Summary – Marshall Kilburn Bluetooth Speaker
The Marshall Kilburn is one of the classiest and best Bluetooth speakers in the Marshall line of speakers, and can pump out an incredible 20 hours of continuous playtime on a single charge. It comes with two 3/4″ dome tweeters and one 4” woofer for enhanced stereo sound performance, with a clear midrange and extended highs for a both articulated and well balanced sound. The Kilburn features a classic Marshall design with a vintage looking front and gold-colored metal details. You can easily connect to the Kilburn speaker using your smartphone, tablet or laptop to wirelessly stream music to the speaker. The built-in rechargeable battery is capable of delivering a solid 20 hours of playtime on a single charge, which clearly makes it as one of the most portable best wireless speakers you can get in terms of longest battery life. The Kilburn speaker weighs slightly under 7 pounds which makes it lightweight enough for easy transportation; it also comes with a nice leather strap for you to take it around on the go. If you are looking for a stylish, vintage wireless speaker with very good sound and long lasting battery life, the Marshall Kilburn is an exceptional choice.
The Pros & Cons
The Pros. The Marshall Kilburn is one of the best Bluetooth speakers with the longest lasting battery life of up to a whopping 20 hours on a single charge. The speaker also doubles as a mobile power bank which enables you to charge your phone or other USB devices on the go. The sound performance of the Marshall Kilburn is very good and sounds very premium, with a good emphasis on the low-end frequency range.
The Cons. The sound signature of the Marshall Kilburn feels warmer with more emphasis on the bass – this is great for bass heavy music genres but may not be ideal if you prefer a more ‘analytical’ type of sound. The speaker is designed with a single woofer which means that you won’t get much stereo separation in the music although you will get much deeper bass. The sound performance on the Marshall Kilburn can also be enhanced by running a separate amplifier through it, although this will arguably take up more space and hassle.
Sound Performance
The sound on the Marshall Kilburn feels very good and high quality; it comes equipped with individual bass and treble tuning knobs on the top for you to adjust the sound performance according to your personal preference. The volume output on the Kilburn can get very high with its 4” woofer and is clearly very good at filling at room with full-bodied sound without any distortion. The speaker itself is capable of producing deeper, cleaner bass with crisp highs and detailed mids, which makes a very enjoyable listening experience for a variety of music genres. We found that the sound is more bass-heavy than stereo speakers and is suited for those who enjoy listening to the deep low-end frequencies from rock and pop genres. That being said, because this speaker is designed with a single woofer, you will not get much stereo separation in the music but the upside is that you will get cleaner, much deeper bass without any distortion. The midrange on this speaker feels clean and detailed and the highs are crisp and well defined.
Other Features
One feature that we really liked on the Marshall Kilburn was the treble and bass knobs which looked really classy and vintage. This brings back the “old-school” feeling when using this speaker, and we really liked the option of adjusting the bass and treble settings on the speaker itself. Adjusting the bass settings to maximum output can make the bass feel extremely deep and somewhat overwhelming at times, which is pretty incredible considering the small compact size of this speaker. The wireless connectivity on the Marshall Kilburn was very good and paired with our mobile device instantly; the connection is stable and does not have any performance dips while streaming music. On the whole, we would say that the amount of volume and sound quality that we got from this small portable speaker was definitely comparable to high end wireless speakers.
The Marshall Kilburn also comes with a aux input for non-wireless sources, although we would recommend running this with a USB sound amplifier to push the speaker drivers for the best sound. Running your audio sources through an amplifier will greatly enhance the sound performance through the Marshall speaker, although this may be a slight hassle to set up. That being said, this is highly recommended if you are considering driving this speaker using an aux input rather than through the wireless connection. The battery life on this speaker is nothing short of phenomenal and you can get an incredible 20 hours of solid music performance before having to recharge this speaker.
The Verdict?
We were extremely impressed with the Marshall Kilburn and felt that every single detail about this speaker was carefully thought out by the manufacturers – from the carefully crafted vintage design to the elegant knobs on the top of the speaker and brilliant sound performance, we were simply blown away by the attention to detail and the classy vintage design. The sound performance on the Marshall Kilburn was very good, with crisp highs, detailed midrange and very good low end frequency reproduction. We also liked the option of being able to adjust the volume, bass and treble through the knobs on the top of the speaker and the knobs looked very stylish and pretty amazing. The speaker also comes with a nice leather strap which you can use to transport the speaker around conveniently. Overall, the Marshall Kilburn is definitely one of the best Bluetooth speaker you can find with a vintage and classy design and superb sound performance, and we highly recommend them.
If you are looking for powerful Bluetooth speakers that are capable of producing massive volume output, be sure to check out our updated list of best Bluetooth speakers here.