Unbelievable Battery Life and Able to Auracast

Marshall Main V: Design

On-ear, not over-ear.

Crucial characteristic you want to concentrate on concerning the Main V is its on-ear design. In case you want enormous oval ear cups to utterly envelope your ears and go away some respiratory house, you must go for over-ear headphones as a substitute. These will press in opposition to your cartilage always which is uncomfortable for some. Judging by on-ear headphone requirements, I discovered these fairly nice owing to the extraordinarily thick layer of cushioning within the cups. Because of their on-ear high quality, they had been cosy by default. The leatherette coating does are inclined to warmth up although, which was bothersome after I was exterior doing chores with these however much less of a difficulty in my room.

These cans are absolutely collapsible and might get very, very small as soon as folded all the way in which. I simply slid them into one of many little pockets in my workplace tote and so they didn’t even result in a bulge. Although I’m not a fan of how the metallic hinges stick out when the headphones are folded all the way in which.

At solely 186g, these are a number of the lightest headphones I’ve examined. For context, Sony’s XM5s are praised for his or her mild weight at 249g. After all, these look rather a lot much less premium than Sony’s flagship headphones however price a pair hundred {dollars} much less. At $150, the Main V provide precisely what you’re paying for. They characteristic some frills by way of performance, however design-wise, they’re fairly barebones. They go for a rugged, sturdy look greater than an attention-grabbing, aesthetically pleasing design.

Contemplating all that, it’s a disgrace that the Main V characteristic no resistance to mud or water. These aren’t IP-rated in any respect, so that you’d should tiptoe very fastidiously round a pool or on a hike. Taking a look at their ruggedness and moveable type issue, I’d’ve guessed (and hoped for) no less than an IP56 on these.

Marshall Main V: Controls

A devoted button for Spotify.

I’ll all the time want bodily buttons over contact controls; their reliability and suggestions are unmatched by a contact interface. It’s a bonus when bodily controls are designed as intuitively as they’re on the Main V with simply two buttons controlling all the things. One of many two handles playback, quantity, and energy on/off. You press it as soon as to cycle between play and pause, lean it to 1 facet relying on whether or not you wish to decrease or elevate the quantity, and lengthy press it to energy on/off. Quantity is a tough management to grasp that’s usually executed in an unintuitive manner on numerous headphones, however the Main V couldn’t have used a better and less complicated manner for it. The opposite management, the M-button, may be personalized for any of those three actions: launching Spotify, accessing the in-app EQ presets, or enabling voice help.

I set the M-button to set off Spotify. Since I’m an everyday consumer of the app, this management was extraordinarily helpful to me. With only one press, it will play a music from one in all my playlists on Spotify. I liked that upon urgent the button once more, it will change to a different music from a kind of playlists or one based mostly on my listening exercise on the app. I’m all the time plugged into Spotify whereas commuting, and it’s usually a trouble to cycle between playlists on the go. With a 3.5mm enter on the headphones and a wire within the bundle, there’s an possibility for wired connectivity as properly.

Marshall Main V: Battery Life

Ridiculously lengthy battery life.

Marshall guarantees greater than 100 hours on the Main V. I aimed to check this out just a few weeks in the past and began to maintain psychological notes of my each day utilization together with the drop in battery share. After round three weeks and roughly forty hours, it’s nonetheless going sturdy at 63%. Be aware that this consists of numerous speak time, which drains the battery quicker than playtime. They take three hours to completely recharge, however that’s not a evident challenge when you need to do it about as soon as a month, if not much less. With most headphones lasting someplace between 40 to 60 hours, the 100+ hour battery life on the Main V is extraordinarily spectacular.

At their modest $150 worth, additionally they provide wi-fi charging. Fast charging is supported with quarter-hour providing you with 15 hours of playtime. The battery preservation characteristic on the Main V is one other frill I don’t see on numerous headphones. You’ll be able to select between Customary, Medium, and Max battery preservation profiles on the app. On Customary, the utmost recharge on the headphones is proscribed to 90% to guard the battery from overheating. The Medium mode provides a charging pace limiter to ensure recharging is finished at a sluggish and regular tempo. The Max does all the things the opposite two modes do and provides a temperature measure. This slows the charging tempo when the system heats up greater than the best vary to extend the battery lifespan. These measures could seem bothersome wanting on the already lengthy three-hour recharging time however they will do wonders on your headphones’ battery in the long run. You too can all the time decide out of selecting a battery preservation mode.

Marshall Main V: Efficiency

Underwhelming sound.

The Main V characteristic a balanced sound with essentially the most emphasis on mids. The bass is the least emphasised even with the Bass Enhance preset enabled within the app. The treble is extra noticeable than the low-end however doesn’t shine sufficient to demand an additional layer. It sounds fairly clustered with the remainder of the weather. Total, the orchestra might use much more house than it presently receives. There may be little sound imaging and it’s as if the weather don’t have sufficient room to breathe. I performed round on the in-app EQ settings, however other than the mid-reduction and mid-boost presets, this didn’t actually have an effect on the standard of the audio.

The headphones sport 40mm dynamic drivers and a 20 to twenty KHz frequency vary, normal for many headphones on this vary. There isn’t any ANC, however the excessively thick ear cup cushions present respectable passive noise isolation. On 20% quantity, my coworkers’ conversations had been utterly muted.

I used to be left feeling underwhelmed by the audio on the Main V just because I anticipated extra out of the Marshall tag. The sound lacked definition and persona. It got here off as shallow and leaned in direction of a tinny profile. The one efficiency characteristic that impressed me was their Bluetooth LE compatibility. They arrive future-proofed with LE which suggests they’re prepared for Auracast in a future firmware replace. That’s a uncommon characteristic for headphones on this worth vary. There are numerous examples of significantly dearer headphones that aren’t able to facilitating Auracast.

Talking of future-proofing, there are just a few extra options on the Main V that goal to increase their lifespan. Marshall claims they’re rugged sufficient to face up to put on and tear but when the ear cups ever run into an accident, you’ll be able to order simply the cups on-line. The Main V are additionally Marshall’s first headphones to be included of their restore program, so the batteries may be modified at any licensed restore middle.

Verdict

Marshall’s Main V totally impressed me in some areas however underwhelmed in others. I felt entitled to nice sound on these since they’re Marshall-branded, however didn’t get that. The absence of ANC and an IP ranking at a midrange $150 worth are additionally critical omissions. On the similar time, the ridiculously lengthy battery life is precisely double what you get on most different headphones, and help for Auracast sooner or later is a good rarer characteristic. Being a loyal Spotify consumer, a devoted button for the app made me extraordinarily joyful. If I didn’t know these had been manufactured by Marshall, I might need given them a better rating. All in all, I can solely advocate these to non-audiophiles who’re on the lookout for an entry-level pair of headphones and prioritize battery life over sound high quality.