While many Bluetooth speakers in this price range include a slew of features, the Marshall Emberton keeps things straightforward. It’s a fairly tough and extremely portable speaker that you can easily throw in your bag and take with you wherever you go. It weighs only 0.7kg and is small enough to be held in one hand. It also has IPX7 water resistance, so you won’t have to worry about this waterproof speaker getting wet or falling in the pool. However, while the Marshall Emberton looks great and covers the essentials, it lacks a few key features that we’d expect to see. This includes a microphone for receiving calls through the speaker as well as a lack of voice assistant support, though the latter isn’t always to be expected from a portable speaker. There is also no app support, so you cannot customise the equaliser as you can with many other Bluetooth speakers. It lacks even a 3.5mm AUX input. However, we can’t fault the Marshall Emberton’s design. It truly resembles a miniature Marshall amplifier, so it would look great on a desk, side table, or pretty much anywhere else. A gold four-directional joystick is embedded in the top of the speaker to make it look stylish. Aside from being a power button, it also allows you to adjust volume and skip tracks. To the side of it, a glowing red light indicates remaining battery life, and there’s also a subtly placed Bluetooth pairing button. Everything is well-designed and appealing. Perhaps understandably given the Marshall Emberton’s size, it sounds great until a certain point. Keep the volume low-ish and you’ll be blown away by the bassy sounds that emanate from your favourite tracks. That isn’t at the expense of the mids or lows, as the sound is fairly balanced whether you’re relaxing with Childish Gambino’s bouncy Feels Like Summer or switching it up to more aggressive music, such as a trip down memory lane with Linkin Park’s Points of Authority. It’s ideal for putting in a room where you’re taking a break or need some good background music. When you turn up the volume too high, things start to fall apart. The music is not distorted. It just seems to fade away slightly, losing its powerful sense of bass but not any clarity. It isn’t always an issue, but it could be an annoyance in a party setting where it could get lost in the mix of voices and other noises. The Marshall Emberton shines brightest on small occasions.
