Marshall Emberton
Output: 2x10W
Frequency: 60 Hz to 20 kHz
Weight: 700g
Wireless options: Bluetooth 5.0
Battery life: Up to 20 hours
Buy now £129.99, Marshallheadphones.com
DesignThis is a no-holds-barred rockstar of a Bluetooth speaker. Marshall’s style is so characteristic that the Emberton was onto a winner before pen had met paper in the design room. However, it’s not just a good-looking speaker – it’s rugged, too.
The hard rubber casing (almost completely sealing the speaker) and metal grille are heavy-duty, and mean you shouldn’t worry about throwing it in your bag for a day at the beach – the IPX7 water resistance will also help when the “Great British Summer” invariably turns damp.
As mentioned, the best part of the entire speaker is arguably the noise it makes when you switch it on via the gold or brass control button on the top: the familiar punch of a Marshall guitar that makes us excessively giddy.
Speaking of control, Marshall has made using the Emberton easy, all via the one button – slightly press side to side for track changes, and up or down for volume, although your connected device will be able to control the speaker too.
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Other design aspects pay tribute to Marshall’s bigger products. The battery life is an impressive 20 hours, and you can track this via the line of red lights on the top, reminiscent of Marshall’s amp lighting. The two colourways – black with grey grille or black and brass – both stay true to the brand’s lineage.
Marshall has gone for a purely-Bluetooth design – there’s no input, wifi or mic for voice assistant. The Emberton knows what it is, and does so with style.
SoundYou’d expect a perfectly-formed, mini version of a regular-sized Marshall amp to have decent sound quality. What you wouldn’t expect is just how good the audio is from the Emberton. It’s the little speaker that could: sound bursts out of it, louder and clearer than could be hoped for. Bass-driven tracks are dealt with pretty easily, and higher frequencies aren’t a problem, either, with treble particularly impressive.
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For a speaker of its size, the sound is punchy and more than enough to fill your workspace with sound or give a day outside a proper soundtrack, especially as the two 10W speakers also provide 360-degree audio.
We found ourselves using this as a mini boombox, carrying it around while doing the household chores that seem never-ending, now we’re at home more to notice the dust piling up. It produces a warm, full sound that is a pleasure to listen to.