Any rocker worth his or her tattoos knows the name Marshall. The legendary British guitar amp manufacturer has powered the riffs and rhythms of musical icons from Jimi Hendrix to Slash to System of a Down.

Now, Marshall has lent its name to an intriguing new line of headphones: a full-earcup headphone called the Major and a smaller in-ear version called the Minor. How do they stack up? Let’s find out.

Both the Major and Minor earn a bunch of points purely for style points alone, but the Major definitely comes out on top since the first thing that catches the eye is the classic “Marshall” script logo tastefully yet unmistakably emblazoned on the earcups. Seen directly from the side, the Major is a definite tribute to a classic Marshall speaker cabinet. The homage is helped along by the generous use of black, leather-like vinyl and shiny, rich gold metal accents. And tucked inside the wide and comfortable headband, you will find in spidery gold handwriting a replica signature from The Father of Loud himself, Jim Marshall.

The Minor earbuds suffer by comparison because there is obviously less surface area to play with. It shares the same black and gold color scheme, but the details are more subtle. However the designers still manage to pull off a clever trick by fashioning each earbud to evoke a gold Marshall amplifier control knob, right down to the little black indicator line (“These go to eleven.”).  Each bud also sports a patented EarClick solution to secure it to the outer canal of your ear. A tiny shirt clip with an embossed Marshall logo and a built in mic/remote round out the package.

Both the Major and Minor terminate in a heavy gold plated audio plug not unlike the ones you would find normally plugged into a guitar amp. However, because the plugs are so beefy, they may not work well with all iPhone/iPod protective cases, especially those with tight headphone sockets. Try before you buy.

The Major has a coiled cord similar to a telephone headset or vintage guitar cable while the Minor has a straight, tangle-resistant cord made of braided fabric.

As far as sound goes, I’m happy to report that they both live up to expectations.

Out of the box, the Major had a pleasing, friendly sound – a tiny bit shrill at first, with just a bit of harshness in the mids, but over time the headphones either improved with burn-in or my ears just got accustomed to it. I tried them with a variety of material ranging from electronic to classical to jazz to (of course) rock.

If I were to be picky I’d probably say that some tiny nuances were missing from the subtler styles of music, but overall the Majors sounded confident and musical. I also used them to watch a few movies and TV shows. The comfort of the earcups and headband made it conducive to long viewing sessions and  the Majors did a good job of “disappearing into the background”.

The Minors on the other hand, are a more complicated story. I put them on and was initially surprised to find out that they were sorely lacking in bass. However, pushing them deeper into my ears brought out the bottom end I was looking for. In-ear models like this one need to be firmly seated in order to deliver the best possible sound, and the EarClick technology that was supposed to help lock them in place didn’t seem to be working for me – the earbuds just felt like they were sitting lightly on my ears instead of in them.

After poking around inside the box that came with the Minors, I discovered that there were three other sizes of silicone earpads to help you find the best fit. It took me a bit of nervous fiddling and tweaking to figure out how to swap the earpads out (it was a loaner review unit after all, and it didn’t come with an instruction manual!) but eventually, just like Goldilocks, I found a pair that wasn’t too big or too small – it was just right.

Finally having achieved the proper EarClick fit, I can say the sound of the Minors improved dramatically. While, for obvious reasons, the bass doesn’t feel as all encompassing as it did with the full-earcup Majors, it is still surprisingly robust without overwhelming the rest of the frequency spectrum. Kick drums and toms sound full and brawny, and bass guitars provide a suitably deep foundation. The added isolation of the Minors also makes the music feel more intimate, while simultaneously (I hope) lessening the need for you to crank the volume too high.

The inline remote/mic on the Minors makes it really useful when out and about. The mic worked fine with my BlackBerry, and the person on the other end reported my voice was coming in loud and clear. The Apple convention of double-press for next track (and triple-press to rewind) worked properly on my iPod Touch, as does holding down on the remote button to activate the Voice Control feature, so I could issue a command to jump to a different playlist even with the Touch in my back pocket.

Overall I was prepared to be skeptical of the Marshall headphones, but both the Major and Minor are indeed worthy of the manufacturer’s name. I’m glad to be able to end this review with the most obvious possible cliche: They rock!

Philippine SRP:

Major headphones – P4,650

Minor earbuds – P2,650

LIKES:

• Sound is lively and musical
• Major is comfortable for long use
• Unmistakable Marshall design cues

DISLIKES

• Beefy gold-plated plug may not fit all headphone ports
• Minor takes some experimentation to find the proper fit
• Minor is not as comfortable as the Major for extended use

Vic

Vic spends entirely too much on gadgets. So rather than try and kick the habit, he decided to become the Reviews Editor of Technoodling. Now, he has a perfectly good excuse. It's not an addiction: it's a job. His favorite noodle: Pappardelle.

email: vic@technoodling.netwebsite: http://www.technoodling.net