The guys at Edifier are know for making some really great audio gear, so when I was given the opportunity to go ears-on with their latest reference speakers, I was pretty excited. Well after spending two weeks listening to their Airpulse A300 speakers, I’m totally spoiled.
Designed by musician and audio expert Phil Jones, the A300s are on the larger end of bookshelf speakers, and are capable of pushing out an enormous amount of distortion-free sound. The speakers have built-in amplification, which means they work right out of the box without any additional hardware. Simply connect your favorite audio sources – be they analog or digital wired, or Bluetooth wireless, and you’re up and running.
As soon as I cracked open the box from the A300s, I knew it was going to be a quality affair. Each speaker is wrapped in a cloth pouch to protect its cabinet, and it even comes with gloves for handling them without fingerprints or sc. Edifier includes all the wiring you need too, with high quality cables for RCA stereo, optical digital, and USB digital. The only cables not included are XLRs, if you want to go with balanced analog inputs.
Each speaker cabinet measures appx. 8.85″(w) x 15.15″(h) x 13.39″(d), and is crafted from weighty 25mm MDF, finished with cherry wood veneer. The speakers are lined with a thick sound absorption material to minimize unwanted vibrations. They each pack a 6.5″ woofer, along with a 65mm ribbon tweeter, capable of hitting frequencies as high as 40 kHz. Each tweeter is driven by a 10 watt digital amp, while the woofers get 70 watts of power a piece. There are analog controls for input level, bass, and treble on back, while the infrared remote controls overall system volume, inputs, and can be used for skipping tracks via Bluetooth.
The back of the right speaker is where all of the inputs connect, and a fat, 5-pin shielded cable sends audio to the left speaker. That cable measures roughly 15 feet long, so you can place the two speakers nice and far apart for maximum separation. Even placed fairly close together, the ribbon tweeter produces a wide soundstage that opens up both horizontally and vertically.
Moving on from specs and features, what really matters is how speakers sound, and the Airpulse A300s are simply brilliant. No matter what style of music I threw at them, they produced an incredibly clean and vibrant sound, with enough available volume to easily fill the entire 450 square foot room I was testing them in at the kind of level you’d use if you were throwing a party. Distortion was undetectable to my ears, even at the highest volume levels.
Reproducing bass all the way down to 40Hz, they can shake the walls without the need for an external subwoofer, and even the thumping deep lows of Run the Jewels’ banger Call Ticketron and Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On couldn’t scare them off. But these speakers aren’t just for party people. They sounded just as phenomenal playing Oscar Peterson’s C-Jam Blues as they did with Kraftwerk’s synthtastic Tour de France. Whatever type of music you enjoy, the A300s are up to the task.
For speakers with built-in amplification, the A300s are shockingly good, with big volume, razor-sharp clarity, studio-like imaging, and broad and smooth frequency response across the board. In other words, they’re worth every penny of their $1099.99 price tag. If you’re shopping for a standalone audio system, and have the budget, I highly recommend that you go for the A300s. They’re available for purchase right now from the Edifier website.
These days, soundbars are all the rage when it comes to home theater sound systems. But if you go with one of those slimline systems, you’ll almost certainly be sacrificing sound quality and channel separation. If you want the most wide-open and theater-accurate sound system, you have to go with individual satellite speakers. The Edifier e255 is one such system, providing everything you need to add a proper 5.1 surround sound system to your TV, and doing it with style.
The first thing you’ll notice about the e255 is that the speakers aren’t just ordinary black boxes. Instead, they’re stylish, retrofuturist enclosures which are designed to be seen and not just hidden away. The ovoid enclosures look particularly slick with their glossy red shells, though they do show fingerprints pretty easily. Good thing you won’t have much reason to touch them once they’re set in place.
The system includes six speakers – two front satellites, two surround satellites, a center channel which also includes audio inputs and processing circuitry, and a subwoofer. There are five 16-watt amps for the tweeters, five 20-watt amps for the mids, and a 220w RMS amp for the subwoofer. There’s a tiny IR remote too, which lets you control volume, switch inputs, change surround modes, and access the settings menu.
System setup is nice and easy. Simply unbox the speakers, plug the fronts into the center pod, then plug that into an outlet. Plug the subwoofer and surrounds into power outlets, and they connect wirelessly to the system. There are three digital optical inputs and one analog input on the center speaker for connecting audio sources. You’ll probably only use one of these inputs though, since the best setup is if your TV has a digital audio output, so you can just select inputs on the TV and not have to switch again on the sound system.
What I noticed immediately upon powering on the system is that the sound quality is very clean and natural, without any of the overemphasis of low end that often comes with most home theater systems. Depending on your personal preference, this can be a good or a bad thing, but the overall impact is that the sound quality is much easier to live with in your living room than one of those wall-shaking surround systems that will have your neighbors banging on your door.
Since each speaker is independent, you can place them wide apart, providing a nice open soundstage, and great separation between all of the channels. The subwoofer can be placed anywhere, but it will produce the biggest boom when it’s near a wall or a corner of the room, and placed directly on hardwood. In my case, I have carpeted floors, which limited the thump a bit.
One thing I noticed is that no matter what input source I used, I had the crank the volume on the e255 up at 80% or more of its limit to really get a nice room-filling sound. Even at 100%, the system wasn’t as loud as I expected for its specified wattage, but then I discovered I could make them louder by going into the settings and increasing the volume of each speaker individually beyond its default setting. This sort of fine-tuning is usually meant for tweaking individual channels, but by increasing the baseline for all speakers an equal amount, I was able to get substantially more volume overall, even at the top setting. Think This is Spinal Tap’s “This one goes to eleven,” and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
The system offers full compatibility with Dolby Digital sound sources, as well as DTS. It also can enhance surround imaging for other sound sources with Dolby Pro Logic II, which offers a variety of modes for listening to music, movies, games, and can even create virtual surround from stereo soundtracks. Overall, I found DTS soundtracks offered the most theater-like experience, but there’s still very good surround and imaging from Dolby sources as well.
The Edifier e255 system sells for $799 and is available now with free shipping to the lower 48 US States. It’s a great little system if you’re looking for something that looks different, and still offers great sound quality.
There are numerous powered speakers on the market, but the vast majority of them make some compromises to provide integrated amplification. Not so with the Edifier S2000Pro series. These bookshelf-sized powered monitors are about as good as it gets when it comes to sound quality, volume, build quality, and versatility.
Right out of the box, the S2000Pros look impressive, with a substantial build with thick, real wood side panels, vibration isolating feet, and excellent fit and finish. They measure in at 13.5″ (h) x 8″ (w) x 10.5″ (d), making them just the right side for a bookshelf, tabletop, flanking a home entertainment center, or a really tricked out computer desk. Each speaker has a 5.5″ aluminum cone mid/bass driver and a planar diaphragm tweeter. Powering the speakers are digital amplifier chips from Texas Instruments, for a total of 50 watts per channel to the mid/bass, and 12 watts per channel to the tweeters.
Sound quality is excellent across the board, with crisp, bright highs, smooth mids, and a rich low end. Clarity and imaging is excellent, and you can take advantage of their wide soundstage using the included pro-grade 16-foot cable, which separates treble and bass signal paths. They push out a tremendous amount of volume for their size, easily filling a 20 foot x 25 foot room, and there’s not an iota of audible distortion, even at full blast. The low end is quite good for their size, but I’d love to see the option to add an external subwoofer.
They offer excellent musicality regardless of genre, they’re exceptionally deft at reproducing studio quality vocals. You can choose from four different equalization settings beyond their bass and treble knobs, including modes to optimize for vocals, a classic hi-fi sound, enhanced dynamic range, or a pure, unmodified studio monitor. I found the vocal mode to be quite satisfying, enhancing the front and center impression of vocals, though I spent most of my time enjoying the pure, uncolored sound of monitor mode.
It’s rare that speakers with this kind of audio quality offer so many input options too. You can connect devices via analog RCA jacks, digital optical, coax, or balanced analog via XLR jacks. In addition, they provide support for Bluetooth 4.0 with lossless aptX support. Even when driven with a wireless sound source like an iPhone, they sound spectacular. When connected to a digital source, they can replicate signals up to 24-bit @ 192KHz.
The S2000Pro comes with a full-size remote control, which provides access to volume, equalization mode, input selection, and Bluetooth play/pause and previous/next controls.
Priced at $399.99(USD), the Edifier S2000Pro speakers are an excellent option for an office, den, living room, or a home recording studio. If you’re looking for a self-contained pro quality speaker system that requires no external amplification, you’ll be extremely happy if you purchase these. They’re available for purchase now over on Amazon.
Edifier is offering you their latest Bluetooth speaker system, the e25 Luna Eclipse. This 2-piece speaker system comes with touch sensitive controls for volume, play/pause, previous/next track and standby, a 3.5mm stereo audio input jack, a 3/4″ / 19mm tweeter and a 3″ / 76.2mm full range speaker drive on each speaker (total power output of 74 watts) and is compatible with Bluetooth enabled devices. The e25 Luna Eclipse will set you back $199.99. (wireless remote for volume and power included). [Product Page]
Looks like Mr. Eddie Fier, the man we hope is CEO of Edifier, is planning to wade into the Jambox-wars with this Bluetooth speaker-cum-speakerphone. The iF335 Bric Connect bonds with your devices over Bluetooth and auxiliary inputs, pumping out 12 watts of RMS power over a pair of 70mm drivers. It's available from today for $99.99, assuming you can still type after the unremitting hilarity of our Eddie Fier / Edifier gag earlier.
Filed under: Portable Audio/Video
Source: Edifier
Computer speaker design rarely sits in the middle: it tends to be dry on creativity or go over the top. Edifier is sometimes known for testing the limits itself, but its new e10 Exclaim speakers might strike just the right balance in taste. The 2.0-channel system trades on its exclamation point imagery without falling too far into gimmick territory. It might even sound good at the same time -- the dot in each satellite's punctuation helps pump out a reasonable 36W of sound across two amplifiers and allows for separate woofer and tweeter sections with their own passive radiators. The speakers are available today for $100, and only leave us wondering if a higher-end model would demand an interrobang.
Continue reading Edifier e10 Exclaim PC speakers punctuate the air with 36W of sound
Filed under: Peripherals
Edifier e10 Exclaim PC speakers punctuate the air with 36W of sound originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Nov 2012 23:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Edifier has just released another unique looking speaker. This speaker is called the Exclaim and appropriately enough it looks a bit like an exclamation point! This dual amplifier 2.0 speaker system puts out a total of 36 watts of power through it’s 6 internal active speakers, while passive radiators augment the sound. The speakers measure 4.1” x 12.2” x 7” and sell for $99 only on Edifier’s site (at some point they will likely be available here on Amazon