Review: The Marshall Heston 60 is a small soundbar that can fill big rooms
Marshall’s Heston 60 is a good soundbar for smaller rooms, especially if you want your speaker to make a visual statement. Marshall’s styling is, after all, in a category of its own, with its guitar amp-inspired looks and timeless Marshall flair. However, thanks to its surprisingly powerful output, plus an optional wireless subwoofer, this snazzy speaker can easily fill larger spaces, making it a great option for those on the fence about buying a full-size soundbar.
Like its much bigger sibling, the Marshall Heston 120, the Heston 60 commands a premium price ($699) compared to its nearest competitors, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 ($499), and the Bose Smart Soundbar ($549). In return for that bigger spend, you can expect a unique combination of features, style, and performance.
The Heston 60 isn’t my go-to choice for a small-footprint Dolby Atmos experience, but for everything else, it rocks.
Marshall Heston 60 review: Design
Depending on the product, Marshall’s amp-inspired design can go from wild to mild. The Heston 120, with its top-mounted, knurled knobs, has a real look-at-me vibe, while the Heston 60 is a little more demure: it trades the knobs for nearly flush brass-toned buttons.
You still get the black (or cream), faux-leather cabinet, the distinctive Marshall logo, and a salt’n’pepper fabric grille (the ‘fret’ in Marshall-speak), and it still looks great.
The lack of knobs is partially a proportional thing — they’d look a little odd on the Heston 60’s smaller frame — and partially a practical thing. When wall-mounted (which you can easily do thanks to the included wall-mount grommets), the Heston 60’s controls face forward, not up, and sit at the bottom edge, where knobs would just look weird, poking out into space. Another benefit to going knobless: fewer visual distractions.
Speaking of distractions, the Marshall Wi-Fi app lets you alter the brightness of the control panel LEDs. That’s not a big deal when the Heston 60 is sitting on a surface, but when wall-mounted, it’s essential, as those little lights will be shining right at you.
Cleverly, both the control panel and the Marshall script logo are magnetic. When you swap from flat to wall-mounted, you can reposition both pieces so the Heston 60 retains its looks.
Yes, you can decide not to affix the Marshall logo, and no, it doesn’t have magnets. They’re behind the grille (I mean fret), so you won’t be able to stick the logo to your car, your fridge, or any other metal surface unless you use glue.
Another clever feature for wall-mounting is the removable back compartment cover. It acts as a cable guide, ensuring you always get a clean install, regardless of which way you place the speaker.
At just over 2.5 inches tall, it should tuck under almost any stand-mounted TV. Partially blocking the top of the speaker shouldn’t be a problem, but leave the sides unobstructed — the angled, side-firing drivers need room to do their job.
Repairability didn’t strike me as being very important on the massive, 15.5-pound Heston 120 — I figure most folks won’t be moving it once they set it in place — but the Heston 60, at just six pounds, is a relative featherweight. You might well want to move it from room to room, in which case, being able to replace the fret, end caps, drivers, and even the circuit boards could be a bonus.
Marshall Heston 60 review: Set up
If all you want is TV sound, setting up the Heston 60 is dead-simple: plug the speaker into your TV via an HDMI cable and then plug it into the wall with the power cord (both are included in the box). You can control the volume using your TV’s remote.
To get the most out of the Heston 60, however, you’ll need the Marshall Wi-Fi app (gold icon, not silver). It will walk you through the process of connecting the Heston to your Wi-Fi network (vital for Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Tidal Connect, etc.), download any required software updates, and prompt you to complete the soundbar’s built-in room correction process, which takes less than two minutes.
Because the Heston doesn’t ship with its own remote, the app is also the way you’ll control the speaker’s source (HDMI/Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/Aux-in), EQ, and sound modes (music/movies/night/voice) from your sofa.
While the app is easy to use, it can suffer from long communication lags. If I left the app (say to start a stream from Spotify or Tidal) and then returned, it could take the Marshall app up to 10 seconds to reconnect to the Heston 60.
Marshall Heston 60 review: Connections and controls
On the back panel, you’ll find an HDMI-ARC/eARC port — standard for soundbars these days — and two far less common connections: a 3.5 analog input and a wired subwoofer output.
I’ve gotta give props to Marshall here. Most compact soundbars are treated as TV speakers with Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth if you want to play music. With the 3.5mm input, the Heston 60 can be connected to a turntable or literally any audio source that has an analog output.
The sub-out is even more beneficial. While the Heston 60 is designed to pair wirelessly with the Heston Sub 200 ($599), the sub output lets you use any powered subwoofer with an RCA input. This could save you a lot of money, as used powered subs are readily available for far less than the price of Marshall’s wireless unit.
The port that baffles me somewhat is the USB-C. On the Heston 120, it’s a handy power supply for stick-style streamers that plug into that speaker’s HDMI inputs. Since the Heston 60 doesn’t have any HDMI inputs, I’m not sure what you’ll use it for. Maybe recharging your phone?
The Heston lacks an Ethernet jack, but it supports Wi-Fi 6. With Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, UPnP, Tidal Connect, and Spotify Connect, the Heston 60 can connect to almost any music source. And with native decoding of AAC, Mpeg4, ALAC, FLAC, LPCM, Ogg Vorbis, WMA, and WMA9, it will play almost any content you throw at it.
Bluetooth 5.3 with support for SBC, AAC, and LC3 codecs provides ad-hoc audio streaming from a mobile device.
The top controls are intuitive and easy to use, with dedicated buttons for source, play/pause/track skipping, volume, and sound mode. Then there’s the “Prog.” button, which I assume is short for “programmable.” No idea why Marshall labeled it that when, in reality, it’s how you access your stored preset. And yes, I mean preset, singular. In the Marshall app, you can pick a currently playing source from Spotify or an internet radio station from the embedded Airable feature to be associated with that programmable button.
There’s no power button. Once you plug it in, the soundbar is on all of the time. It will switch to a low-power standby mode when it hasn’t been actively used in a while.
Marshall Heston 60 review: For movies and shows
Under the hood, the Heston 60 sports 7 discrete drivers (five full-range, plus two woofers) and amps. That’s more than both the Sonos Beam Gen 2 and Bose’s Smart Soundbar, which only have five powered drivers apiece. The key difference is Heston 60’s ability to process low-frequency effects (LFE) in a 5.1-channel arrangement (Beam is a 5.0 system and the Smart Soundbar is 3.0.2).
When it comes to watching movies, this translates into a much more gutsy sound than you’d expect from a compact bar. Marshall sent me the Heston Sub 200 to try out, and there were times when I’d forget that the Sub 200 was unplugged from the wall — such is the Heston 60’s low-end punch.
There’s excellent energy and presence throughout the rest of the frequency range as well. The Heston 60 excels at creating big, cinematic sound. It’s not perfect, however. The speaker seems to struggle to keep soundtrack elements from overlapping and interfering with each other. This is most noticeable with dialogue. In scenes where two characters are speaking, without much background sound, voices are clear and intelligible. When the background gets busy, like in the bombing run scene from Unbroken, speech can get muddied. You can use Voice mode to help with this, but the higher you boost this setting, the more you lose the lower frequencies that make movies so enjoyable.
I’m not sure, but I suspect this is tied to Marshall’s use of five full-range drivers and no tweeters. The Sonos Beam Gen 2 uses a central tweeter and offers better overall dialogue clarity.
There are also times when the Heston 60 seems confused about how to process that amazing low-end. During the Aston Martin chase scene from No Time To Die, there were moments when I expected to hear a thump or thud (and didn’t) and moments where I heard them and hadn’t been expecting any.
Speaking of No Time To Die, that same clip is one of my go-to references for Dolby Atmos testing, along with select scenes from Dune and Ford v Ferrari. All of these scenes demonstrated that the Heston 60 can fully deliver on the emotion of these movies, but spatial effects — most notably height channel sounds — are limited.
This isn’t unusual for a compact speaker with no dedicated height drivers. The Heston 60 (like the Beam Gen 2) has to virtualize any height channel content, a tough challenge, especially when the same drivers are being used to generate all of the other sound you’re hearing. It also means there’s no way to goose the height channel levels to help out.
Still, even though there’s not much in the way of added height, the Heston 60 generates a decently wide soundstage, which goes a long way to creating a sense of immersion.
Marshall Heston 60 review: For Music
Like its bigger sibling, the Heston 120, the Marshall Heston 60 is a great music speaker. The energy, bass response, and overall emotional impact it imparts to movies translates beautifully to music.
Once again, the Heston’s dual woofers are the main ingredient, lending a resonant quality to all music styles. The warmth and tone remind me a lot of the Sonos Beam Gen 2, but with an extra level of musicality.
I really like the Heston’s default Music mode tuning, which sounds better the louder you play, but each mode can also be tweaked using the Marshall app’s equalizer.
Unfortunately, the Heston 60’s music performance can be like Jekyll and Hyde, depending on the format and connection method. Normally, Google Cast is the most reliable way to stream high-quality audio, but doing so from Amazon Music on an iPhone produced abnormally low volume levels.
Direct streaming (Tidal Connect/Spotify Connect), AirPlay, and Bluetooth were all more reliable and sounded great.
Dolby Atmos Music is another quirky situation: make sure the Heston 60 is set to Movie mode. Atmos Music has an extremely low level in Music mode. The soundbar defaults to Music mode when the source is set to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or line-in, so if something sounds amiss, check the mode and try one of the other settings.
The Heston 60 will play Dolby Atmos Music tracks, both from TV or streamer-based apps like Apple Music, Tidal, or Amazon Music, or directly via Tidal Connect. Ordinarily, Atmos Music on a capable soundbar is a treat, with an expanded soundstage and (depending on the mix) intriguing use of 3D space. Similar to the Heston’s Atmos performance with movie content, you just don’t get the same level of immersion that you would with a higher-end speaker like the Heston 120. Moreover, on the Heston 60, Atmos Music tends to exhibit sharper, more sibilant highs than conventional stereo.
It’s worth noting that, as great as the Heston 60 is as a standalone music speaker, it can’t compare to either Sonos’ or Bose’s multiroom functionality, and the lack of any music management within the Marshall app means the Heston is simply an endpoint for your favorite streaming apps. Still, if you want a soundbar that can do vinyl, the choice is clear — neither the Beam Gen 2 nor the Smart Soundbar can connect to turntables.
Marshall Heston 60 review: Sound adjustments
Built-in room calibration is another bonus for such a small speaker like the Heston 60, though don’t expect to be wowed by the result. Depending on your room size, shape, and furniture, you may get a new EQ curve that keeps the bass levels from becoming overbearing (or may give them a slight tweak). In my TV room, it didn’t make any difference at all.
If you’re not happy with the calibration, you can repeat the process or disable it entirely.
Each sound mode gives the speaker a different tuning. Music tends to be the most neutral, while Movie emphasizes highs and lows. Night reduces dynamic range for low-intensity viewing, and Voice de-emphasizes lows and lower-mids while boosting speech frequencies.
If you don’t love the sound of a specific mode, you can tweak it using the custom EQ feature. These tweaks then become associated with that mode and will stick around even as you move from one mode to another.
Is the Marshall Heston 60 worth it?
At $699, the Marshall Heston 60 is one of the most expensive compact soundbars you can buy. Its closest competitors, the Sonos Beam Gen 2 and Bose Smart Soundbar are priced up to $200 lower (and get regular discounts throughout the year).
An up to 40 percent premium over these two excellent speakers is a lot to justify, and I’m not sure that the Heston 60 does so.
For its size, it produces big, bold sound for both movies and music, and its built-in woofers deliver stronger bass than the Beam or the Smart Soundbar. I really like the flexibility of being able to add any subwoofer, and having an analog input increases the Heston’s versatility. It’s also hard to deny that Marshall’s iconic design makes a classy addition to any room — it doesn’t look like your average soundbar.
And yet, the Heston’s Dolby Atmos effects aren’t significantly better than the Beam or Smart Soundbar, and for some things, notably dialogue clarity, expandability, and multiroom audio, these two competitors have the edge.
To seriously consider the Heston 60 over these alternatives, you need to value all of its unique features, not just some of them. If that sounds like you, the Heston 60 is very easy to recommend. It may not be the perfect compact soundbar, but no other speaker offers its particular mix of style, sound, and features.
Marshall Heston 60 review: Just the specs
Dimensions: 28.74 x 2.68 x 4.88 inches
Wall-mountable: Yes, wall-mount included
Remote included: No
Number/type of drivers: 7 (5 full-range, 2 woofers)
Number/power of amps: 7 class D (2 x 25 watts, 5 x 5 watts)
Channels/configuration: 5.1
Ports: HDMI eARC, 3.5mm AUX-in, sub-out, USB-C
Wired/Wireless networking: Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6
WiFi streaming platforms: Apple AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, Tidal Connect, DLNA
Bluetooth codecs: SBC, AAC, LC3
Audio codecs: MPEG-4, ALAC, FLAC, LPCM, Ogg, Vorbis, WMA, WMA9
Audio formats: Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital, DTS-X
Expandable: via Auracast
In the box: soundbar, HDMI cable, power cable, Quick-start guide
Colors: Black, Cream
