Marshall Stockwell III review: Bluetooth finery at its best

It's been a good few years since Marshall dropped the Stockwell II, but now it's coming back to the same territory to make a new version of its mid-sized Bluetooth speaker.

I've had the Stockwell III on review for well over a month, giving me loads of time to test it out, and see how it fares in everyday use.

Smaller than the Acton IV by a big chunk, but way more portable as a result, the Stockwell III might be the speaker in Marshall's lineup that makes the most sense to me.

Its tactility and design are as good as anything on the market, and if you're after a pure Bluetooth speaker with a different aesthetic, you won't find many finer.

Price and Availability

The Stockwell III is available directly from Marshall right now, with wider retail availability from 25 August, and it comes in both black and white versions.

The speaker costs £199.99 here in the UK, making it around £30 more expensive than the Stockwell II was at launch. It's $249.99 in the USA.

Given the Stockwell II came out all the way back in 2019, though, that's perhaps neither a surprise nor a great controversy, with inflation having been brutal in the tech industry in those 7 years since.

Design and Features

The Stockwell III is classic Marshall, from basically whatever angle you choose to approach it from. For one thing, it has that cursive Marshall logo on its front side, brassy and proud, but it also has a row of physical controls atop itself that really does stand out from the crowd.

Its size and shape are also relatively unusual, even for someone who tests as many portable speakers as I do. It's a sort of portrait-orientation speaker, so it stands much taller than its base.

Included in the box is a sturdy carrying handle that can be swivelled down to be less obvious, which feels like an essential part of the aesthetic proposition.

That handle matches the faux-leather finish of your white or black speaker, but its inside edge is in a red velvet that gives a really nice pop of colour to the speaker when viewed as a whole. The speaker's actual body is covered in a rubber shell with its outside in that leather-grain texture.

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The front and back of the Stockwell III are grille-covered, while the bottom is rubberised for stability and to dampen vibrations.

At 1.29kg with the strap attached, it's light enough to be easily stowed in a bag and carried around, but I won't pretend it's insignificant – you will find lighter alternatives out there if that's a priority.

The top of the speaker is a brassy plate with a wide range of controls embedded in it. You get a power button and a pairing button, each nice and clicky, as well as three gorgeous knobs. One is your master volume, while the other two dial up bass and treble, respectively.

Finally, there's an M button that can be customised, but cycles through presets by default, and a clever little rocker button that controls play/pause as well as letting you skip tracks.

Marshall is the best in the game when it comes to tactile controls, and these are no different. You might not need bass and treble controls to hand like this, but when you do use them, you'll be thrilled by how smoothly they actuate, and by how cleverly the LED lighting makes it obvious what setting you're on.

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On one of the speaker's edges you'll find its only ports – an AUX for wired audio, and a USB-C for power. Its battery is advertised as lasting 40 hours on a charge, twice as long as the Stockwell II.

Intriguingly, despite the fact that it looks like a speaker with a clear front and back, Marshall has built the Stockwell III to be a 360-degree speaker, so you should get good sound regardless of where you position it. That's worth knowing, since it does make it more adaptable.

Another big upgrade comes in terms of durability, with an IP55 rating making the Stockwell III more resistant to water and dust than before. That said, this makes it safe for rain showers, but not any form of immersion, so beware if it's intended for use by a pool.

In a similar vein, the Stockwell III also lets you pry off its rubber faux-leather skin entirely to access its replaceable battery (which will be sold separately by Marshall, should you need to swap it). You can open that compartment with just a Phillips-head screwdriver. That's a huge step (thanks to the EU) that could extend its usable life massively.

Sound and Performance

I'm a big fan of how the Stockwell III looks, then, but how does it sound?

Marshall's big marketing push in 2026 has been around "loud", centring its history of making amps for rock stars and rebels, and I think the Stockwell III is a fun little addition to that lineage, punching above its weight.

As a Bluetooth-only speaker (bar that AUX input), it's really simple to get connected, and once you're hooked up, its sound is as impressive as you'd hope for. I used a variety of genres to test the Stockwell III, and wasn't ever really tripped up by something sounding off-kilter.

Eric Clapton's lockdown-era cover of After Midnight is a great choice for testing the acoustic qualities of a speaker, and it sounds as warm and detailed as I'd want, with those first few guitar plucks resonant and deep. On Phoebe Bridgers' Garden Song, the elusive bassy backing vocals can be picked out far more easily than on some of the competition, too.

Alt-J's 3WW, meanwhile, has the urgency I look for, and an interesting balance between the treble twangs of its guitars and the pulsing bass of its undercarriage. The opening bars of Harry Styles' Undertow bring an impressive amount of precision and clarity, too.

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That's all pretty great, and the reality is that I don't have any complaints to level at the Stockwell III's sound. For its size, it's simply excellent, and being able to dial up bass or treble song-by-song can be really enjoyable if you want the extra fun.

Marshall's claims of a 360-degree sound sphere bear some weight – turning the speaker around during listening, it is indeed far less directional than you'd assume from its design. That said, while being in line with its front or back sounds pretty identical, it's definitely a little less clear from the left or right sides, so true 360-degree coverage isn't quite there.

Another interesting little side note is that, despite the rubbery base of the speaker, there's quite a lot of vibration passed out of the Stockwell III while it plays at any decent volume – so unless it's on a really solid surface, expect some transference. I don't think that stacks as a major negative, though, and it does underline the amount of power squeezed into this relatively small speaker.

I found the battery life of the Stockwell III to be just as impressive as its quoted 40 hours indicated (without having timed it exactly). It lasts for days and days of regular use, which is a really good showing.

Verdict

The Stockwell III is probably my favourite Marshall portable speaker to date. It's a great size, has oodles of character, and some of the best physical controls in any speaker on the market. The fact that it pairs those attributes with excellent sound is foundational to its success, of course.

With its durability and battery life also provided welcome boosts for this generation, it's hard to see this as anything other than a massive success for Marshall. It's probably the pure-Bluetooth speaker that I'd recommend most strongly from its whole lineup, and looks like a banker for the next few years to come.

Also Consider

It's not a charge I'll level at the Stockwell III thanks to its smaller size, but if it were much pricier I'd start to gripe that the speaker should have Wi-Fi connectivity on board, too. If you want that added flexibility, you have to consider the Sonos Play, my favourite flexible home-and-away speaker right now, and for the extra money you do get clearer sound.

If you're more geared toward portability, though, and want something just a little more packable and portable than the Stockwell III, our top pick needs a mention. It's the Bang & Olufsen Beoplay A1 3rd Gen, and it's a stunning little slice of audio and design. That said, in pound-for-sound terms it's a more luxury choice than Marshall's.