Marshall Willen portable Bluetooth speaker review surprise: small in size, big on features!

You need a speaker to be small, light and highly portable, but you don’t want some boring utilitarian cheapie. Enter Marshall Willen. This wireless Bluetooth speaker is practically pocket sized but it’s got retro-cool looks. In this review I’ll check out the sound quality, battery life and its special features, and let you know if I think it’s a good speaker that lives up to its promises.
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There are a lot of portable Bluetooth speakers out there, but in my experience reviewing possibly hundreds of them, there are three key factors that most people make their buying decision on: Number one is sound quality, number 2 is battery life and number three-though some of us don’t want to admit it-is looks.
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What you get in the box is simple: you’ll have the speaker and a USB-C charging cable. Set up is easy and I was connected to my phone via Bluetooth in just a couple of easy clicks.
The brass lever on the front face is a subtle multi-function button: it will play/pause, skip tracks and adjust volume.
Let’s dig deeper and take a look at the Marshall Willen according to those 3 key factors I started with, starting with sound quality…
This speaker is built to give you solid sound with one 2’’ full range driver and two passive radiators. While you’re not buing a high end audiophile speaker, Marshall Willen has a surprising range for a small speaker; it’s able to balance more delicate music’s subtleties and lightness like on Jazz or classical songs, while also delivering on more bass-heavy tracks and powerful, pounding party anthems you’ll find in rock and hip-hop.
The Marshall Willen also gets outstandingly loud, especially considering its compact size, which is about 4 inches square and just under 2-inches deep.
But if that’s not enough, there’s something called Stack Mode that lets you amplify your audio by linking other Willen speakers for a wall of sound.
Willen is the ultimate multi-purpose speaker with its flexible positioning. Stand it up, lay it down, fix it to an object or let it hang out with its rubber back-mounted strap.
That strap stretches, clips and has a notch for hanging anywhere, indoors and out.
Let’s talk about that second important feature you guys want: battery life. The Willen has about 15 hours of portable playtime on a single charge and 3 hours of charging will bring it back to full power.
Plus the quick charge using a USB-C cable provides 3 hours of juice on 20 minutes of plug-in time.
When it comes to feature number three-the looks-here you’re getting those classic Marshall speaker and amp lines, with the iconic black and brass styling; this little speaker looks legit like a mini Marshall amp.
Not just a pretty package, this speaker has the power to withstand weather too: it’s IP67 dust- and water-resistant meaning you can get it wet, drop it, dunk it and it will keep right on rocking.
Overall Marshall Willen meets all the most important criteria, but it’s got a few more tricks up its sleeve… the Willen has a built-in microphone so you can use it as a speakerphone if you want too.
Plus, With a 30-foot or 10 metre Bluetooth range, you can get distant without losing your connection. So it’s good good sound, good battery life, it’s easy to use and it’s small enough to take anywhere, plus that strap makes it easy to hang or hook up anywhere.
So what are the downsides? There's not a lot here to be disappointed with. Anything you don't like about this particular speaker can be fixed by upgrading to a different Marshall. If there's not enough battery, life or amplifying power, there are bigger, louder speakers out there.
After playing around with this one for a few weeks at home and on the road, I can say Marshall Willen is a great sounding, good looking and multi-talented compact portable speaker. I can definitely recommend it for you.
Marshall Willen sells for about $179CAD/$119USD and you can get it from Marshall or from Amazon.

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Erin.

[@d.julian8337]

I dig the aesthetics. Loks like a guitar amp. 😎🍷Thx you, Techgadgets.

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

Rock on!

[@jvcex]

looking good mrs

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

😁

[@2373stevieb]

Be warned. When watching video these work great with a single speaker but when stacked with a second speaker the audio isn’t even close to being in sync with the video. I’m using these with a 10th generation iPad and haven’t had any such problems with other portable speakers. I thought it might be my setup, but after some research a few people are experiencing the same issue. The advise that I was given is that you have to wait a while for them to sync but after watching two episodes of Yellowstone back to back they were still out of sync. Great for music but not so much for video.

[@ErinLawrenceTV]

Yikes, that's not good!