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Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

$500 Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker Promises ‘Legendary Sound’


We hope you’re not lactose intolerant because Marshall is pumping out legend…wait for it…dairy sound with an all-new portable Bluetooth speaker that promises to be the loudest in your hand at home and outdoors, with a tough-as-nails build that’s made for the road. But at nearly $500, it better do more than just blow us away with audio.

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Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

The Marshall Middleton portable Bluetooth speaker boasts a hefty 20+ hours of portable playtime and the brand’s unique form of multi-directional stereo sound they call True Stereophonic. If you run out of battery, you’ll be back to full charge in under five hours, with 20 minutes of charge netting you two hours of playtime (it’s also a charging bank).

Coupled with the speaker’s 360-degree soundstage, you’ll “carry the heaviest portable sound in your hand” for “the ultimate immersive experience wherever you roam”. Its tough-as-nails IP67 dust-and-water-resistant build adds “ultimate portability” to the list of attributes, weighing only 1.8 kg.

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Sharing the same iconic Marshall loudspeaker design, the brand has implemented a more environmentally friendly strategy that foregoes PVC entirely, using 55% post-consumer recycled plastic from old water bottles, electronics, and automobile lamp covers. Operating the Marshall Middleton is “hassle-free”. Once paired, you’ll be able to customise your soundstage with bass and treble adjustments using the physical controls next to the brass control knob on the top of the speaker, or you can jump into the companion app to control your sound wirelessly.

Pumping out the tunes are Dynamic drivers with a frequency range of 50 Hz-20,000 Hz, from two 3″ 15W woofers, two 3/5″ 10W tweeters and two passive radiators. But that’s only the beginning. Thanks to Stack Mode, you can connect your Middleton to as many Middleton speakers as your heart desires or as much as your wallet can bare for “a colossal sound that fits whatever space you’re in.”

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Unfortunately, that’s where the feature list appears to end. While the promise of an infinite multi-speaker stack of Middletons is intriguing (how many can you actually connect? We want to test the limits of the Stack session connectivity), we’re left wondering why this speaker is so damn expensive.

Our main gripe is playback support. Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity is great, but the Middleton isn’t compatible with the AAC or AptX codec, limiting it to the SBC codec. If you’re unfamiliar with Bluetooth audio codecs, you can think of SBC as the bare minimum standard; it gets the job done but nothing fancy. AAC and AptX, on the other hand, provide improved latency for more efficient and stable connectivity. Moreover, these superior codecs offer an enhanced transfer rate that preserves more data, improving audio quality.

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

If you’re not worried about audio quality, for the same price, you could grab the JBL PartyBox 110 Portable Speaker, a much larger, more powerful speaker with its own light show and pairing capabilities. For $500, you could buy multiple UE Wonderbooms for an array of speakers. Or you could stick with Marshall and grab two of their Emberton II speakers, which also offer Stack Mode playing sessions.

If you’re an audiophile that wants the best-sounding portable speaker money can buy, the similarly priced JBL Boombox 3 or the Sony SRS-XG300 is your best bet. Unless you’re a dedicated Marshall fanboy, we’re not sure $499 is worth the feature set on offer from the Middleton portable speaker. That being said, it’s a pretty slick-looking design.

Check it out

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall

Marshall Middleton Bluetooth Speaker | Image: Marshall