The major has gone wireless

FROM Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Slash, Alice Cooper, Oasis and Gorillaz, to Justin Timberlake, Kendrick Lamar, Lana Del Rey and many others, the world’s greatest bands and performers are able to share their excellent live music thanks to Jim Marshall OBE and his son Terry and their creation—the Marshall amplifiers.

Since the brand’s inception during the rebellious 1960s music scene, Marshall has grown vastly in size from the early days of its music store at Uxbridge Road, London, becoming a centerpiece of rock and roll music.

In 2010, Marshall branched out into the headphones market releasing the Marshall Major Headphones and Marshall Minor Earphones. Over the course of the decade, the market has been flooded with headphones of all sorts of colors, shapes and design, yet the Major series has done very little to change its iconic look. Now, with the growing popularity of True Wireless Stereo earbuds, is there still reason to consider the Marshall Major IV?

Here is our Marshall Major IV Ups and Downs review:

■ LOOK AND DESIGN. I’ve always liked the classic style and rock star looks of the Marshall Major headphones. The company’s guitar-amp heritage shines through, with its textured black vinyl adorning the outside of the headband with the white Marshall script logo positioned on the outside of either earpad. It’s also in black which means it can go with any of your OOTD, which means it gets an Up.

The design features squared-off ear pads with visible metal wires that slide along the headpiece. You can adjust the arms by sliding them up and down depending on the size of your head. These offer a firm fit against your ear, and the headband is very flexible and should fit even large heads without being obtrusive when stretched. The clips attaching the earpads to the headband also have a practical purpose as they are collapsible, allowing you to fold the Major IV up and carry them in your jacket pocket easily.

I just wished they included a pouch for better storage protection so this gets a Down.

When you look at the cups on the Marshall Major IV, you’ll realize they aren’t even big enough to fit around a kid’s ear. So are they going to pinch and hurt a bit after a couple hours of use? Not really, because Marshall did make some adjustments making the pads thicker yet softer to ensure that the ear cups adjust to the ear and do not press uncomfortably after prolonged use. This is great since headphones have now become standard study/ work-from-home gear for most of us. Still, I would suggest visiting one of the showrooms of Digital Walker to try them out first and feel it for yourself. For comfort the Major IV gets an Up ,as well.

■ CONTROLS. If you are like me who struggle with tiny buttons, you’ll love the simple controls of the Major IV. It has a single multidirectional mini joystick (with a gold accent to make it visible) that handles all the controls—an easy Up.

Press and hold the joystick to power the Major IV on or off, and do a single press to play or pause the audio. To adjust the volume, you just nudge the joystick up or down or nudge it left to right to skip forward or return to the start of the track. Double pressing it will activate your voice assistant of choice. It may sound complicated but it’s definitely a lot easier than fumbling around trying to press those tiny buttons.

■ SOUND QUALITY. I have to give the Major IV an Up for living up to its superb audio heritage. Inside those cups are high-quality 40mm drivers that excel at delivering great sound quality whatever type of audio or music you are listening to. It sounds even better when you’re listening to genres associated with the Marshall brand—punk, rock, indie and metal. Treble is crisp and vocals are clear, and listening to those guitar riffs are pure joy. It made me want to do an air guitar solo—even though I have no idea how to do it. You might be left wanting for a little more bass though when you are listening to hip-hop and those bass-heavy dance music.

Another nice feature of the Major IV is the ability to share your audio using the included 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio cable. Just plug the cable into the Major IV, and connect it to any pair of headphones with a 3.5mm port and you can both listen to the same source. Its long enough so you don’t have to worry about getting too close, especially with physical distancing. It is a cool feature for couples who want to listen or watch the same video together. This sharing feature also gets an Up.

BATTERY. The Marshall Major IV has two other standout features: its long battery life and wireless charging capabilities.

The Marshall Major IV promises a truly impressive battery life of roughly 80 hours. Throughout our three-week review, I only had to charge the Major IV twice—once via USB-C and the other time was just to try out wireless charging. It takes about three hours to fully charge the Major IV via wired charging, but a 15-minute charge will give it enough juice to deliver up to 15 hours of audio. Results though will vary depending on the volume levels— still, that battery capacity deserves an UP.

Last, the Major IV is the first in the series to support wireless charging and we have to give that an Up for extra convenience. This comes in handy if you own smartphones that also make use of a Qi charging pad. My only gripe about this is that it can be a bit difficult to balance the headphones, either to keep it upright or to make sure its charging properly.

Final word: The Marshall Major IV retains the vintage rock star look and the superb sound quality we’ve come to expect from the brand. The battery life lasts twice longer than its predecessor and wireless charging—once you get find the right positioning is an added convenience. The only things holding it back from being among the top picks is the lack of noise cancellation and a good app to go with it.

The Marshall Major IV is priced at P8,690, and available at Digital Walker, Beyond the Box and Homeoffice.ph.

INTERNATIONAL Boxing Federation (IBF) minimumweight titleholder Pedro General Taduran Jr. expects nothing but an aggressive challenge from Rene Mark Cuarto in their all-filipino world championship showdown on Saturday at the Bula Gym in General Santos City.

“I know how determined he is to take my title away from me in his hometown, so I really prepared myself hard for this moment,” said Taduran, who tipped the scale at 104 lbs. during the formal weigh-in on Friday.

The fight will be staged in a bubble setup.

The 24-year-old Taduran (14-2-1 win-loss-draw record with 11 knockouts) arrived in General Santos City with his team 15 days ago to complete a 14-day quarantine at a local hotel. He found a way to train, spar and keep himself focused on his second title defense.

“I watched his previous bouts and I am fully ready now. If he wants to exchange punches, that will be good. If he runs, I will chase him and fight wisely,” Taduran said.

Taduran survived Mexico’s Daniel Valladares via technical draw in his opponent’s turf in his first title defense in February 2020.

Cuarto, on the other hand, unleashed a strong statement against Taduran, telling Businessmirror that he will send Taduran home to Libon, Albay, without his belt.

“I’ve been in training for two months and I will do my very, very best to get the title from him,” said the 24-year-old Cuarto (18-2-2 win-loss-draw record with 11 knockouts). “Condition-wise, I am ready for this fight physically and mentally.”

Cuarto weighed in at

105 lbs.