MarshallEmberton II Portable Bluetooth Speaker, Black & Brass

After a few months of hiking, camping, and road tripping with the Marshall Emberton II, I’d say it’s become an essential travel companion. It’s taken a few hits and falls but still looks and performs like new this thing is built for rough trails. The rubbery, textured finish is easy to grip, so it doesn’t slip out of my hand, even with sweaty or wet hands. Its IP67 water resistance has been solid; I accidentally splashed it a few times near a creek, and it held up without issue.Battery life is another huge plus. This speaker lasted multiple days on one charge, which has been a lifesaver when I was off-grid. In real terms, I’d say I consistently got around 28 hours, close to Marshall’s claim of 30, even at moderate to high volume.Sound-wise, it’s been a blast. The True Stereophonic sound creates a fuller, more immersive experience. When sitting around the campfire, the 360 degree sound made it easy to hear the music from any angle, though it’s best for small gatherings. For its size, the audio quality is impressive, with crisp highs and decent mids. The bass isn’t ground-shaking but still delivers a satisfying depth that’s just right for outdoor listening.I’d recommend this speaker to anyone needing a tough, long-lasting speaker for adventures. It’s simple to use, with intuitive controls, and looks great both retro and rugged. The Marshall Emberton II nails the essentials without unnecessary frills, making it perfect for travel and outdoor settings.

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.

I have had my eye on this speaker for the last few months. Decided to upgrade to a newer unit from my BOSE 1st gen. I could not be more happier. Sound has depth and is crisp, easy to use and a long battery life. Very impressed with the quality and value of this speaker.

I'm new with Bluetooth stuff, besides earbuds. I'm trying to change as I can, and this is small and Rocks like a Marshall, and I'm only about 6 hours into it, but I take it working in my garage or my truck or wherever you want it. Pumps and is small, and I'm working down the hours.