The Marshall Motif II ANC has far better battery life than its predecessor. This time around, you get about 30 hours with ANC on and up to 43 hours with ANC off. With mixed usage, we found the figure landing somewhere in the middle. It's a decent length of time with up to nine hours via the buds alone.

During my evenings, I listened to the Marshall Motif II ANC while watching Twitch streams, both gaming and cooking ones, all through my MacBook Pro. I also used them on long morning walks near busy traffic, on runs along the seafront, and at home around noisy heaters and dehumidifiersInstead, they're quite balanced meaning more orchestral pieces shine here. The classics like The Beach Boys' God Only Knows conveys all the right nuances at the key moments. And of course, there are adjustable EQ settings with plenty of sliders and some presets to choose from too. Wear detection is always welcome so we're glad to see the Marshall Motif II ANC's wear detection work so well. Marshall’s most obvious competitor in the headphone market is JBL, a brand which also comes with considerable live music credibility. JBL offers a comparable mix of headphone styles, but somehow the Marshall design just feels a little more granular – they get you closer to the stage. Who owns Marshall Amplification?

Usability is good – one touch controls Play/Pause, two touches will skip you forward. The buds will Auto Pause when you take them from your ears. Victoria Marshall added: “With Marshall Group, the potential to further impact an ever-modernising music industry is a highly genuine one. Together, we will preserve the Marshall legacy and shape the future of ‘Live Loud’. Having worked alongside my father during his later years, I know he would be excited at this direction and the potential to reach a larger worldwide audience with innovation and passion which he always had in spades.” How we testThe Marshall Motif II are the right kind of simple to use. They have the essentials you'd need while being consistently easy to figure out. Much of that success is thanks to the Marshall app which looks a little dated but has everything you could need perfectly lined up. The Marshall Motif II ANC followed me everywhere I went for a week and a half. That meant they started the day being worn on my morning walk in suburbia and surrounded by busy traffic as well as some noisy rain. This was conducted while listening to Apple Music as much as possible. Then they were worn during the working day where a loud dehumidifier tried to distract me along with the noise of construction work next door. Here was my chance with Spotify and the occasional YouTube videos. Marshall Amplification was was formed in 1962 and remained under family ownership for more than 60 years until March 2023, when they were sold to Swedish speaker manufacturer Zound Industries. Marshall still own a 24% stake in the company, making them the largest shareholders in the newly-titled Marshall Group. The takeover deal covers Marshall Amplification and its subsidiaries Marshall Records, Marshall Live Agency and Natal Drums I've tested audio products for over ten years and am a keen enthusiast of discovering how much more exciting listening to music or watching films can be with a great audio setup. A fair question, seeing as Marshall’s focus for decades was guitar amps. The answer is, at least for some models (the ones featured in this guide, basically), very. The brand channels a formidable live music legacy, and that plays a part in how they’re tuned and their distinctive style look. The same goes for Marshall speakers, too.