Info Edifier R1280Ts powered bookshelf speakers

[punkncat]

Apologies, I had put a link to the Edifier site, and it appears there was a redirect on it.


These speakers come well packaged and protected from shipping damage. The first thing I noticed was the solid feel of the speakers. I picked the wood grain ones and was a bit concerned as to whether the wood color would match the desk. I feel fairly pleased that it is very close, and they look nice just sitting there. Another aspect I liked just viewing pictures are the mirror image arrangement of the drivers and port. The bottom of each speaker comes with some feet to keep them from vibrating or moving around the surface.

The controls and connections are pretty straightforward. The only thing you may need is if you are going to connect to a second device you need to consider the cabling. As shown, these come with a 3.5mm to RCA and RCA to RCA as input options. It is getting more and more rare that one would need that latter cable, but I used a converter I had laying around and have both of these connected to different PC.

Right out of the box these are, of course, set to zero adjustment on the treble or bass. The volume knob is the type that clicks as you turn. It does not appear to have a stop built in; it will just keep going so far as I can tell. I haven't discovered if there is a way to know when the speaker is at upper limit yet. The speakers have a really decent midrange presence and spatial stereo effect. They give a good sound field with triangle placement and almost feel like there is a center channel. With that said they are quite midrange strong. Where you can adjust the treble and bass with the radial knobs the adjustments have their own detractions. The treble adjusts up fairly linear until you get right near the halfway to the top point. It will then adjust very quickly from almost right to sizzle. The bass adjustment helps a bit for that low midrange punchiness, but this is also hampered by going towards muddy the more adjustment you add. Like many of this type of speaker there is almost an imperceptible balance difference right side strong. This makes sense given that the amp and controls are on that side.

I would mention here that the speakers also come with a little remote control which has a button to turn on some manner of sound adjustment that I have not used. Don't really see a need for it at this point.

Bottom line so far is that for the price this is seemingly a decent set of speakers for use with such things as a PC, record player, perhaps a TV if the connections are present (there are better model options in this line for that last use case). In my own opinion this is a good start to what is actually 1/2 of the product you need for this line, and that other half would be the T5 subwoofer. These get plenty loud, and they have a really decent middling sound that is great for music or game consumption and so on.

I will be adding some slightly better (gauge) wire for the left speaker. It may well be a waste of time given the distance involved as well as not knowing what gauge is used inside the cabinet. My hope on that is it will reduce or eliminate the slight right-side bias. In addition, I plan to pick up the subwoofer soon. This, to me, will be where we really find out what is going on with these units. I feel like the treble adjustment being so abrupt at the end of the knob travel is likely an answer to the additional bass and presence when a powered sub is connected, and these speakers are band passing.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey @punkncat ,

Nice review!

There's some reference to pictures, but I don't see any. SO not sure of the exact context.

 

[punkncat]

Hey @punkncat ,

Nice review!

There's some reference to pictures, but I don't see any. SO not sure of the exact context.

Thank you.

I had posted the link to the manufacturer's page, but it had a redirect in it and removed it.

I plan on touching back on this again after the subwoofer from this same brand comes in. I have one that I borrowed from another spot for now and it really made a world of difference in the sound and presence.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Just googling there, and indeed they are nice. I do like the wood finish. Also like the little touches with control nobs on the side and recessed.

 

[punkncat]

Just googling there, and indeed they are nice. I do like the wood finish. Also like the little touches with control nobs on the side and recessed.

They truly do "class the joint up" a bit as far as aesthetics. One other aspect of these that I liked was the size. I had been looking at some Klipsch speakers and had a really good idea what sound I would get since I have a set of the exact same passive drivers. Those speakers are quite large for a desktop use case as they are something like a foot tall. The other aspect there being that knowing these both would need a sub the pricing is where I got these speakers and the sub for barely more than the older version of Klipsch's R-41PM, and significantly less than the newer 40PM by that same make. These stand just over 9.5" and for the space and application are as big as I would dare go without looking clownish IMO.

I appreciate your input. More later...

 

[punkncat]

After a few days and the use of a surrogate subwoofer, I wanted to post a couple of thoughts before the branded match comes in.

I commented on the treble above. If I were to point at one fault with this speaker set is that the tweeters used just don't give me a great impression. And, I know: "They were only $120" which certainly should be considered. The fact is the sound is either terribly hollow, or sizzle. There doesn't seem to be a happy medium there. I will hold off on a final impression for the stock matched sub.

On the other hand, though, this speaker has such lovely midrange and voice repro that I find somewhat disarming. Position is very important it seems, but they just sound really good on vocals for a speaker on this level.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I look forward to the final testing and your impressions.

I'm not an audiophile at all, so am genuinely interested to see how it pans out.

 

[punkncat]

Another delay on the subwoofer. Don't know exactly what is going on with Amazon/Edifier but they cannot seem to get shipping right. Edifiers page is covered up with one star shipper reviews and Amazon is taking blame for them all. I am using a sub from the previous Logitech system and it is underpowered and a poor match for these speakers. In addition to losing my order the darned sub went up $30 as well, so I am playing a waiting game.

 

[punkncat]

I am really glad I waited, even sort of lucky that the previous order was delayed and cancelled. The sub went $50 off for Prime Day and is supposed to be here today.

 

[punkncat]

In a similar way to the bookshelf speakers, the T5 Subwoofer came well packaged on its own. Alongside the Amazon delivery I felt as if I were playing with Matryoshka dolls. Make sure to mind your back when handling this thing. The case is VERY solid feeling and very heavy. The only option for this particular sub is black with a grey trim.

Connection from the R1280Ts is accomplished via a 3.5mm to RCA adapter on the line in connection. There are a few controls on the speaker that allow for gain, crossover frequency, and phase control. The driver is 8" and the cabinet is ported to the right side. Once the bookshelf and subwoofer are connected the bookshelf speakers themselves do a band pass for the sub to play the low frequency stuff. Speaker mounted volume control also adjusts the sub, as would be expected, with the gain control on the sub itself for output balance.

At this point I should reveal that I am not able to put this subwoofer in the location I had originally desired. It was planned to go in the corner behind the desk. The size and weight of it are such that (I cannot) get it in that spot right now. In a way that might turn out well but will expound further on that below. Current placement is centered on the room and off to the right of both bookshelf speakers.

The instructions give a quick rundown of the optimal way to set the speaker up which in my own experience at least gets it close to a desirable sound. In spite of its wattage and size it has a very powerful punchy sound bordering right on muddy and non-descript. As alluded to above, had this been placed over in that corner I feel that the heavy presence could have been too much. In the quest for that correct mix of frequency for your enviro and listening position there is a lot of up and down involved. The manual states to turn the knob all the way one way with a speaker doing crossover. When I do that it takes out all of the lower midrange from the main speakers. Already being a bit mid strong it only makes that issue worse. Alongside that aspect is that with the sub being placed to the right (in my placement), it shifts the sound stage significantly. This only adds to the right-side strong issue they already have.

So far, having been up and down a few dozen times, I am still playing with the crossover point. Keeping in mind that changing it also changes the gain in a significant way. The lasting issue that I am currently having is a sort of a hole in the mid-low range. In the first post comments I also mentioned the treble adjustment going very bright at the end. As suspected, that is such that you can add a lot brighter to counter the muddy tendency of the sub. The speakers production of vocals is really nice. So far, my own experience in RnB, bluegrass/country, classic rock, and even some pop have been quite enjoyable. IME these are very poor for EDM type music.

As far as good things go, the price on this setup was very attractive. They may not be the best bookshelf/sub combo one could spend on; they are a FAR sight better than almost any "pc speaker" combo for the same money. With patience the sale pricing on these gets pretty attractive and all said cost ~$225 for the set.

 

[punkncat]

A few final thoughts on this set and will put a stopper on this review.

As mentioned in the thread above, I originally had the sub far to my right and centered on the room. Simply due to the layout of the room alongside my desk design it was not possible to get a desirable sound from the whole of the system. I pulled the sub back under the desk into the "L" shape of the turn, but still away from the corner. The sub is very heavy on presence, so I opted to forget my own idea of setup and truly follow the recommends in the manual. It turned out that with the sub being closer towards center that giving it a bit more of the higher frequency response worked out better for sound balance.

I opted to keep the bookshelf speakers/head of this unit to be at neutral setting for bass and treble control. Did a whole lot of back and forth on the speaker gain and that crossover point to finally get a sound that, to my ears, is quite nice for this class of speaker. These sound really nice at low to mid volumes and depend highly on your seat position between the two main drivers. It makes a world of difference in the perceived balance and tone. My opinion of "cranking these up" is simply that in the particular use case and physical restrictions on placement the sound suffers for it. The sub is so powerful that even at very low volume levels there is a tremendously caressing bass presence which isn't overpowering at all. For this application it was possible to lower the subwoofer gain to make the louder listening much more enjoyable at the cost of low volume presence.

A quick note to say that for gaming, the subwoofer really adds the additional thump to make things such as artillery really "feel" as a part of the experience. Adds a whole new dimension to the game.

Final thoughts come down to this set being a really decent value if you catch the sale prices. There are offerings that have no subwoofer output, allow optical input and whatnot such that the main pair of bookshelf speakers can be enjoyed for atmosphere. As a whole set I could easily see these being used as mains for a bedroom or small room. Having already gushed on it a lot within this post, the midrange and vocal performance on this set is really nice. Along that same line, I really feel like they could have put a little more effort into the driver being used for the high output (tweeter). It isn't a matter of not hearing it just that the sizzle on increase gives a really bad impression.