The Marshall Mode II and Marshall Motif ANC earbuds are two fantastic-looking earbuds, with a different approach to truly wireless earbuds! Today I’m comparing these two earbuds.
Comparison: Marshall Mode II vs Motif ANC Comparison
We’re talking about a brand that
you probably have heard before in fact
most people have heard of this brand and
they associate it with amplifiers not
necessarily with earbuds the brand we’re
talking about in this article is actually
marshall now for me when i think of
marshall, I think of the amplifiers
behind a lot of like the great rock
guitarist out there from like Jimi
Hendrix led zeppelin and different
artists like that that you would see
them on stage and behind them would have
a stack of Marshall amplifiers it’s kind
of a staple of classic rock or just the
genre of rock in general but recently
their brand has been popping up on some
earbuds.
Marshall Mode II vs Motif ANC Review
So I’ve been getting honestly a lot of earbuds they piled on
my desk and i test as many as i can but
a lot of times i don’t get to test all
of them but I’m really glad that i
finally got to test these because
especially like the marshall mode two
actually, let me show you what I have
we’ve got the marshall mode 2 these are
the smaller ones right here and we have
the marshall motif anc and personally
the marshall mode 2 like i was just very
impressed not only by the aesthetics of
both of these earbuds but just the sheer
compact size of the marshall mode two so
we’re gonna dive a lot more into that in
this article we’re gonna get into
Everything you wanna know about these
earbuds but first disclaimer these were
sent to me for free from marshall so
special thanks to them for sending these
two over and for sponsoring this article
because it’s a sponsored article, you guys
know what that means I’m gonna have to
do more testing than usual meaning it’s
not just my opinions here I’m gonna show
things and demonstrate them so you can
make your own decision decide which
of these two would be a better purchase
for you and that includes a microphone
test we’ll get into a sound quality
analysis and we’ll talk about every
difference between these earbuds I’ll
also, talk about
Active noise cancellation versus
The active noise cancellation versus the passive noise
blocking and put that to the test as
well so you can see the levels that they
actually, block and much much more than
so with that being said let’s start
off with the basics in the beginning of
course you always want to know about the
physical design so looking at the design
both of these have a pretty similar
theme in their design obviously so
looking at I’ll just use the marshall
mode 2 as an example right here these
are i mean like I said very very compact
but the big thing is that they look a
lot like the amplifiers and I think
that’s something that really can’t be
overstated people love the amplifiers.
it’s the classic look it’s really iconic
and having that not just the logo but
like it looks like the black leather
exterior’s not actually leather here
but it looks exactly like it
it’s hard to tell the difference we’ve
got that textured outside the little
ring around there and when you open it
up you’ve got that bronze accent which
again matches up perfectly with the
marshall brand looks like an amplifier
established in 1962 it’s branded on the
top right there and the button on the
inside the marshall mode 2 case, i was
very surprised at first I thought it was
just an aesthetic little ring there but.
Design of earbuds
it’s actually the pairing button and you
don’t see this often in a lot of earbuds
usually, they have a button on the
outside or somewhere else but having on
the inside protects the button i think
it looks really nice here and it’s an
easy way to pair with your phone or
unpair and pair with any other device
out there additionally another cool
thing they did with the case is they put
an led on either side and that is going
to be your indicator for that earbud
individually so rather than having the
led on the earbud they have it on the
case kind of a cool concept thereof
course you’ve got another lead on the
front and all three of those are
indicators for the battery level or for
pairing of the earbuds and the case
individually now moving over to the
other pair of earbuds with the marshall motif
anc as the name suggests one of
The big difference here is going to be that
these have active noise cancellation and
so we’ll get into the anc test later on
in the article but the design once again
has kind of that it looks like black
leather on the outside we still have the
marshall branding on the front of this one
has a button on the front instead of on
the inside but that’s because when you
open it there’s not a lot of room for a
button in that style and the earbuds
themselves are a little bit different
here as well still having that bronze
accent still saying established 1962 but
diving into the difference in the earbuds.
Better Aesthetically and Comfort
you’ll see this is a fundamental
kind of a debate and you guys can leave
a comment below and let me know which
style you like better aesthetically and
comfort and everything like that but you
have one style that’s a little bit more
like compact in your ear with no stem and
then the other design is the stem to
design now on the stem of the marshall
motif anc you’ve got kind of a little
texture there that is kind of again
fitting in with a common theme of
looking like the amplifier feels kind
of like the amplifier and we’ve got the
marshall branding on the outside as well
so honestly a pretty nice look wearing
these they’re not that oh loud music
let’s pause so that you can see a pretty
nice look now I’m talking loud because
the active noise cancellation is on here
but a pretty clean look on these earbuds
I’m not always the biggest fan of the
stem to look like personally, i prefer
the marshall mode 2 aesthetic you guys
can leave a comment and let me know what
you think.
Some similarities
The reason that I really like the
marshall mode 2 aesthetic here is that
they’re even slimmer like these are very
compact i think i could probably sleep
on my side wearing these which is saying
a lot of them really fit very compact and
flat in your ears now some other things
that both of these do have to get back
to some similarities they both have
wireless charging which is great they
both have mono modes you can listen to
just one earbud while the other one is
in this case, they both have just one
color which at first i thought maybe
would be a drawback but given that their
the aesthetic is i mean i really like it
and they’re trying to look like the
amplifiers it makes sense that it’s only
available in one color but the battery
life is really going to be your next
difference which obviously ties into the
difference in size and geometry and
features as well so the marshall mode
twos have five hours of battery in the
earbuds and 25 hours when you include
the case while the marshall motifs and c
have four and a half hours in the
earbuds and 20 hours when you include
the case and that’s given uh if you have
active noise cancellation on both of
these have touch controls on the outside.
A reasonable array of functions
if you go into the app you can either
enable or disable touch controls now the
touch controls are not actually
customizable in the app but you still
have a reasonable array of functions you
can do with them but they both as i kind
of mentioned they do have the app so
this app works with both android and ios
but the comfort of these i thought
they’d do a pretty decent job especially
like i said I’ve really been talking up
these marshall mode twos because I’ve
been a huge fan of really light earbuds
additionally, they kind of have a bulge
on the bottom and up on the top that fit
really well and kind of hold them in
your ear i mean i wish i knew the terms
for like the different little parts of
like like an ear geometry but these just
really grab the inside of your ear well
now the marshall motifs in my ear the
plastic’s not the most forgiving so for
personally, it stays in my ear well
and i can get used to the comfort of it
but they’re not quite as comfortable as
the marshall mode too for my ears
personally, another thing to note is that’s
really kind of interesting and unique
about these is that and they really
didn’t even have to do this I’m glad
that they did though they have ipx4
water resistance on the case.
Water-resistant now Another Difference
which is something you don’t normally
see a lot of earbuds don’t have a rating
on the case and then it’s ipx5 on the
earbuds which are great so if you’re
running working out whatever you might
be doing if you know to take any kind
of splashing these should be decently
water-resistant is now another difference
is actually in the connection with these
to your devices so although they both
have essentially the same codecs getting
sbc aac and apex the Bluetooth
connectivity is very slightly
different you’re getting Bluetooth 5.1
on the marshall mode twos and Bluetooth
5.2 on the marshall motif anc and marsh
and 5.2 is really the latest that’s the
one that everybody’s using it’s a
standard and it’s a very solid stable
connection now as far as sound quality
goes between these earbuds they both
have the same codecs they honestly sound
really similar to each other i would say
the marshall motif and
might have a tad more low-level detail
but they both have like a pretty decent
balance it’s going to give you a lively
fun sound especially if you’re listening
to something like the glass animals or
some type of alt-rock or even pop for
that matter just something that’s going
to have a lot of highs and a lot of lows
and it gives you kind of a v-shape
essentially eq there now you can
equalize it yourself.
Different About the sound
The natural balance of these does sound like i said
very lively so much what we’re seeing on
the likes of like the galaxy buds do
that as well as a lot of the earbuds
started doing that recently and for most
music out there sounds really good
now if you tweak the eq yourself you can
find maybe a little bit more for what
you’re looking for if you’re a total
bass head and you want the biggest bass
on the market like you can get you can
dial the bass up and it does a pretty
decent job although sometimes if i push
the bass is too much you get a little bit
of like a clicking sound in the
earbuds so I mean be careful how much
Different About the sound
you’re gonna push it but it still
delivers like i said a pretty solid base
the bass is somewhere between punchy and
boomy which is kind of a nice
balance it’s really
for you know for the broadest range of
music out there it’s going to be pretty
much where you want it to be and like i
said the highs are also pretty good they
can be like a maybe a tad congested if
we’re really nitpicking on what
is different about the sound it may be a
little sibilant as well.
Earbuds phone calls Test
Overall I think most people listening to these
earbuds are really going to love them
very pleasant sound and like i said
lively and fun to listen to so any kind
of music, you’re looking for it’s
probably going to give you a very
exciting experience when
you’re listening to music but now let’s
actually, get into a microphone test
because obviously when you’re wearing
earbuds phone calls are incredibly
important all right so here’s a
microphone test outside where there’s
some traffic behind me and these are the
marshall mode two it’s a little bit
breezy out here so leave a comment let
me know how this sounds now these are
the martial motif anc so let me know if
these sound any better so now let’s talk
about hearing your surroundings or or
not hearing your surroundings with
active noise cancellation but starting
off with transparency mode these both
have that and when you wear your earbuds
you can actually adjust it in the app
anywhere from 0 up to 100 in 10
increments which are really cool i can
hear my surroundings right now it sounds
like a little bit, a little bit muffled
like maybe I’ve like obviously have
something in my ears but otherwise it’s
useful for hearing if somebody’s going
to come over and ask you a question.
Price difference
if you want to hear traffic when you’re
going for a run on the streets like is a
useful feature to have now as far as
active noise cancellation goes that’s
something i wish we saw on the marshall
mode twos because like I said i really
love the size and comfort of these but
if you want that anc you have to go up
to the marshall motif, ancs granted it’s
only about a 20 price difference so it’s
really not that much extra to get the
active noise cancellation now as far as
blocking sounds around you either
actively or passively i did the same
test i always do where i played a sound
on a speaker somewhere in front of me
and i turned the volume up gradually and
i had these in my ear and i wanted to
see at what level they weren’t able to
block it out anymore and so the passive
noise blocking with these was
approximately the same because the mode
two fit a little bit better in my ear
they were about five percent higher than
the mo than the marshall motif ancs but
when we fired up the active noise
cancellation of the marshall motif ancs
were blocking about 35 percent more
volume than the marshall mode 2. so that
was a pretty impressive jump there
active noise cancellation definitely
makes a difference if you’re on a bus or
a train or a plane or something like
that so that’s something that is
definitely worth considering all right.
Personally Recommendation
now let’s answer the question that i
started this article with and that is
which of these earbuds is actually
better now personally I’m a big fan of
smaller earbuds that are very
comfortable and extremely light and
given that these both have a similar
sound profile maybe a little bit more
detail in the motif anc and you are
getting active noise cancellation i
personally would opt for the marshall
mode too also a slightly longer battery
life and i really just love the way the
case looks if you’re gonna look like an
amplifier like i just love that little
bronze button there but you know some
people want the active noise
cancellation in that case maybe you want
to go for the motif ancs but leave a
comment and let me know which of these
you actually like better.
