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Marshall Stanmore IV – Speaker Review

  • Writer: Faye Bradley
    Faye Bradley
  • 36 minutes ago
  • 4 min read

The Stanmore has always occupied a curious position in Marshall's home speaker lineup. Larger than the Acton but smaller than the Woburn, it's the speaker that demands you justify the step up: what exactly are you getting for the additional spend and the extra footprint? With the Stanmore IV, that question is easier to answer than ever. This is a genuinely refined product — not a flashy generational leap, but the kind of careful, considered upgrade that makes a good speaker better in all the right ways.



Drivers and Amplification


The Stanmore IV fields a 5-inch, 60W woofer paired with two 0.75-inch tweeters rated at 25W each, for a total output of 110W. The comparison with its predecessor is instructive: the Stanmore III ran a 5-inch woofer at 50W and the same tweeter count at 15W each. That's a 20% increase in woofer output and a 67% jump in tweeter power — figures that mirror the scaling applied to the Acton IV, suggesting a systematic retuning across the entire Homeline IV generation rather than piecemeal adjustments.


The tweeters themselves have been redesigned, with Marshall citing improved dispersion and a wider stereo soundstage as the outcome. The bass port has also been reworked — a change that in practice should tighten the low-frequency response and reduce the kind of port noise that can plague speakers in this price bracket when pushed hard. Given the Stanmore's larger cabinet volume compared to the Acton, bass reproduction has always been one of its strengths; the redesigned port should allow it to handle that advantage more cleanly.



The M-Button and User Controls


Like the Acton IV, the Stanmore IV introduces the M-button — a customisable hardware control that can be configured through the Marshall Bluetooth app. The inclusion of dedicated physical controls has long been a defining feature of Marshall's home line: you shouldn't need a smartphone to adjust the music at a dinner party. The M-button extends that philosophy by giving users a programmable shortcut — whether that's a specific EQ profile, a volume preset, or instant playback access — without cluttering the top panel. The full complement of analogue controls (bass, treble, volume knob, media jog, power switch, and Bluetooth pairing button) remains intact.



Auracast and Connectivity


Here the Stanmore IV does something its predecessor did not: it integrates Auracast broadcast audio natively. Auracast, built on the LE Audio extension to Bluetooth 5.2 and above, allows a single audio source to broadcast to multiple receivers without the point-to-point pairing constraints of traditional Bluetooth. In practical terms, this means the Stanmore IV is architected for a multi-speaker listening environment from day one. Pair two of them and you have genuine stereo separation across a room rather than the widened-mono approximation of a single enclosure. As the Auracast ecosystem grows and more devices support the standard, the Stanmore IV's relevance as a node in a larger audio network will only increase.


Connectivity is otherwise straightforward: Bluetooth 5.3 (an upgrade from 5.2 on the Stanmore III), a 3.5mm aux input, and an RCA input for analogue sources. The RCA port is shared with the Stanmore III, meaning vinyl users retain their connection — a small but important detail for the segment of buyers who want a speaker that bridges digital convenience and analogue warmth. OTA firmware updates via the Marshall Bluetooth app ensure the device remains current as new Bluetooth features are standardised.




Build, Dimensions, and Sustainability


The Stanmore IV measures 350 × 203 × 185mm, marginally slimmer in depth than the Stanmore III's 188mm, and comes in at 4kg — a 250g reduction from the previous generation's 4.25kg. Neither figure is dramatic, but they continue the trend of incremental physical refinement visible across the Homeline IV range.


More significant is the sustainability story. The Stanmore IV, like the Acton IV, ships with an FSC-certified wooden cabinet, 70% recycled plastic, recycled metal components and magnets, and a PVC-free, fully vegan build. Improved repairability and lower standby power consumption round out the environmental commitments. These aren't cosmetic gestures — FSC certification requires independent auditing of the supply chain, and designing for repairability has real consequences for how long a product stays out of landfill. For buyers who weigh these factors, the Stanmore IV is a materially more responsible choice than most of its competitors.


The launch colourways are Black and Cream. The Stanmore III offered Brown as a third option; its absence here may disappoint buyers with warmer interior palettes, though the cream finish remains a versatile choice.



Where It Sits in the Market


If your listening space is large, or you tend to entertain, or you simply want a speaker that can reproduce the lowest registers of a bass guitar without compressing, the Stanmore earns that premium. If you're in a smaller room or routinely listening at moderate volumes, the Acton IV will likely satisfy — and the gap between them has arguably narrowed with this generation, given the shared tweeter upgrade and amplification philosophy.


What the Stanmore IV does convincingly is position itself as a speaker with a future. Auracast support, OTA updates, and app integration mean the hardware is designed to grow with the technology around it. That's a different kind of value proposition than raw specifications — and increasingly, it's the right one.



Verdict


The Marshall Stanmore IV is, in many ways, exactly what you want from a fourth-generation product: better in the ways that matter, without abandoning what made its predecessors work. Improved tweeters, a retuned bass port, Auracast readiness, the new M-button, and a genuine sustainability commitment add up to a speaker that justifies its place in the lineup with confidence. It doesn't chase trends or overreach. It does what the best Marshall products have always done — it makes music sound like music, and it looks like it belongs wherever you put it.


Available in Black and Cream. HK$3,499.


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