Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth Speaker Review

Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth Speaker Review

The Marshall brand is known for its guitar amps, and the exterior of the Kilburn II speaker is most reminiscent of a guitar amp. Despite the brand name, this Bluetooth speaker was manufactured by Zound Industries in Sweden.

Rock forever!

The 2.5kg speaker has a black or grey faux leather casing, recessed corner traps, a silver mesh speaker grille (it was gold in previous Kilburn models, but it looks better in silver) and a guitar-style strap lends a rocky look to the speaker. The white Marshall logo is quite striking, perhaps a little overly ostentatious.

At the top of the speaker, instead of the usual paired switch and source switches, there are 3 buttons to control the volume, treble and bass, as well as the Bluetooth connection point and the LED battery charge indicator.

The 3.5mm AUX port is located on the back of the speaker. There is no network connection at all, as well as no voice assistant or Wi-Fi connection. It has a Bluetooth 5.0 connection, and thanks to the multi-host function, you can easily connect and switch 2 Bluetooth devices.

IPX 2 certificate

The Marshall speaker is slightly waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about splashing liquid on it or the falling rain damaging it. Try not drop it into the pool though…

Extra long life

The battery life of the Kilburn is 20 hours. It is not possible to charge the device with a USB cable, but with a standard cable, it takes 2.5 hours to fully charge, but if someone is in a hurry, a fast charging of about 15 minutes can lead to 3 hours of operation.

The amplifiers

The speaker is equipped with 2 “D” class amplifiers, the tweeter is powered by an 8-watt amplifier and the subwoofer by a 20-watt amplifier. The frequency range is 52 Hz-20kHz.

 Listening Test

We recommend the Kilburn Bluetooth Speaker primarily for computers and mobile phones due to its size and portability. We tested the speaker in a room converted into a roughly 20-square-foot audio studio. The walls of the home studio were treated with printed sound-absorbing panels and front diffuser panels. The owner is an amateur musician, a true rock fan, so he ordered printed absorbing panels with images on them depicting guitars and rock bands.

Since the Marshall speaker has been given a rocker design and the owner also likes rock music, we started with this style. We used the Spotify music streaming service available on our mobile phone. We selected the song Numb by Linkin Park, an alternative hard rock genre. We experienced strong and dynamic sounds, the stereo experience was perfect, but the 360-degree sound proved to be noisy. The basses were intense, but the lowest frequency ranges proved to be too weak. The trebles were sharp and clean.

We went on with Depeche Mode, we enjoyed tight, definite basses while listening to Enjoy the Silence, although the lowest frequencies were sort of faint this time as well. Even at high volume, the clarity of the music remained, but the sound was less airy and spacious than we expected. There were also shortcomings with the richness of details, which was most evident in the instrumental parts.

Summary

The Kilburn II Bluetooth sound system catches the eye immediately with its rocker style look. The long battery life is also remarkable, as are the 2 “D” class amplifiers. Through the amplifiers, the sound fills the room, we can enjoy a powerful, clear sound, with sharp, beautiful trebles, tight basses. Unfortunately, the lowest ranges are weak. The airy and spacious sound is also lacking, as is the detail that leaves something to be desired. The stereo effect is excellent, but the 360-degree sound is noisy. Since this device is primarily a stereo speaker, this isn’t necessarily a big deal either, although there are Bluetooth speakers that can bring out great 360-degree sounding, such as the Ultimate Ears Megaboom 3 speaker, besides it is even more affordable. Unfortunately, Marshall does not have a Wi-Fi connection either, its relatively high weight and price can also be considered a disadvantage. However, the rocker design compensates for these negatives, although not everyone likes this style; for them, it is worth choosing speakers with a more sophisticated look.

G.H.