Marshall Milton ANC Review | Better than expected, but... 🤔
While the Marshall Milton ANC retains that familiar and iconic Marshall aesthetic and that cool factor, it’s not for everybody, and part of the reason is because these are on-ear headphones, which means they sit directly on the ear.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing because if you wear glasses, the cushions will not press against the frames, which can be more comfortable for people who wear glasses, but it also means that it will perform a bit differently from the usual around the ear headphones. That is something I’m going to talk about, as well as what I like and don’t like about the Milton, so buckle up!
Battery Life
What I like about the Milton is that its battery life is much better now - up to 50 hours with noise canceling which is way above average. It also has app support on both iOS and Android, which allows you to customize the Milton’s noise canceling and sound, it has battery preservation settings, and using the app, you can set a specific action to the ‘M’ button located on the left ear cup.
On the right ear cup there’s that familiar brass control button, it’s one button that does everything like volume, playback and call controls, so it’s super convenient.
It also does USB-C audio in case you prefer a wired digital signal that also charges the Milton at the same time. What’s worth noting is that while they do support the Hi-Res LDAC codec, they don’t deliver the very high frequency range to qualify it as Hi-Res, which is up to 40khz. And just like previous Marshall headphones, they can’t fold flat which makes them a little tricky to put them into slim bags.
Microphone Quality
In terms of mic pickup, the Milton ANC is pretty decent, even in noisy conditions. It’s not the best I’ve seen because there’s still a hint of background noise, and my voice sounded robotic, but it did a decent enough job that what I’m saying through the microphones still sounds intelligible.
👉🏻 Have a listen to the mic quality samples
Active Noise Cancelling
As for its active noise canceling, it’s decent. I did feel the noise around me getting dumbed down when it’s turned on. But as you can see from this frequency sweep, its noise canceling is quite weak in the lower frequencies, and in the high registers too.
This means that while it does cancel a certain degree of most noises, like human chatter, traffic noises, and the noise of air conditioning, you’re not going to get that feeling of deep silence. Most likely, it’s because of the on-ear design of the ear cups. Since the cushions are sitting directly on the ears, it’s not covering the ears entirely, so a lot of noise is still getting picked up by the ears’ pinnae.
👉🏻 Have a listen to the ANC quality samples
Transparency Mode
For transparency mode, although it does feel a bit occluded in the high frequencies, the Milton does have decent transparency. Much of the surrounding ambient sounds are being picked up and amplified pretty well, which makes its transparency useful for face to face conversations and general awareness.
Sound Quality
In terms of their default sound quality, these have a close and intimate soundstage that delivers impact, and they are bonafide bass cannons. Bass is deep and visceral which makes music like lofi Hip Hop, R&B and rock even more enjoyable for people like me, bass heads!
That being said, it’s a little recessed in the mids, and what I don’t really like about its default sound is its brightness. It’s a bit too bright in the upper mids and highs, bordering on sibilance, and this is something we can see in the frequency sweep above.
👉🏻 Have a listen to the sound quality samples
How I fixed its sound
Bass Boost EQ Preset
Soundstage Mode settings
Frankly, I don’t really like how it sounds on default, which is why I tried to tweak it with its 5 band graphic equalizer. The bass preset was okay but I did manage to get something a little cleaner, less sibilant. And I’ve also discovered that using the small room setting in Soundstage mode really helps relax the sound further.
It is possible to make the soundstage bigger, more spatial, but that setting doesn’t sound great on the Milton.
Nonetheless, being able to adjust the soundstage is interesting, and these are very interesting headphones, but as we saw, whether it’s a great purchase for you depends on what you want your headphones to do.
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Marshall Milton A.N.C - https://amzn.to/4eeWP41
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