I’ve been using the QCY MeloBuds Pro for the last four months, mostly during workouts and walks around the neighborhood.

For the price, they’ve been incredibly dependable, and even after dozens of hours of use, they still do exactly what I need them to do. You don’t buy a set of $48 earbuds expecting high-end features or top-tier polish, but in this case, I walked away with a lot more than I expected.

Fit and Everyday Use

The first thing I’ll say is this: swap the stock ear tips immediately. The factory ones didn’t seal properly for me, which made both the comfort and the sound suffer. Once I replaced them with a third-party option that fit my ears better, the experience changed entirely. They stayed secure during workouts, didn’t wiggle loose on walks, and the overall clarity got a noticeable boost.

These use a shallow insertion design with oval tips and slightly angled nozzles, which helps with stability, especially during physical activity. They’re also IPX5-rated, so they handle sweat and light rain without issue.

I’ve taken them through a few full gym sessions and walks with my daughter strapped to me, and they held up great.

Battery Life and Connectivity

Battery life is rated for around 7 to 8.5 hours on a single charge depending on whether ANC is turned on. That feels accurate in my use. I didn’t do any stress testing with LDAC or spatial modes enabled for hours on end, but in daily use with AAC and ANC off, I easily got multiple sessions out of them before needing to toss them in the case.

Speaking of the case, it’s compact, pocketable, and can recharge the buds fully about three times. USB-C charging is fast enough to get you an hour of playback with just a ten-minute top-up, which is useful if you forget to charge them before heading out.

Bluetooth connection was one of the more surprising strengths. I could leave my phone on the far side of my home gym and walk into the adjacent kitchen without any dropouts. For a pair of sub-$50 earbuds, the range and stability are impressive. They also support multipoint connection once you enable it in the QCY app, and it worked well without introducing lag or sync issues.

Sound Quality and Vocal Clarity

Most of the time, I’m using these to listen to podcasts, not music. And that’s where the MeloBuds Pro shine. The vocal tone is clear and forward, without any weird midrange dips or muffled qualities. Whether it was long-form interviews or casual talk shows, everything came through cleanly and intelligibly without me needing to mess with the EQ.

That said, music playback is totally serviceable too. The tuning out of the box leans consumer-friendly with a punchy low end and a slightly elevated upper-mid presence. Vocals come through well, and the bass doesn’t overwhelm unless you crank the volume or use some of the heavier presets. They also include LDAC support if you want to push the audio resolution higher, but I found it made the Bluetooth less stable, especially when walking outdoors, so I stuck with AAC.

You do get a full 10-band EQ in the app, and after a firmware update, I didn’t run into any of the issues other people mentioned with the EQ settings not taking effect. Still, I didn’t need to do much tweaking—it sounded solid as-is.

App Control and Wear Detection

The companion app gives you control over touch inputs, ANC modes, and feature toggles like Spatial Audio and wear detection. I ended up turning wear detection off entirely. It kept pausing my music every time I pulled out a bud briefly to check on my daughter or listen for traffic, and the delay when resuming playback made the experience more annoying than helpful.

Other than that, the controls work well. The touch sensors aren’t overly sensitive, and I was able to customize them to make volume adjustment easier without needing to touch my phone.

Noise Cancelling and Transparency

For this price range, the ANC is better than it has any right to be. It cuts down low-end rumble and softens ambient chatter in most situations. It’s not on the level of something like the Soundcore Liberty 4 NC, but it’s usable, especially in places with constant background noise. The transparency mode is decent, too.

It’s good enough for brief conversations or hearing traffic, though it gets noisy if you crank the level too high.

Final Thoughts

The QCY MeloBuds Pro aren’t going to compete with $150+ earbuds in every category, but they don’t need to. At under $50, they do exactly what I need: reliable connection, strong vocal clarity, customizable controls, and a secure, comfortable fit. Once I changed the tips and turned off wear detection, I had no real complaints.

They’re not perfect—but if you want a budget set that actually delivers where it matters, these are a safe bet.

The post What I Learned After 4 Months of Using the QCY MeloBuds Pro appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.