Marshall launched its Middleton portable Bluetooth speaker in India last year. This has a quad-speaker setup, promises an immersive audio experience and has a durable design with IP67 ratings for dust and water resistance. Here we have the review.
Design and Build quality
The Marshall Middleton has an Amp-inspired design with gold-highlights and textured front metallic grille with a crisscrossing pattern. It measures 109 x 230 x 95 mm and weighs 1.8kg. In addition to the Cream colour that we have, the speaker also come in Black and Brass colour. The leather-like finish offers a good grip.
The body wears out easily, and the light colour gathers dust easily, so it is recommended to choose the Black colour. There is a brass button in the middle that lets you turn the speaker on and off. It also acts as a D button so that you can control volume when you push the button to top and bottom, and pushing it from either sides lets you switch tracks.
There is a 10-stage red LED indicator that lights up when you press the battery status button, control volume, bass or treble. The Bluetooth pairing button is on the left, and the bass and treble adjustment buttons are on the right. The speaker has IP67 ratings for dust and water-resistance.
There are grilles on the sides that have a perforated dot pattern for the woofers. The detachable strap that comes in the box is useful when you want to carry the speaker.
Even the back has a perforated dot pattern.
The USB Type-C port for charging or power out and an AUX port are present on the corner.
Connectivity, Pairing, and App
The Marshall Middleton supports Bluetooth 5.1 with SBC codec. The company could have offered AAC codec and even aptX considering the price. The pairing process is very easy. Just enable Bluetooth on the phone, press and hold the Bluetooth button on the speaker for a few seconds to enter Bluetooth settings. Then, select the Middleton.
There is fast pair option which works in latest Android phones. We tested it on the iPhone 14 Plus, OPPO Reno11 Pro, and Pixel 8 and never faced any pairing or disconnection issues. There is also multi-device pairing that lets you connect the speakers to two devices at a time and switch between them easily.
There is a Marshall Bluetooth companion app for Android and iPhone. This lets you play / pause, change tracks. It also shows more details about Marshall products.
The app also has equalizer option just shows bass and treble controls, same as the one on the speaker. You also get firmware updates through the app. Wish the app had an option to set equalizer presets and switch to them quickly.
Audio Quality
The Marshall Middleton has Two 20 Watt Class D (8 cm) amplifiers for the woofers and Two 10 Watt Class D amplifiers for the tweeters, for a total of 60 Watt.
This offers a powerful low-frequency response for a punchy bass and cutting highs. This depends on the room, so if you are on a small room you can feel it. Midrange was just average for natural and detailed vocals and some instruments, but it offers clear and crisp highs. Overall, the speakers offer a wider soundstage and more engaging sound for a Bluetooth speaker.
Even though it only has SBC, the audio quality was as good as listening using AUX. It is loud when you increase the volume, but there is a bit of distortion in full volume, but it is good in medium and high volume. The stack mode lets you connect the speaker to other Middleton speakers for an enhanced audio experience.
Battery Life
Marshall claims 20+ hours of battery life, and I got close to 20 hours of battery life with volume at level 4. The battery life might vary depending on the volume level.
It has fast charge that promises two hours of playtime from a quick 20 minutes of charging. For 100% charge, it takes about 4 and half hours. Option to charge other devices by connecting a USB type-C cable is a good feature.
Conclusion
Overall, the Marshall Middleton is a good portable Bluetooth speaker with a rugged design and excellent audio quality in most scenarios. However, it has limited codec support, and the app has limited features.
The Marshall Middleton is priced at Rs. 31,999 and is available from the company’s website, marshallheadphones.com and other retailers across India.