Marshall Minor IV review: Back on tour

From Radiohead’s Creep to Bohemian Rhapsody, a well-executed minor four has the power to define a song. So, with a name like Marshall Minor IV, expectations are high for the company’s latest true wireless earbuds, especially when their predecessor — which launched three years prior — feel a little flat.

Price & availability

An affordable improvement

Marshall unveiled the Minor IV alongside its Major V on-ear headphones on 23 April, and both went on sale internationally the same day. The Minor IV cost $129, the same as its predecessors. They’re available directly from Marshall and third-party retailers, including Amazon.

It’s also worth noting that if you’re willing to lose out on the generational upgrades, 2021’s Minor IIIs are now reduced to $100 (although aren’t available directly from Marshall in the US anymore).

What’s good about the Marshall Minor IV?

Good looks and fast charging

Marshall’s newest entry-level true-wireless buds make a good first impression, with a distinctive grain texture across the case’s surface — just like the brand’s iconic Tolex vinyl-covered guitar amps — offering good grip and standout looks. The front of the case is punctuated by a prominently embossed Marshall logo, hewn from white silicone rubber that happens to have great anti-slip properties when you place the case face-down, too.

The buds themselves are made of lightly textured (post-consumer recycled) plastic, save for the knurled metal stalks, which highlight one of the Minor IV’s major generational improvements: diverging from the perpendicular design of its predecessor by about 20 degrees to help facilitate what Marshall describes as a “truer fit” this generation.

Essentially, the sound outlet at the top of each bud and the microphone positioning at the end of each stalk now make more sense relative to where your ears and mouth are, a similar adaptation to the design evolution seen on Apple’s baseline AirPods.

The open design – free of silicone ear tips, as on the Marshall Motif II ANC – rests gently in your ears, forgoing common issues that closed-design buds come with, like pressure build-up. As a result, prolonged wear is far more comfortable, allowing you to get the most from the IV’s extended battery life. Despite their fit, in testing, ear detection on the Minor IVs never misfired, making pausing audio for a quick check of my surroundings or an extended conversation seamless.

To round out the look and feel, the top-outer face of each bud features the distinct looped ‘M’ of the Marshall logo, which also helps highlight the touch-sensitive area on each ear. Meanwhile, the brass caps introduced on the bottom of each stem on the Minor III are now joined by complementary grille inserts, serving as yet another premium touch that further embrace that iconic Marshall aesthetic.

Setup is a cinch, with one-button pairing by long-pressing the concentrically serrated button on the bottom of the case until the small LED on the front pulses blue. Android users will also appreciate Google Fast Pair support for quickly switching devices, while the complementary Marshall Bluetooth app worked flawlessly in testing. In addition to independent battery levels for the case and each bud, you can tweak touch control functions, battery preservation mode, and customize EQ.

By default, the Minor IVs sport Marshall’s ‘signature sound’ profile, focusing on detailed highs and rich bass. However, there are four other presets on hand that boost or reduce bass, mid, or treble frequency bands, as well as a custom user profile, where you can control each of five frequency sliders.

Like their predecessors, the Minor IVs support wired and wireless charging, but Marshall has upped the ante with notably longer battery life, which, in testing, these buds passed or surpassed expectations. The buds themselves can — as promised — run for 7 hours solid on a single charge (tested at 60% volume while breaking the drivers in), while the case grants up to four additional recharges, which means total battery life shoots just over the promised 30-hour total, making them great for extended playback sessions and extended periods away from a power source.

What’s more, both the buds and the case were able to fully recharge about 10 to 20% faster than Marshall quotes, with sub-hour recharging for the buds (Marshall claims 1.1 hours) and a 1.75-hour recharge time for the case (Marshall quotes 2 hours).

What’s bad about the Marshall Minor IV?

Style over substance

When it comes to earbuds, no matter how good they may sound, it’s nothing if they don’t come with a solid fit. Despite the clear effort made to improve upon the Minor III’s design, Marshall still has work to do in this area, even with the Major V. The revised design with its angled stem is an improvement. However, the buds’ dimensions and surface finish mean they can still work their way loose after only a few minutes.

Pair this with the buds’ open design and lack of ANC (active noise cancelation), and that ‘Marshall signature sound’ doesn’t get to shine without constant readjusting. Bass response lives and dies by the quality of the fit, so it’s the first thing to go when the Minor IVs start to come loose (gently pushing the buds into your ears slightly is a quick way to hear just how much you’re missing).

In the end, to combat this, I turned to the custom EQ profile to boost bass response (as well as mids, as vocal-led tracks and speech suffer under the default equalization, too).

While the Minor IVs look the part, one of the first things you’ll notice when you pick the case up is how light and hollow it feels (even when the buds are docked). I’d have accepted more weight for even greater battery life gains, but perhaps Marshall’s saving that for the Minor V.

Both the in-ear detection and touch controls are impressively responsive. Still, the placement and size of the touch-sensitive area make adjusting the Minor IVs in each ear (which you’ll be doing a lot, remember), without accidentally pausing your music or skipping to the next podcast, a real challenge. The knurled stems invite easy manipulation and don’t pose the same hazard to playback, but aren’t the most comfortable way of adjusting fit.

Should you buy it?

It appears the fit issues of the Minor IV’s predecessor persist with this new entry for 2024. However, provided you can find ear positioning that works, EQ settings to complement, and you can make peace with the touch control placement, these buds are otherwise easy to set up, great to listen to, offer respectable battery life, and that unmistakable Marshall aesthetic.