Emberton II Portable Bluetooth Speaker, Black & Brass

A few months ago I had an epiphany. When I was a kid my father loved to have the best in sound equipment in the house, and I would play with graphic equalizers and lay in the floor looking for the best position between the giant speakers to experiment how to better enjoy the music. Today, I hear music in monophonic audio in an old JBL Charge 3 speaker (don't tell my dad, he would be ashame of me). So I started to get better equipment. Now, I live in a small apartment with thin walls in a 3rd floor, so, big amplifiers and so are out of the question, but at least I could get better bluetooth speakers, so I tried the Marshall Emberton II. To say that I impressed with the sound would be an understatement. With out-of-the-box settings, the sound is more than detailed. 80s and 90s music sound outstanding although, Peter Cetera's Glory of Love and Toto's Africa vocals sound as I never heard them before, they are sharp and strong, sometimes detracting just a little from the overall sound (keywords here, really, just a little). This brings me to my first recommendation: do not mess with your applications equalizers if you don't know what you are doing. This speakers were clearly designed to use the manufacturer equalizer settings (more on this later). I have youtube music and amazon prime music (yeah, I know, no spotify), and my sound with the latter was to heavy on bass, to the point of drowning the music and feeling almost distorting. Tron: Legacy's soundtrack sounded specially dreadful, as Daftpunk uses heavy bass in their electronic music for that specific music. I then set the equalization in Amazon Prime Music to flat. It was a different performance altogether. I could ever hear some slight effects they used, that I had not noticed before. Now, one down for the application. Bluetooth pairing used Google Fast Pair, which was seamless and impressive (it shows appears to be a custom Marshall little window, so, it looks cool), but the application takes forever to actually "discover" the device, even when it is already paired. When it finally discover it (which was not too long, but took a couple of turning on and off the speaker), the application notified me of a firmware upgrade, which I proceeded to install. The installation failed miserably, so, I temporarily stopped that effort, which I retook successfully a day later. The update was surprisingly big in size, taking around 5 minutes to download, and the application simply marked the update successful while the speaker was still rebooting, which took a few seconds more than what I feel comfortable with, but it went through, and after that, the application again took surprisingly long to detect the speaker. To end that topic, the equalization settings are definitely underwhelming, with only three modes: Marshall, Voice and Push, of which I have only tried Marshall as everybody else says that Voice is just for podcast and such and Push increases bass at the expense of all the other sound bands quality. Lesson learned: unless too picky, when using this speaker, leave your apps equalizers on flat, their profile is that good. Now, to the hardware itself, people will notice this little wonder. Using the nostalgia factor with the Marshall amplifier design was a touch of genius, and the brass button on top is the cherry on top. Some reviews complain about a single button approach to multifunction (power, volume, forward-back, bluetooth pairing has another almost invisible button, which fits because you are not changing your pairing frequently). If we can handle touch control on over-head and in-ear speakers, this button is a piece of cake. My only complain in this department is that, at least for me, an old guy, the signs indicating the functions around the button, being carved in the black speaker, which has texture, are for all intent and purposes invisible, but once you get accustomed, an use the logo as a positional reference that's not a problem anymore. And finally, the little caveat. Single speaker, stereo sound. Let that sink in. Done? Ok, they achieve this trick by separating the sound left and right with drivers back and front respectively (or was it the other way around? well, you get my point). Stereo suffers a little (not too much) because both sources are incredibly close, but it brings this caveat. This speaker should not be set as others, against walls, like in shelf, and so, because you end up drowning one side. The best position for this speaker is in the center of the audio stage, and if you want to appreciate the sound, you should point one side (not the front or back) to you. that way both sources are equally distanced from you so you get a better balance. If you are ok with the caveats this product is worth the price, I definitely recommend it.

I have a little mini box speaker from years ago and have tried many others and not greatly impressed. This unit was surprisingly very good. Has great sound for such a small unit, feels durable, has a good battery life and is beautifully designed. After seeing my purchase several family members purchased units for themselves.

This boombox with bluetooth from a PC is fantastic, from a DJ who used to spin Compact Discs, amazing how easy it is to simply have every song available online and stream. At low volume the low end drums and bass sound fantastic and at louder levels you can hear it at least 75 feet away. The battery lasts about 5 hours when charged to full capacity. Amazing product just like my Marshall Stack.

Excellent sound, easy to install, use and recharge. I highly recommend this item.

This is nice and loud for its size. Has a surprising amount of bass for something so small as well. It looks so much better than other speakers with the Marshall logo as well. When you hold it, you can tell it wasn't made with cheap materials. Feels solid.

I am very pleased with this purchase. It has that certain crispness of sound that sets apart good quality speakers from generic ones. I am not a total audiophile, but I do have a couple of cheaper little BT speakers, a tailgate speaker, and also a Bose unit, the non-portable kind with a remote and clock display that might be called a shelf speaker (?). I am very impressed with the clarity and quality of sound produced by this little speaker! Of course, if you need something that gets super loud, or has deep subwoofer bass, then this isn't the one for you, but no small portable BT speaker would do those things either. For a small BT speaker, this one has way better sound than expected. There might be better out there, but I am sure they would cost a lot more. I think this was a good value for the price. Once paired, this speaker connects quickly to the phone. Within seconds after turning it on, the audio playing on the phone routes to this speaker. So it is much faster to connect than the other speakers I own for comparison. There's one button on the top to control the power and other functions. There is also a phone app, but I have not felt the need to use the app. So far, it sounds good to me as-is. One unique feature is that the silicone sleeve around the sides can be removed and replaced with a new one. I was concerned about buying the white speaker, afraid that dirt or stains might eventually be a problem. Thankfully, if that happens, I can just buy a replacement sleeve. Or, buy one if I want this to be a different color or have a strap. I have also purchased a hard-shell case elsewhere to store this in. That's another good thing about this speaker, you can find cases advertised that fit it. My only slight complaint about this item is that when you power it on or off it makes a somewhat jarring electric guitar type of sound. Yes, that is quite on-brand for this company. I don't hate the sound, but I suspect a lot of people would.

Good sound quality with a portable size. I use it alomst every day. Nice pick.

Feels churlish to give just three stars. 3.5 imo. So to the point. I bought this Em II to mainly listen to my true crime podcasts in my bedroom. Easy & seamless Bluetooth connection to my iPhone 14max. Easy straightforward use for controls on the unit. I really didn’t need to look at the instructions with that. Smooth use there. To test the sound quality I streamed some mesic. The sound quality for music is fine’ish considering the size of speaker. It’s fine for background music if you’re flexible on sound quality as long as you don’t play loudly, at that point the music will frazzle out. So limited, not surprising. Podcast quality is definitely an improvement from my phone’s speaker and in line with the price point, in general. I think it should be about $25 less. The app is useless. I guess I expected something from the app. I’m at a loss for the point of it. I tried it out on my phone. It continued so say my phone Bluetooth was not on. Even as I was literally playing music through it. I did all the stuff. Restart, reconnect etc. Reviewed the booklet, Nothing. Everything re the speaker and phone working fine. But what is the point of the app? I interpreted from the manual that I should download the app to get extra features. Maybe bass and treble controls? The book claims you can stack more speakers through the app but I would not invest in that as it continually says my phones Bluetooth is off. lol Fine retro look, sturdy, small footprint and working out for podcasts. Do not think the app is or will be helpful. If I were to try another I’d probably go with the Klipsch of similar design. It’s approximately $50 more but better sound and working app. Remove $25 dollars off price on the Em II and it’s a fair deal.

If you’re looking for a really loud portable speaker, stop reading this review. If you’re looking for a quality sounding, durable and classy portable speaker, you’re right at Home. The Emberton 2 is a neat piece of kit, simply put. While ticking all the boxes such as durability and impressive battery life, ruggedness and reliability it simply produces better sound and although imperfect, is more value when compared to its competitor portable speakers.

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Loud sound for a very small and portable speaker. Although not recommended using outdoors.

“Pero que bien se oye, no?!” Eso es lo que todo el mundo me dice cuando ven que la música sale de ese pequeño aparato con forma de estuche de lápices de colores. A mi personalmente el diseño de bloque me encanta; al que no conoce nada de la marca le puede parecer algo “chino” barato, pero en cuanto lo sujetas y notas el tacto engomado y su peso, te das cuenta que es un producto premium, el sonido está a otro nivel. Quizá, al tener proyección del sonido por delante y por detrás, sea más aprovechable en interiores (lo pongo a un palmo de distancia de la pared y tenemos el anunciado efecto de audio 360°) tuve un JBL que en exteriores tenía más “punch” ya que el altavoz es frontal y así proyecta el audio, sin embargo cuando la acústica de el espacio lo permite, este pequeño los gana por disponer de una amplia gama de matices. La batería dura una barbaridad; lo uso a diario, me lo llevo incluso al trabajo y solo lo cargo una vez a la semana. Si quieres algo reducido, portable, con batería que realmente dure y (sobretodo) con una buena reproducción de matices sonoros; este es el que buscabas. Lo mejor?: todo lo dicho arriba Lo peor?: si, algún fallo debía tener… y es que la app es tan sencilla que no tiene ecualizador, solo dos ajustes: Original y un modo que aumenta graves

I bought this excellent little portable speaker once and loved it so much I bought a second one. Which? consumer organisation research recommended it as one of their Best Buys and that's why I bought the first one, having assessed what I needed. Light and very portable - although I am not sure whether it might be easier at times to be able to hold it using a handle of some sort? Jury's out on that one, I'm waiting to see! So easy to get set up, charged up and linked to your phone. The sound quality is excellent and you download an app to your phone which enables you to tweak it so the bass is more prominent or less prominent, allowing you to focus more on a voice (whether singing or speaking - useful for devotees of an audiobook). One of the unexpected bonuses is that you can link a second speaker to the first one. In a smaller space (because the phone links to the speaker by bluetooth, so you can't have it too far away) you can have two speakers and either enjoy stereo in one room, or keep a speaker in different rooms and enjoy the sound throughout the entire (small) house, which is my preference when doing housework. This unexpected extra feature adds to the functionality of the speaker. For me, two of these speakers and my phone easily replace the sound systems I used to use. For a smaller home, I find this is ideal. It can still achieve an extremely loud volume but I like my neighbours so I haven't tested it to maximum. I'm very pleased with my purchase. Look out for some price variations, because this goes up and down with about £60 variance and it can make purchasing one of these incredible value for money. Highly recommended. Great sound quality. Long-lasting battery life. It looks well-made and sturdy. Easy to tuck away out of sight when you're not using this because it's so small (light enough to carry in one hand) but produces bigger and better sounds than you would expect.