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Marshall Stockwell III review
Seven years after its predecessor came to market, the Marshall Stockwell III is here — and wow, what a beauty.
From the moment I unboxed the Stockwell III, I was struck by its quality. Its striking amp-inspired aesthetic, complimented by luxurious PU leather, golden detailing, and a red velvet-infused handle made it likeable from the off. But could its sound live up to its enticing looks?
Well, I’ve spent hours upon hours listening to music and messing around with various features on Marshall’s new speaker, and I’ve got a fair few thoughts. So here’s whether it can compare with some of the best Bluetooth speakers around.
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Let’s start with sound quality, an area where the Stockwell III is aiming to make quite the leap from its predecessor. Under the hood, you’ll find one three-inch woofer with 65W class D amplification alongside two 1.75-inch wide-band drivers, which both have 31W of class D amplification. This means that the Stockwell III is incredibly mighty for a speaker of its size, and offers considerably meatier audio than its predecessor could.
The Stockwell III’s impressive power really shines through in its performance — it displays a striking level of confidence with regimented, intent-filled bass, driven mids, and expressive highs that make it an incredibly enjoyable speaker to use.
In Home Meeting by Sadao Watanabe, I was impressed with the fluent and colorful leading sax, which played alongside substantial and weighty funky bass and accurate, precise drums in the treble range. As the track built towards its climax, the Stockwell III managed the swathe of instruments with ease, and backing vocals, guitars, horns, and bass all came together in a cohesive yet nuanced ensemble.
With a deeper track, like Vision of Love by Lewis Taylor, the Stockwell III proved that its power goes a long way. Pumping deep bass pounded through our music testing room with intensity, yet remained controlled and clean. Energetic drums high up in the frequency range also came through with plenty of bite, although neither end of the spectrum overshadowed the finer electronic details in the mid-range.
The Stockwell III can extend down to 54Hz, and although it wasn’t capable of the most full-sounding, consuming sub-bass, I still found that it coped decently with ultra-low frequencies. More generally, the speaker does have a bit of a bass preference, and although this may not be to everyone’s taste, a swift turn of the bass dial can easily get you the sound you’re after.
One thing I will say is that although vocals come through clearly on the Stanmore III, they perhaps lack the warmth and texture that you’ll find from some other premium speakers. To be clear, I still found that vocal-focused tracks sounded great on the Stockwell III, but audiophiles may wish for a bit more detail and depth.
As you’d expect with a recent Marshall release, there’s USB-C audio onboard for lossless playback, and the speaker sounds great with a wired connection. There’s also a 3.5mm port if you’d prefer. Unfortunately though, there’s no LDAC for higher-res Bluetooth playback — something we recently saw on the Marshall Acton IV and Marshall Stanmore IV — which would’ve been nice to see.
But a couple of features really help the Stockwell III perform at an excellent level. For example, Dynamic Loudness helps the speaker maintain clarity, even at higher volumes, and I found that the Stockwell III still sounded excellent even when pushing volume up to 90% and beyond. Marshall has also implemented its True Stereophonic 360 sound, intended to make sure it sounds excellent from every angle, and this felt effective to me, resulting in the speaker having no true ‘sweet spot’ — ideal for a party situation, say.
One final thing worth pointing out about sound, is that the Stockwell III technically outputs in stereo. However, the stereo effects aren’t particularly convincing — in part due to the Stockwell III’s limited confines.
So the Stockwell III is a hit in the sound quality department. But how does it fare elsewhere?
Well, when it comes to features, there are quite a few options to uncover. For the moment, the Stockwell III is using the older Marshall Bluetooth app, unlike the newer Marshall software harnessed by the Acton IV, Stanmore IV, and Heston soundbars. This means that you only get a five-band EQ, though this still works well — and the speaker does sound great out of the box.
The app also enables you to use a soundstage mode to reduce or expand the width of sound, you can toggle on Source Mix to play media via wired and Bluetooth connections simultaneously, and you can map a specific EQ configuration to the speaker’s M button. In addition, there’s a placement compensation feature that genuinely makes a difference, as well as USB-C port configuration settings (you can make it charge other devices, play media, or both), and battery preservation options.
Speaking of battery, the Stockwell III is capable of providing 40 hours of playback — double what its predecessor could manage. That’s a phenomenal amount of playtime for a speaker of this size, and a seismic technological advancement, proving that Marshall are still one of the leading audio manufacturers when it comes to battery life.
I’ve spoken a bit about design already, but the Stockwell III is a true joy to behold. It’s also a lot lighter than Marshall’s alternate mid-weight speaker, the Marshall Middleton II, making it feel way more portable. It’s also got more amplification power than the Middleton II and in my view, looks more premium — it’s the better mid-weight option overall in my view.
However, this does come at the expense of weaker waterproofing — the Middleton II is IP67 rated, whereas the Stockwell III is only IP55. That’s still an improvement on its IPX4-rated predecessor and keeps it protected against splashes and dust ingress, but a lot of competitors shield their devices against full underwater submersion.
But let’s wrap up now. At $249.99 / £199.99 / AU$379, the Stockwell III isn’t the cheapest option on the market, but for its power, and its sound and build quality, it’s an excellent value for money choice. At launch, the Stockwell II was priced the same as this new model in the US, but it’s actually cheaper in the UK and Australia than its predecessor was at the point of release. With the improvements in acoustics, build, and waterproofing, that’s amazing to see.
Although the Stockwell III leaves out LDAC and is using the older Marshall Bluetooth app at the moment, I still think it’s a brilliant speaker. With confident yet elegant sound, amazing looks, and a fantastic feature-set, it’s the best mid-weight Marshall speaker you can buy, and stands as a stellar upgrade over the Stockwell II.
Marshall Stockwell III review: price & release date
- Priced at $249.99 / £199.99 / AU$379
- Released in August 2026
The Marshall Stockwell III was released in August 2026, seven years after the Marshall Stockwell II came to market. It’s priced at $249.99 / £199.99 / AU$379, meaning that in the US it costs the same as the Stockwell II did at launch, and it’s actually cheaper in the UK and Australia. Considering the vast improvements it provides, that makes it a phenomenal value for money option. It’s available in Black and Brass or in Cream.
Marshall Stockwell III review: specs
|
Weight |
2.9 lbs / 1.3kg |
|
Dimensions |
17.1 x 5.9 x 2.8 inches / 181 x 150 x 72mm |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm, USB-C |
|
Battery life |
40 hours |
|
Speaker drivers |
1x 3-inch woofer with 65W class D amplification, 2x 1.75-inch wide-band drivers with 31W class D amplification |
|
Waterproofing |
IP55 |
Should I buy the Marshall Stockwell III?
|
Attribute |
Notes |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Features |
Great connectivity options, feature-rich app, but still using the old version, great battery life. |
4.5/5 |
|
Performance |
Excellent bass, clear mids, and clean highs. |
4.5/5 |
|
Design |
Gorgeous looks, a more portable than the Middleton, but waterproofing not as good. |
4.5/5 |
|
Value |
Same price as predecessor with meaningful improvements, great price for the power and quality on offer. |
5/5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t buy it if…
Marshall Stockwell III review: also consider
| Header Cell – Column 0 |
Marshall Stockwell III |
Bang & Olufsen Beosound A1 3rd Gen |
JBL Charge 6 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Price |
$249.99 / £199.99 / AU$379 |
$349 / £299 / AU$639 |
$149 / £129 / AU$229.95 |
|
Weight |
2.9 lbs / 1.3kg |
1.27 lbs / 576g |
3 lbs / 1.4kg |
|
Dimensions |
17.1 x 5.9 x 2.8 inches / 181 x 150 x 72mm |
5.2 x 1.8 x 5.2 inches133 x 46 x 133mm |
9 x 3.9 x 3.7 inches / 229 x 99 x 94mm |
|
Connectivity |
Bluetooth 5.3, 3.5mm, USB-C |
Bluetooth 5.1, USB-C |
Bluetooth 5.4, USB-C |
|
Battery life |
40 hours |
24 hours |
24 hours (28 hours with PlayTime Boost) |
|
Speaker drivers |
1x 3-inch woofer with 65W class D amplification, 2x 1.75-inch wide-band drivers with 31W class D amplification |
1 x 0.6-inch tweeter; 1 x 3.25-inch woofer, each with 1 x 30W Class D amplification |
53 x 93 mm mid/bass ‘racetrack’ driver, 20mm tweeter |
|
Waterproofing |
IP55 |
IP67 |
IP68 |
How I tested the Marshall Stockwell III
- Tested over a week-long period
- Mainly streamed tracks over Tidal
- Predominantly made use of Bluetooth and USB-C connectivity
I tested the Marshall Stockwell III over the course of a week, spending hours listening to music and exhausting its various features. I mainly had it connected to my Xiaomi 17 phone, where I streamed tunes over Tidal — predominantly using Bluetooth and USB-C connectivity.
When listening to music, I made sure to play tracks from a wide variety of genres — both from the TechRadar reference playlist and from my own personal library.
More generally, I’ve spent years testing audio gear here at TechRadar, where I serve as our in-house Senior Reviews Writer. I’ve tested all kinds of gadgets, from premium wireless headphones like the Sony 1000X The Collexion through to Dolby Atmos soundbars like the LG Sound Suite Immersive Suite 7 Pro. I’ve also reviewed countless Marshall speakers, including its recent Homeline releases, so I know exactly what to look for when putting the audio specialist’s tech to the test.
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harry.padoan@futurenet.com (Harry Padoan)
