Marshall’s Mid-Century-Looking Soundbar Would Make Don Draper Cry Tears of Joy

Marshall’s lineup of non-rockstar-grade audio gear just got a little bigger. As a part of IFA 2025, the company announced the Heston 60, a more compact soundbar that complements its previously released Heston 120. As usual, Marshall is keeping things mid-century with a design that invokes its classic amps and includes tactile controls (buttons instead of knobs like those used on the Heston 120), woven fabric, and PU leather. It also comes in either cream or black, but if you don’t buy the cream version, you’re just wrong in my opinion.

While the look is mostly the same as the Heston 120, aside from the knobs (bummed those are gone, by the way), there are some key differences between the two soundbars. For one, the Heston 60 is much more compact, which makes it ideal for anyone with less room, though you’ll get less boom for your buck. The Heston 60 has seven amplifiers compared to the Heston 120’s 11 amplifiers. It’s much quieter at 56W of total power compared to 150W of peak power. For most people, that will be more than enough, though, and despite the less powerful sound, the Heston 60 has some other tricks up its sleeve.

One cool feature is that the Heston 60 can be mounted on the wall or set on a TV stand thanks to specially designed waveguides and angled drivers. Depending on whether the Heston 60 is mounted or not, you can flip the reversible control to suit the soundbar’s orientation and even move the Marshall logo, which is magnetic. Probably my favorite thing about this soundbar is that it really leans into repairability. According to Marshall, the Heston 60 has a host of replaceable parts, including the fret (the speaker grill), end caps, drivers, and circuit boards, which encompass some of the most important parts of any soundbar.

As far as connectivity goes, the Heston 60 should rise to the occasion, with HDMI 2.1 eARC, a 3.5mm jack, and Bluetooth 5.3. It’s also compatible with AirPlay 2, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. There are also several modes for specific situations. While music and movie modes are straightforward, voice and night modes are kind of interesting. Voice mode accentuates dialogue in movies (for all those subtitle people out there), and night mode actually works to dampen loud sound effects and keeps dialogue listenable so you don’t wake the whole damn house up.

If you’re wondering where your low-end is going to come from, Marshall is also launching a subwoofer, the Heston Sub 200, which borrows a similar energy from the Heston 60. There’s the same amp-inspired mid-century look, and the Heston Sub 200 is equally as repairable. It’s wireless, too, which is nice if you’re like me and hate stuffing a bunch of cables behind your couch, even if you won’t ever see them. The sub will connect with the Heston 120 if you already own Marshall’s bigger soundbar. As is the case with Marshall’s previous entrant into the soundbar space, neither the Heston 60 nor the Heston Sub 200 will come cheap. Both will launch officially on Sept. 23 for $699 and $599, respectively.