Full transparency: I’m a huge Marshall fan.
As an enthusiastic, albeit largely bobbins, guitarist, I’ve lusted over Marshall amps my entire teen/adult life, as nothing else has the same sultry sound and the suitable overdrive to make even my wailing sound half-good. So, you can expect a soupçon of semi-conscious bias in my review of the utterly legendary company’s first soundbar, the mighty Heston 120. Consider this fair warning.
Maker of the world’s finest and most famous guitar amps, Marshall, first branched out into Bluetooth speakers (and kick-bottom headphones) in 2010, allowing those without electric planks to rock out with their phone out.
As most of these, seemingly, came named after places in London and the general Milton Keynes area, it’s fair to assume that the Heston 120 follows suit, its moniker honouring that area of Hounslow famed for its M4 services and being the former home of the aerodrome that badly misguided Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew back from Berlin to, prior to waving a bit of paper in the air and stating “Peace for our time” right before WWII kicked off.
But now, Heston will be famous for a whole new reason beyond Hitler-hoodwinked PMs and a place to grab a coffee and a Greggs steak bake on your way to Wales. The Heston 120 has hit, and hit hard, shaking up the soundbar market as a whole and coming directly for Sonos’ Arc Ultra.
A true heavyweight
Let’s start with the aesthetics. Firstly, it’s worth mentioning that the Heston 120 is massive, measuring a whopping 110cm wide, so check you can accommodate it, and its hefty 7.04kg weight, before you go smashing that piggy bank.
Secondly, you don’t just look at the Heston 120, you behold it. A horizontal monolith of eye-popping awesomeness that’s unmistakably Marshall, from the wrapped black leather trim to the gold accents and the knurled metal knobs that hark beautifully back to its heritage amp head controls, it screams style. The gentle red glow that surrounds those volume, source and bass/treble pots is just the eye-candy icing on the cool as a cryogenic cucumber cake.
But, of course, there’ll be those who prefer their soundbars to look a little more homely, a tad less conspicuous, a touch more unassuming, but look, you can ignore them; those people are just wrong. The Heston 120 is nothing less than a brooding hunk of visual perfection.
Make the connection
Clearly, Marshall were in no mood to mess around when it came to the Heston’s connection capabilities, chucking a wealth of wired options for HDMI eARC, HDMI In (pass through) to deal with the TV, RCA Stereo, RCA Mono (sub out), USB-C, and Ethernet, and being equally generous with the wire-free flipside, throwing in Wi-Fi first and foremost, compatibility with Spotify, Google Cast, Tidal, AirPlay and, of course, Bluetooth should you just want to make other stuff stored on your phone sound utterly sublime.
Set-up is relatively straightforward, but the one thing you’ll notice immediately with your Sherlockian powers of observation is that there is no remote control. Ah.
Instead, all operation run via the Marshall app, which is highly intuitive and allows you to source input, what mode you’re in, be that Movie, Voice, Music, or Night, adjust the volume, and play around with the EQ settings until every aspect of your demanding aural appetite is sonically sated.
Those who are more hands-on can also fiddle with the 120 via the tempting top panel, with – as mentioned earlier – glorious golden knobs controlling volume, treble/bass, and input source, plus a button for mode selection button and another to access your presets, also both finished in glistening gold, stars in a firmament of black.
If you hook the Heston up to your TV, using HDMI ARC or eARC, you can alter the volume using your existing TV remote, too, so operational options abound, even if the app really is the essential element at the heart of it all.
Of sound mind
But devastatingly good looks and flexible accessibility all ultimately mean nothing if a soundbar’s raison d'être is not realised, and so we turn to the sound.
Does the Heston 120 handle drastically dynamic film soundtracks and music running from rock to reggae to classical to K-pop with equal aplomb? Is it the performance powerhouse that both the name and the near-£900 price tag would suggest it should be? In short, does it rock at a Spinal Tap factor of up to 11?
Well, let’s lean into the engineering. Inside this sonorous machine sits an enormous 11Class-D amplifiers, 2x 50W and 9x30W, these drive 150W peak power through an audio array of 2x 3-inch midwoofers, 2x 0.8-inch up-firing tweeters, 2x full range side-firing drivers, 3x matching full-range front drivers, and dual rear-facing subwoofers along with 4x passive radiators. They all work together in perfect harmony to create a soundstage of breath-taking width and height, precision produced audio fired out in all directions, bouncing of the walls and the ceiling to fill every inch of the room with sound you can feel in your soul, backed by some of the tightest, most powerful bass you’ll ever experience from a soundbar.
Performance - how I tested
The pre-title scene in No Time To Die runs for an expansive 23 minutes and 45 seconds, during which time we swing from a moment of near silence to sweeping music to an on-screen-deafening explosion, to all-out, all-guns-built-into-the-headlights-of-Bond’s-DB5-blazing, car-mageddon, and onto Billie Eilish’s whispered and almost wistful theme song.
It’s this scene that puts the Heston 120 very nicely through its considerable paces, adding extra punch to every, well, punch, as the bullets fly around your head and the soundtrack swoops and soars. The Marshall perfectly enhances every nuance, delivering an ear-popping cinematic performance that makes you want to stand up and applaud at the end, like audiences did in the good old days of the Odeon.
Also Marshalling its way through the likes of Bohemian Rhapsody, the original Guardians of the Galaxy, and Chris Nolan’s twisty turny Tenet, the Heston 120’s engineering and support for Dolby Atmos and DTS-X adds an energy and excitement to the concert scenes (in particular) from Bohemian making them absolutely soar, while also putting you slap-bang in the middle of the ear-confounding intergalactic action in Guardians. And then there’s Tenet, a brilliantly conceived and shot muffle-fest that leaves your ears straining to work out exactly what’s being said. Here, the Heston’s front drivers and real-time audio processing brought forth a clarity to the speech that I previously never believed possible. And if you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean.
Yes, the Heston is a home cinema hero.
Musical maestro
Having the ability to stream music directly to it, whilst a far from unique feature with soundbars, also becomes quite the event with the Heston 120, whether using Google Cast, streaming from Spotify or simply tuned into, say, Absolute Radio online (as I am as I type, the sound quality is unquestionable, even as I suffer through the Oasis-heavy track lists, the highs ascend and swirl, the mids come better balanced than two identical fat men on a seesaw, and the bottom rumbles with a precision intensity that’s tighter than a Latex suit two sizes too small. And that was just Ed Sheeran! Only kidding, I would never.)
No, the musical handling muscle of the Marshall demands respect, and that means Led Zepplin, AC-DC, Massive Attack, Pink Floyd, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Beastie Boys, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Debussy, Public Enemy, and of course, arguably Marshall’s most famous amp addict ever, Mr James Marshall Hendrix himself.
The dynamic range of the Heston 120 is such that it makes all genres sing, honing the recordings to processed perfection, before allowing them to fly free, uncoloured, undistorted and unrelenting, filling the room and your ears with musical mastery.
From the heart of the home cinema to the heart of the party, just like that.
Marshall Heston 120
At £900, the Marshall Heston 120 comes in at a rough £100 under the asking price of the Sonos Arc Ultra, which it is clearly pitting itself against.
I know Sonos well, and have tested many of its marvellous products over the years, but the reality is, the Heston 120 is even better than I could ever have hoped. It looks incredible, and the sound it emits, regardless of source, is, quite literally, music to anyone’s ears.
A horizontal monolith of eye-popping awesomeness that’s unmistakably Marshall, from the wrapped black leather trim to the gold accents and the knurled metal knobs that hark beautifully back to its heritage amp head controls, it screams style.
It is connected up to the eyeballs with a wealth of wired and wireless options, including Spotify, Google Cast and AirPlay connectivity, not to mention Bluetooth.
How does it sound? The Heston’s front drivers and real-time audio processing bring forth a clarity to movie dialogue and music that I previously never believed possible.
Did I find the Marshall app a little twitchy at times? Yes, I did, but that can be changed with updates. Would I like to see a separate remote-control alternative? I might, even if only to see the kind of remote-control Marshall could make!
So, there we have it: The Marshall Heston 120, destined to be the first soundbar ushered into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Key specs
Buy now £899.00, Marshall
