The guitar hero in the room

The Marshall Stanmore looks like a classic guitar amplifier, but it’s actually a very modern Bluetooth speaker with the mighty sound quality to live up to the Marshall name.

The speaker is housed in black faux-leather vinyl with a vintage-looking fret grille, both of which nicely set off the brass plate on top. The whole package looks truly authentic. You even get the iconic Marshall script logo on the front.

And, just like on the guitar amp, the brass plate carries the power switch, volume knob and controls for adjusting the bass and treble. (If the volume knob went up to 11 rather than the customary 10, you’d have the classic Spinal Tap headbanger’s joke as well.)

Marshall amps are synonymous with hard rock, the thunder machines stacked in walls by Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Led Zeppelin and countless other acts. Jim Marshall came up with the original JTM45 in the mid-1960s, an amp that reverberated with a much heavier sound than anything heard previously. 

With that history in mind, you’ll appreciate having the Stanmore in your living room, even if it takes up a mere 350x185x185mm and weighs just 5.1 kilograms. That compactness makes it easy to move around – put it next to a wall plug because there’s no batteries.

The Stanmore makes up in volume what it lacks in size, 80 watts of RMS music output – 40 watts from the woofer and 20 for each of the two tweeters. It has a pair of three-quarter-inch dome tweeters and a five-inch woofer, and they generate rich and articulate sound across the entire spectrum, with frequency response from 45 to 22,000Hz. 

A bass port at the back lets you further enhance the lows, so the Stanmore is capable of reproducing deep and powerful bass throughout the midrange and into the highs.

In terms of the connections, you can use Bluetooth Version 4 with APTX technology, or RCA, optical or 3.5mm-stereo-jack input. The input selector button is near the power switch. One of four LED lights will glow to show which input is active. 

The Bluetooth pairing button is beside the input-selector button and the 3.5mm jack is also on the brass plate, while RCA and optical input are around the back.

Optical input is great if the Stanmore serves as a sound system for your smart TV, Apple TV, a hard-disk player or a satellite or cable receiver.

Adding even more to the look of a classic amp cabinet, the package comes with a coiled, double-ended stereo cable with two 3.5mm plugs. It looks ready to plug into a Fender Stratocaster guitar, but you’ll be using it instead to link the speaker to your smartphone or an MP3 music player.

In my test the Stanmore got extremely loud even without the “11” on the volume control. In fact I only had to dial up to 5 and the music was already filling my large living room.

The bass was deep and powerful without losing any of the sonic clarity. I played with the bass and treble knobs and marvelled at the extent of control I had.

Next I streamed in some rock via a Bluetooth connection with an iPad tablet and used the 3.5mm cable to hook in my phone. The output was terrific. The Eagle’s “Hotel California” came through with outstanding detail in all the instruments, including the finer percussion. “The Best of Sting 2011” was revealed to contain lower elements in the British singer’s famously high-pitched singing and his bass guitar was given full vent.

The Marshall Stanmore is distributed in Thailand by Ash Asia and is available at www.AShop.asia and iStudio for Bt15,990. There’s a model in cream white, too, but it must be ordered directly from Ash Asia.

 

KEY SPECS

 

Class D amplifier: 2x20w+1x40w

Drivers: Two three-quarter-inch dome tweeters, one five-and-a-quarter-inch woofer

Frequency response: 45-22Hz +-3DB

Crossover frequency: 2500Hz

Mains input voltage: 100-240V~ /200W

Absolute minimum/maximum: 90-264V~

Main frequency: 50-60Hz

Two standby modes: power saver (0.43w) and standard (8.7w)

Maximum power output: 80W RMS

Connectivity: Bluetooth V4.0 and EDR Aptx Codec; 3.5mm input, RCA input, optical input

Size: 350x185x185mm

Weight: 5.10kg