Positioned between the affordable Major V and premium Monitor III A.N.C, Marshall’s new Milton A.N.C headphones bring adaptive active noise cancellation, spatial audio processing and a completely new driver platform to Marshall’s on-ear head-fi family. With exceptional battery life, and a more refined sound than previous models, could these Marshall headphones be the cut-price cans you’ve been waiting for?
Design
Anyone with a passing knowledge of Marshall kit will immediately recognise the family resemblance. The textured leather-effect finish, brass Marshall logo and powder-coated metal arms all borrow heavily from the company’s pro audio heritage. Look more closely, though, and you’ll find this is not simply a reworked version of the best-selling Major V.
The ear cushions are thicker, softer and adopt a slightly tapered profile to increase the contact area around the ear. The result is a far better seal than I’ve typically experienced with on-ear headphones – which prove crucial to making adaptive noise cancellation work in this form factor.
Clamping pressure is about right and I found the headphones grip securely without becoming overly tight, although the faux-leather ear cushions inevitably become warm. The headband could use a tad more padding, too, but overall comfort remains high.
Connectivity is comprehensive. Bluetooth 6.0 brings support for LE Audio alongside SBC, AAC, LC3 and LDAC codecs. A traditional Marshall coiled cable is included for anyone who prefers (or needs) a wired connection.
Features
(Image credit: Future/Steve May)
Topping the feature roster is Active Noise Cancellation. This is the first time we’ve seen ANC in an on-ear design from the brand, and the execution is reasonably effective – although if you really want to mute the outside world I’d still recommend an over-ear design. Naturally there’s also Transparency Mode when you need to hear exactly what’s going on around you.
Marshall’s Soundstage spatial processing is the second feature attraction. The headphones may be oblivious to Dolby Atmos or 360 Reality Audio, but they can still create a greater sense of space.
Instead of delivering a binaural render of object-based spatial mixes, Marshall’s proprietary algorithm adds width and depth to ordinary stereo recordings, by applying a virtual room filter in the Marshall app.
When it comes to battery life, these headphones have plenty. You can get around 50 hours of playback with Active Noise Cancellation engaged, and an astonishing 80 hours when it’s switched off. A full recharge takes around two hours.
Sound quality
The Marshall Milton A.N.C may look like its cheaper Major sibling, almost everything responsible for how they sound is different. A new 32mm dynamic driver, developed specifically for this model and optimised to work with active noise cancellation, sits in a carefully tuned acoustic chamber. The result is tight bass, a gnarly mid-range that sounds great with guitars, and oodles of clarity to reward higher resolution streams.
The provision of LDAC is a welcome bonus as it allows compatible Android devices to stream Hi-Res Audio wirelessly, while USB-C digital audio offers playback up to 24-bit/44.1kHz. If you can take advantage of these routes, you should. Imaging and spatial placement is good.
Slipknot’s Duality opens dead centre before staccato guitar starts to shred left and right. There’s a lot of movement, but instrumentation is precise and stable, making technical arrangements easy to unravel. Rather than compressing everything toward the centre of your head, the presentation retains convincing width and separation.
Marshall says the tuning of the Milton bridges the energetic personality of the Major V with the refinement of the Monitor III A.N.C, and that seems like an accurate description. Bass is reassuringly deep and heavy, but it’s not bloated or laggy.
Marshall’s Soundstage spatial processing is actually rather good. I preferred the default Small setting, which subtly disengages the music from the drivers without making everything sound artificially distant. Stereo imaging remains intact, there’s just more air in the tyres.
Nickelback’s Rattle The Cage demonstrates this particularly well. The ping pong riffs that open the track are wide and spacious. The sound is still stereophonic, but it has more room to breathe.
That same processing lends welcome drama to Ice Nine Kills’ Twisting The Knife. The theatrical production already carries plenty of atmosphere, but Marshall’s spatial sauce expands the performance without introducing mood-killing artefacts.
The alternatives
The JBL Tour One M3 has many similarities to the Marshall Milton A.N.C. in so much as they also have very good battery life (40 hours with ANC) plus JBL’s own spatial sound processing, which is similar to Marshall’s Soundstage mode. However their over-ear design offers more effective noise cancellation. Bass also benefits from larger 40 mm drivers, but that extra girth comes at a cost to your pocket.
If you’re committed to the Marshall aesthetic but the Milton doesn’t quite work, then step up to the Monitor III A.N.C. These outstanding over-ears over 70 hours playtime (with ANC), have Soundstage Spatial Audio processing, and deliver marvellous Marshall-style sound.
