Marshall Acton IV review: A matter of style

I've said it before, and I'll say it again – Marshall makes the best physical controls in the mainstream audio world. Even when it comes to the best soundbars, thanks to its Heston 120.

It's proving that once again with the release of its newest home speakers. I've had the Acton IV with me for a couple of weeks to see how it stacks up in daily use, with all of its brassy buttons and knobs.

Tactility isn't enough to make a speaker worth it on its own, though, so the latest Acton has plenty of proving itself to do. This is a speaker that asks you to put up a fair whack of cash, after all, so I've been interested to see if it can make that price feel worthy.

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Price and Availability

Having just been launched by Marshall this July, the Acton IV is available to order right now. It's priced at the exact same point as its predecessor here in the UK. That means it comes in at £259.99, while in the US it's $299.99 and Australia asks AU$499.

All of that means that the Acton IV falls into an interesting part of the market – at this price point, many of its competitors also offer Wi-Fi connectivity to enable the likes of Apple AirPlay 2 and Spotify Connect, so it's quite a punchy ask in 2026.

That said, to go four years between speaker versions without a price rise is also fairly rare, and therefore worth mentioning.

Design and Features

The Acton IV is anything but a revolution when it comes to the design language that has made Marshall such a cult choice in the audio world. It brings a look and feel that's really similar to its predecessor in most meaningful ways, but there are tweaks if you look really closely.

This speaker is simple and rectangular in shape, with a clear and obvious front and back, thanks to the brassy Marshall logo on the front side. That front is covered in a durable mesh, which is edged with more brass. The rest of the speaker is covered in a faux-leather textured finish.

On top of the Acton IV there's a cutout within that surface, hiding all of the speaker's physical controls. You get a 3.5mm jack for wired audio, next to a button to swap between sources (with indicator lights to tell you which is selected). Then there are three dials – a master volume, a bass tuner, and a treble adjuster.

On the right of these there are two buttons – a rocker-style one for play/pause and track skipping, and a multi-function Marshall button that can be held down for speaker pairing using Auracast.

Finally, the far right-hand side has the MVP of it all – the most satisfying power switch you'll ever interact with. Seriously, after unboxing the Acton IV I spent about 10 minutes just flicking it back and forth.

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The speaker sits on four rubber feet for stability, and underneath it you'll see a woofer but also the ports for the speaker's power cable and a pair of RCA cable ports for wired audio if you need it.

This all adds up to a really gorgeous-looking speaker in my opinion – one that has the rare distinction of fitting in with either an eclectic old-school rock aesthetic, or a cleaner modern one, depending on what you pair it with.

On the features side, the main addition here is Auracast, which signals that we're on a newer version of Bluetooth compared to the last product – though Marshall isn't saying exactly which version. This keeps it really simple from a connectivity point of view, since you can basically choose between Bluetooth or wired audio.

That said, I'm also always a fan of speakers that give you flexibility, so including Wi-Fi would have been a clear win in my opinion. Given that this is a powered speaker designed to stay in your home, it would simply open up more options for connections, and feels like a miss in my use – much as I can understand its absence from a cost implication perspective.

The Marshall app has some customisation options for the Acton IV if you don't want to use the physical knobs, too. It's slick and easy to use, and being able to tweak how the "M" button works is a great little option for those who have something more specific in mind.

Sound and Performance

If you're going to stick to Bluetooth only, then, you'd better make that Bluetooth rock solid. True to expectations, I never had any issues using the Acton IV during my couple of weeks of use. Its connectivity has been decent.

I spent most review time getting to grips with this speaker's sound. Marshall says the biggest benefit of the new version is a wider soundstage – and the Acton IV does indeed punch above its weight class given its size. It's a surprisingly powerful speaker and really can act as a one-stop solution for a small or medium-sized room that you'd like to fill with music.

Listening to acoustic material like Django Django's new song Cameos, I was impressed by the warmth and clarity that the speaker could get across. That remained just as true when diving into some older Ultimate Painting material.

However, Marshall has long prided itself on loudness and the way it can bring more brash material to life, so my old standbys of Queens of the Stone Age and Justice came out to play really impressively, too. In both cases, the rawness and dirtiness of some of their grittier production style was great.

I'm not always the type to play with EQ (equaliser) settings, either, but the way Marshall integrates them into its physical controls makes it really quite fun to sit and dial the treble up or the bass down while listening. The glide of those knobs really is superbly built, and their impact on sound immediately obvious.

There are other small details to appreciate, too. The volume dial has way more gradations than the treble and bass ones, for example. Each of its lights has multiple states of brightness, so that as you crank it up or down you actually have a huge amount of control over exactly where it lands.

This all means that the Acton IV fulfils its brief impressively, for all that it also limits its brief quite carefully. You get Bluetooth that really does sound impressively wide-ranging and powerful. Nonetheless, in part I do wish it were a little more ambitious.

Verdict

The Acton IV is another great speaker release from Marshall, which really is in a great place in terms of consistency right now. The brand has figured out a great formula for its speakers' sound profiles, while the design of its hardware is always a delight.

The only downside to the Acton IV is that it doesn't aim slightly higher – as Wi-Fi connectivity would be a great new direction to start off in, for my money.

Nonetheless, I really like the Acton IV, as it makes a great Bluetooth speaker, but in a world where some others permit you to rove around your home more easily, or offer different ways to connect, it's a blast of simplicity that you'll either respect or resent.

Also Consider

The Sonos Play is more expensive, but not by much. This is my pick for a home speaker that offers more of the flexibility I've discussed above. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a built-in battery, and while its sound isn't as powerful as the bigger Acton, I think it's more adaptable.

If you want something more permanent in terms of its placement, then the Denon Home 400 is an interesting upgrade. Again, it brings Wi-Fi and multi-room potential to the table, but crucially it's a very different flavour aesthetically, which could make it work better for you.