Marshall MOTIF ANC Headphones Review: The Ultimate Experience Stands Out

As an old speaker brand founded in the last century, Marshall has always been famous for its best rock performance speakers. All rock music listeners know the name of Marshall.

At a time when true wireless Bluetooth headsets have become the mainstream in the headphone market, Marshall also launched its first active noise-cancelling true wireless Bluetooth headset, the Motif ANC, last year.

Recently, I also got the 60th anniversary edition of this headset. Today we will learn about Motif ANC. Can this headset launched by a well-known rock speaker brand bring consumers the same shocking experience as its speakers?

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Packaging and appearance

As a product created by a manufacturer with a long history, the packaging design of Motif ANC is very stylish.

Although the Motif ANC packaging box is a very low-key black, there are faintly visible diagonal grid lines on the black background, which makes the bottom visual appearance of the packaging box richer.

Since the Motif ANC version I got is the 60th anniversary collector's edition, the words DIAMOND JUBILEE 60 YEARS OF MARSHALL are printed in the center of the box. When users see the box for the first time, they can feel the heaviness of the 60th anniversary of the Marshall brand. This is a spiritual feeling that other headphone manufacturers on the market cannot give.

The name of the product is printed on the lower left corner: Motif ANC, and Marshall's English name is printed on the lower right corner. Apart from this, there are no other design elements on the packaging box. It can be said to be extremely simple.

Like the simple yet meaningful packaging box, the design of the Motif ANC product itself is also worth mentioning.

While most true wireless Bluetooth earphones and battery cases on the market have a sleek design, Motif ANC boldly adopts a lychee leather pattern design.

This makes the Motif ANC charging box and earbuds not only feel very comfortable and textured, but also highly recognizable. When you are shopping outside, passers-by can recognize at a glance that they are Motif ANC headphones.

And because it is the 60th anniversary collector's edition, the white brand logos on the Motif ANC charging box and earbuds have all turned black, greatly enhancing the integrity of the product and blending it with the black body, creating a very high-end design.

Motif ANC earbuds support touch control. Long pressing the earbuds can switch to noise reduction mode, or pause/play music. When you don't need to listen to the song, you don't have to take out your phone to operate it. It is a very user-friendly feature.

Thanks to the excellent overall airtightness and waterproof design of the Motif ANC charging box and earbuds, the former supports IPX4 level waterproofness and the latter supports IPX5 level waterproofness. Even after the earphones are exposed to water, they can still be used normally. There is no need to be cautious all the time because of worrying about water entering the earphones. Motif ANC allows you to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of music with peace of mind.

The iconic Marshall sound

Some friends may wonder: Can a company that makes speakers make good headphones?

In fact, there is no need to worry about this. Motif ANC not only perfectly inherits Marshall's iconic classic tuning orientation, but also is a top-notch product on the market in terms of sound quality alone.

Motif ANC uses the Bluetooth 5.2 protocol to connect to devices, which enables it to support high-bitrate audio transmission, allowing wireless headphones to match the sound quality of wired headphones.

At the same time, the acoustic hardware of Motif ANC is also worth the money.

Motif ANC uses a 6mm dynamic unit, which makes it weigh only 4.25g per ear and can burst out ultra-high dynamic performance that is beyond the reach of competitors.

If the earbuds weren't very compact, you might think you were at a concert. After all, it sounds exactly like listening to Marshall speakers live. Marshall's control over the sound quality and listening experience of the earphones is admirable. Perhaps this is the strength of the legendary music brand!

Of course, if you feel that Marshall's tuning is not to your liking, you can also download the Marshall Bluetooth App and use the equalizer in the App to freely adjust the EQ you want, fully meeting the needs of consumers with different listening habits.

Ultimate noise reduction, hard to find rival

As a flagship in-ear true wireless Bluetooth headset, Motif ANC's active noise reduction function is naturally not absent.

In the Marshall Bluetooth App, you can freely adjust the noise reduction level of the active noise reduction function. If you choose 100%, you will experience an unprecedented amazing noise reduction experience.

In actual tests, it was found that Motif ANC can almost completely isolate all surrounding noise at a 100% noise reduction level, even human voices.

It is no exaggeration to say that the active noise reduction experience of Motif ANC has left AirPods Pro far behind, becoming a new player in the first echelon of active noise reduction true wireless Bluetooth headsets. If you are looking for a TWS headset with active noise reduction, then Motif ANC is undoubtedly your best choice, no doubt about it.

Not only that, Motif ANC comes with a total of three pairs of earmuffs of different sizes for you to choose from. Because the ear canal sizes of different users are different, in order to enable users to wear them firmly, comfortably and prevent sound leakage, Motif ANC comes with three pairs of earmuffs. This is another important reason why the Motif ANC active noise reduction experience can be in the first echelon.

If you are shopping, then for safety reasons, we generally do not turn on the active noise reduction function, because this may prevent us from hearing some potential dangers, so the transparency mode is very necessary at this time.

Motif ANC also supports transparency mode, but unlike other TWS headphones, Motif ANC supports adjusting the intensity of transparency mode, allowing you to freely switch the intensity according to the current scenario. It is more practical and gives the choice entirely to the user.

Super fast energy replenishment, super long battery life

As we all know, since true wireless Bluetooth headsets cannot be used directly without charging like wired headsets, energy charging efficiency and battery life performance have always been a very important part of the comprehensive strength of true wireless Bluetooth headsets.

So how does Motif ANC perform?

If I were to describe it in one word, there would probably be no better word than "stunning".

When active noise reduction is turned on, Motif ANC earbuds can provide up to 4.5 hours of listening time at a time. If the active noise reduction function is not turned on, it can provide up to 6 hours of battery life.

Objectively speaking, the battery life of the Motif ANC earbuds is excellent, and a lot of effort has been put into controlling power consumption.

If used in conjunction with the charging box, the battery life will reach an astonishing 20 hours when Motif ANC turns on active noise reduction. If active noise reduction is not turned on, it can provide up to 26 hours of listening time.

Therefore, even if the Motif ANC earbuds and charging case are not charged for a day, its battery life is sufficient to ensure that users can use it for a whole day without running out of time.

Not only does the battery life perform well, the Motif ANC's energy recharge efficiency is also very high. The earbuds only need to be charged for 15 minutes to provide 1 hour of listening time.

If you want to fully charge the earbuds, it only takes 3 hours; what's more coincidental is that it also only takes 3 hours to fully charge the charging box, which is extremely efficient.

It is worth mentioning that the charging box uses a Type-C interface, so for Android users, they only need to bring a cable when going out, which is very convenient; the charging box also supports wireless charging, which is very suitable for going to work. You can put the charging box directly on the wireless charging plate and you don’t need to worry about it. It can always keep it fully charged, which takes the user experience to a higher level.

Summarize

In general, although Marshall is an old speaker brand, the strong product performance of the Motif ANC true wireless Bluetooth earphones proves that Marshall is not just a speaker brand. With decades of technological accumulation, the TWS earphones they have created can still become the leading products in the market as soon as they are released.

Its rare body material, amazing Marshall-style tuning, ultimate noise reduction performance and super long battery life make it the well-deserved headphone of the year in my heart. If you don’t want to follow the crowd and choose a boring TWS headset, then I sincerely recommend you to try Motif ANC. I believe it will not let you down.

Embrace music, starting with Marshall!

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.