Hands on: Marshall Heston 120 review

Marshall made its name with its guitar amps, and it has also been making over-ear headphones and Bluetooth speakers for quite some time.

But, it has historically stayed away from the TV and AV side until now, with the brand unveiling its first ever soundbar, the Heston 120.

The Dolby Atmos soundbar has a 5.1.2 speaker configuration, and is being marketed by Marshall as “the loudest thing for your TV”. A bold statement indeed.

This plus its positioning as a potential rival to the Sonos Arc Ultra at the top of our best Dolby Atmos soundbars guide make it an interesting beast. But how does the new soundbar actually perform?

We won't deliver a full review until we've had a production sample in our test rooms for thorough comparative testing.

But I was recently given the opportunity to see it in action in a hotel room and, from this initial look, I think the Heston 120 could be a soundbar to keep your eye on.

Price

The Heston 120 will launch costing £900 / $1000 (around AU$1875).

That puts it firmly in the upper end of the market and in direct competition with five-star rivals. The biggest of these is the Sonos Arc Ultra, which we recommend to most buyers at the moment thanks to the “clean, precise, spacious and three-dimensional sound” it delivered when we reviewed it.

There’s also the Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9 to contend with, which earned a five-star rating from us and went on to take a coveted spot at our yearly Awards. The soundbar launched at the higher price of £1399 / $1400 / AU$1795, but we have seen regular price drops that bring it down to a price more comparable to the Heston 120.

Design

Soundbars have a tendency to look quite dull. And we get it, it’s hard to make a black or white bar look jazzy.

From this first impression, though, Marshall has made its first soundbar stand out with a retro design in keeping with its other line of products. The rotatable metal dials on the top, for example, certainly take a page from Marshall’s amp designs.

These allow you to adjust the volume, source, sound mode and bass or treble levels. You can also set three pre-set buttons to access your favourite playlists or radio stations quickly.

At the front of the soundbar, there is a removable grille made from sturdy weaved paper. The body consists of wrapped leather trims and a brushed metal panel.

It might not be to everyone’s taste, but the textured feel and light-up display does make it a unique proposition.

The only thing to be aware of is that It has quite a meaty design, as the soundbar measures 1100cm in length.

That means you will need a full rack to accommodate its size, so that is worth keeping in mind. For those on the hunt for a smaller ’bar, Marshall has said that a more petite model will be released later in the year – the Heston 60

Under the hood, the soundbar consists of five full-range drivers, two tweeters, two mid-woofers and two subwoofer units.

On a sustainability note, the soundbar uses replaceable parts so you can theoretically repair the product yourself. That includes being able to unscrew and replace the fret, end caps, drivers and circuit boards.

This is a rare and positive sight on a soundbar. The only other recent soundbar we can think of with a similar repair-focussed design is the premium Bang & Olufsen Beosound Theatre, which we're sadly yet to review.

Features

At launch Marshall had kept quiet about the Heston 120's specific driver arrangement. But at the event we got a look under the hood, and saw there are five full-range drivers, two tweeters, two mid-woofers and two subwoofer units in the ‘bar.

These are powered by 11 Class D amplifiers, two of which offer 50W of power (we presume for the subwoofers) while the remaining nine are 15W. This adds up to a peak power output of 150W.

That means that, while it doesn't match the Arc Ultra's 15 Class D amplifiers, which powere 14 drivers letting it deliver a larger 9.1.4-channel configuration.

With the Heston 120, there is support for both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X which should appease home cinema fans.

In the music department, you can play music over Apple AirPlay 2 and a range of streaming services are available including Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect and Airable. Auracast is also an option with the soundbar.

For connectivity, there is HDMI eARC, RCA stereo and mono slots, as well as both Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6 compatibility. The Heston 120 offers multiple EQ modes: Music, Movie, Night and Voice.

There is no remote control available with the soundbar, but Marshall has provided an app. Through this, you can control everything from volume to EQ.

The app features room calibration as well, which Marshall says can “help find the perfect acoustic fit for any space”.

Sound

OK, so how does it actually fare in the sound department? Once again, I only got to hear the Heston 120 in a hotel room for less than half an hour so this is by no means a comprehensive review of the Marshall soundbar.

The session also allowed me to listen to it in isolation. We'll need to get it into our listening rooms and run it head-to-head with its rivals before we can make any final judgements, though.

The Heston 120 was tested with Radiohead’s Everything In Its Right Place. Within the first ten seconds, the gradual build up of dynamics was impressive. When the song reached its full volume, the soundbar really blasted the bass to the extent I could feel the sofa trembling slightly.

Even though its bass was impressively powerful, Thom Yorke’s voice felt natural and reasonably balanced against the rest of the sound.

With Billie Eilish’s bury a friend, I did feel the bass was a little too much with this more subtle and quiet track, but this could be down to the fact the volume was at its maximum limit.

To test out the Heston 120’s home cinema performance, I watched the pod race scene from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. As the crackling pod racers zoom along the race track, the soundbar did a good job at capturing the depth of sound.

The Dolby Atmos also made it feel like the pods were speeding past around me, and the up-firing drivers created a decent sense that the vehicles were flying overhead.

As I said, though, we can only pass judgement on the soundbar once we have got it into our test rooms and finished comparative testing with its rivals.

Early verdict

Just to reiterate, you will not find a final verdict on the soundbar here as we reserve that for only when we have listened to any product thoroughly.

From this hands-on session, though, I am so far impressed by its seat-shakingly powerful bass, as well as its natural-sounding vocal performance.

With the Sonos Arc Ultra and the Sony Theatre Bar 9 already out there, Marshall’s first soundbar is really up against some stiff competition.

On the other hand, its repairable design does make it stand out from the crowd, so I’m excited to get it into the test room to see if the sound will do the same.

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Here is our review of the Sonos Arc Ultra

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