Verdict
Expensive , yes , but that ’s partly the gunpoint . The MTB 03 need few self-justification made for them than you might have imaged , though – and as long as you ’re prepared to indulge them when it comes to the medicine you listen to , there ’s an direful lot to like here .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Want to face the business in the Business Class lounge ? Montblanc might have just the matter with its late , premium truthful wireless in the MTB 03 . Beyond its luggage , turnup - links and natural spring pens , I mean …
The competition is n’t exactly sparse with pile of options to be had for less , so Montblanc has to pull its finger out if it want to draw in anyone other than the obvious patronage it ’s aiming for .
Availability
The Montblanc MTB 03 straight wireless in - spike phone are price in the United Kingdom at a hefty £ 345 . In America they ’re an every bit considerable $ 395 , while the AU$640 they cost in Australia does n’t defend any form of bargain either .
The MTB 03 are n’t the only assertively expensive straight radio in - ear you’re able to buy – Bowers & Wilkins Pi7 S2 , I ’m looking at you in particular – but they are definitely the most expensive that are the product of a company more pronto associated with opulence accouterment rather than audio equipment .
Design
Montblanc is really up against it where design is concern . After all , the companionship ’s enviable reputation is establish on delivering high high - end products that do n’t so much shout premium as enunciate it very on the nose . But the design of true wireless in - capitulum headphone is dictate by their affair – so how do you make something that needs to be small , light and discrete look and feel properly expensive ?
Well , to be comely the company has given it a skilful go . The MTB 03 charging case , for example , is of anodised black aluminum , with the straight off recognisable six - pointed sensation in bloodless on its lid . It weighs a tidy 85 grand , and it close with a very solid pawl .
The earbuds inside are made in big part of the resin Montblanc habituate for many of its famous penitentiary , and have a bright stainless steel tintinnabulation forming a joint . Their shape is cautiously ergonomic , so along with a per - earbud weight of not quite 6 thousand , they really ought to prove comfortable .
you may personalise your MTB 03 by engage reward of Montblanc ’s offer of free engraving . The aluminum blame case can be etch with up to 13 letters , in one of three different baptistry . As far as I ’m aware , this finicky design factor puts the MTB 03 at number one in a field of one .
Features
The MTB 03 have wireless credential , that ’s for sure . Bluetooth 5.2 with SBC , AAC andaptX Adaptivecodec compatibility is good news , as is multipoint connectivity . Montblanc ’s claims for a wireless range of in nimiety of 10 metres seem reasonable too .
Once the digital audio information is alongside , audio is served up by a couplet of 7 mm Be full - range dynamic driver with a claimed frequency answer of 20Hz – 20kHz .
you could revel the sound for around six hours using the index from the earbuds , while the charge case holds another three full charges – a total of 24 hours of playback before charging is required is a goodish - but - workaday number . Charging takes place using the USB - C socket on the typesetter’s case only – there ’s no wireless alternative here .
There are three mics in each earbud , take caution of active dissonance - cancellation , telephony , and voice - helper interaction . And each isIPX4 - rated , so usage in most sane scenarios and surroundings should be fine .
Control is doable via touch modality and app , as well as using your author histrion ’s aboriginal vocalism assistant . The six - pointed star on each earbud sits on top of a capacitive touch surface , from where you get ( in general responsive and dependable ) access to mightiness on / off , play / intermission , hop forwards / backward , Bluetooth pairing , answer / end / reject call and motorbike through ANC options . This is all very useful as far as it goes , but – as always – deficiency of mass ascendence is a bit grating .
The sorting ofactive stochasticity - cancellationyou require can be define in the MB Sound restraint app that ’s free on iOS and Android . When it ’s on , there ’s a choice of three options : Sport , Travel and Office . Select transparency ( which Montblanc calls alive style ) and you’re able to choose between Attention , Environment or Voice Focus . shift it off and you ’ll get you ’re in Standard mode .
Performance , in simple terminal figure , it ’s not too bad but utterly nothing special . Outside racket is concentrate , most certainly , and by a not - insignificant amount – but there are numerous substitute designs useable , all inevitably less expensive than the MTB 03 , that can do a similar job at sorry and a observably better job at best . And I ’m not even invokingBose QuietComfort Earbuds II .
It ’s a useful app as far as it drop dead – 12 EQ presets plus a five - band counterweight for tuning the phone yourself is a in particular welcome feature – but it does n’t go very far . There are no playback or volume ascendence , for exercise . There ’s no denying its stability , though , nor how fittingly luxurious it is to look at .
Sound Quality
Montblanc has done the proper thing by call for renowned headphone technologist Axel Grell in the MTB 03 design outgrowth right from the off . No one admires a dabbler , after all , and if it ’s credibility for your earbuds you need then Grell is a great alternative of pardner .
Having read care of business in that respect , then , it would be interesting to know if Montblanc has done any research into the sort of music its prospective customers enjoy listening to . Because when you hear the MTB 03 in action , it ’s severely not to form the impression that the answer to the putative research has come back as “ I wish to listen to music that ’s as plentiful as I am ” .
Give the MTB 03 the good stuff to crop with and they ’re an involving , absorbing and observant listen . And by the right stuff , I mean something that ’s well recorded and intended to fathom expensive on an appropriately expensive system . Something like Random Access Memoriesby Daft Punk , for instance , or Joni Mitchell ’s Court and Spark , to name but two lustrous , in high spirits - quality recordings , are right up the Montblanc ’s street .
Throughout the frequency range , the MTB 03 are tonally lush – but not overheated , and consequently not too rich a listen . Integration throughout is smooth and consistent , and the Montblanc always present recordings as a whole , as a single entity , rather than as a collection of single occurrences .
Low - frequency extension is famous , and the MTB 03 have no problem loading bass with detail as well as keeping it check and speedy . They do something very exchangeable at the top end , where three-fold sounds have enough body to equilibrate out the luminosity the Montblanc indue them with – and they ’re just as elaborated and informative as the stuff and nonsense at the bottom end .
In between , the midrange reproduction is exact and persuasive enough to make a Isaac Merrit Singer audio characterful . Detail levels , again , are pleasingly high , and the soundstage the MTB 03 allows a vocaliser to stretch out a little and verbalise themselves . Despite the picayune pocket in which they manoeuver , though , singers are always a part of the whole .
Dynamic clearance is considerable , rhythmical expression is good too , and there ’s quite a readiness with the sort of minor harmonic version that elude less capable earbuds . So far , so good .
But unlike quite a few alternative designs , the MTB 03 do n’t quite have what you might call an all - court biz . Some rougher and/or readier medicine – Code : Selfishby The Fall , for example , or 69 Love Songsby The Magnetic Fields – readily illustrates the edges of the comfort zone in which the Montblanc prefer to exist . The relative affectionateness of their tonality is no help here , the glossiness of their presentation a distraction rather than an adornment . No goodness can come of endeavor to knock the rough edges off Mark E Smith ’s unique vocal vogue .
All of the above assumes you ’re heed with alive stochasticity - cancellation switch off . twist it on and the sound of the MTB 03 loses that last scintilla of top - end presence – but it ’s far from drastic and nothing like as remarkable as the core the ANC circuitry has on international sounds .
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Should you buy it?
Although to be honest , if you ’re considering a couplet of MTB 03 your life is probably quite full of nice things already .
The circumstances in which this will happen are very specific .
Final Thoughts
I ’d already have my ‘ Montblanc is an audio chancer that just wants an expensive trinket to trade to Business Class punters in the Departure Lounge ’ snobbery out of my system of rules after hear 2020 ’s entirely admirable Bachelor of Medicine 01 wireless over - ear noise - cancellers . So that these earbuds are a premium production that perform well did n’t storm me , at least not quite as much as their propensity for full - on hi - fi audio files as a source .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every set of headphones we refresh exhaustively over an extended period of time . We use manufacture standard test to equate features decently . We ’ll always recount you what we find . We never , ever , take money to review a production .
incur out more about how we try in ourethics policy .
FAQs
Montblanc claim the battery living is five to six hours per charge , with another three charges usable from the case for a total of around 24 hr .
