The Marshall Middleton is a portable Bluetooth speaker designed in a guitar-amp style, maintaining the company’s iconic signature design with a small and portable profile. We took the speaker for a spin and boy what an impression it left! From all the speakers I have tested, this sits pretty high up on top.
Design, Hardware & Battery
In terms of size, the Middleton is 109 x 230 x 95mm and weighs 1.8kg. Yes, it’s heavy yes, but feels very premium and sturdy, and comes with a carry strap to make it easier to carry it around.
The Marshall Middleton is a rectangular shaped waterproof and dust proof speaker, with controls sitting on the top side. There’s a multi-directional gold button in the centre of it all that controls volume (up and down), and skipping tracks (left and right). The same button is also used to power the speaker on/off and play/pause tracks. The Middleton has an IP67 rating which can resist submersion in water up to a meter of water. Our unit came in Black and brass color combination, and is available in beige as well.
There’s are USB-C and 3.5mm minijack connectors on the Marshall Middleton , with the USB-C port acting as power bank to charge your phone or tablet if needed.
Marshall says that battery life is about 20+ hours on this speaker, and during our testing, and while streaming Spotify at 40% volume for around 2 hours, we registered around 30-35% drop.
Sound
The Marshall Middleton is a bluetooth speaker, that works with the SBC codec, and has a companion app to connect with iOS and Android devices. The app gives you access to volume controls, and EQ which can be controlled along with the treble slider from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest), which literally give you that rumbling effect. Other features include connecting multiple Middleton speakers together with “Stack” mode.
A nice feature is the Marshall’s True Stereophonic feature, which essentially is a multi-directional stereo sound that makes sure the sound output is consistent however the speaker is positioned, covering 360 degrees angles.
The Marshall Middleton comes equipped with 2x 20W amplifiers for 3in 15W woofers, 2x 10W amplifiers for 3.5in 10W tweeters, and passive bass radiators. To be honest, and get straight to the point here, the Middleton is the best-sounding Bluetooth speaker I’ve ever heard so far. The performance is just outstanding with all genres of music, the sound is flawless with mind-blowing bass, and clear vocals. I’ve played tracks from Metallica, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC all the way to Kitty Perry (ya I know), the outcome was always spectacular.
The Middleton is capable of hitting an impressive loud volume level without distortion with the help of its built-in Dynamic Loudness function that adjusts the output at every volume level you set.
To enjoy the amazing sound of the Middleton, our recommendation is to set the volume level above 50%.
Verdict
The Marshall Middleton is an absolutely rock-solid speaker with amazing sounds, no distortion, great battery life and build quality. There is really nothing to complain about here. If you are up to invest in that category of spearers, then this is it, this is the speaker for you.
