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Man of Many
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Man of Many
Marshall Steamrolls Into TV Audio With Its First-Ever Soundbar
By Jacob Osborn - News Published: 8 June 2025 |Last Updated: 6 June 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 3 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. Undisputable masters of the amplifier, Marshall is dipping its toes in the TV audio category. And by 'dipping its toes,' we mean kicking the door open with both feet. So goes the new Heston 120, the brand's inaugural foray into the respective domain of modern soundbars. It draws upon six decades of experience and catches its stride at first attempt, combining superior engineering with inspired details to deliver the best of sound and style. Bring in wireless capability and you're getting a seamless sonic experience across TV and music alike. It's no secret that home entertainment systems have become micro-theatres unto themselves, making now a logical time for Marshall to expand upon its repertoire. The brand is already at the forefront of high-quality audio, and it jumps well ahead of the learning curve with its first soundbar. That is to say, the Heston 120 comes fully equipped with superlative specs, including 11 multi-facing drivers and built-in support for Dolby Atmos and DTS-X. Immersive sonics are all but guaranteed, complete with a rich and powerful low end. Marshall Heston 120 Soundbar | Image: Marshall Whether you're streaming shows, movies, or music, the Heston 120 offers wireless connectivity to TVs with HDMI eARC. For other external devices, the soundbar wirelessly integrates via HDMI pass-through, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. It also features an RCA input to connect with analogue turntables and receivers. Various sound modes dial up the versatility factor and allow you to seek the ideal sonic template based on the medium. You can adjust the sound modes along with other controls on the unit itself or through an adjoining app, which works from anywhere in the home and even offers room calibration. The Heston 120 is pure Marshall in terms of design and aesthetic. This is a brand that forges ahead without losing a sense of heritage, hence the furled metal knobs ripped straight out of its iconic amplifiers. Additional details like the wrapped leather trims, brushed metal panel, and analogue-style control panel make for similarly inspired design choices. Under the skin, meanwhile, everything is 'tailored and engineered to have very specific roles to give you an optimal audio experience,' to quote Ed Camphor, Audio Technology and Tuning Lead at Marshall Group. More than a premium soundbar, the Heston 120 is also the first entry in a brand new product range. Later this year, Marshall will introduce a smaller Heston 60 Soundbar and a Heston Sub 200 subwoofer. The audio brand continues to adapt to emerging standards and trends as if it hasn't aged a day since breaking onto the scene all those decades ago. And for that, we're thankful.
Tom's Guide
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
Marshall brings music to your TV stand with the new Heston 120 soundbar
It's no secret that while they're great for movies, soundbars tend to fall down on the music department. Marshall wants to change all that, so it's launched a brand new soundbar called the Heston 120 — an ambitious first for the firm. The Heston 120 is built from the ground up to not only make your movies sound epic with Dolby Atmos, but also your favorite tunes as well. It's priced to compete with the top end of the best soundbars though, so it has a bit of a task on its hands. The most notable thing about the Heston 120 is the way that it looks. Marshall hasn't just made a plastic bar to stick under your TV and forget about it; that's not the Marshall way. Instead, it's a device that, as always, harkens back to its amps and speakers from the '60s and beyond. To that end, it's wrapped from end to end in a fabric grille that looks just like what you'd find on one of the brand's speaker cabinets. The on device controls are brass control knobs like those you'd spot on it's amplifiers, although with all the lights and buttons you'd find on its other home audio equipment. The end result is something that could be quite divisive. Putting one of these bad boys on your TV stand is going to be a choice of looks and performance with its unique style. But it's a choice you'll want to make if all the specs are anything to go by. Marshall wants to make sure that this is a musical device, so it's packed in Wi-Fi streaming and Bluetooth 5.3 with top-notch codec support to make sure your music sounds excellent. Dolby Atmos support for Amazon Music Unlimited and Apple Music tops things off — and thanks to 11 different drivers, it looks like it'll sound pretty good too. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. The Dolby Atmos is going to do wonders for movies, TV, and video games as well. HDMI eARC makes connecting to your TV a cinch, and support for DTS:X is the icing on the cake. 'We spent hundreds of hours fine tuning Heston 120. It was important to us that we spent equal time and effort on both TV and music, not one over the other," says Marshall's Audio Technology and Tuning Lead Ed Camphor. Almost every part of the soundbar will be replaceable, with parts available from Marshall's website. That means the soundbar will last a whole lot longer than the competition — should something break, you can just replace it. That's a big bonus over the likes of the Sonos Arc Ultra, which has to be sent to Sonos in order to get repaired should the worst happen. The Heston 120 is not going to come cheap, however. It's $999 in the U.S., and £899 in its home U.K.. That's around the same as the Arc Ultra in both markets, so it's going to have to do a lot to vie for your hard-earned cash. The Heston launches September 16th, and we can't wait to test it to see where it ranks amongst the best soundbars.
