I tried Marshall’s first-ever soundbar, now my Sonos dreams are over

Last month, I was invited to Marshall's headquarters to explore a new product – and a first for the brand. I'd already speculated that it would likely be an all-new soundbar and, indeed, Marshall hasn't disappointed in its first foray into this competitive audio space.

I've been reviewing the best soundbars in abundance over recent years, with the likes of Sonos' Arc Ultra massively impressing in terms of what a single-box solution can deliver. Well, Marshall is coming for the take with the Heston 120, a major statement of intent in what the brand hopes to achieve in this space.

I interviewed Marshall brand directors and audio engineers in relation to the Heston 120's birth, new technologies and challenges – so be sure to read that for additional background that went into making the product.

But it was in the actual listening experience that I realised Marshall wasn't attacking this market half-cooked. Indeed, the Heston 120 is a solid Sonos rival with some even better features – here are the highlights worthy of your attention.

Distinctive controls

Marshall began life in the 1960s, so it's got heritage and an enduring style that's become iconic. It would be kind of wrong if the brand shunned that classic aesthetic for its first-ever soundbar. But the Heston 120 goes all-in.

In addition to the classic black with brass trim, the soundbar also has a trio of physical control knobs up top. You can adjust the volume with the first, toggle between bass/treble adjustment – by physically depressing that second knob to toggle between – or cycle between sources using the third.

There's an app, too, so everything is coded in, meaning whether you control from afar or from the product itself, it'll all sync seamlessly. I really like the red LED scale to represent the position of rotation (as they're infinite rotating knobs), which fades away as to not disturb your viewing and/or listening experiences.

There are a variety of sound modes, with Movie, Music, Night and Voice options available to toggle through at the press of a button (or, again, via the app). There's a separate trio of presets with individually assigned buttons, too, which is where this soundbar's focus on music comes to the fore – an easy way to cycle between your customised preferences when listening to tunes.

Massive bass

But Marshall hasn't used up excessive space to implement this control panel. As its acoustic engineers attested, there's a whole lot of surfaces on this product that move. There are 15 vibrating surfaces, 11 of which are drivers – four of those being woofers.

In short, the Marshall Heston 120 can deliver massive bass, right down to the 40Hz region, direct from the soundbar itself – no need for a separate sub. It'll play nice with one of those if you want, though, and a Sub 200 product will go on sale later in the year (although that's seemingly designed for the smaller Heston 60 product, which is due on sale at the same time).

I sampled listening to Radiohead's Everything In Its Right Place at a demo and, seriously, the width from this bar is sensational. Not only that, the bass is seismic (an expression I never really knew I had reserved for such a track). Those radiators and woofers work their magic – but at no cost to the rest of the mix.

The Marshall might not have as many channel divisions as Sonos' Arc Ultra, but when it comes to low-end wallop, it absolutely rocks.

Dolby Atmos

Moving over from music to movies and I was demoed a portion of The Phantom Menace. Widely acknowledged as cinematic torture, the sound mix is actually a strong demonstration of surrounding mixing, with the Skywalker race sequence in particular hitting all those big bass throngs, fizzing SFX, plus vocal cut-aways all in one.

The Heston 120's 11 drivers are split in a 5.1.2 arrangement, that meaning five centre/stereo/side-angled speakers, one central bass (delivered by many more surfaces, as explained), and two upfiring speakers for the surround and overhead element. That's how it delivers Dolby Atmos mixes.

This is Marshall's first-ever Dolby Atmos product, but I'm sure those learnings could be translated into future products. The three-dimensional audio format can, at its best, deliver a true hemispherical sound output – although no single-box solution I've ever heard can get anywhere near that.

The Marshall does a good job at adding the height factor here – and those upfiring channels are even used in music with an 8kHz passthrough to add high-end timbre to tracks. Much as I don't like the Star Wars movie, I can't deny the Marshall's handling of its audio made me want to form a sign of the horns.

HDMI passthrough

Now here's a really obvious area where the Sonos Arc and Arc Ultra fail: they each only offer one HDMI port, with no passthrough. The Marshall Heston 120, meanwhile, has two HDMI 2.1 ports – meaning 4K/120Hz passthrough is possible.

That's great for freeing up an HDMI port behind your telly, while still being able to use HDMI eARC for audio handshake for your most-used sources, while delivering the top-tier audio-visual quality you'd expect through the soundbar itself. Ideal for the latest-gen consoles, such as the PS5 Pro.

Marshall isn't done there when it comes to ports, though. In additon to the HDMI, there's also a classic optical cable, but even stereo RCA connectors (with a third terminal for sub, if you have a third-party one to connect that way) meaning, theoretically, you could connect a turntable to this 'bar. That shows, again, that Marshall is pushing the musical factor, not only gunning for movie heads.

In conlusion

All in all, while I had pondered whether Marshall could create a soundbar to surf the wave between the masses and its fanbase, the Heston 120 is exactly it.

Its design aesthetic stays true to its roots, while not deviating too far away from being a soundbar that can practically sit in front of your telly (it's fairly tall, at nearly 80mm high, though, so keep that in mind).

Its high-end features do demand a high-end price, that's clear, but the audio quality, Dolby Atmos handling and sheer rock'n'roll 'up to 11' bass factor are mighty impressive. Marshall has pulled an unexpected first-try no.1 hit in the Heston 120.