Marshall has debuted its latest pair of over-ear headphones in the Monitor III ANC, which boast some very long battery life, spatial audio, and “enhanced” noise-cancellation.
It’s been a few years since the Monitor II ANC came out, a pair of headphones that this site gave 4.5 stars. So the Monitor III ANC aim to improve on that foundation with Marshall building the headphones from the ground up to appeal to “true music lovers”.
What does that mean exactly? Well, the headphones feature the audio personalisation options the Major V launched with, featuring a customisable M-button for control over EQ settings, Spotify, and voice assistants.
The built-in microphones in the earcups have been re-designed to “dramatically” reduce wind noise that could affect noise-cancellation and call quality. The acoustic design has been re-engineered to provide a better audio performance, with Marshall claiming the Monitor III ANC provide a sound that is “wide, well-balanced, detailed, and enjoyable”. We’ll have to wait and see on that front.
New features include support for Auracast that allows the headphones to share audio with other Marshall speakers and headphones; while attention has been paid to the design to create a lightweight and comfortable pair of headphones imbued with Marshall’s iconic looks. The headphones can be folded for transport, with the hard case also featuring red velvet inside that resembles a guitar case, a nod to Marshall’s musical past.
Battery life is an enormous 70 hours with ANC and 100 hours without, reaching similar straospheric altititudes as the Cambridge Audio Melomania P100. There’s also what Marshall is describing as Soundstage spatial audio that upmixes stereo audio for more immersion. The Adaptive Loudness feature adjusts the sound based on the noise around you, so you’ll be able to hear your music whatever the environment.
The Marshall Monitor III ANC are on sale now, and they’re priced at £299 / $349 / €349. We’ll be looking to review the headphones in the coming weeks so check back for our opinion on whether the headphones are worth getting.
