Marshall Milton ANC review: A logical step-up for on-ear fans

Marshall isn't all that secretive about which of its headphone range does the biggest numbers – it's happy to admit that the Major is its biggest seller by far. These dinky on-ear headphones have been fairly iconic for years now, instantly recognisable in a way that few smaller brands can match, but they also have some drawbacks.

Even the most recent Major V couldn't reinvent the wheel, so they're still on-ears with a simple set of features that keep the price down while still sounding punchy. Now, though, Marshall's making a play – it's adding a step-up option above the Major V.

The new Milton ANC looks pretty similar, but offers some important upgrades – with adaptive noise cancelling (ANC) being key. I've had a pair for a few weeks for review purposes, and it's been interesting running the rule over them.

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Price and Availability

The Milton ANC is on sale now, and should be available in a whole host of regions and through a bunch of retailers. They're priced at £179.99 in the UK and $229.99 in the US, which makes them around £50 or $80 more than the cost of the Major V at its launch.

As I'll get to, you do get some pretty major upgrades for that money, but the pricing confirms that Marshall wanted a mid-range option for its headphones offering. It already has the Monitor III ANC up at the £300 mark for a more premium option, so this does fill a gap.

I'm still pretty confident that Marshall will bring out a more mid-range on-ear headphone at some point, but for now the Milton ANC is what we get.

Design and Features

If you hadn't seen the Major V in a while, you'd be forgiven for taking a glance at the Milton ANC and thinking it was the Major VI – its silhouette is extremely similar, with some small changes that you can't unsee once they're pointed out to you.

For one thing, the Milton's earcups are slightly bigger and more rounded, and they have far plusher cushioning. For another, its headband is more solidly constructed, too, with its folding mechanism made of solid metal rather than prongs. This all makes the Milton feel much more substantial, based on my testing.

The cushioning on the headband itself is also plusher, and all of this serves one main aim – making the Milton ANC more comfortable to wear for longer periods than the Major V. The older headphones look great, and plenty of people swear by them, but I'm in the camp that finds the on-ear experience sub-par, since it inevitably leads to a cramped feeling on your ear.

True to expectations, the Milton ANC is way more comfortable. The amount of clamping force has clearly been tuned down slightly in the first place, so the headphones don't feel as tight on your head. That cushioning, meanwhile, makes the biggest difference, since it feels a lot softer and nicer on the ears.

That said, though, after a couple of hours at a time with the Milton ANC on my head, I tended to be ready for them to come off, and my ears always felt relieved when I did so. That's basically my way of saying that if you haven't previously felt great with on-ear headphones, there's nothing here that will radically change your mind or your experience.

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Still, the rest of the design touches on the Milton ANC are great, if not that new. For one thing, the headphones fold up nice and small, to make it easy to stow them in the included carrying bag. You also get Marshall's best-in-class brassy control knob, for one, which acts as a power button, volume control and track-skipping button all in one. I'm confident that rival headphone-makers must be jealous of what remains one of the best pieces of intuitive design on the market.

That's added to by a flush Marshall button on the other earcup, which can be customised as a shortcut key. Finally, there's a USB-C port for charging and audio using the included 3.5mm-to-USB-C cable. There's no 3.5mm port on the headphones this time, but given the included cable that's no great loss.

The other big features to note are under the hood. For one thing, the Milton ANC offers 50 hours of battery life with ANC on, and around 80 hours with it off. That's actually a little worse either way than the 100-hour battery of the Major V, and the Milton ANC also ditches wireless charging. Marshall told me that it found very few people actually used the feature, which isn't much of a surprise to me.

Of course, ANC can't be skipped over. This is adaptive noise-cancelling, not just active – that means it automatically adjusts to the noise levels around you, and it's something of a big deal for Marshall since all of its previous ANC offerings have been simply active. This means the Milton ANC has visible microphones on its exterior and interior, and I'll discuss its performance further down. You can toggle between ANC and a transparency mode using the Marshall button by default.

One note on the build quality side is that Marshall continues to swerve IP ratings, preferring to leave things a little more ambiguous. It claims the Milton ANC should hold up well in regular use, but doesn't have any specific stats for water resistance, for example. This means that while you should be safe enough using it in drizzle, you don't have any firm guarantees about its level of proofing.

Sound and Performance

So, if the comfort and design of the Milton ANC feels relatively obvious (more comfortable and able than the Major, but less than the Monitor), how does it actually sound? Well, I've been really enjoying its poppy sound signature over a few weeks of testing.

Marshall loves to use the word "loud" in its marketing and branding, and I can see why – the trademark Marshall sound comes from its ear-rending amp towers and therefore does have a powerful edge that lends itself really well to rock music. Pairing the Milton ANC with Queens of the Stone Age's Songs for the Dead produces obviously stirring results, as does some older material from Guns N'Roses.

The sound here is punchy, for sure, but it also has to be – the lack of isolation that you get when using on-ear headphones is striking when you're used to earbuds or over-ears, so you should be prepared for plenty of leakage in both directions.

Of course, that will most likely prompt you to turn on the Milton's ANC, and it is indeed pretty transformative. I've never used on-ears with ANC before, something that I previously would have called a little contradictory, but I've been surprised and impressed with how it performs in the Milton.

Piping in sound to counteract the noise around you, you'll get clearer audio and more of a sense of quiet around you with ANC on, but it can't hold a candle to the best ANC headphones out there, or even "fine" ANC on over-ears. It's also interesting to appraise the "adaptive" part of things.

I found that Marshall's first crack at adaptive noise-cancelling performed solidly most of the time, but over many hours of use, I did notice moments where it seemed to deactivate briefly before popping back on – only ever for a few seconds, but enough times that I noted it. This suggests the system isn't 100% fine-tuned to perfection yet, although firmware updates will doubtless tweak it over time.

Battery life lived up to Marshall's billing in my experience, and pairing was also entirely painless over Bluetooth. Controlling the headphones in the Marshall Bluetooth app was also easy, with a few different tweaks to be made and some equalisation (EQ) options for those who want them.

Marshall Milton ANC review: Verdict

The Milton ANC will be a perfect upgrade for a dedicated slice of Marshall lovers who've stuck with their Major headphones for years. If you want the Major experience but with better sound and comfort, it's a no-brainer of a new option, and it'll be fascinating to see how common a sight it becomes on trendy young things' heads.

For those of us who can't quite settle for on-ears, almost entirely because of their comfort compromises and sound leakage, though, it's not a piece of hardware to force a radical conversion. I've been impressed with the Milton ANC, but that doesn't mean I want on-ears with ANC, nor that I think they'll catch on as a major new product category.

Also Consider

The obvious other option for those looking to pick up the Milton ANC is to just stick with the Major V, which can now be found for substantially less money and offers a very similar style of headphone. It doesn't sound as great or feel as soft, but if you want something affordable with a unique design, it's a great pick.

Alternatively, if you want very decent ANC, excellent comfort levels and a more bubbling sound experience, consider the recently-launched Soundcore Space 2 from Anker. It's great value and ticks more everyday boxes than the Milton ANC, in my opinion.