Unboxing the Marshall Monitor Headphones

As most of our regular readers know, we’re huge fans of Marshall audio gear here at Unbox. One of our favorite portable cans has always been the Marshall Major and we even got it in both black and white colors. However as our appetite for better music grew we eventually left the Major at home and went with more higher end headphones from other brands. The Major was already the top model being offered by Marshall. That all changed though when we heard about the new Marshall Monitor Headphones a few months ago. Ever since then we’ve been bugging the local distributor of Marshall to get that unit here. Guess what? That day has finally arrived. When we got home earlier this evening the box you see in the photo above was sitting at the Unbox HQ. Boom. Let’s do this.

Packaging is amazingly good for a demo box

As you can see from the photo above, the Monitor came in the usual brown carton box that Marshall used for the Major and the Minor. We’re not sure though if this is the final design since this was just a demo unit that was sent to us by the local distributor.

We pulled the top lid of the box open and we were immediately greeted by the Marshall Monitor headphones. The cans were folded the same way the Major could which actually isn’t just for aesthetics since it becomes more portable if folded that way. A black strip of paper with the embossed Marshall logo was at the center giving it a very elegant, classy, and premium feel.

Other than the headphones we found the detachable cable at the bottom. There weren’t any manual, certificates, or pouches but we’re sure the final commercial package has more stuff in it.

Throwback elegant design

We could make out the same styling used in the Major — the black leather covered headband, the gold-colored L/R indicators, and the foldable ear cups. Noticeable differences of course are the bigger ear cups since this is an over-ear model (it covers your whole ear and more) unlike the Major which was on-ear (rested on your ear but didn’t cover everything). They used some sort of metal frame for the hook connecting the ear pads.

Here are a few photos in different POVs:

Initial Impressions: Pleasantly comfortable, clear and balance sound quality

We’re happy to report that Marshall addressed our biggest criticism with the Major — comfort. The Monitor rested gently on our head with little clamping force. We wore it for over an hour and a half without any ear fatigue.

As for the sound quality, the Marshall Monitor, being “Monitor” headphones for studio use, are supposed to be as balanced and flat as possible. Based on our first burn-in that was pretty much the experience. Mids are clear and highs are warm. Bass is there but not overwhelming. The cans were also quite easy to drive as got good volume straight out of the audio jack of our Nokia Lumia 920.

We’re going to use this for the next week and come up with a full review soon. It should be available in Beyond the Box, Digital Hub, and Digital Walker in the next few days as well with an SRP of Php8,950.

Is the Marshall Hanwell next?

Now that the Marshall Monitor is now here we’re looking forward to seeing another Marshall product land in the Philippines – the Marshall Hanwell. Will post here once we get confirmation.