Edifier R1380DB Review: Bookshelf speakers
This is the second article of a short series about working better from home. Today I’m going to review the bookshelf speakers Edifier R1380DB, they have been recently released and offer a good option, especially for Android Developers ;).
I was looking for some speaker to complement my setup, something that can deliver a relatively good sound. Here are my criteria
- Price: I set a budget of AU$200 for the speakers
- Bluetooth 5.x: given many of us are using our phone to listen to music this is mandatory. Bluetooth 5.x offers better bandwidth and latency
- Stereo: sound is so much better in stereo
- At least 1 Line in: so that I can connect other devices, such as my computer
- at least 2 voices: which allow proper medium and bass (to some extend)
Buying experience
These bookshelf speakers are available on amazon, which mean you will receive them in no time. I received mine in just few days (without Prime).
Unboxing and installation
The box contains everything you need to plug your speakers. A good quality sounds cable of about 2 meters that you will use to connect both speakers together, an optical cable to plug to your TV for instance, a mini-jack to coaxial and a coaxial cable. You won’t need to buy additional cables. You will also find the 2 speakers as well as the remote control.
The installation takes less than 5 minutes. You must connect the 2 speakers together and then you can either use one of the cable provided in the box, or you can start connecting in Bluetooth.
Using the remote controller, you can select what audio source you want to play. Alternatively you can click the power button (the lower one), and check on the front the color of the LED. Blue is bluetooth, Green is Line, Red is optical.
Design and connectivity
The speaker are good size for a desk, about 25 cm high and 15 cm wide. They exist in brown/wood style and black. The front is modern with 2 chromes. They look pretty good on the desk.
Behind the right speaker, you can find all the connectors, Optical, Coaxial, Line 1 and 2. on the side you can adjust the volume, the tribble and the bass to adjust the sounds to your taste. the buttons feel great and smooth.
The speakers come with a remote (infra red), the remote allow you to quickly switch between the inputs, change the volume, play, pause skip track. It would have been good to have a radio-remote, because infra-red means if something is in the way, the signal won’t be received.
The size of the remote is good and the buttons big enough.
Sound
When you buy a pair of speaker, sound is probably the most important feature. These bookshelf speakers have some size constraints, but they deliver 2 x 21W RMS. You can really fill a home office without any problem and you can probably fill a medium size living room.
The quality and balance of the sounds is good but not great, if you are a music aficionado and want the best sound, I wouldn’t recommend these speakers. They might not be as clear and precise as more expensive speakers, however, I find them great for voice, podcast and electronic music. If like me you watch Youtube videos, listen to Spotify while working and enjoy some tunes and podcast during your lunch break, these one are for you.
Once you adjust the tribble and bass to your taste the sounds it pretty good.
Bluetooth
The Edifier R1380DB are equiped with Bluetooth 5.1. This version offer great innovations such as up-to 5 Mbps which is more than twice faster than the version 4.0. The range is also much better, with up-to 200m in Line Of Sight path or 40m indoor. The version 5.1 consum less power with the implementation of BLE (Bluetoorh Low Energy)
Codecs support AptX, SBC
Thanks to Bluetooth 5.1, Edifier is able to provide support for AptX, this codec provided by Qualcomm equip most of the Android devices.
AptX offers better compression/decompression over bluetooth than SBC allowing better sound quality over bluetooth. It also offer a shorter latency, making it good for pairing the speakers for watching movies.
Conclusion
I’ve been surprised by the power of these small speakers, while the fidelity might not match higher-end speakers, they deliver great sound for the price. The connectivity is amazing, with Optical, Line and Bluetooth, they can be connected to many equipments such as a TV, a computer and a phone at the same time. The remote control make it easy to switch between sources.
For my Home office set, they are perfect, I hope you have found that review interesting and it will help you in your purchase.
