Inflation being what it is, you might suspect the second generation of the excellent Marshall Motif ANC earbuds to have gone up in price. But the Marshall Motif II ANC—available for pre-order today and scheduled to ship September 12—will carry the same price tag as the original: $199.
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best noise-cancelling headphones.
We praised the original Marshall Motif ANC for delivering great sound, being very comfortable to wear, providing effective active noise cancellation and for batteries that last a good long time. The manufacturer says it has moved forward across the board, thanks in part to the Motif II ANC’s being Bluetooth LE Audio ready. The new standard comes with a new codec, LC3 (Low Complexity Communications Codec), and it promises both better sound quality and improved power efficiency for longer battery life. You’ll find more details on Bluetooth LE Audio at the preceding link.
The biggest change for the Marshall Motif II ANC is support for Bluetooth LE Audio.
Marshall Group
In terms of design, it doesn’t look like much has changed. The Motif II ANC have the same knurled stems and what looks to be an identical charging case covered in a textile reminiscent of Tolex, the material that Marshall Amplification long wrapped its storied guitar amplifiers in.
Changes under the hood increase the Motif II ANC’s playing time to 30 hours with active noise cancellation engaged–a full 10 hours longer than the first-gen product. You’ll get six hours of listening time with the batteries in the earbuds alone. A 15-minute charge in the Motif II ANC’s charging case promises to yield a full hour of listening.
The new earbuds use the same-size drivers—6mm—with the same sensitivity specs: 106+/- 2dB @ 1mW (0.126Vrms) 1KHz and frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz.
We’ve requested review samples and will publish an in-depth review as soon as we’ve put the Marshall Motif II ANC through their paces.
Correction: This story was updated shortly after publication. We had reported that Zound Industries licenses the Marshall brand from Marshall Amplification. Zound Industries merged with Marshall Amplification in March 2023 and the company changed its name to Marshall Group in June.
Author: Michael Brown, Executive Editor, TechHive
Michael is TechHive's lead editor, with 30+ years of experience covering smart homes, home networking, and home audio/home theater. He holds a BA in Multimedia Journalism, authored the book Desktop Video Production, and was awarded Best Online Review by the Computer Press Association. Michael built a smart home in 2007 and used it as a real-world product-testing lab. Now living in the Pacific Northwest, he is converting his 1890 Victorian bungalow into a modern smart home. Michael has worked at CNET, PCWorld, Electronic Musician, and Maximum PC. As a freelancer, he contributed to New Media, Camcorder, MacWeek, and more.