Marshall Kilburn II Portable Bluetooth Speaker with 20+ Hours of Portable Playtime, (360° Sound), Water-Resistant (IPX2) Black & Brass.

Look no further
The first thing you need to know about this review is that who is this coming from.I have been an audio equipment enthusiast since the age of 8 when I tore apart our beloved Philips Cassette player and added cheap tweeters to it to get more “clarity” in the sound. I have been reading, auditioning, experimenting with almost all budget brands and I have more often than not found out that price does not always determine the quality of a product. I have auditioned a $2000 Grado headphone, and the sound wasn’t as impressive as a Ground Zero headphone which I purchased for around $50 – nothing to take away from Grado, it was a great headphone but the sound wasn’t nearly as “real” as GZ (GZ has only ever produced that one headphone by the way!). To me, the people behind the product matter as much as the product itself, not the brand as much. That is why I have an Audiotec-Fischer setup in my car, not JBL or Sony. I just cannot compromise on quality of sound. It’s not Brax because that’s a very high price point for me.Cut to Marshall Kilburn II, which I received this morning after waiting for 62 days, owing to the lockdown. As soon as I opened the package, I could see “Estd. 1962”. Beneath that was a neatly wrapped speaker which is the highlight and just the charging cable – that’s it. I don’t usually bother with product manuals unless I get in trouble and the internet can’t solve it, in which case the manual is pretty redundant anyway.So, I turned on the 30% default charged speaker, placed it on a table top, connected it to my phone within 10 seconds (yes, it’s that fast even for the first time), played my favourite song, and was instantly satisfied, not blown away, but satisfied. Then I placed on a shelf in the kitchen, and cranked up the volume a little and fiddled with the bass and treble controls to suit myself. This is where I was blown away. How does one fit so much sound in so little, yet make it sound so clean. As I write this review, I’m playing lossless media on it via Aux, and it sounds even better. It’s like it can perform on every level. Maybe I’ll get an A&K Kann sometime and see for myself. My point being it sounds as good as the source, which is the true test of a speaker.During this course, I have played Metal, Pop, Jazz, Indian Classical, Rock, Hard Rock and Folk music on it, and it’s at home with all these genres.Everything about this speaker is high quality – The sound, materials, build, design, connectivity, and yes, the knobs.If you need an amazing speaker which is built as good as it sounds, lasts 20 hours on a single charge, looks stunningly classic, easy to carry around while you can manage a small hole in your pocket, I see no reason not to go for this.

Sounds impressive even for 2024 standards!
Always knew Marshall speakers are amazing but was skeptical with Kilburn 2 as it was launched way back and it didn’t disappoint me a bit. Moreover I didn’t regret buying it over Middleton which was better in every aspect. I do miss the USB C charging but well i got much better sound quality which is the most important part.A big thanks to Amazon for a great value during Great Indian Festival. I got a stellar deal on the speaker. Paisa vasool 😀

Shauk bari cheez h !
Top notch speaker…Perfect highs and lows..Pure bassRest you know when u buy,cause marshall is marshall.

Very good product
Amazing clearity with bass

First of all, I did a LOT (weeks really) of research while looking for a really good sounding, totally portable, Bluetooth speaker that wouldn’t break the bank. That is when I came across this amazing Marshall Kilburn II portable Bluetooth speaker. Actually, I was also considering the Marshall Acton III Bluetooth speaker, (and possibly a couple of Klipsch Bluetooth speakers) due to the great reviews of the Acton III everywhere, but since the Acton III is not fully portable, I went with the Kilburn II instead. I am definitely not disappointed at all with my decision.I have been a guitar player for over 45 years now, and I have owned a LOT of great Marshall products during this time. Marshall makes very high quality guitar amplifiers, so I figured why not check out their portable Bluetooth speakers. However, the original British Marshall amplifier company, founded by Jim Marshall back in the 60s, has now been sold to Zound Industries in Sweden. This Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth speaker is actually designed and manufactured by Zound Industries, and the “Marshall” name is licensed for their portable Bluetooth speaker lineup.This Marshall Kilburn II is a great sounding “little” Bluetooth speaker. However, take the “little” description with a grain of salt, as this Kilburn II has some heft and big sound to it. This Kilburn II is 9 inches wide, 5-1/2 inches deep, and 6-1/2 inches tall (including the control knob height). The Kilburn II also weighs 5-1/2 pounds, so it is probably not something that can be carried around in a backpack for very long. However, if big, clear sound is what people want, then this Kilburn II fits the bill perfectly. The main reason that I don’t like most portable Bluetooth speakers is that they sound like an AM transistor radio from the 70s. This Kilburn II does not sound like that at all. It plays loud and clear.This Kilburn II has one front firing 4 inch woofer, and two separate front and rear firing 3/4 inch tweeters, so it produces real 360 degree room or outdoor filling stereo sound. It is not flat mono sound like most other portable Bluetooth speakers. There is one 20 watt class ‘D’ amplifier that drives the woofer, and two separate 8 watt class ‘D’ amplifiers that drive the two tweeters. While that may not seem like a lot of power, trust me, this Kilburn II plays loud and clear. It also produces really tight (not boomy) bass down to 50hz, and treble up to 20khz (the case is also rear ported). The mids are also very clear and pronounced, especially vocals. The output rating of this Kilburn II is 100db/1 watt at 1 meter, so yes it can get fairly loud. Also, it does help to have a good EQ App on the device that is connected to this Kilburn II in order to help taylor the sound to the listener’s liking. Also, while the bass produced by this Kilburn II is clear, deep, and tight, it is more suited to rock and pop music than the booming bass of rap or techno music (just my honest opinion).This Kilburn II has three control knobs (power/volume, bass, and treble), and one multifunctional push button for Bluetooth pairing (hold down 3 seconds), Bluetooth/AUX switching (push once quickly), and factory reset (hold down 7+ seconds). There is a LED bar charge status indicator on the far right of the three knobs. There is also a 3.5mm AUX-IN port on the rear of this Kilburn II for direct connecting music playback devices. This is still a great feature to have, as a hard-wired connection is always better than a compressed Bluetooth connection for Hi-Def sound quality and battery life, especially when listening to higher bitrate WAV, AAC, FLAC, etc. music files. However, this Kilburn II does support Bluetooth 5.0, and a Qualcomm aptX higher bitrate connection for connected devices that also support it (mainly android based devices). Most other portable Bluetooth speakers only support the standard 1mbps standard Bluetooth bitrate, so having Qualcomm aptX is a real plus if listening to higher bitrate quality music over Bluetooth. This Kilburn II can also remember two Bluetooth devices connected simultaneously for added convenience. The Bluetooth connection also has very good range, and it is very stable, using my Samsung Galaxy S22 phone. The phone connects immediately to this Kilburn II, and I have actually had the distance stably out to about 50 feet or more, as long as there are not any other 2.4ghz range devices in between to interfere with the connection.This Kilburn II has an included old-school two prong (removable) wall outlet power cable (yay!), and it is capable of fast-charging fully in 2-1/2 hours (or 4 hours of use in 20 minutes of charging). I much prefer this charging method over the slow, inconvenient USB connection charging method of most electronic devices these days. The charging cable port is covered by a weatherproof rubber flap for protection, and the Kilburn II case is mildly waterproof (IPX2) and dust rated, but it is not submersible rated. This Kilburn II is rated at 20 hours playback time at medium volume. However, in reality, at the volume that most people will listen to the Kilburn II at most of the time, the playback time will probably be more like 10 to 15 hours, as is with the case of all portable Bluetooth speakers. The good news is that the Kilburn II fast-charges, and it can be also used while charging. This Kilburn II will automatically go into standby mode to save battery life, after 10 minutes of non-use. Just push the Bluetooth pairing button quickly to wake it up.The old-school adjustment knobs are really nice, and they function smoothly. However, these knobs are the only way to adjust this Kilburn II, as there is no Marshall App that works with the Kilburn II. This is fine with me however, as not all of us want or need a battery power robbing, personal data mining App that must be used with every device that we own these days. I have no problem just turning the adjustment knobs when necessary. However, the volume can be controlled by the connected music listening device (just turn the volume on this Kilburn II all the way up), and the music can be played and tailored through any third-party music playing/streaming and/or EQ App. Personally, I have used the Android Poweramp Music App/EQ, as well as SiriusXM, Amazon Music, Pandora,etc. with the Kilburn II, and they all work very well. I don’t use the ever-popular Spotify, as the streaming quality and bitrates on Spotify are just not that great, so I don’t have any experience with that music streaming service to comment on for use with this Kilburn II.Overall, I am very impressed with this “little” Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth speaker. It sounds great, and it plays loud when necessary. Just remember that this speaker is not an ear-shattering JBL or Peavy PA system and everything will be more than fine for normal everyday usage. The removable carrying handle is also very convenient if this Kilburn II needs to be carried long distances (remember, it may be small, but it weighs 5-1/2 pounds). The quality vinyl wrapping and recessed corner bumpers on the case should make the external structure last a long time. The mild weather-proofing will also help with durability. Hopefully, the internal electronic components hold up just as long, but only time will tell. I am a huge Marshall fan, and hopefully this Kilburn II keeps up with the quality reputation of Marshall’s other great products. Pick up one of these great little Kilburn II portable Bluetooth speakers today. The retail price of these devices may seem a bit high, but they are always on sale somewhere at a steep discount. Have fun and enjoy!

This speaker is the perfect choice for your home. The quality of the sound is really good and it has a great battery life. I think the design is really aesthetic and I love the possibility to adjust bass and treble.

Oggetto meraviglioso esteticamente e suono super