Marshall, as a brand, has built a legacy over the years of being one of the best brands in the business of making consumer audio products. At Digit, we recently reviewed their two new Bluetooth Speakers — Marshall Acton III and Marshall Woburn III. Both these speakers were an instant hit amongst the folks at the Test Centre and when the Marshall Middleton showed up, we expected nothing less from it.
The Marshall Middleton did deliver on all the promises it was packing. So much so that we awarded it the Digit Zero1 Award 2023 in the Best Performing Bluetooth Speakers category. The Middleton went past heavyweights like the Devialet Mania and the JBL Boombox 3 Wi-Fi to claim the crown. So, let’s have a look at what makes the Marshal Middleton special and how it claimed the top spot in the Best Performing Bluetooth Speakers category in the Digit Zero1 Awards 2023 —
The Marshall Middleton is a quintessential Marshall speaker when it comes to its design and build. You do not get a lot of colours. Just the good old combination of Black and Golden, which we have come to love and associate with Marshall’s products. On the outside, you get the leather finish on a rubberised material, which is again a very Marshall aesthetic, with the branding up and centre.
However, unlike its bigger cousins, the Acton and the Woburn, the Middleton is a much smaller speaker, and comes with rubberised feet, an IP rating, a metallic grill at the front, and hook for the lanyard, which can be used to attach this ultra-portable speaker to a backpack or something similar. As for the controls, apart from the central knob, which has a click and quad-directional movement, the rest of the controls are integrated into the top of the speaker’s rubberised finished body. That helps with the overall durability of the speaker, ensuring there are no ingress points to hamper the IP rating. However, in my time of using the speaker, I missed the much more tactile feeling controls which I have come to expect from Marshall’s speakers.
The central control knob is still metallic and retains the tactile feel of the controls we find on Marshall’s speakers. The overall build and design of the speaker is solid. It retains the quintessential guitar-amp aesthetic of Marshall speakers. The feet ensure that the speaker stays put, and the metallic grill on top ensures that during the course of outdoor use, the speaker will retain its aesthetic appeal when you bring it back in.
Overall, there is not much to complain about in terms of the build and design of the Marshall Middleton. The speaker is built and designed to retain the essence of a luxury speaker that you would flaunt in your house, and at the same time, also ensure that when you take it out, it is able to power through all that you send its way.
If you have read about or explored Marshall’s Bluetooth speakers, then you would know that the brand does not pack all the fancy stuff that are generally present in mainstream speakers in the market. Marshall Middleton is no different in that regard. In my Best Buy Awards Testing this year as well, Marshall Middleton scored the second-lowest score in terms of features, just above the Devialet Mania, but not by a lot.
Marshall has gone with what I have come to see as a quality-over-quantity approach. This is a common theme in the products from brands that are traditionally more included towards giving the user a better listening experience over features. Their products are not what we traditionally know as lifestyle products. They cater to a subset of consumers who are willing to compromise on features in exchange for great audio and build quality that compliments it.
The Middleton has a few bells to ring around though. The brand has added support for daisy chaining speakers, which allows you to create a truly wireless stereo setup using Marshall’s speakers. You get app support, which I honestly don’t quite understand. The most you can do from here is enable “Stack Mode” which is their name for the daisy chaining feature, and control bass and treble, that’s about it. The bass and treble can be controlled from the speaker itself. The only use of this app is for the Stack Mode.
A few more integrations and a graphic EQ that allows users to customise their sound at a more in-depth level would be a great thing to have in my opinion. Marshall, please fix. Also, while you are at it, please add high-quality CODEC support. Thanks!
Due to the form factor and the positioning of this speaker, you get an official IP rating for this speaker. The Marshall Middleton has an IP67 rating which means the speaker can withstand a few splashes of water and is fairly resistant to dust. So, unlike other Marshall speakers, you actually do not need to worry about the speaker when you are out an about with it. And, the fact that the speaker has an in-built battery, which doubles up as a power bank as well, makes the case better for Marshall Middleton, which is otherwise, quite low on features.
The part which won the Marshall Middleton Digit Zero1 Award 2023 in the Best Performing Bluetooth Speakers category — the performance. Marshall aced every test we threw at it. In terms of the sound, the Marshall Middleton boasts a fairly balanced sound signature. The bass, the mids, and the highs, all three fluencies and their sub-frequencies,, are balanced to the point where I can be confident in recommending this speaker to a person who listens to classical music and to someone who is into the much bassier hip-hop music.
Due to its compact size, the speaker is not able to produce the sub-bass that its bigger cousins were able to produce, or for that matter, some of the competing speakers as well. However, the balanced profile ensures that the speaker is more versatile than the others, and the missing parts of the sub-bass frequencies can be forgiven.
In terms of loudness, the Marshall Middleton put in fairly impressive numbers. The speaker recorded a respectable 86dB of SPL reading, which was the second-lowest of the lot. However, the other speakers were much bigger in terms of their size, and hence were able to provide a much louder sound output. What also amazed me about the speaker was its wide soundstage and excellent layering and separation. If you ever plan on trying this speaker out, I would recommend you use the track – Hotel California – for the test. We use the track here at the Test Centre, and everyone was surprised as to how well this speaker was able to separate the different frequencies that are present in the track. And, be it gaming or movie watching, there was no noticeable lag that I experienced with this speaker.
The part where this speaker overtook the otherwise equally matched — Devialet Mania, was the battery life . The Marshall Middleton comes with a claimed battery life of over 20 hours. In my setting, the speaker lasted around seven and a half hours. Now, this is much less than what is advertised. And, your settings while using the speaker will definitely make a difference in this number.
The speaker has a USB-C port for charging. The same port can be used for charging and providing a power output as well, in case you need a power bank at hand in a crunch situation. If you want to make the most of the speaker’s battery, then you can also connect to the speaker using the 3.5mm audio jack that has been provided on the speaker, right next to the charging port.
The last word on Marshall Middleton from me is — the speaker screams quality and makes for a great buy if you are looking for the best listening experience. The speaker won the Digit Zero1 Award 2023, in the Best Performing Bluetooth Speakers category for a reason. It provides great sound, at a fair price and ensures that regardless of the genre that you are listening to, you are in for a treat.
However, if you are looking for a feature-rich alternative to the Marshall Middleton, then I would say, you can look at the Sony SRS-XE300, which launched last year, or the JBL Charge 5. Both these speakers are packed with features and come with a sound signature out of the box, which, in my experience, would be great for almost everyone who is into a slightly bass-demanding genre of content or music
