Marshall Bromley 150 review: Cheat sheet
Price:4/5
Sound quality:4.5/5
Design:5/5
Connectivity:4/5
Features:4.5/5
Overall score:4.5/5
Best for:Portable party hosts and musicians
How do you pack ground-shaking bass, a wide soundstage, and 40 hours of battery life into a portable party speaker? Ask the Marshall Bromley 150. Marshall’s latest party speaker is a triumph, boasting incredible sound and a plethora of features. It’s IP55-rated, so it’s dust-resistant and waterproof, and its long battery life keeps the party going all day long.
With a range of wired and wireless connectivity options, the Bromley 150 is perfect for party hosts and musicians on the move as it doubles as an amp and karaoke machine. Drool-worthy looks, classy LED lighting, and tactile controls make the Bromley 150 one of the best Bluetooth speakers today. Though its app could have been better and LDAC support would have been appreciated, these minor issues are overshadowed by everything else on offer.
For the complete breakdown, read my full Marshall Bromley 150 review.
Marshall Bromley 150 review: Specs
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Bluetooth 5.3 with SBC, AAC and LC3, 3.5mm, USB-C, 2x XLR/6.35mm |
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200W, 1x 6.5-inch 40W woofer, 2x 2-inch 6W full-range, 1x 7.5-inch passive radiator |
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Marshall Bromley 150 review: What I like
- Drool-worthy, amp-like design
- Powerful bass and detailed soundstage
- Chock-full of features, including 360° sound and 40-hour battery
- IP55 waterproof and dustproof
The Marshall Bromley 150 completes the brand’s party speaker lineup, and it gives you little to complain about. Classy looks, a range of useful features, and ground-shaking bass and refined sound quality make it a winner.
Design
There’s no denying that Marshall knows how to make a good-looking speaker, and the same is true for the Marshall Bromley 150. Just like its bigger siblings, the Bromley 450 ($799) and the Bromley 750 ($1,299), the Bromley 150 sports an amp-like design. It comes in black with brass accents, and it looks drool-worthy.
The well-defined front grille houses the integrated and customizable LED stage lights, and the branding on the front looks classy and premium. That extends to the tactile buttons and amp-like knobs, too, which are well-signposted and straightforward to understand. The dials and buttons let you adjust the bass, treble, and swap between sources. You don’t really need the companion app as you can control basically everything via the onboard controls themselves — which bodes well as it’s not very good, but more on that later.
As Marshall’s smallest party speaker, the Bromley 150 is cube-like, measuring 11.69 x 11.42 x 8.19 inches, so it can comfortably sit on your TV stand or even kitchen counter. It’s much smaller and more portable than the Sony ULT Tower 5 ($448), too, as it weighs just 13.9lbs. There’s an integrated and luxurious-feeling handle located on the Bromley 150’s top plate for easy transport — and I haven’t had any issues carrying it from A to B. Overall build quality is phenomenal, and the Bromley 150 doesn’t give you anything to complain about in the design department.
Features & connectivity
There’s no dearth of features on the Marshall Bromley 150. Let’s start with connectivity first. For wireless playback, you get Bluetooth 5.3 with support for AAC, SBC and LC3, as well as Auracast for multi-speaker pairing. Thanks to Auracast, you can daisy-chain an unlimited number of Bromleys together — nowit’s a party!
Wired connectivity is in spades, too. There are USB-C and 3.5mm jacks for wired playback. The Bromley 150 doubles (or triples, even) as a karaoke machine and an amplifier as there are two XLR/6.35mm combo jacks for plugging in mics and instruments. There’s no RCA jack, though, for DJ controllers and turntables, like on the bigger Bromley 450 and Bromley 750, and the Sony ULT Tower 5 — but it’s a minor drawback in the grand scheme of things.
Features next. First, the Bromley 150 is IP55-rated, which makes it highly resistant to dust and water, so you can use it on your balcony even when it’s raining, for instance. Marshall’s party speaker is more durable than the Sony ULT Tower 5 which is only IPX4-rated, so it isn’t dustproof. You also get Marshall’s stunning True Stereophonic 360° sound, and its front and rear speakers create an immersive listening experience regardless of where you’re standing.
Sound quality
Though it’s small, it’s mighty. The Marshall Bromley 150 packs a 200W power output, driven by its 6.5-inch 40W woofer, dual 2-inch 6W full-range drivers, and a 7.5-inch passive radiator. It delivers ground-shaking bass, as you’d expect from a party speaker, and its expansive soundstage makes for an immersive listening experience. I tested the speaker by listening to my favorite tunes on Qobuz, the best music streaming service for audiophiles.
This is a party speaker, first and foremost, so the first song I listened to was “Von Dutch” by Charli xcx. The Bromley 150 packs a party-ready sound, and the song sounded bold with a lively presentation that captured the atmosphere of a packed club. I could feel the bass vibrating the floorboards under my feet, but it sounded tight and controlled throughout. Other aspects of the soundstage weren’t sacrificed either, as the high-frequency synths remained distinct.
Listening to “Unamerican” by Dead Sara through the Bromley 150 revealed a bold, energetic sound that suited the track’s raw alt-rock character. The overall soundstage felt lively and spacious, with the guitars, vocals and driving rhythm section occupying individual spaces. The guitar riffs were the real highlight as they came through with plenty of bite and grit. The Bromley 150 excelled at giving the power chords a convincing weight, and delivering punchy sound.
The Bromley 150 is suited to detailed listening, too, as I found when playing “Nova” by Four Tet. Individual clicks, taps and repeating patterns sounded well-defined, and the soundstage felt open enough to give each element room to breathe. The Bromley 150 allowed the finer details to emerge without losing sight of the overall hypnotic quality.
Overall, the Bromley 150 is an outstanding, powerful speaker that’s suited to virtually any genre. Whether you’re a low-end fan who wants to feel the bass in their soul, or someone who appreciates subtle details, the Bromley 150 is sure to impress.
Listen along to my review with the Marshall Bromley 150 testing playlist:
Battery life
One of the Marshall Bromley 150’s biggest selling points is its long battery life. Just like the Bromley 450 and the Bromley 750, the Bromley 150 has a 40-hour battery life. For a speaker its size, that’s phenomenal. Your mileage will naturally depend on playback settings, such as volume, Bluetooth codecs, LED lighting and bass/treble tuning, but having tested nearly every modern Marshall product, that 40-hour figure is quite reliable.
The Bromley 150 blows its competition out of the water when it comes to playback time. The Sony ULT Tower 5 is rated for 20 hours, while the JBL PartyBox 130 ($449) lasts just 15 hours. There’s also the JBL Xtreme 5 ($399) which is a little cheaper than the Bromley 150 and lasts only 28 hours.
Similar to the other Bromleys and the Sony ULT Tower 5, the Bromley 150’s battery pack is user-replaceable. You can also use the Bromley 150’s USB Out port to charge your phone, laptop and other devices.
Marshall Bromley 150 review: What I don’t like
- Underwhelming companion app
- No LDAC (even though other Marshall speakers have it)
There are a couple of things I wish the Marshall Bromley 150 had. LDAC support would have been a good addition, and I wish the companion app was more robust.
Underwhelming companion app
This is a complaint I’ve had with both the Marshall Bromley 450 and the Bromley 750, and turns out third time isn’t the charm, as the problem persists with the Bromley 150. The speaker is accompanied by the Marshall Bluetooth app which is quite underbaked and really basic.
The app itself looks good and functions well, with a stripped-back interface and no intrusive pop-ups — but it doesn’t allow you to change much about the Bromley 150. You can tune into an Auracast channel, customize the speaker’s ‘M’ button to toggle strobe lighting, and set a power-off timer. But that’s it, and it’s quite disappointing that there isn’t more functionality.
In comparison, the Sony Sound Connect app for the Sony ULT Tower 5 enables you to customize the speaker’s 10-band EQ, add live audio effects while playing music or singing through the mic, and more. Marshall can easily solve this issue by having the Bromleys use the Marshall app, which its Homeline speakers, like the Acton IV ($299), and soundbars, like the Heston 60 ($699), already do. Oh well.
No LDAC
While not a massive drawback or outright dealbreaker, the Marshall Bromley 150 doesn’t feature support for LDAC, as its codec support is limited to SBC and AAC. LDAC is a proprietary lossy Bluetooth audio codec that handles audio up to 32-bit / 96KHz. It essentially lets you stream hi-res audio over Bluetooth. The Sony ULT Tower 5 features LDAC, but none of the Bromleys do — though Marshall’s home speakers, the Acton IV and the Stanmore IV ($399) do.
Now, the reason why this isn’t a dealbreaker: the Bromley 150 is a party speaker that focuses more on powerful, bass-heavy sound rather than detailed listening. It’s worth considering the Sony ULT Tower 5 if you absolutely need LDAC, but there’s not much in it.
Marshall Bromley 150 compared
The Marshall Bromley 150’s closest competitor is the Sony ULT Tower 5, which is Sony’s smallest party speaker. At $448, it costs a little less than the Bromley 150, and features RCA input for turntables, LDAC support, and a better companion app. The reason to get the Bromley 150 over it? A smaller form factor, more tasteful LED lighting, and classier looks. In terms of sound quality, both speakers are fairly close, though the Tower 5 has a 300W power output as opposed to the Bromley 150’s 200W.
Then there’s the JBL PartyBox 130, which is also $50 cheaper than the Bromley 150. I’m not a massive fan of the PartyBox 130’s design, as the RGB lighting looks garish and loud. It’s also not as portable as the Bromley 150. But the Tower 5, the PartyBox 130 and even the JBL Xtreme 5 don’t last as long as the Bromley 150.
Personally, I’d get the Bromley 150 for the design alone. No other brand comes close to Marshall’s superior design philosophy. And it’s highly portable and easy to carry around — especially compared to the JBL and the Sony.
Who should buy the Marshall Bromley 150?
If you want a supremely good-looking speaker that’s easy to transport and doesn’t compromise on sound quality, the Marshall Bromley 150 is for you. It looks stunning, sporting Marshall’s usual good looks and reactive LED lighting. It’s highly portable thanks to a built-in handle, and it sounds bigger than it looks. Plenty of low-end impact and a spacious soundstage that makes for an immersive listening experience, it’s the quintessential party speaker.
The Bromley 150 is great for gigging musicians, too, given its dual XLR ports. IP55-rated, the speaker is highly waterproof and dustproof. Though the Sony ULT Tower 5 features a more refined companion app and LDAC support, the Bromley 150 excels where it matters most: it delivers room-shaking bass and looks oh-so-good doing it.
