Marshall Monitor II A.N.C. Headphone - Black

Product Information

We pushed our selection of Marshall headphones through a range of music genres - from bass-heavy bruisers, riff-filled wonders and gentle acoustic pieces to get a proper feel for what they can deliver. They are certainly not cheap, and you can get a similar Marshall experience from the brand’s excellent Major III series of headphones for about half the price, but the Monitor II ANC are a warm, inviting listen that’s hard to put down. It’s a similar tale in busy transport terminals – and while not unexpected, it makes the signal strength of the Cleer FLOW II even more miraculous. Sound quality

Marshall waded into the noise-cancelling arena with the MID ANC on-ears, but the Monitor II ANC are its most expensive headphones. 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 test Sound quality, on the other hand, is a different matter with bass and mid and high-frequencies all presented in a lively, clean fashion. The Marshal Monitor II eschew the bass-heavy presentation of the Bowers & Wilkins PX7 and don’t sound as warm and punchy as the Sony WH-1000XM3, but there’s still a spaciousness and crispness to the sound that’s rather appealing. I wore them for a few journeys on a particularly raucous stretch of the Central Line on the London Underground and was immediately clear to me that the Marshall, while reasonably effective, struggle to deaden as much of the roar and rattle of the carriages as its rivals. Even the older Bose QuietComfort 35 II are better than the Marshall Monitor II ANC. The fourth-generation Major IV possess all of the style we’ve come to expect from Marshall, while more than doubling the battery life of their predecessor. They’ve also undergone a few smart design tweaks, making them an attractive option for those seeking eye-catching, on-ear cans.

Is the microphone any good?

The first thing to get out of the way is that the noise cancellation isn’t as good as it is on close rivals from Sony, Bose and Bowers & Wilkins. Overall it does the basics but it does them well. There’s no noise cancelling or multi-device connecting here, but you do get solid Bluetooth technology, a built-in microphone and neat built-in controls to enjoy. If you're looking for reasonably priced over-ear headphones with a long battery life and genuinely great portability the Marshall Monitors are a solid choice. We wouldn't, however, call them the only choice.

Battery life is so long you may forget you ever have to charge them. The Monitor II headphones are designed to last up to 30 hours with noise cancelling active and 45 hours with it off, which seemed a little conservative in my testing. 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 Unfortunately, you will have to sacrifice something for the small size. The earcups are not big enough to cover my ears, then the earpads press against parts of my outer ears. Therefore, my ears still get sore and sweaty after just about 30 minutes. Having said that, the Marshall Monitor headphones are much more comfortable than a majority of on-ear headphones, they just can’t compete with other full-size cans. The Marshall headphones have a special feature called F.T.F. system (Felt Treble Filter). Basically, there are F.T.F. inserts between your earpads and the earcups and what they do is to create a warm sound like mentioned earlier. After removing those filters, I can see some changes here. The sound is still not as bright as I expected but the highs are slightly improved and you absolutely will be able to enjoy music longer. Fans of Marshall's stageside equipment will likely appreciate the design of the Monitor from the get-go. But what about everyone else? The brass and metal touches combined with textured plastic and leathery features are, altogether, more than enough to construct an appealing product.

Marshall estimates battery life to be up to 30 hours with Bluetooth and ANC on, or up to 45 hours with just Bluetooth, but your results will vary with your volume levels. Performance The Marshall Monitor headphones are probably the most compact over-ear headphones I’ve ever seen in my life. They are particularly small when you collapse them by folding the two earcups inwards, I can easily hold the headphones in one hand then. This is extremely helpful when you need to carry full-size headphones around and don’t have much space inside your bag. Collapsible earcups Bluetooth is 5.0 and wireless connectivity is the one feature that struggles. Walking through busy areas such as Canada Place in Canary Wharf, the Marshall’s signal strength became increasingly stuttery. I also love that the headphones come with a detachable coiled cord as the length is flexible without creating a mess of tangled cable, you can also find an in-line remote and microphone on the cable. Besides, the earpads are very easy to replace, there seem to be magnets inside and I just need to snap the earpads into place. Audio Quality Controls are equally simple to navigate. Marshall has taken a “less is more” approach, and I can’t fault the execution. A single multidirectional knob on the right earpad handles all of your key commands. Pressing and holding the knob powers the Major IV on or off, with a single press playing or pausing audio.

If you do ever run out of battery you can always rely on the cable that comes with the headphones. This cable as we said previously is well-designed and it features a button for pausing and playing your music as well as taking and rejecting calls.

Wonderful-looking and fine-sounding headphones, but the ANC is somewhat lacking

They lean slightly heavily on the bass which is great for electronic music and when we were listening to The Weeknd's The Hills, the bass was exceptional while the vocals remained crisp and clear. They performed just as well in office environments and around London, with distractions dimmed so I could focus on whatever I was listening to. The ANC button on the Monitor II Marshall claims these headphones offer battery life up to 30 hours with active noise cancellation activated, which puts them among units such as the Sony WH-1000XM3 and B&W PX7. Turn ANC off and it’s 45 hours. A 15-minute top-up is enough for five hours, and charging to full battery takes two hours.

The battery life on these headphones is another particularly strong point in their favor. At around 30 hours you won’t find yourself charging them up a lot which is great considering the growing number of devices we find ourselves having to plug in night after night. When working it’s an app (on iOS at least) that’s easy to use and swift to navigate. It offers the option to tweak to ANC and passthrough levels, customise the M-button function (Equaliser, Google Assistant and Siri), a choice between the Equaliser presets (or create your own) and an Auto-off timer. Battery life status can be viewed and the app will push updates over-the-air. Which is why it’s pleasing to note that noise cancellation is impressive. Wearing them on a flight, the Monitor II ANC significantly reduced the hum of the plane and passenger noise. With a baby wailing in the seat behind, the headphones nullified the sound to the point where I forgot the baby was even there. The Monitor II ANC couldn’t have been treated to a better audition. The ANC doesn't seem to affect the sound signature when audio was playing, which is a common pitfall of wireless ANC. Generally speaking, the noise cancellation here is useful, but it's not as effective as what you get from Apple or Bose.

Industry-leading battery life meets portability and eye-catching design

The Marshall app for Android and iOS has a settings section that allows you to assign a control to the M button—it can either toggle between EQ presets or summon your phone's voice assistant. The ANC section allows you to adjust adjust the level of the noise cancellation with a slider, or turn it off. You can also switch over to Monitor mode, and there's a slider for that, as well. A timer setting lets you choose when the headphones, rather than the length of time the headphones can remain inactive before powering off. The arms of the headphones are adjustable but the mechanism behind this feature is neatly hidden by the headband. Adjusting them is as simple as pulling the earcup down from the headband and there’s a good size range available. We tried the headphones on a group of people of varying head size and none of them had any trouble getting the cups to fit comfortably over their ears. The low-end gets a workout with Hudson Mohawke x Lunice’s Higher Ground from the TNGHT album. Bass flexes its muscles, but it isn’t as deep or as muscular as the Sony WH-1000XM3. The Monitor II ANC also leave the impression they could sift out more detail in the treble, with a soundstage that’s less spacious than competing sets.