Marshall is a very well known name when it comes to guitar amps. Indeed, it is one of the names that have made the history of rock, starting from 1962 when Jim Marshall began to produce amps and cabinets for guitars with a very particular tone for distortion: the famous “crunch” considered superior to Leo Fender's amplifiers. which at that time were not in Europe.
It was three famous guitarists of the time (none other than Ritchie Blackmore, Big Jim Sullivan and Pete Townshend…) who insisted that the owner of the small shop that sold drums to other musical instruments make the new amps. The rest is legend.
Since the early 2000s Marshall has created a separate division to also produce headphones (three types: on-ear, in-ear and over-ear) and speakers for audio playback based on Bluetooth: Action, Stanmore, Stockwell, Kilburn and Woburn.
As for the reproduction of sound in headphones, Marshall has so far made four models: the Majors (now in the third generation, which we talk about in this review) which are on-ear headphones, like the Mids with or without sound cancellation, the Minor and the Mode (in-ear headphones) and the Monitors which are over-ear headphones. Apart from the in-ear headphones that only exist with a cable, all the others have the Bluetooth option.
The first to be launched, and the one that paved the way for Marshall's headphone and speaker division, was the Major. Virtually identical to the original, the third generation has been re-engineered to improve the sound even more and the design has been cleaned up almost imperceptibly.
How Marshall III's are made
The first thing that strikes you about the headphones, after taking them out of their valuable and resistant packaging, is the impact of the quality of the materials: excellent.
Despite the mid-price range, the headphones are really well made. Excellent and durable vinyl, comfortable and resistant pads, metal, cover for the pass that goes over the head.
The headphones, available in three colors (white, black and brown), were tested in the classic black version, with the iconic Marshall lettering on both pavilions. In the package there are a micro Usb cable for charging and an audio cable with built-in microphone and play / answer control. The cable has an angled minijack terminal and a straight one. The one that goes into the headset is the one with the jack with two element separators, while the one with three goes into the phone. Obviously, an Apple minijack-Lightning adapter is required for the current generations of iPhone and iPad Pro.
On the side of the left headphone there is also Marshall's mini-joystick, made of brass, extremely solid and compact, which is used to turn the headphones on and off, put them in “search” mode to pair with a Bluetooth device and to adjust volume and previous / next track.
The design of the headphones is collapsible: they fold inside themselves, significantly reducing the overall dimensions: you have to slide the extensions of the pavilions (made of metal) to a minimum and rotate the pavilions inwards. The package does not include a bag to carry them. The audio cable has an old style design and has a curled stroke and two long strokes, making it more flexible and comfortable as well as recognizable and pleasant. It also limits the risk of tangling the cable. The connectors are gold plated.
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How do they work
The methods of use of the headphones are quite simple and traditional Marshall has not created a smartphone app to manage the bluetooth connection (but instead did it for the speakers) so it is simply a matter of turning on and holding the button down until goes into flashing mode. At that point, search for the headphones on the device you want to pair with and proceed.
While using Bluetooth, a second pair of headphones can be connected via cable by inserting the cable of the other pair into the Major 3 headphones socket. of the music coming from the latter.
Headphones in cable mode work even if they are discharged. Charging the headphones takes three hours and offers 30 hours of battery life, which in our test they passed easily to reach almost 40.
There is an integrated microphone that allows you to manage phone calls (you answer and hang up with the brass mini-joystick) or you can use the supplied cable, which also contains a microphone and the answer / end call button. The connection in cable mode, however, limits the functionality of the brass joystick on iPhones using the Apple adapter, and no longer allows you to adjust the volume or change songs.
From a technical point of view, the headphones have a frequency response between 20 Hz and 20kHz, an impedance of 32 Ohm, a 40mm dynamic driver, a sensitivity of 97 dB SPL, and are compatible with AptX, the standard used above all in the Android world (but also used by macOS).
How they ride on the road
We tried the headphones for a month. The idea was to have a comfortable pair of headphones that could work as a listening tool both at work – to isolate from ambient noise – and to hear music well at home or to watch a movie in bed without disturbing anyone.
From an ergonomic point of view, at the beginning the headphones highlighted the strength and practicality of the materials and a certain resistance of the upper arch of the pass, which slowly softened but only after a couple of weeks. The headphones also stay in a comfortable and close position on the head (without giving the unpleasant feeling of being extraterrestrials with XL headphones) but do not completely isolate the ear and have a tendency to fatigue after the first three to four hours of use. However, they are not particularly hot.
The thing that struck us is the design but also the awareness that they are quite universal headphones: the relatively small size allows them to be used both by people with small heads, very young people, girls etc, and by those who have a ” big face “and above all an important” big head “.
The bluetooth connection has always been very fast and safe, the acoustic signal for switching on and off loud and clear, the voice quality of the phone calls between acceptable and good, even without particular noise reduction solutions.
The most important thing, which is the performance of the music, is excellent. The headphones have a wide range and dynamics and highly respectable drivers (40mm of joy, one would say). But there is a subjective assessment to be made: it depends on what kind of music you listen to and your audio taste. Because these headphones have a linear volume growth, a crystal clear performance: soft and always present but never hard and prominent bass, well defined mids and well present highs.
They are headphones with which you can listen well to piano, pianissimo, medium and even loud music, but they do not kill the eardrum with a fortissimo out of scale. Unlike many on-ear headphones with a “modern” taste, which have few sounds at low volume and which suddenly grow after half to become practically unusable at full volume, these Majohr 3 grow constantly giving satisfaction to practically all volumes, even if the on-ear design does not allow you to fully appreciate all the frequencies except in very quiet environments due to the entry of sounds from the outside. If the place is right they sound great, better than many Beats and Bose.
The headphones do a good job of isolating but are not meant to abstract the user from their context (for that there are the over-ear headphones and then the noise canceling ones). The scene that is reconstructed with effectiveness and richness of detail.
They are reasonably light headphones (they hold well on the head) and the folding mechanism is well thought-out and durable. They give the idea of being headphones that will last a long time even without a protection for when they are put in the backpack. They also have a relatively small footprint and serve well if traveling: they've been in your reporter's backpack for a month without showing any signs of wear and without significantly weighing it down. Black is the best choice because it conveys the idea of the original design, which has an antique flavor but not tired and does not go out of fashion.
Conclusions
Beautiful design and great sound performance. Bluetooth lasts a lifetime, more than the 30 hours (which would already be a lot) anticipated by Marshall.
They are really beautiful headphones that make them much more than other more expensive models: a fair compromise to have style and quality at a reasonable price. There are two things that need to be kept in mind though. The first is that on-ear headphones aren't comfortable for everyone. If they are not on your mind from the first week, it means that they are not for you. These are more comfortable than most on-ear headphones, but they're still that type and some people's skull conformations just aren't made for them.
The fact that they are on-ear headphones also pays a little for the sound quality in noisy environments, because they partially isolate (but this is intentional: otherwise we would take all the over-ear ones). In addition, the design is special: it must fit well on you. Those with small or medium heads are easier to like them than those with large heads, because the headphones are not very big.
If you like them, if they fit well in your head and if you are comfortable, we would like to highly recommend these headphones for sound performance, quality of materials and autonomy of the Bluetooth connection
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Retail price
The Marshall Major 3 Bluetooth are on sale on Amazon at a price of 101.90 euros.
