which marshall speaker is the best : Using the Marshall Uxbridge Voice speaker every day has been great. It’s everything I like about the Marshall speakers I ’ve reviewed in the history, but with smart speaker features. The Uxbridge Voice sticks with the gorgeous classic amp design that Marshall is known for. The speaker looks good anywhere and thanks to the small size( 128 x 168 x 123 mm) it fits nicely on my office, on my bookshelf, or on my bedside table. Where the Marshall Stanmore that I preliminarily reviewed was huge, the compact size of the Uxbridge Voice makes it incontinently more practical. It’s still slightly bigger than other smart speakers like the new Google Nest Audio or the Amazon Echo 4th generation, but it also sounds more.
The speaker has a many buttons scattered around, but the most prominent bones
are the thin brass buttons up top. These three buttons let you acclimate volume and give some introductory EQ settings as well. You can raise or lower the bass or treble right from the speaker which is helpful when your phone is n’t hard. The microphones also pick up the hotword “ Alexa ” veritably well and indeed with music playing loudly I had veritably many issues getting the speaker to hear me.
Near- over of the volume, bass, and treble markers on top of the Marshall Uxbridge Voice speaker
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You can do some introductory EQ adaptations right from the speaker itself.
If you have issues you can also spark Alexa by simply pressing the mic button. Holding it down for a many seconds will dissociate the mic entirely. also there’s the multifunction button to the left wing that lets you break or play music and skip between the tracks. The last button is the Bluetooth pairing button which is located on the reverse of the speaker above the power force.
Should you get the Amazon Alexa app for the Uxbridge Voice?
Yes, the power of any smart speaker generally comes from, well, its smart adjunct. To get started, plug it in and follow the way in the Marshall Voice and Amazon Alexa apps to set it up. Setup is fairly simple as they both walk you through the process of connecting the speaker to your Wi- Fi network and also turning on the Alexa functionality. If you formerly have another device with Amazon Alexa comity you can group them together grounded on apartments for a multiroom experience.
Amazon Alexa app open on the Google Pixel 4a with Marshall Uxbridge Voice behind it
The Amazon Alexa app lets you group multiple compatible speakers together.
The Alexa comity means that you can also control any smart bias you may have around your home as well just by adding the applicable skill. Unfortunately, I don’t live in the Amazon Alexa ecosystem so I was n’t suitable to test anything besides simple music playback. This brings me to one of the more egregious downsides to this speaker you need to be in the Alexa ecosystem. This particular model of the Marshall Uxbridge Voice isn’t compatible with any of the other popular voice sidekicks.
If you ’re after Google Assistant you ’ll have to buy the interpretation of this speaker that’s compatible with Google Cast directly from the Marshall website. It’s annoying that you have to choose, but this likely is n’t the fault of Marshall.
How is the connection of the Marshall Uxbridge Voice?
The Marshall Uxbridge Voice is a WiFi speaker, so the connection is only as good as your service provider. I’ve no issues when trying to play music from Spotify or Amazon Music and asking Alexa questions yields results fairly snappily. The only issue that I’ve with the Uxbridge Voice has to do with streaming service support, which is a problem with principally all Amazon Alexa bias and is n’t unique to this speaker.
My favored streaming service for music is YouTube Music, which is unfortunately not supported by Amazon Alexa. Fortunately, as time goes by, Amazon continues to integrate further and further streaming services into its roster. For illustration, when we first reviewed the Marshall Uxbridge Voice, Amazon Alexa didn’t support Pocketcasts, but as of August 2022, it does.
The only way to sluice from other services is to pair your source device via to the Marshall Uxbridge Voice over Bluetooth4.2. This process is easy enough so it is n’t important of a hassle, but it means that you ’ll be limited to the roughly 10m range of Bluetooth which is n’t as good as what you ’ll get while connected over Wi-Fi.However, but Android druggies are out of luck in that regard, If you ’re on iOS you can also just Airplay your audio as this has Airplay 2 comity.
Does the Marshall Uxbridge Voice have a battery?
Close- up of Marshall Uxbridge Voice power force and Bluetooth button on back fo the speaker which is on top of rustic coffee table
The Bluetooth pairing button is on the reverse.
No, the Marshall Uxbridge Voice doesn’t have a battery. Despite its small size, this speaker is n’t veritably movable . It needs to be plugged in at all times, so if you want to pick it up and bring it with you to another room you ’ll need to dissociate it entirely.
How is the microphone on this Uxbridge Voice?
As I mentioned over, I had no issues getting this speaker to pick up my voice when saying the hotword “ Alexa. ” Indeed when music was playing loudly it did a good job at picking up my voice indeed when I was across the room. Unfortunately, it has issues working when connected to another device and set as the input, so I was unfit to get a graph to show for this section. virtually, what this means for you is that if you connect this speaker to your phone, you wo n’t be suitable to use the erected- in microphone for phone calls.
The Bose Portable Smart Speaker is another good alternative to the Marshall Uxbridge Voice. This IPX4-rated speaker connects via Bluetooth and WiFi. It has a pretty good bass response despite its compact size, and you can use Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant to control it.