Chances are by now you’ve spotted this classy British product in affluent living rooms and Insta-worthy bedrooms. Coming from the legacy brand of audio manufacturers, the new Marshall Middleton, landed in India this summer. And here’s if it manages to shake things up in the portable speaker segment. 

Design 

The aesthetics of a Marshall has always been as appealing as its acoustics. The Middleton is no different. There’s the classy cursive logo bang at the centre of the speaker’s front facade. There are speaker grilles on either side. The rectangular speaker measures 4.29 x 9.06 x 3.74 inches. Physical connectivity options - an aux input and USB-C port - are tucked away at the rear corner. All the other physical controls are laid out on the top of the rectangular speaker unit. There’s a brushed metal gold joystick-style button at the centre, to control volume and the playlist. With the exception of the gold-coloured button, all the other controls on the top are designed to be black-on-black, which doesn’t seem like the most user-friendly choice. While it does lend to how minimal the device looks, first-time users, those with low-vision, and maybe the elderly might find it a bit difficult to figure out what each control stands for. 

The speaker is made of 55% post-consumer recycled plastic from used electronics, water bottles and automotive light covers, and the rest from new plastic. However, the touch and feel of it is almost like soft, feathery leather. One downside of the finish, especially in a climate like ours, is that there’s a fair bit of dust that settles on it as the weeks go by. However, the device does have IP67 rating which means it’s dust and water resistant. 

Pairing 

Pairing the Middleton via Bluetooth and the app was easy enough. The Marshall Bluetooth app is pretty bareboned though. Once paired, I can see the battery status, access equaliser mode,  set up stack mode and forget device. The tracks that I’m playing at any given time is supposed to show up at the bottom of the app, but when I used Spotify, it didn’t show this information on the Marshall Headphone app. In terms of equaliser settings, the app mimics the controls on-device - Bass and Treble. This can be amped up to a maximum of nine levels each. 

Acoustics 

The first thing I notice about the Marshall Middleton is how intensely loud it can get, with absolutely zero sign of distortion. We used it to make a couple of announcements and play some music during a get-together of about 100 people, and many in the audience were convinced that we’d used the pre-installed tucked away speakers in the room. There isn’t a lot of control the user gets over the sound quality apart from volume, bass and treble. In true Marshall fashion, they’ve kept it simple and probably intend the user to enjoy the sound as they’ve engineered. 

I cued up The Bahama Soul Club’s playlist while prepping lunch. The band known for their amazing blend of soul, jazz, funk, blues, bossa nova and afro-Caribbean influences kept me company as I tucked into a Sunday meal. The melody of multiple instruments was balanced beautifully by the Middleton - be it the conga drums, the soulful sax or the bass guitar riffs.

In Lost in the Light by Bahamas, the soulful crooning by Afie Jurvanen comes through with all its soul and complexity. 

Marshall’s proprietary True Stereophonic sound that amps up the sense of multi-directional stereo sound even in this compact speaker works really well. Of course there are slight changes in the soundstage depending on where I place it in the room. However, left unobstructed the speaker manages to convey a sense of depth much deeper and spacious than what one would expect of a device this size. 

Battery 

Marshall claims that the Middleton can keep crooning for 20+ hours on a  single charge cycle. In my experience it came close to that timeline. It takes a fair bit of time to go from zero to full though, almost 4-5 hours. But of course, this doesn’t get in the way of the speaker being used in the meantime. In case you already have a Middleton or are planning to buy multiples, you can stack it up to amplify the sound across a room. 

Verdict

The Marshall Middleton has the advantage of coming off a long line of legacy products, which means its design and sound quality are bound to impress. Having said that, at 1.8 kgs, this is not exactly the most portable speaker around. Sure, nothing stops me from carrying it from room to room or even outdoors, but the weight isn’t exactly negligible. The other aspect I think can be improved upon is the limited customisations features available in-app. Having said that if you’re looking for an elegant, fuss-free portable speaker at home or outdoors - one where the audio quality leaves little room for disappointment - the Marshall Middleton is the way to go. 

Price - ₹31,999

Pros - Great acoustics, classy design

Cons - Not the lightest portable speaker option