So this is the Marshall Middleton, it a 360 degree speaker and I like to refer to it as a large medium sized speaker. Its sounds good, its super durable and its super portable, but it is premiumly priced. So today we’re going to see how the Marshall Middleton stacks up to two options that I feel that you can’t go wrong with, the JBL Charge 5 and the JBL Xtreme 3.

Regarding pricing, the Middleton retails for $300, and I do feel that that is a little steep for this speaker. I would only recommend that you buy this speaker if its on sale for $250, or if its on sale for $200 then I would say that its a solid pick up. But for comparison sake, there’s the JBL Charge 5 which has a retail price of $180 but likes to go sale for $150, and then there’s the JBL Xtreme 3 which has a retail price of $380, but likes to go on sale for $320. If you want to pick any of these speakers up, they’ll be linked down below.

Now first lets talk about the design of these speakers. So the reason why I refer to the Middle as a large medium sized speaker, is cause its noticeably larger than your staple midsized speakers like the Sony XB33 and JBL Charge 5… but its smaller than your large portable bluetooth speakers like the Sony XG300 and the JBL Xtreme 3… hence that’s why I refer to it as a large medium sized speaker. Now when it comes to portability, all of these speakers are easy enough to take on the go with you… the charge 5 is decently small so you can throw it in your back pack, the Middleton has an optional carrying strap that you can attach, but then there’s the Xtreme 3 which has a shoulder strap… and it has a built in bottle opener. The only thing that I do have to point out here is that the Middleton is a little dense weighing in at 4 pounds… where as the larger Xtreme 3 weighs in at 4.3 pounds. Now when it comes to durability, both of JBL’s speakers have mostly fabric wrapped bodies which are going to do a great job of standing up to constant abuse from bumps and scrapes. Where as the Middleton has a mostly rubber wrapped body which is also very durable. But with the Middleton, the metal grill on the front and the metal backplate on the back can get scratched up… where as with both of JBL’s speakers they have exposed passive radiators that you have to be mindful of. So overall, I do feel the Middleton is more durable cause you only risk cosmetic damage, where as with JBL’s speakers, if you damage their exposed passive radiators, that can ruin your speaker. But finally, all of these are rocking an IP67 ratting, meaning that dust and water aren’t going to be an issue for these speakers.

But now lets talk about tech specs, when it comes to battery life, both the Charge 5 and Middleton have an advertised battery life of 20 hours… however these advertised battery lives of 20 hours are with these speakers playing at 50% volume. Real world use with the Middleton playing at 80% its good for about 12 hours of playback time, which is very impressive, but a little on the quite side, where as the Charge 5 is good for about 10 hours of playback time, and 80% volume is a very good listening volume.

But then there’s the Xtreme 3 which has an advertised battery life of 15 hours… but real world use at 80% volume, this speaker is good for about 9 hours of playback time. So if you need something with a lot of stamina, you’re going to want to go with either the Charge 5 or the Middleton.

Now when it comes to charging these speakers, they all charge via a USB C port which is great, especially for both the Middleton and Xtreme 3 cause these are a larger speakers. But the really cool thing about the USB C port on both the Xtreme 3 and Middleton is that you can use these USB C ports to charge your own devices as well. And I think that is super useful cause most phones these days come with USB C cables.

Where as with the Charge 5, you can’t use its USB C port to charge your own devices, but its does have a USB A out port, and so does the Xtreme 3. But the bonus thing about the Xtreme 3 here is, you can also use its USB C Port as wired connection with your phone… and this I something that you can’t do with either the Charge 5 or Middleton.

But if you want to use a wired connection with the Middleton, you can still use the 3.5 millimeter audio jack… and the Xtreme 3 also has a 3.5 millimeter audio jack. Where as with the Charge 5, you can’t use it with a wired connection at all. Overall, the Xtreme 3 has the best port set up… but in general, I  really like that you can use the USB C port on both the Middleton and Xtreme 3 to charge your own devices.

But when it comes to bluetooth connectivity, all of these speakers can be connected to 2 devices at the same time so that you and a friend can both be DJ, they all have zero latency across the board when watching videos on your phone. But when it comes to audio codecs, unfortunately all of these speakers are only using SBC…

But now lets talk about actually listening to music with these speakers. Regarding speaker set ups, the charge 5 as dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides, and it has a frontward firing woofer and a frontward firing tweeter. Where as with the larger Xtreme 3, it has dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides, and it has dual frontward firing woofers and dual frontward firing tweeters. But then there’s the Middleton which also has dual passive radiators that shoot out the sides, and it also has dual woofers and dual tweeters… but its set up is a little different. There’s one frontward firing woofer and one frontward firing tweeter, and the other woofer and the other tweeter shoots out the back. Giving this speaker 360 degree sound which is going to sound good both indoors and outdoors. Now in general, I am very happy to see that all of the speakers have a woofer and a tweeter set up, cause this helps with their instrument separation. But so that you can see for yourself, let me just show you.

Tweeter demo

So like you may have just seen, the woofer handles the mids and the tweeter handles the highs, so this helps with the instrument separation on these speakers. Now before we jump into the soundtest, I do have to point out that all of these speakers have a customizable EQ. I think the Charge 5 sounds great with its stock EQ, where as with the Xtreme 3, it can sound a little bright with its stock EQ, but for this soundtest we’re using it with its stock EQ. But then there’s the Marshall which just sounds super flat with its stock EQ. So for this soundtest, its going to be playing with its bass set to 5 and its treble set to 3. And also, all of these speakers are playing while at 75% volume.

Soundtest

So first, I think we’re going to have to address max volume performance on these speakers. Now all of these speakers get decently loud for their size, but with both the Charge 5 and Xtreme 3, these two speakers do a good job of linearly increasing their volume. Where as with the Middleton, this speaker is a little on the quitter side until after 85% volume cause that’s when the volume on this speaker shoots up. But then, there’s also the nature of its speaker setup. Since half the sound is coming out the front and the other half is coming out the back, you can’t direct all of the music directly at you like how you can with the Charge 5 and Xtreme 3. But with the Middleton, you can evenly cover a large area with music without having to crank up the volume super loud. So this is a speaker that’s great to use with friends, and this is a 360 degree speaker which is going to sound great both indoors and outdoors… it doesn’t need a ceiling to bounce sound off of like with some other 360 degree speakers. Namely the pulse 5. But when it comes to overall max volume performance, the Xtreme 3 does get noticeably louder than the Middleton and with the Xtreme 3, you do get a performance boost out of it while you use it while its plugged in. Whereas with the Middleton, you don’t get a performance boost. And when compared to the smaller Charge 5… the Middleton only gets ever so slightly louder.

But when it comes to sound quality, the Xtreme 3 does have more physicality in its bass than the Middleton, and the middleton has more physicality in its bass than the Charge 5. But when it comes to the instrument separation, I gotta say that all of these speakers are very close to one another. However I will point out the the Middleton does a better job of keeping the highs crisper at higher volume. Plus, since this is speaker that shoots out the front and back, at does sound much more airy than these other two speakers. Overall, I like how the Middleton sounds and I really like the fact that its a 360 degree speaker, cause it does have its advantages… but with this speaker you are paying a premium just cause its a 360 degree speaker. The middleton only sounds and performs a little better than the Charge 5 which is smaller and more affordable… and with the Xtreme 3, this speaker just packs a harder punch.

But now lets talk about pairing these speakers up with other speakers. Now with the Marshall middleton, you can only pair it up with other Marshall Middletons by using Marshall’s stack mode, but unfortunately you can’t mix and match speakers. So you can’t pair your middleton to lets say an Emberton 2. So pairing the Middleton to other speakers is pretty limited.

Where as with both the Charge 5 and Xtreme 3, both of these speakers are using JBL’s PartyBoost, meaning that you can pair them up to other JBL Partyboost speakers like let say a Boombox 3, a Boombox 2, an Xtreme 3, Charge 5, Pulse 5, a Pulse 4, Flip 5 or to a Flip 6 and you can pair up to 100 speakers together, which is obviously overkill.

But them important thing here is that you have a lot more flexibility here and you can mix and match speakers. So if you want to expand your collection of speakers, you have more options to choose from, and if your friend wants to get the same type of speaker as you, they don’t have to get the exact same speaker.

So peronsally, I feel that if you plan on getting multiple speakers and constantly pairing them together, JBL is the way to go here cause you have a lot more options to choose from. You don have to be stuck with buying the same speaker over and over again unless you really want to.

But with all of that being said, the Marshall middleton is a good, niche speaker. It sounds good and thanks to its speaker set up, it does a really good job of evenly filling a large area with music without having to use it at a high volume. And this is a 360 degree speaker that’s going to sound great both indoors and outdoors. Plus, its decently sized and its very durable. And it also has really good battery life. But the drawbacks about this speaker is that pairing it with other speakers is very limited. Also, if 360 degree sound isn’t super important to you, then you can always go with the Charge 5 which sounds almost as good as the Middleton and it gets almost as loud. All while being smaller and costing less. And if you want something more intense with bigger sound than you’ll might want to go with the Xtreme 3.