Customer Ratings & Reviews

Before getting to the Jekyll & Hyde sound this speaker gives you, I'll cover the other aspects. We'll start with the build quality of this speaker. The speaker itself is very well made and has a good weight to it for a smaller speaker. The rubbery type feel has a leather-type pattern to it, which looks nice. The metal grille on both front and back looks very stylish. It really does look the part of a quality speaker to justify the price tag. It would look great sitting on a desk, in a den or man cave. This speaker is supported by the Marshall app. The app itself is very basic. There is an EQ option, but it's just 3 pre-set configurations, one of which is really only good for stuff like podcasts. The default EQ is really the best option, so not much use for the app unless you are waiting to use more than one of these wireless in what they refer to as "stack" mode. Sound wise, this is where the speaker is Jekyll & Hyde. At lower to medium volume, the speaker sounds fairly smooth with a nice little bump to the bass for a small speaker. This isn't a very loud speaker, so as you turn it up to about 75-80% or more, this is where Mr. Hyde shows himself. At higher volume levels the bass disappears and the upper treble gets very bright. At max volume this speaker sounds quite harsh and really lacking in bass. It's pretty much not enjoyable at max volume. So in the end, if you need a speaker to just listen at lower levels, this speaker sounds pretty nice and looks fantastic. It does have a driver and passive radiator on both front and back, which means you don't get the full force of the sound pointing at you no matter how you position it. Best to sit it on a corner to let the sound shoot front and back to also get a boost in the bass output from being in the corner. But if you want something you can crank up in a small or medium room, this might give cause to call the police and report there has been a violent assault on your ears.

The speaker is small enough to slip into your luggage but big enough to give a good clean sound. The competitor speakers in this price range all sound muffled. It is nice and heavy so it doesn't move around when playing bass heavy music loudly. It pairs reasonably efficiently with laptop, tablet and Galaxy S23 ultra. But the app does not work with any of these devices. It is a known issue and they say they are working on it. In the meantime, you will not have access to the equalizer which was a deciding factor for me :+(

Definitely a trade-off on sound quality for portability. Bass is weak, and the sound is overall tinny. I expected more from Marshall.

I wanted to love this speaker so much based on it's clever design and a very well established company like Marshall. Sadly they didn't quite hit like I wanted. The low end was pretty flat for what I like and the lack of EQ in the app was a big negative for me. The other negative was that the sound only came from either the front or back end. Not surrounding like the cylindrical design of JBL or UE. I ended up exchanging the Emberton 2 for the JBL Charge 5 and am far happier with that purchase. It has the ability to EQ and has that clean low end I am looking for. I would sadly not recommend the Marshall Emberton 2 to others.

Sounded great but broke by the second day.it appeared well built and may have been a minor issue.

The Marshall speaker was very cute. I wanted it because it was very small and seemed like it was sound very well in my home. Once I began to use it, I noticed that decrees the base and music when you turn it up to a certain volume. When I purchased it, I did my comparisons with a Best Buy employee, and they told me that Marshall speakers are usually used by rock bands, and people who make rock music. But I didn't think it would decrease the base and the songs I was listening to. Overall, it is a great Speaker and sounds amazing, but I couldn't deal with the base disappearing.

It looks great. I’ve got a couple comments on how retro/cool it is. The sound is just “mid” though. I read they use Sony components and dressed it up with Marshall aesthetics. I wish I had researched it beforehand but I was at the beach and had forgotten our superior Boom’s. Holds up great at the beach otherwise but if you want better sound look elsewhere.

[Employee of bestbuy] It's nice that it has stereo drivers but the sound lacks punch and bass. Throw is short, best used in a bedroom or kitchen.

Some Android phones don't work with the Marshall app.

Average speaker and you will get a lot better speakers in this price range.

Good sound quality but no bass, the boss sound like has much better sound quality and bass.

No improvment except battery. Emberton was good compared to two

It’s sometime hard to connect to Bluetooth of any player even you reset it distorted

When turn up volume above 70% the sound start not clear and too much treble

Lack of bass ando feel like a cheaper one, but looks good

I have Marshall Monitor II ANC’s as well as Marshall Motif ANC’s, so I may be biased in my expectations of the Emberton II. This was supposed to be a huge improvement from the original Emberton, but they missed the mark for me, in terms of missed opportunities. The battery does only take ~3 hours to get to full charge. The quick charging was great to see, just out of the box. The unit connects easily and seamlessly to the app, which is great, since my other two Marshall products are run by the same app. The app is very functional, and the simplicity makes it easy to navigate. The unit comes packaged very well, looks and feels great. Especially the characteristic feel and texture of the outside. The battery lasts a very long time, even at higher volumes. The battery charge indicator is great to have, and reminds me of an LED equalizer from back in the day. It’s substantial and feels good in the hand. Marshall uses their True Stereophonic technology for 360 degrees of music. It sounds good, but they accomplish this by having one speaker facing forward and one facing rearward, as opposed to a ‘true’ stereo configuration. To achieve the ‘true’ stereo, I assume you’d have to use a second speaker paired to the first. At reasonable levels of bass, the passive radiators work well. Compared to other units in its class, it should be a bit louder. Features that they missed the mark on, where attention should have been given to, include: [1] doesn’t support HD music; [2] multi-function button; [3] DSP (digital signal processor). The unit does not have the codec(s) to play HD (high-fidelity, high resolution) music like Tidal and Amazon subscriptions provide. The multi-function button is convenient to control on/off, volume increase/decrease, and skip tracks. My fingers aren’t that big, but I still select functions I didn’t intend. The button needs to be a bit bigger. My top con for the Emberton II is the DSP (digital signal processor). The unit alone does not produce bass signals even comparable to my Marshall Monitor II ANC. When it reaches the threshold of the bass it can produce, the DSP kicks in to prevent the speakers from distorting the sound. Unfortunately, the DSP does not seem to work in proportion to the signal. When the DSP circuit kicks in, the sound becomes monotone, ‘tinny’, lifeless, with way too much treble. Never thought I’d say this, but it is more respectable to just let the sound get distorted…it’s an audible acknowledgement of limitations. The DSP keeps playing your song devoid of any energy. I’m not a professional audiophile, but the DSP is just horrible. When it kicks in, it is not subtle, and I usually end up changing the song. It REALLY is that bad.

It pains me to give it 3 stars because I love everything about these speakers besides the connectivity issues. The sound is phenomenal and imo way richer than the competitions. The look is stylish and the exterior, even though I bought the cream color and use it outdoors frequently, stays clean and nice looking. The battery life is also pretty good, with a charge lasting a full day or two of use. The reason I docked it 2 stars is because the connectivity issues are infuriating. It drops connection over the smallest things, such as switching apps, and makes it so I have to restart the speaker or it wont connect right (it keeps trying to connect to the speaker but instead just instantly drops the connection and keeps pausing whatever you are watching/listening too). Idk if this is a patch they need to work out or what but it's making me reconsider buying more on the future, despite the upsides.

Decent sound quality. Difficult to connect and powering down never works. It just refuses to shut off