Customer Ratings & Reviews

The speaker has amazing sound, but i have issues the the connectivity and app being very finicky.

Initial Impressions: The Marshall Stanmore III has a clean and sophisticated look. I will never be embarrassed showing this off in any room. It is a very handsome piece. The speaker has a faux leather wrap, cloth grill, an intelligently lighted brushed copper and black control panel, and finished with the iconic Marshall signature scrawled across the front grill. The Stanmore III should be able to easily blend into any modern household décor. Setup is easy as one, two, three. Plug in, flip on the meaty power switch, and sync with your phone or other stream source. Done! Room placement is very important for the Stanmore III. Thankfully, Marshall took the time to include some EQ settings to assist with room boundary compensation. And finally, sound quality, in my opinion, is hit or miss depending on the content, physical location, and the overall volume level. Room Position: I will start off by stating that room position and your listening position have a lot to do with getting the best out of any speaker. This is especially true with this speaker. I tried two rooms and four positions. The best position for my Stanmore III was in the middle of my multi-purpose room, 5.5 inches off the wall, and on the top shelf of my bookcase. See included photo. The top shelf of the bookcase is also ear level with my sitting position in the room. Next, I used the Mashall App to adjust the speaker’s Placement Compensation. This is an EQ adjustment and not auto-room correction feature like you would find on a modern AVR. Placement Compensation corrects for two situations: 1) Is the speaker close to an edge, and 2) Is the speaker close to a wall? I set the speaker Placement Compensation to “Yes” for the first setting and “Yes, a wall” for the second. I then set the tone controls to Bass-1 and Treble-3. Volume was set to 4. For me, this produced the best sound from the Stanmore III for this room. Sound: My sound source was my iPhone and my Apple Music subscription. I both streamed and used the RCA cable connection on the back for musical playback. I spent three days listening to content. Below are the highlights. Music like electronica, metal, hard rock, anything recorded live, or anything with a lot of artificial sounds sounded muddy, muddled, and hallow on this speaker. Classical, Jazz, easy listening, and anything with vocals and acoustical instruments, content without a lot of processing, seemed to work out well. For example, Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” sounds good at low volume. But who plays Metallica at low volumes? Turn up the volume, and the bass, and the wheels simply fly off this speaker. The speaker box rings like a bell. Meaning the box vibrates so much from the speaker output it overwhelms the music. Plus, the midrange takes a back seat to the bass reproduction. In my opinion, I think the woofer is being asked to do too much in this system. At least for something heavy and hard hitting like Metallica. In stark contrast, “Closer to Fine”, by the Indigo Girls, sounds good on the Stanmore III. The acoustic guitars came through with authority and a level of clarity that really shows the Stanmore III’s midrange capabilities. At least when the bass isn’t overpowering the woofer. Amy Ray and Emily Saliers’ voices are clear, pitch perfect, and the system effortlessly responds to the dynamics of the singer’s voices as they weave in and out and around each other. It is almost like the Stanmore III was designed specifically for this type of music. A high energy song, such as the B-52’s “Love Shack”, comes off as a complex mess that sounds terrible at anything above half volume. And even then, the true dynamics of the song feel subdued and hollow at lower levels. If there was ever a B-52 song that could get you to kick off your shoes and dance around the room then it is this song. Just not on the Stanmore. Idena Menzel’s album, “Christmas: A Season of Love” sounds good on the Stanmore III. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, and the Jacques Loussiers Trio’s jazz arrangement of Bach’s “Fugue in G Minor” sound great once the Stanmore III is dialed in properly. Even the lonely piano notes at the beginning of George Winston’s “Colors/Dance” show an amazing decay that I did not expect to hear on a small system like this. But, a highly synthesized, big sound, such as Boston’s classic album “Third Stage” easily overwhelms this speaker and sounds terrible. Everything else: Control Panel: The manual controls on the top of the Stanmore III are beautiful and provide a luxurious experience. The power switch is meaty and satisfying to flip back and forth. The volume, bass, and treble control nobs are black plastic with copper textured caps which turn with little resistance. Each nob has 11, 0 – 10, red lighted notches that light as you dial up or dial down. The notches will also dim after a preset amount of time and then light up fully when you make a new adjustment. There is a single rocker switch for Back, Play/Pause, and Next. The switch looks good and is free floating. There is also a button that allows the Stanmore III to switch between Bluetooth, Aux, and RCA inputs. These two switches have the same build quality and presentation as the other nobs on the control panel. I am impressed with the level of sophistication Marshall put into the control panel experience. Aux inputs: I connected my iPhone to the Aux ports using an RCA to Mini-stereo jack cable. The unit played without any issues. The input needs to be chosen from the control panel on the speaker. The Marshall app does not allow a soft switch between inputs via their app. Tone controls: Treble and Bass tone controls can be set from the “Equalizer” page. Volume can also be set from the app but you have to enter another screen to manual adjust the volume. You can also use the manual volume controls of your source app or source device for Bluetooth playback. Sleep mode: The speaker will go into sleep mode if left alone long enough. However, the speaker will also put the Bluetooth transmitter to sleep. The speaker’s physical control panel requires interaction before Bluetooth connectivity will be re-established. Bass: This little guy will throw out the bass. Put on your favorite bass heavy piece, crank the bass nob to 11, and rock out! Put it up against a wall or in a corner to take advantage of boundary enforcement and you’ve got yourself a party. However, the speaker will ring like a bell with its own resonance which will degrade your listening experience. Treble: Just like the base, the Stanmore III is capable of amazing treble. Whitney Houstin sounds outstanding on this speaker with the treble turned up. Recycled materials: The packing material is almost 95% recyclable. I included photos of the packing material. The little desiccant packets are not. Otherwise, bravo Marshall! The Stanmore III is also 70% recycled material. This is huge from an environmentally friendly position. Portability: This speaker is as portable as there are available wall outlets. There is no internal battery. Final thoughts: The Marshall Stanmore III is second to none in the looks and styling department. Marshall chose to spend its money on styling instead of gimmicks. And I think they made the right choice. The system is powerful. It will play music loud and with authoritative bass. Even at low volumes, the bass output of the Stanmore III can be satisfying. Is it good bass? In my opinion, it depends on the content and the volume level. At lower volumes I think it is good enough. For sound quality, I think Classical, Jazz, and acoustic Singer/Song Writer type content sounded best to me. I also feel that this speaker shines at volume levels of 50% and less. Over 50% and this speaker has a very hard time controlling box resonance and speaker balance even with tone controls and Placement Compensation EQ presets. Overall, I had a mixed experience with the Marshall Stanmore III. I can see this speaker working out well in a collage dorm room, a kitchen, or a small den providing background ambiance. But, if you are a head banger, then you will find plenty of bass here to rock to all night long. For me personally, I did not find the musicality of the Stanmore III to my liking.

Originally decided to go with Marshall speakers based on tradition, vintage look, and great amplifiers. Did some research and found out that the Stanmoore 2 was a little bit more affordable so I went that route. Then about a week later, the Stanmore 3 ended up Going on sale for the same price. Unfortunately, when I received the Stanmore 3 I found out that multiple speakers could not be coupled together like the Stanmore 2, which does not make any sense. Why would Marshall eliminate that feature? Seems like such a good Feature to offer. All that being said, I exchanged the speakers for JBL authentic as they do have a coupling feature, vintage look, and even better sound, especially at higher volumes.

It's a good sounding bluethooth speaker. Nice style. But sound quality varies depending on room and angle placement, and recording production. If you're a stereophile who values a great sound system, this one speaker will not be everything you need. If you want to listen to music while cooking in the kitchen its great

It totally met my expectation with its amazing performance.

One thing I loved about this speaker was the overall look and feel. It has a classic rock and roll kind of vibe going on, and would look great in your garage, man cave, or just about anywhere really. The solidly built case has a very nice leather (no, it isn’t real leather - the Stanmore is actually made with 70% recycled plastic and only vegan materials if that’s important to you) look and feel to it, with a cloth speaker cover that has a gold Marshall logo front and center. The metal power toggle switch screams power & practicality begs you to turn it on! I think the sound quality is fairly good. My son thought it was a little ‘boomie’, but he’s always been more sensitive to bass frequencies than most people I know, so take that with a grain of salt. The sound stage is a bit directional, but it’s acceptable considering the form factor. Will it “chase you around the room” as the marketing suggests, definitely not, but it does okay. The app is pretty basic, but that kind of goes along with the overall theme of the speaker anyway, so I’d say that’s a good thing. You can control the bass, treble, and volume. The red LED’s on the physical control panel change along with any changes you make in the app, so that’s a nice touch as well. Other than that, it can control (pause, play, etc…) the music you’re streaming, and facilitate firmware updates. The physical control panel lets you change inputs (bluetooth, aux & RCA), bass, treble, rewind/pause/play/forward (if using the bluetooth input), and the previously mentioned massive power toggle. Speaking of the power toggle, it seems backwards in my opinion, as you pull it towards you (down in relation to the text) to turn the unit on. Maybe that’s just me though. I think the biggest miss for the Stanmore is its lack of wifi. For a speaker approaching $400, I’d expect wifi capabilities. The inability to ‘cast’ music from my Spotify or SiriusXM app is a big let down, and coupled with the price, is probably why I couldn’t recommend this speaker to my friends. Seriously, who doesn’t hate it when you’re listening to some tunes with friends, then whoever happens to be connected to the bluetooth speaker walks to another area and the music starts cutting out. Party foul. Overall, if your primary goal is to achieve a retro rock & roll aesthetic, then the Stanmore is the way to go. If you want functionality & performance, there are better options in this price range.