Better than Sonos! 🔥 Marshall Heston 120 Review
Marshall Heston 120 is better than ANY Sonos soundbars in 2 big ways. First, the controls are better. Instead of touch controls and mostly relying on your phone for settings, Marshall went the other direction with their iconic brass knobs and buttons. All very tactile, and all laid out so you can do everything you want like volume controls, bass and treble, and even EQ presets for music, movies and night mode (which compresses soft and loud sounds so that you can still hear the dialogue and action at low volumes, without disturbing the family.)
You can also switch sources choosing between HDMI 1 and 2, RCA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi streaming either AirPlay 2 or Google Cast.
But I can use the Marshall app if I do want to access more intricate settings like manual EQ and room correction. And it does need room correction because based on where you place this soundbar, it can sound too boomy or too bright. But once you start the room correction process, the soundbar will play a tone and the two microphones inside will pick up the feedback and tune the soundbar to match the room’s acoustics. That is done automatically from the Marshall app.
About presets, at first I thought these were EQ presets, but no, they’re actually for your favorite internet radio stations, or playlists from these few music streaming services, which can then be called up by pressing these preset buttons.
The second way the Heston 120 is better than Sonos is it’s got more inputs. 2 HDMI inputs, with one supporting eARC, an ethernet port, RCA stereo, RCA mono for a wired subwoofer. So you’ve got more choices instead of being forced to use your TV as the connection hub all the time, like you’d have to with Sonos. As for the USB-C port, which I don’t think is meant for us to use because it wouldn’t even charge my phone. Maybe it’s just for servicing use.
There are actually some things worth highlighting about the Heston 120 that’s not so positive, but before that, I'm going to talk about its sound quality, as well as listen to some demos together, so buckle up!
Sound Quality
The Heston 120 has 11 speakers in total in a 5.1.2 configuration. 2 rear facing woofers with 4 bass radiators for more impact, and 9 drivers with 3 of them front facing, 2 side firing for wall reflections, 2 mid-woofers and 2 tweeters facing upwards for height effects. This soundbar decodes Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
In my opinion, having used the Heston 120 for a week, for music, videos and gaming, it sounds pretty incredible in 2 ways. First, the object phasing. For movies that support Dolby Atmos, it is actually able to materialize sound objects in a wide and tall sphere in front of me, about 1 metre to the sides of the Heston and 2 meters above.
Impressive, but of course, keeping in mind that it’s a soundbar, so it’s highly dependent on whether there are walls at the sides to bounce the sound off. In my case, I have a glass partition on the right side only, so certain stereo and surround effects are more localizable on the right side, but I am getting more spaciousness on the left.
Plus, height channels are not as localizable as having actual discrete channels mounted on the ceiling, and rear channel effects are still heard as virtual side channels. That being said, the experience I got did come very close to an actual Atmos system, which is impressive.
The second thing that’s impressive is its bass response. Just at 50% bass level, LFE already sounds meaty and thumpy. If I pump the bass to 100%, this thing is almost like a gravity bomb. My stuff in the TV console was rattling away like crazy, and I had to use some improvised rubber feet as shock absorbers, which did cut the rattling in half, but not entirely. So I had to set it to 50% bass.
Anyway, 50% is enjoyable enough for me, but if you do need some actual subwoofer action, the Heston 200 subwoofer is an optional purchase that can be connected to the Heston 120 wirelessly. Otherwise, it’s got a subwoofer out, so feel free to connect one from another make.
For treble, I thought it sounded a little dead by default so I pumped it up a bit to 60% to get that nice crisp bite to dialogue. That was in movie mode, but it did also handle music pretty well. In Music mode there was a tangible boost to the bass and highs when playing music, and the channels sound less diffused compared to Movie mode.
The soundstaging felt deep and tall but left and right stereo separation wasn’t wide, being confined to the length of the soundbar.
I have prepared some samples, first we have music of different genres, and then I’ll play a nice 5.1 channel video from my friend Jennifergala on YouTube, who’s allowed me to use some of her videos. Yes, YouTube only supports Dolby 5.1, not Atmos. But the way she mastered the tracks, it’s seriously the next best thing apart from playing an actual copyrighted movie.
👉 Have a listen to the sound quality
Design
So far, the Heston 120 is looking like a fantastic soundbar. It looks unique and distinctive, not just another black bar, it sounds very good, fantastic height effects and thunderous bass even without a separate sub. I also like the dials, the app and connectivity options. But is it perfect?
No. The biggest complaint I have with it is, every time I tweak the settings, there’s static which I’ve not encountered with any other soundbar. Also, it’s too thick for my TV. What I mean is, it covers my TV’s IR sensor, so if I want to turn the TV on, I have to get really close. Some brands do provide an IR repeater, would be great if the Heston 120 has that. The alternative is to mount everything so nothing gets blocked, but it will also be tough running the cables and changing stuff out.
So those are my thoughts on the Heston 120. Is this a soundbar you would buy, and if not, why? Let us know in the comments!
