Montblanc has followed its first foray into the headphones world with a pair of true wireless earbuds. The MB01 over-ear headphones launched back in 2020, so the follow-up MTB 03 have been a long time coming.
Like the MB01, their Sound Signature (see what they did there?) was created by Axel Grell, who formerly worked as Sennheiser's chief headphone engineer. Given that Grell's CV includes Sennheiser headphones like the HD 820, HD 660 S and the £35,000 Orpheus HE1060, we have pretty high expectations for the sound quality.
The MTB 03's design takes inspiration from one of the brand's luxury writing instruments (the Montblanc Meisterstück) – check the deep black light-weight resin and white Montblanc emblem that crowns it. As you would expect, this pushes the price up considerably – they retail for £345 / $395 / AU$640, which is a fair bit more than the excellent Sony WF-1000XM5 (£259 / $299 / AU$TBC). But you get plenty of tech for your money.
ANC comes as standard, complete with a Live mode that allows in ambient sound to keep you aware of your surroundings. They have Bluetooth 5.2, and support the SBC, AAC, and aptX Adaptive audio codecs, and support wireless charging. Battery life is 5-6 hours from the buds, plus another 12 from the carry case, making a total of 18 hours. That's a little lacking given rivals the XM5 and AirPods Pro 2 manage 24 and 30 hours, respectively.
They're rated IPX4, meaning they're splash-proof so you don't have to worry about wearing them in the rain. And they're available now from the Montblanc website.
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