There are many things to call headphones. The Ultra. The Plus. The Max. Maybe just a series of numbers and a couple of letters, like a “1000XM” or something to that effect.
But “Milton” isn’t what we ever expected. The name Milton doesn’t exactly scream “headphones”, and yet with Marshall’s latest push to get on your ears, rather than simply make loud noises from massive amps and speaker boxes, that’s exactly what it plans to do: get Milton talking on your head.
Granted, it’s not the Milton famed for his red stapler in the cult classic that is Office Space, but rather a Milton made for your head, as Marshall offers up a pair of noise cancelling headphones literally called the “Milton”.
Yep, it’s a first for this reviewer, too.
The new headphones feature the same look Marshall’s amps offer, including the textured leather look and brass logo, albeit in a portable design, using what the company has delivered in previous headphone efforts, and now with noise cancellation.
Fresh from the news of a Hendrix anniversary speaker combo, Marshall’s Milton headphones will use adaptive ANC tech to do their thing, an approach we’re seeing more of lately, adjusting the technology in real time, and doing the same with volume and a feature called “Adaptive Loudness”. Think of this as a way of shifting the volume to match surroundings, a feature that works alongside an element of spatial audio using algorithms developed in house.
For the spatial side of things, Marshall says its Milton headphones can see the “Soundstage” spatial audio technology add more depth to stereo tracks, but hasn’t noted if real Spatial Audio will be supported.
If it’s anything like other headphones, a real spatial soundtrack may work on supported platforms on Android, but is less likely to on iOS, with spatial audio typically only being compatible with Apple and Beats headphones on Apple Music on iPhone and iPad.
Even if you don’t use the spatial, the battery life aims to impress, with a little over 50 hours when noise cancellation is used, and over 80 hour when ANC is switched off. Granted, it’s difficult to go back to a life without active noise cancellation, so we doubt the 80 hours will be tapped, but over 50 hours is still good, rivalling the likes of Sennheiser’s Momentum 4 headphones.
Australian can expect to find them online and in stores this week, priced from $329.
