R1850DB

The speaker and sound quality are impressive! Edifier has a lot of speakers to choose from, just BE CAREFUL that the model you're looking at has all the options you're expecting. There's a reason one model might be $20 or $50 cheaper than another. An "active" speaker has an amplifier built into it; a "passive" one will only go as loud as the device it's receiving input from can go. If you want great sound standing alone, then get a powered ("active") speaker system like this one. Also, if you're going to (or think you might in the future) hook up a powered subwoofer to it, then pay attention to the specs; not every model has a sub-out. This particular model was the lowest price point that had: Bluetooth, Active (powered amp built in), and subwoofer out, and let me tell you, these speakers are crystal clear and the bass is great too. I'm pushing a powered 12" subwoofer as well and it'll put you into the next room. This model also has various inputs as well. As for Bluetooth, click the symbol on the remote OR you can cycle through inputs by pressing the volume knob on the back of Speaker 1 inward until you see the blue glowing light on the front side of Speaker 1. Discovered that by accident and so glad I did when I misplaced the remote. (It's discussed in the manual and even labeled on the back, but who reads that stuff right?) If the blue light is on, it's discoverable and you can connect via your cell phone or your desktop computer from the Bluetooth settings. Works great streaming from Spotify either on the PC or iPhone. If you're playing from a non-BT device, then the aux cord that comes with this model can plug into that device then into the RCA inputs on the back, just be sure to cycle through the inputs on the remote or volume button. If you're playing from your PC via Bluetooth or RCA, don't forget that your keyboard has music playback controls on it! Upper right hand corner or somewhere else. You don't have to click into your app or have the remote, just tap it from there lol Only gripe: I wish the knobs were on the side instead of the back. Minor annoyance that you may experience; however, after a day or two you won't have to see back there to know what knob is which. As for the price, it's a minor chunk of change for those of us just looking to listen to music in the office or den at home, but man, I don't regret it at all! Spending $199 as opposed to $129, $149 was a serious debate, but that extra $50 gets you a powered, sub-out, BT capable, remote controlled, kick-ace sound system.

I shopped for weeks to find the right speakers for my home office which is centrally-located in the main living area of our house and where I play a lot of different kinds of music. I spent a good deal of time shopping powered studio monitors to avoid the need for an amp/more wires. They had to have sufficient power to work in both near-field application for when I’m at my desk, but also to fill our wide open floor plan with sound when I’m not. And while I appreciate the idea of a subwoofer and even went so far as to shop 2.1 setups as well, I am also a big fan of 2-channel listening. Opting for better speakers with no sub (as opposed to lower-end speakers WITH a sub) was preferable to me. These appeared to hit nearly all of my targets except one low-priority one (balanced inputs), and included the ability to add on a sub later on if I wanted, so I took a chance. I don’t have any experience with the Edifier brand but I’ve heard good things. Turns out this was a great move. The speakers arrived well-packaged and individually wrapped in cloth to protect the shiny piano black finish. They also came with a polishing cloth to keep them extra-shiny. Maybe this was overkill. Maybe I like overkill… The speakers are heavy and solid – they FEEL valuable. I like the slight upward angle a lot as they are aimed perfectly from my desktop to my ears. They look modern and sleek, with or without the grills (though I have a two year old and will probably keep them on). The cable that connects the two speakers is super long – much longer than I needed (mine are only a couple of feet apart). The right speaker has the IR sensor for the remote and a small status/power indicator light that glows through the grill. As I am a firm believer in the bathtub curve of product failure, I immediately hooked them up and started putting them through their paces nice and hard. I blasted everything: Aphex Twin, strings-heavy classical, jazz, R&B vocal, “Kid A,” and the blackest metal I could find. I cranked them to uncomfortable levels and found my eyes watering with delight just a few songs in. I could feel the speakers aspirate, pushing the air around my right hand (on the mouse) at high volumes. Plenty of power to spare. I was expecting to take issue with the knobs being on the back, but I really only had to access them one time just after setup when I tweaked the treble up a couple of notches and left everything else flat. That was it. The knobs give a satisfying snap when they are flat in the middle of each setting which is a perfectly good place to be with these. I read in a few reviews that these are lacking in the mid-range, but I do not find that to be the case. They definitely sparkle in the highs and the lows are tight and serviceable, but I find the mids more than sufficient – clear with great separation. Some of that may be my DAC (I recommend you find a decent DAC for digital sources – I use a Korg DS-DAC-100), but you won’t get any complaints about the mid-range from me. The only area where I found them lacking is in the super-low register bass hits. Specifically I was playing “High Roller” by The Crystal Method, and while they shined throughout, there are a few ultra-low bass hits that were simply not “all there” at high volume. However, this does not defy my expectations of these low-profile desk speakers at all. I suspect adding a sub to the mix would probably pick up the bass significantly, probably even more than I would even want for this setup. In all I am very pleased with them and still not in any rush to add the sub. After a few hours of constant and loud playback I did a touch test around the back of each speaker to check for heat and found very little – almost none. A few of the other speakers I was considering had heat issues reported in the product reviews, but these have stayed nice and cool since I got them. The power switch stays on all the time, but I power them on and off with the remote and have still not had to access the switches directly. The only slight compromise I feel I made here was the lack of balanced inputs. I would have preferred them (and could have gotten them for a little more money or another monitor pair), but the DAC I use also has RCA outputs. I can’t imagine these sounding significantly better with balanced cables. I am no cable snob, but the cables that came with the speakers did seem a rather high gauge (thin), so I ordered a slightly lower gauge (thicker) RCA cable with the speakers ($10 – again, NOT a cable snob). I will be adding the cables (came with optical, Y, and RCA!) that came with the speakers to my cable storage bin where they will probably be repurposed for someone else’s system. As for the remote – it seems a lot of folks don’t realize that ALL remotes are lightweight. Remotes become heavy when you add the batteries. Since this remote only has a few buttons, it only uses a small button battery which makes it less heavy. Not sure when this became a drawback, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with the remote. It works perfectly from across the room and from numerous angles. There are four volume buttons (two up and two down) which I don’t really understand because each pair of buttons does the same thing. I originally thought they might control individual left and right channels, but that is not the case. This is not exactly a drawback – more of a weird design decision that does not take away from the function of the speakers in any way. The remote is excellent. While these would make reasonable home theater speakers, they will not rumble your house the way a lot of folks would like. You would need a sub for that. I have not used the Bluetooth feature and probably won’t very often except to listen to podcasts or audiobooks occasionally while cooking. I was only interested in their musical performance, and in that area they do not disappoint. If I have any issues with the BT, I will add them to this review.

I have a small-ish office and for a while have had a small battery-powered Bluetooth speaker that was barely better than my iPhone's built-in speaker. I wanted a speaker (system) that had real sound... something I've been sorely missing in today's portable-speaker world. I splurged a bit and order this system. My R1850DB box arrived today and I have to say that for my needs and wants this system is FABULOUS. I have no idea about maximum volume... I work in a professional office and will never test the system's limits. I will tell you that I am listening to it right now, after hours, at a moderate volume and it's a HUGE improvement over my previous solution. They look good. They sound good. They were very easy to setup and get connected to each other and to get my phone connect to them. The remote control was a feature I had to have... I need to be able to hit Mute quickly if someone comes to my office. It works well. Odd stuff: The remote has two "volume up" buttons and two "volume down" buttons. I'd have to guess as to why. I suppose it's a substitute for having the buttons be larger - which they must not have been able to easily do from a manufacturing perspective. So instead they give you two "+" buttons, side-by-side, to make it easier for you to find quickly. Same with the "-" buttons. As far as I can tell both the "+" buttons do the same thing (same with the "-" buttons). This isn't really a problem at all... it's just a little odd-looking on the remote. Someone mentioned in a review that it was a mistake to put the Volume knob on the back. The volume knob isn't an "absolute" knob... it's a digital knob. Its function is completely duplicated by the remote control as best I can tell. I just tested it. If you turn the knob wide open then power the speakers off, when you turn them back on they are at a moderate volume. The Bass and Treble knobs are absolute and are not duplicated on the remote. I've left them flat and am really enjoying the sound. If you like to constantly tinker with the tone settings then this could be an annoyance. Improvement: They include about a 12-foot connector cable for linking the two speakers (one is "Active" and the other is "Passive"). Mine are about three feet apart, so I have huge wad of cabling that is tucked inelegantly behind the passive speaker. I would like to have had a shorter cable also included in the box (in addition to the longer cable). That's my only complaint/suggestion. I'm a happy customer.

Just putting this up top in case it helps anyone out: I think the red and white stereo inputs on my speakers may be switched. It may just be the cord I am using but I doubt it. In windows 10 sound configuration and testing when the computer shows that sound should be coming out of the right it comes out of the left speaker and vice versa. Swapped the red and white plugs and now it is fixed. Just something to keep in mind if speakers seem off slightly. I give a 9/10 review otherwise so read further if you are still deciding. The speakers sound great and look awesome. Build quality was an 8 out of 10 with no appearance defects and all of the functions work as they are supposed to. I have the speakers mounted slightly below ear level and with the upward angle (R1850DB model) and correct spacing they create a phenomenal sound stage where the sound and dialog seem as if it is coming through the middle of the screen. This is probably the most important characteristic of a good set of stereo speakers. The highs and mids are crisp and do not get muddy at any points, and these speakers maintain an adequate bass response through the low ranges. I have a full atmos set up that is appropriate for home theater use, and still find this set enjoyable and perfect for gaming/youtube videos on my computer. Volume is great for computer speakers and much better than "pc speakers" with small 2 or 3" woofers. Prior to using these I was using an A/V receiver with 3.1 Micca bookshelfs and centers and after the change I didn't lose any audio quality and gained a ton of desk space. Only complaint would be the red/white stereo inputs seem swapped (comment above) and the controller doesn't seem that intuitive but is still easy to use when you get used to it. If you got $200 to spend on audio then these are a great choice for the quality and options they come with.

I have pretty good ears. I used to be a professional audio engineer. My ears ring a bit now from those days, but I still hear better than most people I know because my hearing is trained. These speakers are quite good. I got them on sale for 140 bucks--a real steal. They're in my living/dining/kitchen open-concept area. The low-end response is really impressive for a pair of 4 inch drivers. Very surprising. Keep in mind that I have them on a wood floor and up against the wall, which helps reinforce the bass. The transition up the frequency range through mids and into highs is relatively smooth. I don't sense an extended high-end. From my perspective, the highs roll off a bit, but in a nice way. I'd say it's my old ears, but I don't get that sense from other systems, such as the Harmon Kardon system in my BMW. ETA: I've decided my main gripe about high end is wrong. It's an artifact of speaker placement and my position in the listening space most of the time. If I sit in the near field of the speakers, the highs sound great. There is a bit of a trashy sound to the mids, in my opinion. Hard to put my finger on it. I suspect it's because I've only used Bluetooth from my phone, so I'm hearing the distortions introduced by the draconian compression. Probably not the speakers' fault. I haven't had the time or inclination to hook up a CD player. Maybe I'll report back when I do. After using the speakers for a few days, I decided to order the Polk PSW10 subwoofer to see what that adds. Initially, I was not impressed. Really, the sub seemed to add very little and I had trouble getting it dialed in to where I was happy. Here's the problem: the Edifiers have subwoofer out, but plugging a cable into it doesn't change anything about what the Edifiers do. They continue to reproduce the entire frequency spectrum. What I'd hoped for was a switched jack that would engage a high-pass filter, causing the Edifiers to roll off their low-end response at around 125 Hz or whatever. That doesn't happen. So, there's so much low end coming from the Edifiers, that by the time you crank up the sub enough to hear/feel the sub, you've got too much low end. (Maybe for some of you there's so much thing. Good for you!) Add to that the fact that the phase anomalies introduced by these three bass units can be unpleasant, and I just wasn't thrilled. So I started noodling on what to do about it. And it hit me. The Edifiers have a Bass control. So what I did was turn the Bass knob way down. Not all the way, but maybe 80%. Maybe I'm crazy, but it's a fact that filter networks introduce their own phase distortions and somewhere in my silly head, my notion is that the phase distortions get logarithmically worse the more you engage the network, so I don't want to push it to its limits where things probably get really nasty. Anywayz, I turned down the Bass control on the Edifiers and turned up the Polk's volume, while adjusting the frequency point on the Polk until I was happy with the crossover. So now I have a subwoofer that's doing it's job and a pair of mid/high speakers not working so hard to reproduce sub frequencies--the whole point and goal. And I'm really happy! Does it sound like I spent thousands? No, of course not. But it sounds really good, it get very loud to the point where we can't have a conversation and still sound amazing, or makes for great background music at dinner. I'm very, very happy. 4 stars overall because I'm picky and the remote totally sucks. I can rarely get it to do anything and when it does work, I'm like 2 feet from the speakers. If I ever get time, I'll call Edifier and ask them what's up with that.

I was considering the Edifier s350db 2.1 set for 300 dollars, but I think the r1850db set paired with a sub are a better option. I also think it's likely the best overall bookshelf speaker Edifier sells since it's the only set they sell with a sub-out. You also get an optical input with that sub-out in addition to the 2x RCAs and bluetooth. The input/outputs on the 1850 are the best of their entire range, even the more premium $300/$400 Edifier sets don't have all of them. You effectively get to have both 2.0 and 2.1 setups in one with this set of speakers. Why buy the r1850db 2.0 speakers over the s350db 2.1 setup? (or other edifiers?) -More versatile. The 1850 can be used with no sub and still has a really nice amount of bass. The 350 though, is an AIO setup, you have to use the sub. The 350 has dedicated cords to both the left and right speakers, forcing sub to be near the right speaker. With your own sub, the cord options are limitless. With the 1850, you also have the option of how much sub you want. 8" 10" 12" 15". Buy it now, or wait until later... get one cheap, or get a really nice one... find one on craigslist for $10 or perhaps a free one from a friend. Whatever. Options. I spent $78 on a basic, powered sub. I got an 8" (monoprice 60w) as it's just in my bedroom. ($20-40 more gets you a decent 10" or 12"). So this setup ends up being $22 cheaper overall than the s350. ($25 cheaper after taxes) These speakers, with no sub, sound simply amazing. The mids and highs are the star attraction and they will not disappoint. The bass too, it is pretty hard to believe it's coming from a set of bookshelf speakers. But, there are lower frequencies that these simply cannot reproduce effectively. Anyone who's owned a subwoofer or tower speakers, even cheaper ones, will sense what is missing. These speakers allow the option to fill that lower end and complete a pretty solid 2.1 setup that has sound that (I suspect) is pretty hard to beat for the price. Yeah, the remote, as mentioned, isn't great. It's cheap, but it works fine. I don't depend on it often so it's not really an issue. It's clear that all the money you are spending goes into the speakers. The sound, feel and look of them is high quality. The knobs on the back even have a satisfying glide that feels premium. We also own a set of 1280T Edifiers (PC), an Onkyo home theatre setup, an old Sony 5.1 set, Logitech z906 for my PC, Bose system in the car. I'm no audiophile, but I think this is the nicest, cleanest sounding setup in the entire house, by far.

Buy them! Doubt you're going to find better sound for the size or price. Bass is pretty deep. Voices crisp.

I purchased the R1850DB speakers to use as studio monitors when working with audio files on my computer. Thus, my review is using them in this regard, rather than as TV speaker replacements. Overall, very good with a few minor nits. One thing that makes these great is the ability to use the optical audio directly from my Mac without a separate sound processor required, which saves about $100 - $250. Pros: - The sound is very flat (which is a good thing for studio monitors). No discernible bright or dead frequency ranges that I have noticed. - They are not too large, which is also good since I didn't want huge speakers next to my monitor - The sub out is a VERY nice option, which enables me to use a sub for tracks that need sub 100 Hz clarity - The input options are also great, PC, AUX and optical audio. I am using optical audio from my Mac, very clean sound without the need for a separate audio interface. Cons: - These seem to depend upon the terrible remote to select the input. The remote is horrible, fairly ugly though small and could easily be lost. I don't believe the input can be changed without it, thus could be an issue if/when it is lost. - The digital audio input isn't the highest quality, it is limited to 24bit/48Khz. IMHO this should be 96Khz or better - This one is just my taste, but the shiny piano black sides are not my taste. Too each his/her own. Overall: - These live up to my expectations. For the price, I believe these are hard to beat. I was considering Yamaha HS-5 studio monitors at 2X the price, and that is without the required Audio interface, and no sub output. Thus, the Edifier 1850DB's are much more cost effective IMHO. I can't say how they sound head to head, although I have listened to the same songs on both Edifier 1850 and Yamaha HS5's, but not in the same room at the same time, so hard to directly compare.