Marshall’s Fashion II earplugs get stuck between rock and a hard prize

Marshall, the British company best known for its thunderous guitar amplifiers, has also managed to build a good reputation for headphones and earbuds over the past few years. Although they are a bit too expensive for what you get, I like the Marshall Monitor II ANC headphones for their style and smart mini-joystick for controlling audio output. But now Marshall is going to the real wireless earplug market – and it’s very late for the party.

The new Mode II earbuds cost $ 179 and begin shipping on March 18 and are aimed at making up Marshall’s long-awaited arrival with a ‘phenomenal’ sound, wireless charging, IPX4 water resistance and a design that is right at home feel next to the other company. products. As the first wireless wire runner, these earbuds get very right for the price. But the price is probably also their biggest drawback.

It definitely looks like the part of Marshall earbuds. The case has the same textured, leather-like finish as the Monitor II headphones with the Marshall logo proudly on top and a USB-C port on the left. When you open it, you’ll find the earbuds, three LEDs to indicate the charging status of the case and each button, and a round, gold button in the case for pairing. Marshall claims the case has enough juice to give the earbuds four full recharges. Since the Mode II can last up to five hours straight listening time, it is 25 hours total.

The earplugs have a matte black finish with a very prominent “M” on it; you definitely carry the Marshall brand with this. They are nicely compact and not as thick as some competitors like the Jabra Elite 75t. Marshall includes four sizes of silicone earbuds in the box – including an XL option, which is nice to see. Some foam tips would have been even nicer.

Marshall’s distinctive operating point is a bit impractical for earbuds, and like many others, the Mode II earbuds use tap gestures. The controls are not customizable, and unfortunately you are left without adjusting the volume directly:

Left ear cap

Tap once for transparency mode or to answer a call
Tap twice for voice assistant

Right ear cap

Tap once to pause / play or answer a call
Tap twice to move to the next track
Tap three times to go back to the last track

It sometimes takes stronger than I expected to register some of these commands, especially with the judge overhead. Those firmer taps pushed the earplug deeper into my ear, which became unpleasant.

I also encountered some strange bugs with the Mode II, such as one where the right earpiece would not play any sound before I touched it. There were sometimes noticeable balance / phase problems with the singing sliding between the left and right ear plate. It seems to both that these issues were mostly fixed with the latest firmware update but still appears occasionally. Marshall tells me that another OTA update will be released before the Mode IIs are sent to customers to further facilitate performance.

Aside from the bug, these earbuds sound pretty good. I’ve been listening to The Hold Steady’s new album Open door policy, and there’s a lot going on in some of the songs. The Mode II earbuds do a great job of keeping everything – guitars, horns, keys, vocals, drums – distinctive. Upper frequencies may sound a bit increased on some tracks, depending on how they are manufactured, but they are nothing penetrating. And the Marshall app gives you complete EQ control if you’re not happy with the default “Marshall sound” tuning. AAC and SBC codecs are supported.

As always, fit and a good seal are crucial to get the best sound. And this is especially true here. Even if I have the XL tips, these are the kind of earbuds I need to turn in my ear the right way if I want the most bass and a balanced soundtrack. They never feel loose, but something about the fit can be a little subtle in my experience, while I can just tuck in other earplugs without thinking about it.

The Mode II earbuds do not contain any kind of active noise cancellation, but Marshall still added a transparency mode in case you need to hear more clearly what is happening around you. The best I can say about this feature is that it is usable, but the ambient sound comes much more muted than the airy, natural transparency methods of other earbuds. The performance of voice calls is average: people I spoke to could only hear me nicely, but noticed that my voice sounded a bit hollow and triple – something that was also true when I listened to voice memo examples again.

With the rounding off of the features, Marshall includes an automatic pause when you remove a button, and it should be suitable for normal workouts thanks to an IPX4 rating. Like the vast majority of true wireless earbuds, it does not support multipoint for two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. But you can use one of them independently.

If the Marshall Mode II buttons were priced at $ 130 or $ 100, I think I would see it more positively. But at $ 180, they lack any notable tricks that will make me reach out to established competitors. The case is smooth, pocket-sized and contains wireless charging. The sound quality is good, but not to the point where Marshall drops competitors in the same price range. Plus, you can get a set of true wireless earbuds with proper noise cancellation by spending $ 30 to $ 50 more.

To get into the fold so late, Marshall really had to turn the knob to 11. But the Mode II earbuds do not quite get there, and the style points count here less than with the company’s wireless headphones, where the cool design is so visible.

Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge