A few months ago I had an epiphany. When I was a kid my father loved to have the best in sound equipment in the house, and I would play with graphic equalizers and lay in the floor looking for the best position between the giant speakers to experiment how to better enjoy the music.Today, I hear music in monophonic audio in an old JBL Charge 3 speaker (don’t tell my dad, he would be ashame of me).So I started to get better equipment. Now, I live in a small apartment with thin walls in a 3rd floor, so, big amplifiers and so are out of the question, but at least I could get better bluetooth speakers, so I tried the Marshall Emberton II.To say that I impressed with the sound would be an understatement. With out-of-the-box settings, the sound is more than detailed. 80s and 90s music sound outstanding although, Peter Cetera’s Glory of Love and Toto’s Africa vocals sound as I never heard them before, they are sharp and strong, sometimes detracting just a little from the overall sound (keywords here, really, just a little).This brings me to my first recommendation: do not mess with your applications equalizers if you don’t know what you are doing. This speakers were clearly designed to use the manufacturer equalizer settings (more on this later). I have youtube music and amazon prime music (yeah, I know, no spotify), and my sound with the latter was to heavy on bass, to the point of drowning the music and feeling almost distorting. Tron: Legacy’s soundtrack sounded specially dreadful, as Daftpunk uses heavy bass in their electronic music for that specific music. I then set the equalization in Amazon Prime Music to flat. It was a different performance altogether. I could ever hear some slight effects they used, that I had not noticed before.Now, one down for the application. Bluetooth pairing used Google Fast Pair, which was seamless and impressive (it shows appears to be a custom Marshall little window, so, it looks cool), but the application takes forever to actually “discover” the device, even when it is already paired.When it finally discover it (which was not too long, but took a couple of turning on and off the speaker), the application notified me of a firmware upgrade, which I proceeded to install. The installation failed miserably, so, I temporarily stopped that effort, which I retook successfully a day later. The update was surprisingly big in size, taking around 5 minutes to download, and the application simply marked the update successful while the speaker was still rebooting, which took a few seconds more than what I feel comfortable with, but it went through, and after that, the application again took surprisingly long to detect the speaker.To end that topic, the equalization settings are definitely underwhelming, with only three modes: Marshall, Voice and Push, of which I have only tried Marshall as everybody else says that Voice is just for podcast and such and Push increases bass at the expense of all the other sound bands quality.Lesson learned: unless too picky, when using this speaker, leave your apps equalizers on flat, their profile is that good.Now, to the hardware itself, people will notice this little wonder. Using the nostalgia factor with the Marshall amplifier design was a touch of genius, and the brass button on top is the cherry on top. Some reviews complain about a single button approach to multifunction (power, volume, forward-back, bluetooth pairing has another almost invisible button, which fits because you are not changing your pairing frequently). If we can handle touch control on over-head and in-ear speakers, this button is a piece of cake.My only complain in this department is that, at least for me, an old guy, the signs indicating the functions around the button, being carved in the black speaker, which has texture, are for all intent and purposes invisible, but once you get accustomed, an use the logo as a positional reference that’s not a problem anymore.And finally, the little caveat. Single speaker, stereo sound. Let that sink in.Done? Ok, they achieve this trick by separating the sound left and right with drivers back and front respectively (or was it the other way around? well, you get my point). Stereo suffers a little (not too much) because both sources are incredibly close, but it brings this caveat. This speaker should not be set as others, against walls, like in shelf, and so, because you end up drowning one side.The best position for this speaker is in the center of the audio stage, and if you want to appreciate the sound, you should point one side (not the front or back) to you. that way both sources are equally distanced from you so you get a better balance.If you are ok with the caveats this product is worth the price, I definitely recommend it.

If you want great sound in a simple package, this bluetooth speaker will do the trick. Initially I found the control button kind of fiddly, but now that I have the hang of it I can manage it easily.Mostly I use this at home when watching movies or listening to the news with some music thrown in. A serious audiophile would probably want a speaker that allows for more control, but the sound profile suits my needs.I’ve had very little trouble with the speaker losing its connection. There are only a couple of spots in my apartment (~600 sq ft) where the connection breaks up; fortunately, the connection is solid everywhere else, particularly in those rooms where I mostly want to use it.Build quality feels good and solid, like it’s going to hold up for a long time. The speaker did get a light spray of water on it one day when I’d left it on my balcony and it suddenly began to rain, but the speaker was just fine.Of course Marshall has a reputation for quality sound gear, but the price still feels a little high given how simple this is. However, if you can get it on sale (as I did) and bring the price down under $100, I think it’s worth it.

I love the design of this speaker, though I did wish it had some kind of carrying handle. The sound is excellent for the size and the battery life is great. I bought it on sale but I do feel the regular price is a little on the expensive side. Even with that you can’t go wrong with it.

I visited a friend on Florida recently and he’s building a new house. We went over there to enjoy a few cocktails, it won’t be done until May 2024, and brought along his Bang & Olufsen bluetooth speaker and took turns playing songs with our phones while we enjoyed our adult beverages on the water. I don’t seem to have the same opportunities to use a bluetooth speaker, but I was very impressed with the B&O speaker. It rocked. I came back to NJ and wanted to get one for myself. These things aren’t cheap (the good ones anyway) so I decided I was going to get one during the Black Friday sales. The B&O software, that enables you to pair with their speaker, was a pain in the neck. They were hounding me and sending me e-mails and all the rest. I wanted another alternative. I watched several YouTube videos and was introduced to this Marshall bluetooth speaker. They had me at designing this relatively tiny speaker to look like a real Marshall speaker. Once I read enough reviews I took the plunge. I think I got it on sale for around $120 when all was said and done. It showed up two day later. I pulled it out of the package, charged it up and paired it with my phone. Hate me (or them), but the first song I played with Help On The Way/Slipnot! from Blues For Allah (Grateful Dead). Wow. Absolutely loved the sound and the look. Down the road I will look into either “stacking” another one (they have that ability) or just getting a bigger speaker for another potential setting, but right now this thing rocks. If you go camping or just wanted to eat lunch at an outdoor picnic table with some music, this is for you. I’m impressed. I was a bit surprised that it seems as though your phone volume max is also the speaker volume max, but that might be a function of me not understanding how bluetooth actually works. I was kind of thinking I could leave the phone on mid volume and let the bluetooth speaker provide the amplification juice. That doesn’t appear to be the case, but it’s plenty loud enough in a vacuum. It’s a starter speaker so I don’t expect it to compete with something an outdoor waterfall or heavy traffic or even a tailgate party where everyone is blasting their tunes, but I’m very satisfied short term. Buy with confidence.

Size really doesn’t matter, and in the world of speakers, it’s the sound that counts, not the inches! Traveling 90% of the time, I was tired of jamming things in my ears or feeling like I had a sauna on my head with over-ear headphones.I’ve tested the heavy hitters – B&O, Sonos, Bose, Megaboom (more like Mega Joke), Anker – and had almost thrown in the towel. Then a friend introduced me to the Marshall Emberton II Portable Bluetooth Speaker, claiming it’s as good or better than his fancy B&O speaker, but less than half the price.Now, when I saw the Marshall speaker’s price tag at $128.00, I hesitated. I mean, I’ve been forking out $250.00 and more for other speakers. But curiosity got the better of me, and boy, am I glad it did! The Marshall speaker not only shattered my expectations with its deep bass and distortion-free music, even at volumes that could make my ears bleed. I’m a convert and already planning to surround myself with more of these pocket-sized wonders!Cheers,