Marshall’s Sonos Arc Ultra rival is cool – but I’m more interested in its smaller sibling

If you have checked out our home cinema section recently, you’ll know some of the biggest news this month was the launch of Marshall’s first Dolby Atmos soundbar, the Heston 120.

And, with our ever-curious staff writer, Robyn Quick, having snuck into the launch event and had an early look and listen, we can confirm that the Marshall Heston 120 is very interesting.

In fact, when Robyn heard the soundbar, they reported:

“I am so far impressed by its seat-shakingly powerful bass, as well as its natural-sounding vocal performance.”

They even went on to argue it may well give its big name arch-rivals, the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 9, a run for their money when we get one in for testing upon their return to the office.

Despite all this, it wasn’t the Heston 120 that got my pulse racing when I edited Robyn’s coverage of the event. Instead, it was a minor paragraph hidden in the news story revealing that Marshall has a second soundbar, the Heston 60, in the works.

Details about the Heston 60 are thin on the ground, with representatives at the launch keeping mum on any specifics outside of its existence and that it will probably be smaller and sit below the 120 in Marshall’s new home cinema line.

The only other detail we got is that it will also work with the firm’s first subwoofer, the Heston Sub 200 – which Marshall was equally vague about.

Why did this get me excited despite the lack of detail? Well, from the hints we got about the Heston 60, it may well target a woefully underserved segment of the soundbar market.

And that is the small soundbar space currently dominated by the excellent, but slightly long-in-the-tooth Sonos Beam (Gen 2).

The What Hi-Fi? team and I have been calling for more small, great-sounding audio hardware for years. This is especially true in the soundbar market. Jump to our best soundbar buying guide and you’ll see why.

There, you will find a wealth of excellent recommendations that tick the “great sounding” box, and a smattering that even meet our “cheap” requirement. But, there’s only one that meets our “small” criterion, the Sonos Beam (Gen 2).

This is not for a lack of trying to find alternatives. We have reviewed plenty of small soundbars over the years – most recently the Amazon Fire TV Soundbar and Sharp HT-SB700. Despite showing promise, and while undoubtedly both small and cheap, neither box managed to persuade us to tick that final “great sounding” box.

The Fire TV Soundbar, while capable with voices and offering surprising scale, struggles with dynamics and lacks finesse, particularly with its low end.

The Sharp, while clear and good in some ways, lacks low-end heft and doesn’t have quite enough high end detail to earn a five-star rating.

That’s why the idea of a big-name brand such as Marshall taking a swing at giving the Beam (Gen 2) a run for its money is exciting.

Competition breeds innovation. So if Marshall’s Heston 60 can even moderately challenge its Sonos rival, which should be more than doable given the fact that the Beam Gen 2 was released four years ago, that can only be a positive for consumers.

MORE:

These are the best Dolby Atmos soundbars we have tested

We rate the best cheap TVs

Our picks of the best 42-inch TVs