Marshall Acton Multi-Room (4091914)

You will recognize her from a thousand

Over the past 60 years, Marshall acoustics, amplifiers and combos have literally intermarried with rock music, becoming one of its synonyms. The company decided to play on the feeling of nostalgia and began to design all their home acoustics in the form of well-known guitar amplifiers.

vintage babe

Therefore, do not look for fancy touch buttons on the Acton Multi-Room case. Instead, a massive metal toggle switch with old-school LEDs that light up when turned on. Instead of a remote control, there is a pack of the same massive “twists” for adjusting the volume and equalizer. The column literally boasts of its vintage.

A set of connections for all occasions

At the same time, the model boasts a modern functional set: in addition to the standard 3.5 minijack connector and Bluetooth, there is support for Chromecast and AirPlay, implemented thanks to the built-in Wi-Fi module. It is also possible to use Spotify Connect. At the same time, the settings for streaming services can be saved in the device’s memory or in a proprietary smartphone application. Well, as the name suggests, the Marshall Acton Multi-Room allows you to combine multiple Marshall speakers into a multi-room system.

Convenient equalizer

In terms of sound, the model from Marshall shows itself to be a versatile fellow and is friends not only with rock. Here it is worth saying thanks to those massive treble and bass controls: for dance music, you can pile on bass, for pop music or rock, on the contrary, add lightness and transparency. Thanks to a high-quality amplifier and a well-thought-out internal design (each speaker has its own crossover filter), the speaker sounds loud, powerful, bass and creates an excellent stereo effect. Plus, even at maximum volume (and the volume margin is decent here), Action Multi-Room sounds almost without distortion.

Issue price $400

Now about the fly in the ointment. Some models intermittently fail to connect. The indicator claims that everything is OK, but the sound disappears somewhere, as if the signal source has turned off. It is hardly necessary to turn the volume knob, as everything comes into order. Well, the price: like all the company's products, Action Multi-Room turned out to be noticeably expensive (about $400). For comparison, Harman Kardon Onyx Studio 5 costs almost 2 times cheaper. She also has excellent sound quality, but a smaller headroom and a more modest stereo effect. But there is a built-in battery.