Marshall Milton ANC Review: Best On-Ear Headphones Yet?

On-ear headphones with active noise cancellation? That might sound like a strange combo at first, but it’s actually becoming more common these days.

Marshall’s Milton A.N.C isn’t the first attempt at this, and it probably won’t be the last. On-ear headphones sit on top of your ear rather than wrapping around it, so they naturally let in more ambient noise than over-ear headphones. Anything that helps cut down that noise is a welcome addition.

The catch is comfort. On-ear headphones can feel tight or uncomfortable for a lot of people after a while. So the real question here is whether Marshall managed to nail both things at once: blocking out noise without making your ears hurt.

Marshall Milton ANC Design

Comfort with on-ear headphones really comes down to the person wearing them. Some people never have issues; others deal with heat buildup or a pinching feeling that becomes unbearable over time. Personally, I didn’t run into either problem with the Milton ANC.

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That doesn’t guarantee you won’t; everyone’s ears are shaped differently, and I’ve had rough experiences with other on-ear headphones before. These just aren’t one of them. One thing worth mentioning: if you wear a hat or any head covering, it can throw off the fit slightly and affect how well the noise-cancelling seals against your ears.

Design-wise, Marshall got the details right. The earpads use a shape that gives you more surface contact with your ears, and the cushions feel softer than what you’d find on the Major series.

If the pads wear out, you can replace them for $23.43 each. You can even swap in earpads from the Major series if you want, though Marshall warns that it’ll affect both fit and noise cancellation.

I genuinely like wearing these. They’re light enough that tossing them in a bag feels effortless. At 200g, they don’t feel nearly as heavy on your head as that number might suggest.

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The clamp isn’t too aggressive, but it holds firm enough to keep the headphones in place on your head. They fold up too, though you get a soft pouch instead of a hard travel case. A tough shell coats the earcups on the Milton to guard against everyday damage, though there’s no official IP rating that I know of.

You control everything with physical buttons. The right earcup houses one that handles power, playback, volume, and answering calls; you just click it in different directions. The left earcup has a customizable M button. Both are simple to figure out within seconds of putting the headphones on.

Right now, black is your only color option. Hisense plans to add a cream version sometime later in 2026.

Marshall Milton ANC Features

Feature-wise, the Milton mirrors a lot of what the Monitor III ANC offers. You get active noise cancellation, which I’ll cover shortly, plus access to the Marshall app for extra control.

Inside the app, you can switch between ANC, Off, and Transparency mode under Noise Control. There’s also a slider to fine-tune how much ANC kicks in, ranging from Low up to Adaptive.

The Equalizer section gives you preset options to pick from, or you can turn on Adaptive Loudness instead. That feature automatically adjusts bass and treble based on your volume level and the noise around you.

There’s more packed into these headphones, too. Auracast lets you broadcast or pick up nearby Bluetooth streams. The customizable M-button can trigger noise control, Soundstage, or your voice assistant, whatever you use most. Spotify Tap comes switched on by default. Round that out with Battery Preservation and Interaction Sounds, which let you toggle audio prompts on or off, and that covers most of what the app offers.

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Actually, one more feature deserves its own mention: Soundstage. It also shows up on the Monitor III ANC, and it lets you widen the sound field using two sliders, Amount and Room Size.

Amount controls how wide the soundstage feels, and I can genuinely hear the difference: vocals get more room in the center, while music spreads outward. Room Size is trickier to judge; it might add a touch of echo or reverb, but I couldn’t tell for certain what it’s actually doing. I’d call Soundstage a nice bonus rather than something that changes the experience in a major way.

Bluetooth here runs on the newest 6.0 standard, and codec support covers SBC, AAC, LE Audio, and, surprisingly, LDAC for higher-quality streaming. Connection performance has been excellent throughout my weeks of testing, no stutters, no dropouts, nothing.

One issue did come up, though, and it seems tied to Bluetooth LE Audio. I couldn’t get the Marshall app to load on two different phones. The Milton also supports Bluetooth multipoint, so I tested that too. Turns out, unpairing the LE Audio connection fixed the app issue both times.

Marshall Milton ANC Battery Life

Marshall claims over 50 hours of battery life with ANC turned on, and 80 hours with it off. For comparison, the Beyerdynamic Aventho 100, another recent on-ear model, only manages 40 hours with ANC active.

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Real-world testing backs up Marshall’s numbers here. I ran a Spotify playlist for four hours straight at 50% volume, and the battery only dropped 6%. Do the math on that, and you’re looking at roughly 60 hours total on a single charge. That’s genuinely impressive endurance for a pair of ANC headphones.

Need a fast top-up? Just 15 minutes on the charger gets you another 9.5 hours of playback, handy if you’re heading out the door and running low.

The companion app also includes a Battery Preservation setting to help the battery last longer over time. You can cap charging at 90% instead of 100%, since charging to full every time isn’t great for long-term battery health. There’s also an option to slow down charging speed and lower the temperature during charging; just swipe across the Preservation bar to adjust it.

Even better, the battery is replaceable, and you can swap it yourself without sending the headphones in for repair. A replacement battery costs just $17.45.

Marshall Milton ANC Noise Cancellation

Can noise cancellation actually work on on-ear headphones? The Beyerdynamic Aventho 100 already proved it could, and the Milton ANC backs that up too. Honestly, once you’ve experienced ANC on an on-ear pair, going back to a standard pair without it feels like a downgrade.

That said, don’t expect the Milton ANC to match over-ears or true wireless earbuds in raw noise-cancelling power. Out of the three headphone styles, on-ears remain the weakest at blocking sound. But for anyone who prefers the on-ear fit, having ANC at all is a real win.

I tested the Milton ANC walking around London, on a plane, and on public transport, and it noticeably cuts down background noise in all three situations. Some sound still creeps in since the padding doesn’t fully seal around your ear, but loud, sudden noises get toned down significantly.

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Sharp sounds and background chatter still get through somewhat. I could pick up on people talking from a different railway platform, though I couldn’t actually make out what they were saying. If you want more silence, the volume rocker lets you dial ANC up further.

Transparency mode works well when you want to hear your surroundings clearly. It sounded a bit noisy to me at first, but that turned out to be the environment itself, not the headphones.

One downside: wind noise sneaks through more than I’d like. It’s minor and doesn’t hurt sound quality, but you’ll notice it with ANC turned on.

Call quality earns a thumbs up, though. It comes through clear; my voice sounded slightly mumbled on the other end, but background noise mostly stayed out, aside from louder sounds like a passing DLR train in the background.

Marshall Milton ANC Sound Quality

The Marshall Milton ANC comes with new 32mm drivers, and the sound signature feels like classic Marshall, or at least the Marshall we’ve heard in recent years. It leans neutral rather than chasing a signature “sound,” with punchy bass and a bright top end. Out of Marshall’s current headphone lineup, this might be the best-sounding pair yet.

That said, it’s not flawless.

The midrange doesn’t quite pull its weight. Fine details in that range don’t always come through as clearly as they should. And while Marshall avoids a hard V-shaped sound profile, at least when you’re using the Signature EQ, that bright top end combined with heavy bass still ends up overshadowing the midrange a bit, making it feel less present than it should.

Rock is where the Milton ANC shows its one real weakness. Tracks from Smashing Pumpkins and Queens of the Stone Age come through sounding thinner than I expected, a gap I didn’t notice with other genres. It’s possible that’s just how those tracks were mixed, but I tried every EQ mode looking for a fix and never found one. The mid-boost setting came closest but ended up sounding too sharp and rough.

That said, percussion on rock tracks still lands with punch, and the highs and lows carry more weight than the mids do. The Milton ANC clearly leans bass-forward, though not so much that it buries the midrange. Low end here has real depth and a satisfying roundness to it.

Switch over to K-pop, like Illit’s Magnetic, and the bass comes alive within a genuinely wide soundstage. Marshall’s Signature EQ claims to be flat, but don’t let that fool you; if you like bass-heavy sound, these on-ears deliver it in spades. I’m a fan.

Highs on the Milton ANC come through clear, detailed, and bright, exactly the kind of sound signature I enjoy. Slower, more laid-back tracks tend to reveal a bit more detail, though this still isn’t the most detailed-sounding headphone out there. There’s some dynamism in the mix, but honestly, it’s the highs and lows that do most of the talking here.

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The Milton ANC also supports USB-C audio, though don’t get fooled by the short cables in the box, a tiny USB-C cable and a USB-C to 3.5mm cable. Unless you enjoy sitting with your head practically on your keyboard, grab a longer cable if you plan on using USB-C for listening.

Like most headphones, USB-C audio brings out the best version of the Milton ANC, with sharper detail and better insight. That slightly thin quality I noticed elsewhere disappears, replaced by a smoother, more balanced tone. A longer cable in the box would’ve been a nice touch from Marshall, but if you already own one, USB-C listening works great here.

Marshall Milton ANC Verdict

The Marshall Milton ANC delivers on nearly every front: solid sound, effective noise cancellation, comfortable fit, and a feature set that actually feels useful rather than gimmicky. If you’ve written off on-ear headphones before, thinking they can’t compete with over-ears, this pair might just change your mind.

Final Thoughts

A lot of people avoid on-ear headphones altogether, mostly down to comfort. Marshall seems determined to change that reputation, and in my opinion, the Milton ANC is easily the best on-ear pair they’ve made so far.

Adding active noise cancellation was the right call here. Comfort-wise, the Milton ranks among the better on-ears I’ve tested, and the feature list backs that up: long battery life, solid call quality, dependable wireless connection, and sound that holds up well whether you’re on Bluetooth or USB-C.

Add in the sustainability angle, replaceable earpads and a replaceable battery, and you get a pair of headphones built to actually last. The Marshall Milton ANC might end up being the only on-ear headphones you ever need to buy.

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