Edifier R1280DBs Active Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers - Optical Input - 2.0 Wireless Studio Monitor Speaker - 42W RMS with Subwoofer Line Out - Black

I recently found myself in the market for a new desktop computer, as I spend 99% of my work time in front of it and mine was reaching the end of it's life. After upgrading to a new Mac Studio and Studio Display, I quickly found myself wanting better speakers than my old Logitech 2.1 sound system that was pushing fifteen years old. I shopped around, did my research, and read reviews high and low. I will admit that at first, I was skeptical about the Edifier RD1280DBs - being that they are not a name brand, I had never heard them in action, and I typically like to spend the extra bucks on something that I know I am going to have for at least a decade and use daily. However, I ultimately decided I would give them a shot given the other customer reviews and ratings. The worst that could happen was that I wouldn't be as happy with them as I thought I would be and that I could box them up and return them to Amazon. Let me tell you, I could not be more satisfied. These speakers are amazing! They have great range, good bass (though I *would* recommend adding a subwoofer to the setup), and, simply put, they are beautiful. They look sharp and modern with the covers on, or, if you're going for a classic look, you can pull the covers off. I held on to the box for a few days as I wanted to really put them to the test and make sure that my investment was one I was happy with, and today I decided it was time to toss the box and make it official. If you are on the fence, just as I was, pull the trigger and buy these things! A few notes worth mentioning that I think others might've experienced as well: • When I first unboxed these things and plugged them in, I connected them to bluetooth. I played around with them for an hour or two and couldn't seem to figure out why they weren't playing music from my computer loud enough. What I ultimately realized was that I had set the volume on my Spotify app lower for my old speakers (oops). I adjusted the volume properly and these things are *plenty* loud. • There are some settings to understand at first with which input makes the most sense. Ultimately, I ended up plugging a 3.5mm to RCA plug into the back of the speakers directly wired to the headphone jack on the back of my Mac Studio. This allows the ability to plug in and have sound running directly to the speakers, while giving me the additional option to plug another device in via Bluetooth if I have friends over that want to play music, need to connect my MacBook Pro, etc. It couldn't be simpler. • I did notice that there is a very faint audio signal noise when nothing is playing and the computer is quiet. Know what takes care of that? Powering them off when you aren't using them. Made simple with the remote that also allows you to pair bluetooth, or, pick one of the other two inputs, along with mute, pause/play, skip, turn volume up or down, or power them on or off. • One side note that I love about these is the lit beacon bulb behind the covers that indicates which input you are on, indicated by a color, or, if they are turned off. • Make note that there are some things you will want to play with to find the right range depending on what you are using them for. There are bass and treble dials on the main speaker and I *highly* recommend playing around with the correct levels for what you are using them for. • As I mentioned, I would highly recommend a subwoofer to go along with the system. In my opinion, it just completes the whole package. This made my entire setup complete, and I could not be happier. The subwoofer I went with is the BESTISAN 6.5" Active Home Audio Subwoofer. Another off brand I wasn't expecting to impress me as much as it did, but I'll write that up in a separate review. I just highly recommend adding it as it really adds the correct amount of bass to the whole setup. • In addition to a subwoofer, I added in a set of speaker stands that are also awesome at hiding all of my wiring and set my speakers at a nice height next to my desk, keeping my desk space clear of unnecessarily used up space. The set I got on those is the Perlegear Universal Speaker Stand (which you can also see in my photos). Another great product, but, one for a separate review as well. The grand total I spent on these incredible speakers, a great subwoofer, and two sleek speaker stands? Just over $300.00. You can't beat it for the quality. As I said previously, if you happen to be on the fence over the Edifier R1280DBs Active Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers, buy them. You will not regret your decision!

So far I am happy with these especially considering I got a sweet discount during Prime Day. The wood finish is very appealing and looks warm. I appreciate the base/treble controls being physical knobs, and not having to depend on an app. There are multiple ways of connecting these, so far I have gone down the path of least resistance and just connected a spare phone via BT. Works just fine. My only slight gripe is the cable connecting the two speakers. Nothing wrong with it but it is rather short. Because of this one of the speakers is not exactly where I wanted. I have had to order speaker wire and a crimping tool to finish the setup. In summary: speakers work as they should and the sound is good unless you are a very critical audiophile. They are loud enough to fill a small living room. Money well spent.

Exactly what I was looking for to fill my waiting room with great sound and minimal wiring. I didn't want anything we had to recharge nightly, I wanted good sound, and I wanted Bluetooth. This is perfect. It even has a remote! Many ways to connect, but I just paired with an old phone connected to WiFi and now we have fixed a quiet waiting room. Great sound and features for a reasonable price. A power cord to plug in the left speaker which contains the amp, and one speaker wire to connect the left to right speakers, that's it.

There is a lot of bang for your buck with these speakers, but you should have some realistic expectations. Dialog and musicality are excellent for a small room. Bass extension is acceptable, but the roll off below 80Hz is noticeable. They will go down to 30Hz, but the roll off is so severe, I would not expect them to play well below 60Hz If you push them to hard, the treble becomes "tinny" and ear fatiguing, with lacking thud that comes with sub 60Hz speakers. Turning up the bass control only leads to distortion. That said they are exceptional for audio quality at moderate to low levels. Dialog is good. No simblance. Off axis response acceptable, although I would toe them in some. The brown finish on mine is high quality looking. However I had problems removing the speaker grill. I am worried about breaking the covers they are on so tight. The toslink digital output handles 24bit 48kHz inputs as a maximum. No 96kHz 16bit or 24bit. But I did notice an improvement in clarity over 16bit red book and analog inputs. There is no HDMI ARC input. Overall an excellent buy for small to medium room music listening. They would work well with computers and TVs. Dont expect miracles. But excellent value over all.

This review is for the Edifier R1280DBs Active Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers (ASIN: B08865JM4N). Before I jump into my review, let me offer this bit of information that I didn't know and isn't obvious. There are two versions of this speaker, both have the exact same model number, the Edifier R1280DB. One is a newer generation and you can tell by looking for "2.0" in the description or you can search on the ASIN above. The ASIN for the older model is B0719C132V and this model is typically a bit cheaper. The differences that I noticed (and not necessarily a complete list) is upgraded Bluetooth for the newer one, a subwoofer output and a different remote control. I took the time to read many of the reviews and a couple of things show up fairly often. One is Bluetooth connectivity being touch and go for some reviewers. It is possible this is related to the older version of Bluetooth in the older model. So far, I have not had any issues. I paired and connected a tablet to the speakers and the connection has been nailed up for about a week with no disconnects. Another thing I saw in reviews were comments about the overall loudness or volume of this speaker. You can expect this speaker to provide an adequate but not overwhelming amount of sound for a modest sized room. Think in terms of a bedroom, kitchen or modest sized living room. This is NOT a party speaker that will rock out a couple of dozen people at a big party. Not that loud. Furthermore, the amount of sound is also related to how you get the signal to the speakers. For example, I have a couple different mini-MP3 players and all of them use Bluetooth to connect. Even with the volume turned all the way up on each device and the speakers, the variation in volume from the speakers is considerable. If you find the volume too low, you might try a different device, particularly with Bluetooth. Finally, there have been some reviews that comment on the lack of bass or low end. I thought I had the same issue but in my case, it turned out to be the source material, not the speakers. With proper source material the low end is really quite impressive and if it isn't there may be something wrong with the speakers and you should consider returning them. Keep in mind these speakers claim a two year warranty (very nice in this world of 30 DAY warranties!!!). I've owned and operated a recording studio for over 40 years. Had the good fortune to work with a number of top of the line studio monitors in that time, some that were ridiculously expensive (like $40,000 for a pair!!! And no, I didn't buy them, someone else did!). Now don't get too excited...while these are fantastic sounding speakers, they are NOT studio monitors. That's actually a good thing, though. Contrary to popular belief, studio monitors are not great home speakers even though one might initially think that. A studio monitor is designed to be as flat as possible in frequency response. However, most of us don't think that sounds that great and usually want to crank up the low end and sometimes the high end as well. These are NOT flat and they DO have a nice bump in the low end and a nice and easy to listen to high end that's not harsh. They are some excellent sounding speakers for home, office or even the home theater. They look really sexy, too. Nice wood veneer on the sides and if you choose to pull the grills off, they still look nice. Be sure to check the dimensions, too. I was a bit surprised at the diminutive size, especially given the quality of sound from them. I was astonished at just how tight and present the low end is with these little jewels. To make low end, you must move air. A 4" driver that produces that kind of low end is unusual, even among drivers with long excursions. The high end is crisp and clear with quite good imaging. The R1280DB has a pair of RCA inputs you can switch between using either the remote that comes with the speakers or by using the volume control knob. They also sport an optical AND coaxial cable connection as well as Bluetooth connectivity. All of them can be accessed via remote or volume knob which is really nice. These were purchased to replace a pair of antique JBL passive speakers in the master bedroom. Before I installed the new ones, I did a quick comparison of them using the exact same music and with the new ones sitting right on top of the old ones and there was simply NO comparison. These Edifiers put the smack down on those old old JBL speakers. It pains me to say that because I am quite the JBL fanboy, but there it is. I am so satisfied with these I may just get a second pair even though I don't have an immediate need for them. Sadly, it seems any time I find something I really like "they" pull it off the market. It's gotten to where I feel like I must purchase a lifetime supply of things I like!!!! 12/30/24 Update: Somehow, the lack of sound in the kitchen suddenly became an issue (after some 20+ years without!) so I DID score a second set of these speakers. They are on top of the cabinets only a foot or so from the ceiling and about as far apart as the piece of speaker wire included with the speakers will allow. Our kitchen is such a happy place now!! There are several people here who love to cook and the kitchen is a popular place. I can't fathom how it took this long to get some music in there.

I researched several of these powered bookshelf bluetooth capable speakers here on Amazon and then elsewhere. There are others that look similar that cost a bit less, but the feature set and sound from the larger woofer attracted me. I am impressed with the sound when listening to music, watching videos, streaming TV and movies...a variety of sources. Full sound, excellent bass response from a bookshelf speaker. Easy setup and has a remote which is a bonus. I have a 7.1 setup with a Yamaha amp also but that really requires more space, wires and setup. These speakers are high-quality and worth the price. I really like them! Only minor ding is that the wire to connect the two speakers is pretty short - I needed a longer speaker wire for my layout but that is the most minor of issues.

With a small bump to the bass level, it passed the Guns n Roses and Def Leppard tests well :D Setup was simple and the bluetooth connectivity was great immediately. I would have liked the power cord to be a bit longer. I used a 2pin extension down the back of the office desk hutch where we wanted them. The sound projects well and can be loud without distortion. Remote seems to be good.

I have been riding a pair of KLH 970s into the ground for about 20 years. They were my desktop/office speakers for a bunch of years, though they always played second fiddle to some big floor-standers when I was doing focused listening. Still, they took a beating and kept kicking. That said, I finally decided to get a new set for my music room, since my floor standing speakers are upstairs in the living room. I'm really pleased with these Edifiers after a solid 3-4 weeks of listening. They put out more/punchier bass than the old KLH speakers I had, and they are more even across the frequency spectrum. Sure, they drop off significantly around ~60Hz and are not thumping. To be fair though, these aren't speakers you slam anyway - they're sized and powered for their intended application. While I felt they were a big upgrade in what I had before, I added an 8" powered sub to the setup. This was two-fold: to extend the overall bass response of my setup AND to take some of the stress off of the 4" cones in the Edifiers. When you plug a sub (or anything) into the "Sub Out" on the R1280DBs, the Edifiers automatically implement a fixed HPF to pass off the low/sub duties to the subwoofer. I contacted Edifier since there are no stated specs on where that HPF/crossover is in the manual, and they said the speaker roll off starting at 120 Hz. I later found some spectrum graphs that show a slight dip from 120-100, and then a significant roll-off under 100 Hz. So setting my sub's LPF around 90-100 Hz is producing pretty smooth/seamless coverage across the sound system. Regarding the sub and how necessary it is to have one, that will really depend on your use and having realistic expectations. If I were using these in a garage or workshop environment, I likely would have rolled with the Edifiers on their own. Given that they're in a music room where I spend a lot of time listening and working, I opted to supplement with a sub. For reference, I'm not a dude who wants windows to rattle and furniture to vibrate. I play, record, and listen to a wide range of music. So I just wanted a bit more presence out of basslines and kick drums when listening. I keep the sub volume down a bit, and it's very complimentary to what the Edifiers do. You'll also get a bit more headroom/volume out of them when they aren't trying to reproduce low bass freqs. Overall, these speakers sound fairly even and flattering to the variety of music I've listened to on them. There's a touch of warmth, but they feel accurate without being sterile or tinny in the treble. For $150 bucks, I'd buy them again...