Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth Portable Speaker

Not as loud as I thought it would be, but the quality is insane and has a crisp sound. Battery lasts all day on one charge. It’s loud, but I guess I was expecting it to be as loud as their guitar amps considering the wattage. All in all a great speaker for it size. Not too large, not small by any means.

Love the Marshall concept. Got the Emberton, then the Stockwell. Good for their size, do not deliver the bass goods. This sucker sure does. I’m not a sound-oligist, but this sounds beautiful to me. Bass/treble controls nostalgic and of some utility, and it’s a beast of a powerhouse. Good battery. It’s heavy, but pound for po
und as good as it gets

It pairs easily and quickly with any device at the touch of a button, and seems to pick up a signal from very far away. I love the sound quality and it sounds fuller and larger than it should for its size. They did a good job keeping the interface clean and slimmed down, and there’s minimal visual tech clutter on the controls.

We use this in our ceramics studio and it gets splashed with clay, water, and gunk all the time. It hasn’t seemed to mind yet, nor did the last model we owned, so I can attest to its water resistance.

First of all, I did a LOT (weeks really) of research while looking for a really good sounding, totally portable, Bluetooth speaker that wouldn’t break the bank. That is when I came across this amazing Marshall Kilburn II portable Bluetooth speaker. Actually, I was also considering the Marshall Acton III Bluetooth speaker, (and possibly a couple of Klipsch Bluetooth speakers) due to the great reviews of the Acton III everywhere, but since the Acton III is not fully portable, I went with the Kilburn II instead. I am definitely not disappointed at all with my decision.

I have been a guitar player for over 45 years now, and I have owned a LOT of great Marshall products during this time. Marshall makes very high quality guitar amplifiers, so I figured why not check out their portable Bluetooth speakers. However, the original British Marshall amplifier company, founded by Jim Marshall back in the 60s, has now been sold to Zound Industries in Sweden. This Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth speaker is actually designed and manufactured by Zound Industries, and the “Marshall” name is licensed for their portable Bluetooth speaker lineup.

This Marshall Kilburn II is a great sounding “little” Bluetooth speaker. However, take the “little” description with a grain of salt, as this Kilburn II has some heft and big sound to it. This Kilburn II is 9 inches wide, 5-1/2 inches deep, and 6-1/2 inches tall (including the control knob height). The Kilburn II also weighs 5-1/2 pounds, so it is probably not something that can be carried around in a backpack for very long. However, if big, clear sound is what people want, then this Kilburn II fits the bill perfectly. The main reason that I don’t like most portable Bluetooth speakers is that they sound like an AM transistor radio from the 70s. This Kilburn II does not sound like that at all. It plays loud and clear.

This Kilburn II has one front firing 4 inch woofer, and two separate front and rear firing 3/4 inch tweeters, so it produces real 360 degree room or outdoor filling stereo sound. It is not flat mono sound like most other portable Bluetooth speakers. There is one 20 watt class ‘D’ amplifier that drives the woofer, and two separate 8 watt class ‘D’ amplifiers that drive the two tweeters. While that may not seem like a lot of power, trust me, this Kilburn II plays loud and clear. It also produces really tight (not boomy) bass down to 50hz, and treble up to 20khz (the case is also rear ported). The mids are also very clear and pronounced, especially vocals. The output rating of this Kilburn II is 100db/1 watt at 1 meter, so yes it can get fairly loud. Also, it does help to have a good EQ App on the device that is connected to this Kilburn II in order to help taylor the sound to the listener’s liking. Also, while the bass produced by this Kilburn II is clear, deep, and tight, it is more suited to rock and pop music than the booming bass of rap or techno music (just my honest opinion).

This Kilburn II has three control knobs (power/volume, bass, and treble), and one multifunctional push button for Bluetooth pairing (hold down 3 seconds), Bluetooth/AUX switching (push once quickly), and factory reset (hold down 7+ seconds). There is a LED bar charge status indicator on the far right of the three knobs. There is also a 3.5mm AUX-IN port on the rear of this Kilburn II for direct connecting music playback devices. This is still a great feature to have, as a hard-wired connection is always better than a compressed Bluetooth connection for Hi-Def sound quality and battery life, especially when listening to higher bitrate WAV, AAC, FLAC, etc. music files. However, this Kilburn II does support Bluetooth 5.0, and a Qualcomm aptX higher bitrate connection for connected devices that also support it (mainly android based devices). Most other portable Bluetooth speakers only support the standard 1mbps standard Bluetooth bitrate, so having Qualcomm aptX is a real plus if listening to higher bitrate quality music over Bluetooth. This Kilburn II can also remember two Bluetooth devices connected simultaneously for added convenience. The Bluetooth connection also has very good range, and it is very stable, using my Samsung Galaxy S22 phone. The phone connects immediately to this Kilburn II, and I have actually had the distance stably out to about 50 feet or more, as long as there are not any other 2.4ghz range devices in between to interfere with the connection.

This Kilburn II has an included old-school two prong (removable) wall outlet power cable (yay!), and it is capable of fast-charging fully in 2-1/2 hours (or 4 hours of use in 20 minutes of charging). I much prefer this charging method over the slow, inconvenient USB connection charging method of most electronic devices these days. The charging cable port is covered by a weatherproof rubber flap for protection, and the Kilburn II case is mildly waterproof (IPX2) and dust rated, but it is not submersible rated. This Kilburn II is rated at 20 hours playback time at medium volume. However, in reality, at the volume that most people will listen to the Kilburn II at most of the time, the playback time will probably be more like 10 to 15 hours, as is with the case of all portable Bluetooth speakers. The good news is that the Kilburn II fast-charges, and it can be also used while charging. This Kilburn II will automatically go into standby mode to save battery life, after 10 minutes of non-use. Just push the Bluetooth pairing button quickly to wake it up.

The old-school adjustment knobs are really nice, and they function smoothly. However, these knobs are the only way to adjust this Kilburn II, as there is no Marshall App that works with the Kilburn II. This is fine with me however, as not all of us want or need a battery power robbing, personal data mining App that must be used with every device that we own these days. I have no problem just turning the adjustment knobs when necessary. However, the volume can be controlled by the connected music listening device (just turn the volume on this Kilburn II all the way up), and the music can be played and tailored through any third-party music playing/streaming and/or EQ App. Personally, I have used the Android Poweramp Music App/EQ, as well as SiriusXM, Amazon Music, Pandora,etc. with the Kilburn II, and they all work very well. I don’t use the ever-popular Spotify, as the streaming quality and bitrates on Spotify are just not that great, so I don’t have any experience with that music streaming service to comment on for use with this Kilburn II.

Overall, I am very impressed with this “little” Marshall Kilburn II Bluetooth speaker. It sounds great, and it plays loud when necessary. Just remember that this speaker is not an ear-shattering JBL or Peavy PA system and everything will be more than fine for normal everyday usage. The removable carrying handle is also very convenient if this Kilburn II needs to be carried long distances (remember, it may be small, but it weighs 5-1/2 pounds). The quality vinyl wrapping and recessed corner bumpers on the case should make the external structure last a long time. The mild weather-proofing will also help with durability. Hopefully, the internal electronic components hold up just as long, but only time will tell. I am a huge Marshall fan, and hopefully this Kilburn II keeps up with the quality reputation of Marshall’s other great products. Pick up one of these great little Kilburn II portable Bluetooth speakers today. The retail price of these devices may seem a bit high, but they are always on sale somewhere at a steep discount. Have fun and enjoy!

ES UNA BUENA BOCINA, SE ESCUCHA MUY BIEN , NO ES MUY PEQUEÑA, PERO PREFIERO QUE TENGA EL TAMAÑO QUE TIENE POR EL SONIDO, DEBIDO AL TAMAÑO HACE QUE EL SONIDO SE ESCUCHE ROBUSTO COMO SI TUVIERAS UNA BOCINA MAS GRANDE, ES MUY BONITA, TENGO LA BOSE FLEX PERO NO SE PUEDEN COMPARAR YA QUE EL SONIDO DE LA MARSHALL ES MAS ALTO PERO TMB ES MAS GRANDE Y PESADA, SI LA ENCUENTRAS EN OFERTA NO LO PIENSES Y COMPRALA, VAS A SER LA ENVIDIA DE TODOS, YO CREO QUE PERFECTAMENTE PUEDE AMBIENTAR UNA REUNION CON AMIGOS, CARNE ASADA ETC, BALE LA PENA PARA COLECCIONAR EN UNA REPISA

Speaker stopped working after 1 st time of use, then trying to repare under warranty, Amazon say’s it’s not possible, only return, DHL is asking for almost 1000 dh ! And they say it’s not covered by Amazon!

It’s nice, good power. Looks like a real amp. I approve.