British audio brand Marshall has taken its first steps into the wireless headphone world with a brand new version of its Major II, which it claims has more than 30 hours of battery life. Priced at Shs445,000, it has a pretty distinctive style, referencing the amplifier stacks for which the company is famed: square, black ear cups with Marshall’s textured pattern, white logo and a basic, retro look. The ear cups are held in place by thin wire arms and a flexible padded headband, covered with more fake leather texture.There are only two buttons on the headphones. One is the power button on the right ear cup that also puts the headphones into pairing mode. Like most other Bluetooth headphones, the Major IIs also have a standard headphones cable, should the battery run out or you want to listen to something on a computer. But more interestingly you can use that cable to play music to something else, using the headphones as a Bluetooth receiver. It means you can share whatever you are listening to with a friend using a standard headphones cable. Its closed cups manage to block out a reasonable amount of background noise, despite being on-ear, and keep it from leaking out, which is good.
The good
• Great sound, very loud, good isolation.
• Excellent battery life.
• Easy to connect, great controls.
• Fold up for transport, relatively compact, sturdy.
The bad
• Won’t suit all music genres.
• On-ear design pinches after a couple of hours.
• Vintage design with fake leather texture won’t favour everyone.