Marshall Kilburn III vs Middleton II

Dec 06, 2025 01:39 PM By Bashar

96

Dear Rtings team, I assume most of you are engineers. Could you please explain yourself the logic of how come 3 times bigger (and 1 kg heavier) Kilburn 3 has 0.2 higher portability rate than Middleton 2 just because it has AC connection? Probably I’ve written about those strange calculations a year ago, and nothing changes. OK then, we Rtings followers will consider that speakers with AC connection are more portable than the others :) And these portability ratings also changes “Outdoor” ratings-calculations as well. To have AC connection increase outdoor ratings.

Hi Bashar, Indeed We haven’t worked on the Speaker test bench for a long time but some improvements should be coming in 2026, I have been focusing on headphone and I am the one engineer in audio team. Actually they score similar, but the Killburn 3 is 0.2 lower not higher. AC Don’t have much weight. The Power Source score for portability is:

AC Only -0 (this one is a given) Battery & USB -9 Battery and AC -10

I t was assumed that by a very small margin, ability to plug it in anywhere without a charging block is a small benefit in portability but you would normally lose it in other metrics So yes in this case the AC gives it a small edge, but the Volume and weight is in favor of the Middleton.

The total Portability score is ventilated that way:

Volume 25% Weight 25% Power source 40% 1 Hand Carry 10%

It may be debatable, and appreciate your feedback. We may be generally a bit too generous and give it a steeper curve for Volume and weight. We typically try to make more than cherry picked changes and work on the test bench as a whole, so we’ll definitely take good notes of your interrogations.

Dear Rtings team, I assume most of you are engineers. Could you please explain yourself the logic of how come 3 times bigger (and 1 kg heavier) Kilburn 3 has 0.2 higher portability rate than Middleton 2 just because it has AC connection? Probably I’ve written about those strange calculations a year ago, and nothing changes. OK then, we Rtings followers will consider that speakers with AC connection are more portable than the others :) And these portability ratings also changes “Outdoor” ratings-calculations as well. To have AC connection increase outdoor ratings.