If you’re a guitarist (or are at all interested in guitars in general), then the name “Marshall” should be familiar to you. Marshall amplifiers have been the go-to for everyone from famous rock stars to humble garage bands across the globe, and to this day, its classic amps remain the industry standard. You don’t need to own a guitar to have one of these iconic speakers in your home, however; the Marshall Stanmore II is a retro-styled Bluetooth speaker that could just be the best-sounding Alexa speaker on the market today, and it’s on sale right now
Decades-old brands like Marshall can sometimes be slow on the uptake when it comes to adopting new technologies, but the Stanmore II speaker is a beautifully executed blend of timeless and modern. It oozes old-school style with its classic gold-on-black Marshall aesthetics, charcoal gray speaker grille, and brass turn knobs, but under the hood, the Marshall Stanmore II is a wireless speaker built for the 21st century, featuring Bluetooth connectivity and full compatibility with Amazon Alexa.
This built-in smart connectivity gives you access to the full suite of Alexa capabilities including voice controls, although those brass knobs aren’t just for show — you can use them to manually control playback and audio levels for when you’d rather not fuss with voice commands. This combination of classic and modern makes the Marshall Stanmore II appealing from a pure design perspective, but what sells it is its superb sound quality: Simply put, the Stanmore II pushes out bigger, cleaner, clearer audio than the vast majority of wireless speakers, and it’s arguably the best- and biggest-sounding Alexa speaker that money can buy.
Admittedly, one of our main criticisms of the Marshall Stanmore II is that its Alexa app integration feels like it isn’t quite running at 100% yet. If you’re looking for a pure Alexa device to integrate into a smart home ecosystem and sound quality isn’t a major concern, then the plain Echo smart speakers might be a better choice — but if sound quality is most important, then it’s not going to get much better than the Stanmore II. Marshall is a reputable brand, too, so hopefully the designers will eventually work out the kinks with future firmware updates.
The Marshall Stanmore II commands a high sticker price compared to most Bluetooth speakers out there, but the unrivaled sound quality and awesome retro design justify its cost. It’s on sale right now from Amazon Best Buy
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