Marshall is best known for its amps, but has become a popular brand in wireless speaker and headphone market, but its latest product sees the brand enter into uncharted waters.
The Heston 120 marks its first attempt to take on the home cinema market. It supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X immersive formats, the Sonos Arc Ultra only support Dolby Atmos, with 11 separate drivers that Marshall claims help to deliver a “powerful, rich bass performance”.
Will it be able to make a dent in either of best soundbar and best Dolby Atmos soundbar lists?
Price and availability
The Heston 120 is available to pre-order from today (May 20th, 2025), and will go on sale on the Marshall website from June 3rd for £899.99.
It’ll be available to purchase from Currys and other select retailers from 16th September onwards.
The £899.99 price point means the Marshall Heston 120 is less expensive than the Sonos Arc Ultra (£999), the Sennheiser Ambeo Soundbar Plus (£1299), Sony Bravia Theatre Bar 8 (£999) and the same price as the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar (£899)
Marshall’s rock ‘n’ roll vibes coming to home cinema
With the Heston 120, Marshall says the aim is to provide crisp and clear sound for whatever you’re listening to, whether that be film, TV and music.
There’s Music, Movie, Night, and Voice modes to help provide the right performance, and through the Marshall app you can control the soundbar’s volume and EQ. The app will also support room calibration to help optimise the soundbar’s performance for the room it is in.
Connectivity includes HDMI eARC so users can hear audio in the best quality possible, while there’s an RCA analogue input to connect the soundbar to a turntable or other music players.
Wirelessly there’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE Audio for streaming to the device.
For anyone who has used a Marshall amp, headphone or wireles speaker, you’ll be familiar with the rock ‘n’ roll flair that Marshall applies to its products and the Heston 120 is no different. It features knurled metal knobs that have been inspired by Marshall’s amps, along with leather trums and a brushed metal panel.
Unlike some soundbars which seem to shrink and disappear into a room, the Marshall Heston 120 should stand out from the crowd.
New territory for Marshall
We can’t say we were expecting Marshall to step into the home cinema territory, so it’ll be intriguing to see how the company fares in a completely new area for the company.
It’s up against stiff and established competition with the likes of Sonos, Bose, Sony and the soundbar king that is Samsung; but we’re making the assumption that the Heston 120 isn’t trying to go for the same audience.
Marshall has always struck us as the type of audio brand that leans to a more casual and lifestyle perspective, and given how long the brand has been around, it’s the type of brand that’ll appeal to a younger and older audience.
The question is whether it can make any sort of dent in the market. Given the staggered launch of the soundbar where it’ll be available through the Marshall website for its first three months, the suggestion is that Marshall is adopting a rather cautious and sensible approach.
It’s not the only new and unexpected product we think we’ll be seeing from Marshall this year, but it looks as if Marshall is breaking out into new territory as it looks to become a bigger brand in the audio space.
