Customer Ratings & Reviews

Great box, super sound, easy to operate, very sturdy.

I ran into the Marley by chance at a big box store where I was getting a UE Mini Boom that was on sale for half price. I was impressed by the sheer volume the Marley could push without any apparent distortion whatsoever, and the overall sound quality seemed superb for the product type but was tough to judge critically with all of the background noise. Cool but irrelevant since I was just looking for a little guy to mostly play audio books in a hotel room while on the road and I'd come for the good deal on the Mini and the Marley just seemed to be "too much": too large, too loud for my needs and too expensive. So I got the Mini, brought it home and immediately regretted my decision. What sound it had was clear and detailed, but it just wasn't loud enough. I got online and bought the Marley, and then had second thoughts. NO STEREO SEPARATION! If I was getting into the $200 range I could get some powered Audioengine A2s or better yet some Grace Digital Bluetooth speakers for their tooth capability. Actually the Gracies (red ones) are selling for only $160 right now. The upside with these is getting a true stereo setup instead of what is essentially a point source of sound produced by any single all-in-one unit. That's a BIG deal when listening to music or a movie as even a poor set of separate speakers will often provide a better listening experience than a good single unit which has all of the drivers in one box. The Marley and the Grace both appear to be well engineered, have the same number and size of drivers and have very good, even excellent for the price, build quality. So the question is what are your priorities? The GDBs (and others) were designed primarily as `puter speakers or stationary room speakers while the Marley was meant to be mobile; just pick it up and go. You can travel with the GDBs or switch them from room to room, but it'd be a pain in the butt compared with the Marley; more bulk, two units and no battery so the power wart and cable must always tag along. Some of the downsides of the separates could be solved to some degree by making or buying a carry bag of some sort, but the rechargeable battery in the Marley opens up possibilities such as moving it around with you at home, taking it outside, in a vehicle without decent tunes etc. For my needs mobility would trump stereo separation IF the sound quality was acceptable, and it is. I'll let others bloviate ad nauseam about this aspect of the Marley and only say that: 1) my first impression in the store was correct in that it plays loudly and without distortion at max volume and has very good overall sound quality. 2) It sounds best if given a little room to breathe. It's fine on a table away from walls, but develops some upper bass bloat if on a table and near a wall or two. At first I tried plugging the bung hole but found that doing so removed more of the impact or "slam" from the sound than I wanted to sacrifice when listening to some types of music. It turned out to be mostly correctable just by tweaking the output using a graphic equalizer on the source component, even a really basic one such as the 7-band job on my mp3 player. If your PC's version of Windows Media Player doesn't come with the equalizer then try VLC media player, it's free and comes with 10 bands to fiddle around with. Having said that, in real world use I usually find it easier to just place it somewhere it doesn't complain about being too crowded. Some random thoughts: - Once again, no stereo separation. Of course this is inherent in any single box unit so in that category it'd be 5 stars. I wish the GDB speakers (or others) were a little smaller, a bit lighter and had rechargeable batteries. - Speaking of batteries, the fully charged Marley seems to run forever. Well, not quit. They list run time as 8 hours, but that must be at max volume since at a mix of low to moderate levels mine goes more than twice that long. It's rather nice when a product actually exceeds the manufacturer's claims. - This is a mobile device so where is the carry/shoulder strap? There should be attachment points on either end to attach/detach one. Or a bag? Sure it's narrow enough to be easily carried as is, but still... - Simple, simpler and simpler-er. My dad could work this thing and he can't even boil water without fear of pending disaster. The Bluetooth mating is easy, fast and solid; at least in the small amount of time I've tested connecting that way. Its line of site range appears to be just about as advertised, around 50 feet. - Again, this is a mobile device so where are the grills to protect the 3.5" drivers? This omission, done in the name of fashion I think, creates a clear and present danger. They could've made them removable. These drivers are not metal, composite or Kevlar, they are paper cones just waiting for an errant finger poke to make your Marley sound like a Harley: "blumble, blumble, blumble, phut, put, put... blumble, blumble, blumble, phut, put, put... etc." For taking it on the road I have cut a piece of cardboard to size and cover the front using rubber bands to hold it on, and I still have concerns. I'll probably make or buy some grills and ignore the aesthetics. - Speaking of fashion, this thing definitely has more than just a touch of class. There's a certain undefinable and understated casual elegance that you just don't expect to find at this price point - if you care about that. I didn't think I did, but let's give cool its due credit. - If I plug my mp3 player into the Marley's USB charger while listening it creates killer static. This isn't really a problem (don't do that!) but it suggests poor isolation of signal engineering which could hint at other not so noticeable shortcomings in build quality or design - maybe. If so, I haven't found anything significant yet. - I haven't done a frequency response graph but The House of Marley seems to have gotten the mix of amps, drivers and crossover just right because the transition between drivers is totally transparent to the naked ear - at least mine - and the amps roll off just before the drivers distort significantly. Did I mention that IT JUST PLAIN FEELS LIKE QUALITY gear? It does. Did I mention that IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN ITS CURRENT RIVALS of similar type, size and price? It does. Separate speakers would still be preferable (so it only gets 4 stars) so if you don't need the freedom of movement provided by a single unit with a battery then you'd be better off going with one of the separates options available. However, if you need a little more mobility then grab the Marley; I don't think you'll be disappointed, at least I'm not. Jim909 Note: Is your Marley's sound cutting out at low to moderate volumes when hardwired? If you're using the phono jack (not Bluetooth) for your source and this is happening then it's almost certainly caused by having too low a signal strength from your player for the speaker to maintain the connection. Simple fix: turn the volume down on the top of the speaker and increase it on your source. And yes, it could potentially be a bit of a pain if your source material has a lot of variance in its recording levels, but in six weeks of real world usage I'm having no problems in that regard.

Appealing exposed speaker design. Well-balanced mellow tone.