If you’re an audiophile or an audio enthusiast of any kind, you’ll have heard of the name Marshall. Last year, the company announced its first ever TWS buds. This year, and sort of in conjunction with its 60th anniversary, the company is announcing two portable speakers. One is the Marshall Emberton II, the other is the Willen.
The company claims that the Marshall Emberton II is the successor to the company’s “top selling speaker of all time”. Inside are two 2-inch full range drivers and two passive radiators responsible for pumping out sound. It supports the company’s True Stereophonic tech to emit 360-degree stereo sound. And it can keep playing your music for over 30 hours in a single charge. You can get its full playtime after three hours of charging, or get a shorter four-hour burst of music after 20 minutes of being plugged in.
The Marshall Emberton II connects to your smart device using Bluetooth 5.1. With this, and the dedicated mobile app, you can get access to equaliser settings, as well as the ability to provide the speaker with Over-the-Air (OTA) updates. New to the second generation model is Stack Mode, or the ability to daisy-chain multiple units together. And to ensure it stays safe as you carry it around, it also comes with an IP67 rating.
As for the Marshall Willen, it’s a smaller portable speaker which still packs quite a considerable punch. Here’ there’s one two-inch full range driver and two passive radiators. Being smaller also means it has a smaller battery, but it is still capable of over 15 hours of playback. This will still take three hours to fully charge, but a 20-minute charge will get you three hours of music. On that note, both charge via a UBS-C port.
Beyond that, the Marshall Willen has most of the other features found on the Emberton II. This includes Bluetooth 5.1 support, equaliser access via the mobile app, Stack Mode daisy-chaining, and the IP67 rating. It also has a back-mounted rubber strap for easier portability, as well as a built-in microphone to take calls.
All that being said though, it looks like Marshall is not yet ready to reveal local pricing and availability details though. For what it’s worth, the company says that these bits of info will be released sometime in August.
