Marshall sells the Emberton III in four finishes on Amazon, and only one of them has had its price cut this far. Right now the black and silver Emberton III falls from $179.99 to $99.99 on Amazon, a 44% reduction, under a limited time deal that any customer can use. Portable speakers from the brand tend to be bought as much for the guitar-amp look as for the sound, so it helps that the finish on offer is the most neutral of the lot.
Thirty-Two Hours and a Dunk in the Pool
Battery life is the first figure worth stopping on, because Marshall quotes more than 32 hours of playback on one charge. In practical terms that is a weekend of camping with the charger left at home, or several evenings on a balcony before the speaker asks for a cable. I’ll admit this is the spec that would decide it for me, since a portable speaker is only useful if it still has charge on the day you grab it on the way out, and few people remember to plug one in the night before.
The second is the IP67 rating, which covers dust as well as water. Marshall specifies that the speaker can sit under one meter of water for up to 30 minutes, so a fall from the edge of a pool or a forgotten night in the rain is survivable, and sand from a beach bag should stay out of the casing. The same protection makes it a reasonable shower speaker, if that is where you listen to podcasts.
On sound, two technologies are named in the listing. Dynamic Loudness adjusts the tonal balance as the volume changes, which addresses a real annoyance: turn most small speakers down late at night and the bass is the first thing to go. True Stereophonic is Marshall’s term for sound sent out in several directions, meant to fill the space around the speaker, and it suits the way these things get used, in the middle of a table with people sitting on every side. I’d stay cautious about the “spatial” vocabulary attached to it, because one box of this type cannot do what two separated speakers do.
Calls are handled by a built-in microphone, so the speaker works hands-free when the phone rings in the middle of a playlist, which saves digging the handset out of a bag with wet or floury hands. The connection is Bluetooth, and Marshall presents the Emberton III as a rugged model for outdoor use and travel, a description the IP67 rating supports. Some information is missing from the listing, including the weight, the charging time and whether two units can be paired, and anyone for whom those points matter should check Marshall’s own specifications. Buyers on Amazon are positive so far, with an average of 4.7 out of 5 across nearly 1,700 ratings.
Color decides the price here: the Marshall Emberton III in Black & Silver is $99.99 on Amazon, against a list price of $179.99. Black & Brass and Cream are both listed at $129.99, and Blue remains at $179.99. Amazon marks the offer as a limited time deal, returns are free, and no Prime membership is involved.