Marshall Major and Minor official

Marshall today finally launched its two inaugural headphone sets with promises of both the outer design as well as their sound. The over-ear Major is designed the most closely to recall Marshall's amps and uses both the vinyl from its stacks as well as a guitar-like coiled headphone cable. They have an optional quarter-inch plug for amps and stereos and have a collapsible design that folds the ear cups into the headband area.

Each cup has an 0.6-inch moving coil dynamic speaker that can handle a 115dB signal-to-noise ratio and a frequency range of 20Hz to 20kHz. It costs $99.

The Minor caters to in-ear listeners and has a unique shape designed to keep the earpieces in place without having to go to in-canal designs. They also use fabric anti-tangle cords and have an in-line microphone and remote that supports typical iOS (and some other smartphone) features. Although it puts out less power due to its size, the Minor shares similar speakers to the Major and has the same signal-to-noise and frequency range as its larger sibling.

The Minor comes with an adapter to support devices that don't properly recognize two-way headphone plugs and costs $59, although it's currently listed as "sold out."

by MacNN Staff