Marshall Milton ANC Review

Design

• Comfortable for on-ears
• Replaceable parts
• One finish (for now)

Comfort levels with on-ear headphones are very much an “each to their own” feeling. Some don’t find on-ears uncomfortable to wear; others find the heat created by the earpads and the pinching feeling too much to cope with. I’ve not experienced these issues with the Milton ANC.

That’s not to say that you won’t – everyone’s ears are different – and I’ve had issues in the past with on-ears, but these are not one I’d add to the list. I will say that if you wear a hat (or a head covering), it can affect the fit/noise cancelling seal a little.

Otherwise, the design is smart. The shape of the earpads is a more tempered one to increase the surface area/contact with your ears, and the earpads cushions are softer than the Major series.

The earpads are replaceable (£17.99 a pop), and you can swap them out with the earpads from the Major series, but Marshall says this will affect the fit and noise-cancelling performance.

I like how they feel; the lightness of the on-ears makes them a pair of headphones you can carry in a bag. Weighing 200g, they don’t feel as heavy on the head as the weight implies.

The clamping force is not too tight, but tight enough to keep the headphones on your head. They are collapsible too, and come with a pouch rather than a travel case. The Milton features the tough shell that coats the earcups to protect them from damage, though as far as I’m aware, there’s no official IP rating.

Controls are physical, with a button that you can jig about that covers power, playback, volume and accepting calls on the right earcup, and a customisable M button on the left. It’s very simple and intuitive to use.

There’s only one colour at the moment – black – with a cream colourway set to launch later in 2026.

Features

• Marshall app
• Auracast and LDAC Bluetooth
• Soundstage feature

Features-wise it’s similar to the Monitor III ANC in what the Milton covers. There’s ANC (which I’ll get to) and the Marshall app.

In the app, you can adjust the ‘Noise Control’ (ANC, off, Transparency mode), as well as adjust the level of ANC applied from ‘Low’ to ‘Adaptive’ with a slider.

There’s an Equaliser where you can select from a choice of presets or toggle on Adaptive Loudness, which adjusts the tonal balance of the lows and highs based on volume and your surroundings.

Other features include enabling Auracast to cast (or pick up) Bluetooth streams in the vicinity. You can assign a feature to the customisable M-button (Noise control, Soundstage, Voice assistant) for quick access. Spotify Tap is automatically enabled. Battery Preservation and Interaction Sounds (enabled or disabling audio prompts) round out what the app has to offer.

Well, that’s not exactly the final word on what the app has to offer. There’s the Soundstage feature, which also appears in the Monitor III ANC, where you can extend the width of the sound via two settings: Amount and Room Size.

Amount is what sets the width, but Room Size I’m less sure of in terms of the effect unless it adds a slight echo or reverb. Certainly, ‘Amount’ has an effect I can hear, giving some space to vocals in the middle of the soundstage and pushing music outwards, but it’s touch and go with the Room Size feature whether it really adds to the headphones. I’d file the Soundstage feature under ‘nice to have’ rather than ‘must have’.

Bluetooth support is the latest version in the 6.0 standard, and you have SBC, AAC, LE Audio, and in a pleasant surprise, LDAC for higher quality streams. The Bluetooth performance has been excellent so far with not a stumble, a trip or a cut out over several weeks.

One thing I have noted is what might be an issue with Bluetooth LE Audio. I couldn’t access the Marshall app on two smartphones (the Milton supports Bluetooth multi-point too), and unpairing the LE Audio connection seemed to fix it.

Battery Life

• 50+ with ANC
• Replaceable battery
• Battery Preservation feature

Marshall promises 50+ hours with ANC enabled and 80 hours without. Compare that to another recent on-ear in the Beyerdynamic Aventho 100, which can hit 40 hours with ANC.

In the real world, the Milton ANC can last a pretty long time. A four-hour drain playing a Spotify playlist at 50% volume saw them drop by 6%. My maths (and please double check) would put these headphones somewhere in the region of 60 hours on a single charge. The Milton ANC is no slouch in the battery department.

What if you need a quick top-up? A 15-minute glug provides another 9.5 hours of battery life if you’re ever in a bind.

There’s also the Battery Perseveration setting in the app to expand the battery lifespan. You can limit the maximum charge to 90% (charging to full is not always best for battery health). You can also ensure the charging speed is limited, and temperature lowered too by swiping across the ‘Preservation’ bar.

The battery is also replaceable, and you can perform this task yourself. A new battery costs just £12.99.

Noise Cancellation

• ANC and transparency modes
• Good call quality

Can noise cancellation and on-ears mix? The Beyerdynamic Aventho 100 showed it’s possible, and so does the Milton ANC. In fact, once you’ve tried the ANC, I don’t think you’d be able to go back to a ‘standard’ on-ear pair.

Which is not to say that the Milton ANC offers a similar performance to a pair of over-ears or true wireless. Of the three types of headphone design, it’s still the ‘weakest’ but for those who enjoy wearing on-ears, having ANC is absolutely a positive.

The Milton ANC cuts down on the ambient noise, whether walking around London, on a plane or on public transport. You’ll still find that noise gets through since the on-ear padding doesn’t fully cover the ear, but loud sounds are definitely tempered and reduced.

You’ll still be able to hear sharp sounds and some chatter – I could hear people talking from another railway platform, though it’s not as if I could cue you in on what they’re saying – but the volume rocker is there to cut out more noise if needed.

If you do want to tune into what’s around you, the Transparency mode is clear. At first I thought it sounded a little noisy, but it turns out that where I was sounded noisy.

A thumbs down is that wind noise does make its presence known. It’s small, and doesn’t affect sound quality, but it’s noticeable with ANC enabled.

We’re back to a thumbs up with call quality, which is pretty clear, The headphones are doing something to my voice which can make it sound slightly mumbly, but not much background noise gets through aside from loud sounds such as the occasional appearance of the DLR in the background.

Sound Quality

• Weighty bass and bright treble
• Not the most detailed midrange
• USB-C audio

The Marshall Milton ANC pack new 32mm drivers but the sound is typically Marshall – at least the Marshall of recent years, leaning to a more neutral tone (not necessarily ‘sound’) with a beefy low end and a bright top end. The Milton ANC may be the best sounding of Marshall’s current crop of headphones.

Although that’s not to say that they’re perfect.

The midrange is not the most detailed or defined. The Milton ANC doesn’t sift through all the midrange detail and relay it to your ears. And although the Marshall are not v-shaped in their approach to sound (at least not with the Marshall Signature EQ), the brightness of the top end and weight of the low end can leave the midrange feeling a little less impactful by comparison.

Surprisingly, it’s the rock genre that feels like it’s the most exposed with the Milton ANC. Maybe these tracks sound exactly as they’re meant to, but there’s a thinness I notice in tracks by Smashing Pumpkins and Queens of the Stone Age that I don’t hear with other genres.

Again, perhaps that’s how the track is meant to sound. Working through the EQ modes, and there wasn’t one that resolved the problem for me (mid boost feels too sharp and crude).

But those rock tracks do enjoy a decent kick to the percussion but it’s the highs and lows that have greater prominence. The Milton ANC seemed tuned to be a bass-forward pair but not to the point where they trample over the mids. There’s weight, depth and nice roundness to the lows.

Play some K-pop in IIlit’s Magnetic and there’s energy to the bass within a big soundstage. Even though the Marshall Signature EQ suggests a flat EQ, if you like your bass these on-ears deliver plenty of it. I like it.

The highs are clear, detailed, varied and bright in a manner I like too. With slower (or less energetic) tracks there’s perhaps a better sense of detail that pokes through, though they’re still not the most detailed performer. There’s some dynamism to be heard, but really, it’s the highs and lows that stand out.

The Milton ANC supports USB-C audio, though you might be fooled by the tiny USB-C cable and the USB-C to 3.5mm audio cable that’s provided. Unless you want your head planted on your keyboard, you’ll want a longer cable for USB-C listening. Like many other headphones, USB-C audio reveals the most measured version of the Milton ANC with a greater sense of detail and insight, the thinness I heard replaced by a slightly smoother tone. Perhaps next time Marshall can spring for a longer cable, but if you already have one, the Milton ANC is fine to use it with

Should you buy it?