Marshall Motif ANC and Minor III ramp up the wireless earbud game
This week the folks at Marshall revealed a pair of new Marshall True Wireless audio devices. There's the Motif ANC and the Minor III. These devices are both wireless earbuds, and both work with heavy-duty audio in tiny, tiny packages. The Minor III is the slightly more affordable set of wireless earbuds, and the Motif ANC is the pair of earbuds you get if you want to take your Marshall audio experience to the highest place a pair of earbuds can go.
Minor III
Marshall's Minor III work with 12mm dynamic drivers with driver sensitivity of 93 dB SPL, 32 Ω impedance, and frequency response between 20Hz-20kHz. They're ready to roll with one microphone and remote in each earbud and Bluetooth 5.2 with a Bluetooth range of 10m.
These buds have a total of 25 hours of wireless playtime. That's 5 hours in the buds themselves, and enough battery time in the charging case for four more full charges. The case for Minor III charges with USB-C or wirelessly with Qi-standard chargers.
Minor III has an IPX4 water resistance rating. This means you can wear them in the rain, no problem – but don't take them deep sea diving! This pair of earbuds has touch-sensitive controls (in the buds themselves) for simple wireless smartphone control. These buds are the basics.
Motif ANC
The Motif ANC buds have 6mm dynamic drivers with driver sensitivity of 106(plus or minus 2) dB SPL, 16 Ω impedance, and frequency response between 20Hz-20kHz. These buds have 2 microphones in each earbud for ANC, and 1 in each earbud ready for phone calls.
These buds have touch controls as well, capable of controlling music, receiving and ending calls, activating ANC, and activating Transparency mode. Transparency is effectively the opposite of ANC, turning the earbuds into hearing aids.
These buds have Bluetooth 5.2 and a Bluetooth range of 10m. Motif ANC have IPX5 water resistance on their own and IPX4 water resistance when enclosed in their charging case. The buds have 6 hours of audio time without ANC, or 4.5 hours with ANC, and 26 total hours with charges from the case, or 20 hours with ANC always active.
The charging case has Quick Charge capabilities, allowing the buds to get 1 hour of playtime from 15 minutes of charging. A full 0-100% charge of the earbuds in the case is quoted as taking 3 hours. Marshall also suggests that the case itself can be fully charged in 3 hours with USB-C (or longer with Qi-standard wireless charging).
Price and release dates
Marshall Motif ANC has a release date of September 30, 2021, and a price starting at $199 USD. You'll find this pair of earbuds available on pre-order right now from Marshall Headphones online. The Marshall Minor III is available right now – release date: Today, for a price of $129 USD, also from Marshall Headphones online.