Marshall, the UK-based brand renowned for its iconic guitar amps, has released its latest flagship headphones, the Monitor III. These pack active noise cancelling (ANC) with a whopping 70 hours of battery life, the Marshall signature sound, spatial audio, and more. However, the Monitor III’s price tag puts them up against some stiff competition from the likes of Apple, Sony, Bose and Sennheiser — so maybe Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong can amp up the launch?
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On paper, the Monitor III headphones are pretty impressive and will likely appeal to many fans of Marshall amps. Some features, however, could make them an attractive option for producers and DJs.
The rugged all-black design speaks to Marshall’s long-standing aesthetic, with a “self-healing leather texture and the unmistakable brass logo,” says the brand. For any DJs looking for headphones, the Monitor III’s could prove useful, with swivelling earcups that can be easily moved to hear the outside world. For everyone else, they’ll likely be most useful for folding up the ‘phones and placing them into the accompanying case. And the case is also very rock ‘n’ roll — durable, hard-shell and lined with crimson velvet on the inside. You can just imagine an artist like Slash donning these for that case alone.
You’ll be able to carry them around with you in that case for a while before charging them, too. The Monitor III’s boast 70 hours of battery life for wireless playing time with ANC activated, and 100 hours with ANC deactivated. This battery life is more than double that of the Sony WH-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Ultra — although we’ll be putting the Monitor IIIs to the test in a review soon to really test that claim.
Speaking of ANC, Marshall claims that it’s a significant upgrade from its previous model, the Monitor II headphones. That’s thanks to a continuous measurement of ambient noise to block out wanted sounds — “It’ll almost feel like it’s only you and your favourite musician in the room,” says Marshall. A transparency mode will, thankfully, get those musicians out of the room when you want to hear what’s going on around you.
Built-in spatial audio capabilities will also give you a more immersive listening experience, which is what Marshall calls Soundstage. This is compatible with all major spatial audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos for Apple Music and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio. Again, you can toggle this on or off to your choosing.
The Marshall Monitor IIIs sound, in general, is happily customisable. They sport the Marshall Signature sound with Dynamic Loudness, which may please many of Marshall’s biggest fans, but a companion app will allow you to tweak the sound to your personal liking. The 32mm drivers have a sensitivity of 91,7 dB SPL and an impedance of 35 Ω, and can reproduce sounds across the frequency range of 20hz to 20kHz.
You can toggle the sound profile with the ‘M’ button on the headphones, which is sat above a multi-directional control knob and opposite the ANC button. The ‘M’ button can also be customised to control other features, too, such as voice assistant, Soundstage and more.
Connecting the Monitor IIIs to your audio source is easy with Bluetooth LE (a “future-proof technology [that] will open a new world of audio-sharing possibilities with Auracast”, says Marshall) and a USB-C port. Marshall includes a USB-C to aux cable in the box.
The Monitor IIIs are available now for $349, which puts them just below the price range of other major headphones such as the aforementioned Sony and Bose headphones, as well as Apple’s AirPods Max and Sennheiser Momentum 4 — but with competitive features.
Learn more about the Marshall Monitor IIIs.
