania app is easy to use, and gives you a whole load of features you won't find in the AirPods Pro 2. For example, sound is more customizable than the Apple buds, with a strong 7-band EQ. That really lets you dial things in to your musical tastes, and it's something that Apple won't let you do beyond its own pre-judged sound profiles. There's more in there as well: Mono mode enables a stereo mix to play out of one earbud for those moments you can only have a bud socketed in one ear. Customizable controls, and a mode called 'DynamEQ' which keeps trebles and the bass at consistent levels despite low volume. There's even a Gaming mode, Sleep mode, and even a simpler version of Find My so that you can find your buds when they're nearby. My favorite thing? The 'Southwark' alert voice. That's Matt Berry, who you might recognize from the Fallout TV show, or Vampire comedy What We Do In The Shadows. That's attention to detail, and lends a whole lot more personality to the buds. Now, if only he'd lend his talents to an entire voice assistant… For $100 less than the AirPods, you can't expect to get everything that Apple offers. With the A100 you won't get Spatial Audio, or the magic AirPods pairing. You won't get the new hearing aid features either, although the AirPods Pro 2 are about the only thing out there that offers that currently. But again, you're paying $149 for a sonic experience that beats out the AirPods Pro 2, and battery life that takes them to school (43 hours in the case, as opposed to Apple's 24). I know what I'll be recommending to people if they ask me what earbuds they should be buying from now on, that's for sure. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

Clodagh Finn: The ‘We Do Not Care' club is striking a powerful chord with menopausal women
Clodagh Finn: The ‘We Do Not Care' club is striking a powerful chord with menopausal women

Irish Examiner

time4 days ago

  • Lifestyle
  • Irish Examiner

Clodagh Finn: The ‘We Do Not Care' club is striking a powerful chord with menopausal women

Melani Sanders, the American influencer and founder of the We Do Not Care club, made me want to coin a new phrase after spending a few joyous hours in her perimenopausal company courtesy of Instagram. 'Whoop-scrolling' perhaps, because that is what I did when I binge-watched her list the myriad nonsenses that burrow their way in the heads of so many women. Her message, blunt and beautiful, is this: There is no need to put yourself under pressure trying to please everybody. Indeed, anybody. And for women on the verge of menopause or already in it, nothing is mandatory but survival. Unpainted toenails. We do not care. Separating laundry. We do not care. Bikini line. We do not care. Cellulite in short shorts. We do not care. 'Legs is legs.' And a favourite, hoovering behind things. 'We do not care how long it's been since we pulled out the stove and refrigerator to clean behind them. We do not use behind them. If we can't see it, we ain't cleaning it.' Can you flaw the logic in that? Melani Sanders, a 45-year-old mother of three living in West Palm Beach, Florida, was already well-known on social media, but she was catapulted into the stratosphere in May when one of her posts struck a deep chord with women of a certain age everywhere. One bone-tired day, after shopping, she caught sight of herself in the car mirror. Instead of self-flagellating for the untamed hair and the too-small sports bra she saw reflected back at her, she took out her phone and recorded a video of herself saying this: 'We about to start a perimenopause and menopause club, OK? And it's gonna be called the 'We Do Not Care' club… let me tell you what that means,' she said, explaining how it did not matter a jot that she had left the house wearing a poorly fitting bra or that she hadn't used hair product. She finished with this glorious exhortation: 'Let's all talk about what we don't care about today.' She unleashed a tsunami. Here are a few sample waves: 'We do not care that we defrosted food to make for dinner tonight. Now that tonight is here, we are tired and will be ordering.' 'We do not care if we snore. We are asleep.' 'We do not care if our 20 something rolls their eyes when we ask them to fix our phones, we taught you how to use that bathroom.' 'We do not care that we grunt when we stand up and say 'oof' when we sit down. This is the sound of caring leaving our bodies.' Whoop-scroll for yourself and see if you agree with the 2.5m people, at last count, now following Melani Sanders on Instagram and TikTok, adding their voices to an ever-lengthening list of things that simply do not matter when you are faced with the symptoms of menopause. Here are two recent examples that made me laugh in recognition: 'We do not care if the underwire is hanging out of our bra. Any support is better than none/ We do not care if we wear leggings every day. Jeans hurt our stomach.' What is clear in all of it, though, is that far from not caring, Melani Sanders and her followers care deeply about carving out a collective space where they can be filter-less and real. While the We Do Not Care club is hilarious, it is also deadly serious. It shows what can happen when one straight-talking woman gives a voice to the many who have, for so long, felt silenced in a world that hid, and much worse, minimised the impact of menopause. Now, by stark but welcome contrast, it seems to be the topic of the moment. There is good and bad in that. The upside is that women such as Sanders can deadpan on social media and build a global community in weeks. Can an Irish branch of the We Do Not Care club be far behind? Though, the joyous confluence of humour and community has probably already worked its silent magic here because the beauty of it all is that you can cheer — and whoop — from the sidelines. The downside, however, is that whenever an issue is highlighted, the moneymakers and the brand-pushers spot an opportunity and swoop in. It is hardly surprising, then, to see that Melani has already been offered a series of commercial partnerships. More power to her if she can monetise her message which, for now at least, remains undiluted. Money and medicine, though, are a more problematic mix. We have been far too quick to medicalise what is essentially a natural phase in a woman's life. That is not to say drugs and therapies are unwelcome. Bring on anything that helps, but all research — and we need much more of it focused on women's health — must be informed by the experiences of those it is purporting to help. If the We Do Not Care club's moment in the viral sun tells us anything, it is that women are far more interested in their health than they are in trying to conform to the manufactured idea of beauty. Sanders is particularly good at calling out the latter. She's spit-out-your-tea funny on opting out of the battle to keep body hair under control. I was going to write the word 'unwanted' before body hair in that sentence, but that just shows how deep the conditioning goes. That, however, is very recent. The ancient Egyptians and the Romans may well have plucked and depilated, but the idea that under-arm and leg hair are unsightly is a mere century old. A vintage advert for the Milady Decolletée Gillette razor. We can pin the blame for that particular insecurity on the fashion industry, which shortened skirts and sleeves in the early 1900s, and razor company Gillette which developed the Milady Decolletée in 1915 to shame women into thinking those previously unexposed parts of the body could only be presented to the world if they were smooth and hairless. For the three centuries before that, nobody was offended by leg or underarm hair. Alas, that simple fact was drowned out in the early 20th century by ads asking women, 'Can you bare it?' over sketches of the latest fashions. 'To wear these charming new sleeves, arm-pits must be smooth as your cheek, sweet as your breath,' one ad for Neet depilatory and deodorant products proclaimed. Gillette, meanwhile, presented the lie that good grooming meant keeping 'the underarm smooth and white', and it boldly vaunted its shiny new razor as the solution to the 'embarrassing personal problem' of underarm hair. Thus began 110 years of body angst, fuelled by the fashion and beauty industries, the razor industry and generations of women — including myself — who, deep down, knew that we were being peddled nonsense but conformed anyway. How liberating, then, to see the rise of the We Do Not Care club. Imagine what harm we could reverse, what freedom we could win, what future we might fashion, if we all allowed ourselves to join it.

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