The Marshall Willen is currently available in black-and-brass and will be available in cream later this year. It features a faux grain-leather exterior (with a rubbery, weatherproof feel) and a front-facing, crosshatched grille reminiscent of a classic guitar amp. It is only 4.0 x 4.0 x 1.6 inches (HWD) and weighs 10.9 ounces. The Marshall Emberton II (2.7 by 6.3 by 3.0 inches, 1.5 pounds) and the JBL Flip 6 (7.0 by 2.6 by 2.8 inches, 1.0 pound) are significantly larger. A 10W Class-D amplifier powers the full-range, 2-inch driver behind the grille, while dual passive radiators add bass depth. The Willen is Bluetooth 5.1 compatible and supports the SBC Bluetooth codec; AptX and AAC support are missing, but this isn’t a big deal because the Willen only outputs mono audio. However, you can connect multiple Willen speakers by pressing the Bluetooth button several times. The front has a brass Marshall script logo, and the upper right corner has a brass multifunction button. The uncovered USB-C port on the left side is for the included USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable. The speaker also has a strap on the back panel that can be used to attach it to various surfaces, such as a bicycle handlebar. The Push EQ mode does appear to provide slightly more bass depth, but a speaker of this size is incapable of truly deep bass, and this mode sacrifices some midrange. That being said, whether you use the Marshall or Push mode is really a matter of personal preference; both have advantages. We primarily tested the speaker in its default Marshall configuration. On tracks with a lot of sub-bass content, like The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” the Willen delivers a decent amount of deep bass at moderate-to-high volumes. It’s a different story at full volume: To avoid distortion, the digital signal processing (DSP) desperately tries to thin out the bass thump. This effort is mostly successful, but the enclosure can rattle a little, causing the sound quality to suffer. Given the speaker’s size, this behavior is unsurprising, and it just reinforces the importance of using moderate volumes.
