There’s a really good Black Friday deal on a really good Bluetooth speaker right now – and I know it’s a good speaker because I’m the person who reviewed it for TechRadar. The Marshall Emberton III Bluetooth speaker is currently £99 on Amazon UK, down from its recommended price of £149.
• Shop Amazon’s full early Black Friday sale
This is one of the smallest portable speakers that Marshall makes, but it’s perfectly capable of being a hooligan if you want it to be: it has Marshall’s Dynamic Loudness, which adjusts the overall sound so it’s consistent across the volume range – meaning bass doesn’t disappear when you turn it down a bit, and it resists harshness as you turn it up. I thought it was particularly good for artists like REM, whose Out of Time and Automatic For The People sounded fantastic on it.
Today’s best Marshall Emberton III Black Friday deal
Why the Marshall Emberton III speaker packs a punch
The specs here are very impressive: a whopping 32 hours of battery life (provided you don’t play it at neighbour-alienating volumes), multi-directional audio, 20W of power and Marshall’s useful Dynamic Loudness, which adjusts the bass and treble to keep them consistent across low, medium and high volumes. And it’s also IP67 rated so it can handle dust and even accidental drops into puddles, so it’s festival-friendly too.
This speaker rocks much harder than you’d expect it to, and naturally the first song I tested it with was AC/DC’s Back in Black. The promise of room-filling sound was definitely delivered, with excellent mid- and high-range clarity and impressive punchiness.
In my Marshall Emberton III review I said that to my ears, it’s a speaker best suited to bedroom, kitchen or study listening and for taking outside on nice days. It’s not a party monster – Marshall makes bigger, louder speakers if that’s what you need – as much as it’s a pocket rocket, with a surprisingly big sound from its compact case. At full price I rated it four stars; with a third knocked off the RRP I think it’s an even better buy.
