Lots of wireless earbuds sound great, come with useful bonus features, and pack plenty of battery life into their little shells. But you can't describe too many of them as classy.
Marshall is here to change that with its new Mode II earbuds.
As one of the biggest names in audio hardware for the past several decades, Marshall has only just now jumped into the crowded wireless earbuds space. Its Mode II earbuds, priced at $179.99 to compete with the likes of Apple's non-Pro AirPods, keeps things pretty simple. Besides some equalizer and ambient sound settings, you're pretty much only getting high-class looks and sound if you buy in.
Thankfully, these buds deliver in those two departments. But do the Marshall Mode II earbuds do enough overall to stand out among some pretty fierce competition?
The Good: Typical Marshall sound, strong aesthetic
The Mode II box comes with the two earbuds, a charging case, four different sizes of ear tips, and a USB-C charging cable. That's it. What more do you need really?
The earbuds themselves are about as nondescript as can be, with a circular, touch-sensitive outer panel emblazoned with Marshall's recognizable "M" logo. As is custom with most of the portable audio products Marshall makes, the Mode II earbuds come only in matte black.
It's a look that's so indistinct as to be distinct in its own way. But luckily, that doesn't apply to the oval-shaped charging case. Marshall has covered the case almost entirely in the same faux-leather texture as the excellent Monitor II over-ear headphones we reviewed almost exactly a year ago. The only other visible feature on the outside is the company's logo in white. Though if you open up the case, you get a little "EST. 1962" on the inside of the lid, too.
Like I insinuated earlier, it's a classy look that helps the Mode II earbuds distinguish themselves from rivals like the all-white AirPods or Samsung's glossy Galaxy Buds Pro. Looks are probably the least important thing about any audio product, but I appreciate Marshall putting some effort into that department anyway.
To say the Mode II earbuds sound excellent is essentially a formality. They come from a company that makes guitar amps. Of course they sound great. Still, it's worth acknowledging and commending that fact. The Mode II earbuds feature 6mm drivers and a frequency response between 20Hz and 20kHz, if you care about specs.
If you don't, just know that the Mode II earbuds deliver a full range of sound with a nice emphasis on punchy bass that you don't get in all earbuds. I've probably spent an unhealthy amount of time listening to Daft Punk's discography lately because I am in mourning, and also because there arguably isn't a better source of hot bass and other thumping electronic noises for audio testing. Switching from nicer headphones to these little buds doesn't result in a drop in quality at all, which isn't always the case.
Subtle nuances in a song shine through as they're supposed to, and if you want to crank the volume up at the expense of your ear health, the sound won't flatten out. This is all about what I expected. And given I had high expectations, that's a very good thing.
For the more audiophile-inclined readers out there, the Marshall Bluetooth mobile app for iOS and Android (which is required for initial setup) comes with the same customizable equalizer settings as the Monitor II headphones did last year. You can choose between a handful of presets like "Electronic" and "Hip Hop," depending on what you're listening to, or fiddle with the virtual knobs yourself.
The usual touch controls also apply: One tap pauses playback; two taps skips forward, and so on. All of which was plenty responsive in my experience.
As a final bit of cleanup before we get to the Mode II's minor downsides, the battery life here is ... acceptable. Marshall rates the Mode II earbuds for 5 hours of listening time, which is consistent with the experience I had. Combined with a fully powered charging case, you'll get somewhere between 20 and 25 hours of life before needing to plug in again. It's not game-changing, but it's also unlikely to cause any real headaches, either.
The Bad: Slim feature set, minor Bluetooth hiccups
Fundamentally, the only real issue with the Mode II earbuds is that you don't have much control over the listening experience aside from the equalizer settings. The lack of active noise cancellation is noteworthy, as more and more wireless earbuds in the same general price range have come with ANC over the past year or two. Samsung's Galaxy Buds Pro, for instance, launched at a mere $20 more than the Mode IIs and feature ANC.
To be fair, the ear tips and general construction of the Mode IIs provide enough of a natural seal to keep a good deal of ambient noise from bleeding in while you're listening. I can't speak to how much that seal would help when seated next to a screaming baby on an airplane or on a loud subway platform. But for general day-to-day activities, it's fine.
The only other notable audio alteration here is "Transparency Mode," which you can enable in either the mobile app or by tapping the left earbud once. This uses the onboard microphones to amplify noise around you in case you need to hear it. While this feature isn't entirely useless, it also doesn't make a huge difference in terms of what sounds do and don't bleed in. You're probably better off just removing one of the earbuds if you need to quickly chat with someone.
Lastly, I did notice a few small Bluetooth glitches in my time with the Mode II earbuds. Nothing major — just audio briefly dropping out on one side when walking near heavy traffic or small popping noises in the right side. I'd say they still work flawlessly more than 90 percent of the time, but since I never had this issue with something like the Bose QC Earbuds, I felt it was worth pointing out.
The Verdict
Marshall's Mode II earbuds are a solid, if a little barebones, first attempt at wireless earbuds by the famed guitar amp company. There isn't a great deal of ambition here; Marshall made a product that looks nice and brings high-quality audio output, but you won't get a whole lot else out of them.
A follow-up model with ANC would go a long way towards getting a full-throated recommendation from me. As the Mode II earbuds exist now, I'd say they're a step up from regular AirPods due to sound quality. But they fall just a hair short of something like AirPods Pro or the Bose QB Earbuds when considering the full breadth of available features.
Still, they look and sound so damn good that at $179.99, you could do a lot worse.
