Marshall Motif II ANC – Review

With the Marshall Motif II ANC, the company has boosted battery life, tweaked the design and enhanced the Bluetooth performance, all for the same price. However, the original Motif from Marshall had been wireless earphones that had been appreciated for their style, but were lacking in terms of ANC and battery life.

Design

Even though the Motif II ANC boast the Marshall branding, they are from the company behind Adidas and Urbanears earphones, Zound Industries. It merged with Marshall last year to form the Marshall Group. The fit and design are quite similar to the Urbanears Boo Tip, but they have better style and build quality. The earbud stem has a faux-leather design and gold stylings. Even though they are of plastic, these earphones have a nice tactile feel.

The shape and size of the earbud housing allows them to slide in your ear easily. You will find several ear-tip sizes and they are quite comfortable. Depressing the Marshall logo is how you access the touch controls and they are quite responsive. The controls can also be customized. The faux-leather appearance of the case is also a nice touch and there is a Bluetooth pairing button provided. They are only available in black.

Features

The Motif II ANC offer six hours of battery life with ANC and nine with ANC off. You can get about 30 and 43 hours from the case with ANC on and off, respectively. Qi wireless charging is supported by the case, or you can use USB for fast-charging. The app also has some life preservation features like limiting the charge to 90%, lowering the speed of charging as per temperature and so on.

As for Active Noise-Cancellation, you can choose between ‘Off’ and ‘Transparency’ mode. You can also adjust the strength of the ANC manually from low to high. The ANC manages to deliver decent performance overall, as long as the fit is nice and tight.

Bluetooth 5.3 is supported with MPEG + AAC and SBC streaming and Bluetooth Multipoint support allows you to connect two devices simultaneously. The wireless performance has also been improved. The Marshall Bluetooth App offers a number of customization options. There are EQ options with presets, or you can also create your own. There is also Spotify Tap that lets you access the service quickly. Touch controls can also be customized, but you have to choose between certain options.

Sound Quality

In terms of sound Quality, the Marshall Motif II ANC provide a clear and crisp sound for the most part. When you turn up the volume a bit, the sound does get a bit thin and is not exactly the weightiest. But, they perform fine with bass, as the sound usually comes off balanced. Midrange clarity is also decent and you are also free to make adjustments to the presets, as per your preference.