Marshall Mid ANC adds Active Noise-Cancelling to what's already a great pair of headphones

Sorry, could you say that again? We can't hear you

Marshall Mid ANC
Duncan Bell
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published
in News

Marshall Mid headphones already ride high in T3's list of the best Bluetooth headphones, thanks to their hard rockin' sound and leather-style cladding. Woah YEAH! Huh! Now Marshall Mid ANC promises exactly the same great sound and look, with like totally bitching noise cancelling that will rock you like a hurricaaaaane, all niiiiiight long. 

So that's nice.

As on the first Mid, there's a black 'leather' coating reminiscent of Marshall's legendary concert amps, with an optional curled 3.5mm cable that recalls the kind of lead a 70s guitar god would have plugged into them. Despite that, the audio is largely handled by the kind of up-to-date digital technology that Marshall's core audience probably loathes with a visceral passion.

More fool them, we say. The guitars if Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck may have been fully analogue and made of only the finest natural materials. But would they have given you 20 hours of wireless playback with active noise-cancelling turned on and up to 30 with just Bluetooth and no ANC? I very much doubt it.

Anyway, even if it is all done with digital signal processing and mass-produced electronics, rather than valves and copper, Marshall's headphones and home speakers always put out a very bracing sound that doesn't betray their rockin' heritage.

Yes, the standard Marshall sound is tailored for vintage RAWK, with a lot of midrange warmth and plenty of attack, but to be honest they also make a perfectly decent fist of hip-hop, electronica, pop and Wagner's The Ring. I doubt the Mid ANC will deviate from that one iota; the review sample arrives this week.

• They will need to be good, mind, given that at £239, these are 70 quid more than the version of Marshall Mid without ANC, and even more pricey than the brand's flagship Monitor cans.

Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years. 

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."

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