Marshall Stanmore II Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - Black (UK)

Product Information

The Marshall’s large control knobs offer a satisfying feel, as does the power lever. However, as the volume and tone is controlled by your phone as well as these on-speaker controls, a series of LED light sits around each so you can determine the volume level and bass/treble settings.

The Marshall Stanmore II Voice has a bold, brazen sound that fills the room when turned up, but not at the detriment to the audio quality. Bass may be thunderous, hitting with a thud when a song allows it, but there is still enough room in the mids and trebles for a song to breathe.

Highlights

To polish off the Marshall look, there’s some brass plating, nice LED lighting (around the volume, bass and treble controls and at the front of the device), and twiddly knobs that are made out of rubber and metal, which is a change to the brass ones that the original Stanmore used. Stanmore II is the midrange offering in Marshall’s wireless speaker line, with a price tag of around 350 euros that puts it into DXOMARK’s Advanced category. The brand says, “Stanmore II is the most versatile speaker in the Marshall line-up and is perfect for any room, big or small. Built with advanced components, it produces clean and precise audio, even at the highest levels.”

It’s a fairly large Bluetooth speaker that perfectly at home being cranked up loud. It has oodles of Marshall style and fairly good audio quality, too. However, since it doesn’t rely on Wi-Fi like its pricier sibling, the Stanmore II Voice, this version is just begging for an integrated battery like the Harman Kardon Go + Play 2. All in all, if you’re looking for a great party speaker with the ability to control your smart home, the Stanmore II Voice could be your new best friend. You could even attach a guitar amp modeller pedal and use the Stanmore II as a low volume guitar practice amp. Wired connections in wireless speakers are, thankfully, fairly common – but here they’re unusually prominent. And the button that switches between them is right there up-top.

Value

However, it’s getting to this stage that’s frustrating. Alexa’s iOS app isn’t very good, and you sometimes even have to use it to pair new Bluetooth devices, in addition to using it throughout the initial setup. We repeatedly tried to link our Philips Hue and Spotify accounts in it, but it constantly failed. In the end, we turned to the desktop and Alexa’s web interface. Not ideal. Marshall’s Voice app has an equalizer and a few other speaker adjustments, such as the brightness of the volume control lights. It’s reliable, if bland, and you have to install it to make the speaker work.

Marshall’s Bluetooth app lets you use parametric EQ presets with more bands that just the treble/bass of the top-plate controls, and create your own. For the most part I’ve used the default “flat” mode, though. The controls are fairly similar to those of the Marshall Woburn II, in that you have retro-looking dials to control the volume, bass, and treble output of the speaker - these dials are given a modern twist by the inclusion of micro-LEDs in place of the numbers, which light up as you turn them up and down. It sounds its best when played fairly loud, but doesn’t quite have the separation and dynamics of the very top performers. The same criticism can be levelled at Marshall’s other speakers, too. However, place the Stanmore II side-by-side with a classic Marshall head and you’ll notice that the finer points of their visual impact are completely different. In a good way.There’s no hiding that the Stanmore II falls behind top performers such as the Sonos One and Harman Kardon Go + Play in certain areas, though. Bass control, dynamics and separation are just okay. The Marshall Stanmore III is a mid-size speaker, for powerful sound that doesn't take over the room. (Image credit: Marshall) Having bass and treble controls is one of Marshall’s calling cards when it comes to its speakers, and it’s a lovely touch, especially if you like being able to control exactly the way your music sounds. Marshall has done a great job of making the Stanmore II resemble an amp, while at the same time adding a bit of glamour and softness for it to comfortably fit in a living room. The Stanmore II is a mid-size model in the Marshall lineup. It’s a similar size to a Sonos Play:5; big enough to be thought of as your main music source.