Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker Review: This Is the Most Powerful Speaker I've Tested

Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker: First impressions

At first sight, the speaker resembles nothing more than a big guitar amp. It has the classic Marshall design: a textured black vinyl outer that looks and feels like leather, a gold-plated Marshall logo, and gold-brushed knobs and control panel. There' a light feature with three options that dance in tempo with the music, and while I don't usually care about lights on speakers, these warm lights actually look great (mainly because they're not those cheap-looking RGB lights most speakers have).

The speaker is quite heavy, weighing 53 pounds and measuring 25.7 by 16.3 by 14 inches. It's by far the heaviest party speaker I've tested. It's also the best-looking one. Before I opened the box, my wife was already upset we would have to make space for yet another of my speakers, but as soon as she saw it, she agreed it deserved a space in our living room.

While some design choices that hint that the speaker can shine outdoors, I consider the Bromley 750 to be a home party speaker that you can take outdoors if you have to. The IP54 water-resistance rating means it'll survive dust and splashes, but don't leave it out in the rain or think about dropping it in water. Marshall did design a cool drainage system on the top-mounted upward-firing tweeters to protect them, but it's meant to reduce the risk of damage, not make the $1,200 speaker waterproof.

Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker: Battery

Marshall made some critical decisions with the battery that make this speaker stand out. The battery is removable—so you can get a second (or multiple) batteries as backups, and you don't have to worry about replacing the speaker once the battery starts failing. Marshall also gave the battery a USB-C port, making it a power bank to charge devices like your phone, while also letting you charge it without removing it from the speaker (you can charge it while playing it at the same time). Marshall claims the battery lasts over 40 hours of playtime, and from my testing, this is accurate, with an asterisk: It depends on your volume and settings.

You can also play the speaker without any battery at all. In my setup, I have the battery unplugged and the power cable connected to the speaker, so I don't have to worry about battery life. And unlike other party speakers, there is no volume restriction when playing music without the battery.

Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker: Control panel

A physical control panel on a speaker is key. At any party, it's easy to forget who last connected to the speaker, where they are, or where their phone is—and being able to control the media directly on the speaker makes life easier for everyone.

Happily, Marshall nailed the control panel. You can do everything, here— play/pause, skip tracks forward/backwards, switch the source between Bluetooth, RCA, AUX, and USB-C, control the volume, bass, and treble of the media, and much more. Essentially, other than choosing what song to play, you can control everything else directly on the speaker.

Unfortunately, however, this leads to one of the biggest disappointments with the Bromley 750.

Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker: App

Marshall dropped the ball with their app; it's far too limited. Basically, all you can do is change the source of the media, control the volume, and set a power-off timer (if the speaker is idle for this long, it'll automatically turn off). There is an Auracast feature in beta that lets you broadcast your media to other compatible speakers—I wasn't able to test this feature, but if it works, it would allow you to sync multiple speakers within range.

I wish there was a more in-depth EQ mode in the app, since the speaker is already capable of so much from the control panel. It would be cool to also control the EQ from the inputs, like a mic or guitar. My hope is that Marshall adds more features eventually, but so far, it feels like the app got released with the intention of figuring out what to do with it later.

Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker: Sound

The Bromley 750 has a 360-degree sound Marshall calls "True Stereophonic 360°" that is made possible by the placement of all its speakers: two 10-inch woofers (one in the front and one in the rear), two 5.25-inch midrange drivers (one on each side), two 1-inch tweeters (one in the front and one in the rear), and two 0.8-inch tweeters (on top of the speaker). This means no matter where you place the speaker, everyone around the speaker will get a full, rich sound experience. It also makes the separation of the sounds crystal clear.

With the Sound Character Control knob, you can personalize your sound preferences. This feature is extremely useful and makes the speaker versatile for different settings.

• Dynamic: Turning the knob all the way to the left increases clarity—perfect for hearing details indoors without sacrificing any fidelity.

• Loud: With the knob all the way to the right, the sound gets punchy, which is great for outdoors when you want to feel the music. You do sacrifice detail and fidelity in this mode.

• Somewhere in between: Adjusting the knob toward Dynamic or Loud will give you more of one quality without sacrificing all of the other.

Along with the bass and treble knobs, this Sound Character Control knob gives you plenty to work with.

With the Dynamic knob all the way to the left, you can really hear the potential of the Marshall 750. While listening That's What Counts by We Are Scientists, I can hear the backing vocals and organ as clearly as I've ever heard it. The saxophone feels distant from the guitars, and the dynamics of the song feel much heavier when the chorus kicks in. Being able to control the bass knob is helpful for indoor listening—I can avoid disturbing my wife when listening to music.

Because of the RCA port, I was also able to hook up my vinyl player to the Bromley 750. This made the speaker much more versatile than I thought it would be; it'll be in my living room as my go-to speaker whenever I'm listening to my vinyls.

Marshall Bromley 750 Party Speaker: Outdoor playing and portability

I took the speaker out for a couple of sessions with my soccer community—this time, on a basketball court to host 15 people playing soccer with Street FC . I used the Loud sound character to the max and was so impressed with the Bromley's power. At an impressive 128 dB, it is the loudest speaker I've tested, beating the Soundboks 4 by two decibels. At max volume, it still retains its fidelity, and while it doesn't sound as detailed as in Dynamic mode, it's not distorted. When listening to True Skool by Coldcut, I could feel the bass in my chest. My players all loved the music session that night, and many came up to ask me about the speaker. (The Loud sound character is powerful, but use with caution for your ear health and the sake of your neighbors.)

Unfortunately, despite the portable aspects of the speaker with handles on both sides and a telescopic handle, it was extremely difficult to carry the 53 pounds into my car and up and down stairs. The speaker also has two wheels in the rear for rolling the speaker, but they're small and struggled to go on grass. Given that the speaker only has an IP54 rating for water and dust resistance, it would be a shame to take it to a field and have to rush it back into a car or under cover if it starts raining.

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