Marshall Acton II Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - White

Product Information

Stanmore II is equipped with the this latest Bluetooth format whereas the Acton II isn't. RCA Input The app works well too. It has a nice simple layout, while offering enough options to make it useful. For those that like to play with EQ levels, this is a must-have. But for those less knowledgeable about what they’re doing, the presets are really helpful too.

The variation between modes isn’t a huge change, just enough to hear the difference. But, bearing in mind this is a small Bluetooth speaker, it does well to offer more manual tuning. You can even change the brightness on the indicator lights if you want – a lovely option that shows Marshall has thought about this in great detail. This is why Spinorama was apparently groundbreaking news for audio industry. Hence in the mid-late 2010's, most brands and magazines began publishing Spinorama measurements, despite the challenges of making such measurements.What irks most, though, is the Acton II Voice’s handling of timing, organisation and dynamics. Rhythmically it is disappointingly messy, with even straightforward beats left off kilter, while instruments often appear to be speaking to each other in different languages. It basically compresses the digital audio and then decompresses it upon arriving the source. In the end, it minimizes the quality loss. You can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AptX Here is a link to the manual for the Kilburn II, https://support.marshallheadphones.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000356678-User-Manual-Kilburn-II Unique, iconic vintage and classic design which looks elegant and comes with textured vinyl cover, the salt and the pepper fret. This speaker is neither made of plastic nor of metal, rather it has a wooden frame which balances the sound making it sound natural. The speaker is capable of playing louder, so that means it is capable of filling a larger space with more audio.

Also, through using the app, the unit can be linked to another Marshall Bluetooth speaker to make a stereo pair. This is useful in case you need to add even more power – or if you want to use them as a 2.1 surround sound system for your phone’s movies.At this point, I thought that if there was a tool that combined both the Spinorama with the room acoustics data, it'd be extremely useful. The Acton II Bluetooth offers different features: if you get a 2nd II Bluetooth speaker you can use them both in pairs. If you want an even more powerful home speaker, then take a look at the Marshall Stanmore III instead. You get the same sort of design but in a much bulkier speaker, which also means it’s much more powerful, although naturally there’s a higher price tag to match. If you don't need portability, then get the Acton since it produces noticeably higher quality sounds. Excerpt of the chat with the Customer Rep

While I have zero complaints about what’s on the Acton II, I was disappointed that there aren’t more inputs available. An RCA connection for a record player or a Wi-Fi/ethernet connection for wireless connections would have been welcome - especially considering the price. It's hard to argue with the Marshall Acton's gorgeous styling and equally attractive sound quality, and the detail in the brass knobs and brushed gold-metallic panel gives the Acton enviable wow factor. The myriad connectivity options are also impressive, in particular the choice to play music through either the Marshall Multi-Room hub app, or from a phone through Spotify or the native music apps on Apple and Android devices. Don't get me wrong. Acton II still sounds pretty good. Compared to other less capable speakers such as the Kilburn II, it sounds noticeably better. There’s a lot to like about the build and design of Marshall’s wireless speakers, but don’t buy the Acton II Voice expecting anything more than an average sonic performance. It delivers high quality, well balanced, natural and powerful sound and is equipped with three dedicated class D Amplifiers that power dual tweeters and a subwooferIf you're going to be listening to your speakers in an apartment flat without significant sound proofing, it might be even more important than the loudness. Fortunately, now we have the Spinorama data for a bunch of quite popular speakers. Pierre Aubert put all this untidy data together and put it into https://www.spinorama.org/. This is a stunning source. Pretty valuable stuff from him right there.

The Marshall Stanmore 2 can also be used with two options for connectivity. It also has a Bluetooth version 5.0 and aptX technology that gives a wireless sound range of upto 30 feets(10 metres). The connectivity is the same for both the speakers. Canberk: Does RCA connection have a wider range of use than the AUX? Generally speaking, is RCA used more often than the AUX out in the market? The Marshall Stanmore 2 is simply amazing for low-end and if you play a bass guitar in very low notes i.e under 80 Hz then you will be amazed at how well the speaker is able to handle those notes. The woofer works hard when it comes to mids and highs. This speaker lets you enjoy clean and precise audio even at high audio levels. It has a bass reflex system which comes with a port that helps in increasing the efficiency even at low frequencies so that you enjoy the stellar sound at all times. It is equipped with advanced components such as two 15 watt class D Amplifiers that powers its tweeters and a 50 watt class D amplifier that drives its mighty subwoofer. In terms of size, the Marshall Acton II resembles its mobile counterpart as if cut from the spec sheet. However, the Kilburn II, which we already tested , is optimized for mobile use with a battery and carrying handle, while the Acton II is a pure home model. However, the appearance and detailing of the cabinet excited us even more here, the smallest model in Marshall’s home series really brings the feel of the legendary guitar amps into the living room.This is a problem because it means that Spinorama alone, unfortunately, won't give us all we need. Placement and reflections play an equally important role there too. Besides full volume, does Kilburn II also provide more sound quality compared to Acton II Bluetooth? In the free app, you can choose between EQ presets (but you already have bass and treble knobs on the speaker itself), change the intensity of the LEDs, put the speaker in standby mode, or control your music. Performance In terms of these general aspects of presentation, our main issues are with the midrange and a hardening of the sound when the Marshall is pushed to higher volumes. The latter is fairly self-explanatory, but we’re quite underwhelmed by the thinness and recessed character of the midrange. Those frequencies are incredibly important, especially for voices, and that really hits home when presented with a feeble performance such as this. That said, the Marshall Acton II doesn’t appear to feature aptX, meaning you don’t get high fidelity audio over Bluetooth – unlike some of the competition, such as the similarly styled but far bigger and pricier BoomBocs . However, it does use digital signal processing (DSP), so the quality doesn’t distort at higher volumes.