If it seems like every company has a speaker or headphone, you probably wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Every mobile maker and quite a few computer makers spend time building headphones designed to fit in with their mobiles, and there are usually speakers along the way, as well. That’s just how things go.
Design-wise, they’re almost always minimalist, because that is also how things go, though it’s not a style every sound gadget aims for.
Over in the world of Marshall, the vibe is very different. The company comes from a heritage of building amps for guitarists and bassists, so it should largely come as no surprise that its take on headphones and speakers would be much the same.
We’ve already seen a taste of this year’s on-ear style of headphones in the unusually named Marshall Milton, but that’s not the only upgrade from the company this year.
Marshall also has two updates for the home and one newbie, as its revives its “home” offerings with speakers and something else.
The speakers are technically updates, as both Marshall Acton and Marshall Stanmore get an update here and there, improving the internals with newer tweeters changed waveguides to improve the soundstage, while the bass port on each has been redesigned to boost the bass considerably.
Both Acton IV and Stanmore IV come in different sizes, with Acton being a 2.65 kilogram speaker using a single 4 inch woofer alongside to 0.75 inch tweeters with waveguides, both of which are evenly matched with Class D woofers and tweeters. Meanwhile, the Stanmore IV upgrades the size slightly to a 4 kilogram speaker, getting a 5 inch woofer and using two 0.75 inch tweeters and waveguides, again both with Class D woofers and tweeters.
While the inside hardware changes, some of the outside does, as well. They’ll now get a custom “M” button to make equaliser settings or a Spotify function map to that button. They’ll both also see an RCA input on the back, so you can plug a record player in properly, as opposed to simply using the 3.5mm auxiliary jack up top (which is also still there).
The speakers are also technically wireless, supporting Bluetooth from phones, tablets, and laptops, but can be wired up to other ways of playing sound, like the aforementioned vinyl, or if you happen to have a tape player, potentially that.
Other than those features, most of the look of the Marshall IV series is the same, bringing a leather-look to the speaker line-up, complete with brass controls and an obvious and actual power switch. No basic buttons here.
New to the line-up is that “something else”, with Marshall building a streaming hub it calls the “Heddon”. This isn’t just another speaker, but rather an addition to its speaker line-up that allows more than one speaker to talk to each other, acting largely the way a Sonos multiroom system would.
Heddon is essentially a small box that uses Auracast technology for wireless transmission, connecting to both this generation and the previous generation of Acton and Stanmore speakers, and affording owners of each a way to join the dots with multiple speakers in the home.
If you own either an Acton III, Stanmore III, or one of the newer Acton IV and Stanmore IV models, the Heddon will connect them up to turn several speakers into synced sound of sorts. That essentially means it’s compatible with the purple Hendrix Acton model Marshall only announced recently.
Marshall’s Heddon will cost $299 and be only found specifically at Marshall’s online store, though the company notes if you buy two or more of the new compatible speakers (from the newer 4-line), you’ll also get one thrown in free.
As it is, the Acton IV and Stanmore IV will cost $499 and $679 respectively, and will be available both from Marshall’s online shop and from select retailers across the country.
