The Marshall Major II Bluetooth Headphone is a bass-heavy, wireless can with all the right moves and a few that might see it ejected off the dance floor.
Rock an amplifier-connected guitar lately have you? Then Marshall is your name, rock star! Not satisfied with merely producing rather excellent and famous guitar amplifiers used by both goofy amateurs and solid professionals, the Marshall company branched out into all manner of consumer tech. From smartphones to headphones and Bluetooth speakers, and everything but starships. Its headphone designs and performance parameters though are largely seen as to be dictated chiefly by fashion and style rather than tech and innovation, which limits it considerably, but not necessarily badly. And that seems not to have changed much with its new Marshall Major II Bluetooth, which incidentally are its first wireless headphones, and appear to be simply a wireless and more portable version of its predecessor. And largely patterned and styled after the same, that is to say amped up to the nth. Build quality is so-so, with rubber and plastic the main components, which definitely are not sturdy-looking or confidence-inspiring. The foldable earcups and adjustable headband though do come padded in soft leather for long duration listening comfort.
With no active noise-cancellation feature, the Marshall Major II still managed to isolate noise pretty effectively. On the left earcup, you get a fancy and amazingly multi-functional gold adjustment button that behaves much like a Blackberry trackpad. Nudged in multiple directions or just tapped like a drumstick, its equally good for volume adjustment, rejecting and answering calls and the whole other plethora of playback controls. While the right earcup houses the power/USB pairing button, a 3.5mm jack and a micro-USB charging connection. A 3.5mm guitar-style cable comes provided for wired listening with a single button sitting pretty on it. The cable can additionally be used to connect with friends and their Marshall headphones and send what you are playing pipping into their grateful ears. Inserting the cable though into your device doesn’t automatically power it down or unpair the Marshall Major III Bluetooth. So, beware of unwittingly draining your battery by thinking its off when it isn’t.
Sound quality as to be expected has plenty of -thankfully distortion-free- thunderous bass mercilessly slathered on like mustard on rye bread that is guaranteed to make all but non-audiophiles scream in disgust. With all the bass you can get clear as a bell endlessly on tap, the Marshall Major Bluetooth II was fab, especially when we listened to rap. The Bluetooth connection while solid does have an audible hiss sometimes that threatened to ruin the fun. There is some good news though with battery life rated at around 30 hours of bassy fun, depending of course on volume levels and other considerations. And with a charging time of around an hour, which incidentally is better than most competitors and their equally competing offerings.
Price is $150 and pretty much reasonable. While not a stand-out performer, the Marshall Major Bluetooth II still performed reasonably well. Audiophiles can scream, but Bass is where all the fun is at.