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Edifier MR4 Review (Budget Monitor)

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 21 7.3%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 86 29.8%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 143 49.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 39 13.5%

  • Total voters
    289

Solveit

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Contacted support about what chip:
"Thanks for contacting us.
The amplifier chip is Infineon MA12070.
Kind regards
Kevin"
 

Hipster Doofus

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Would these make any sense as surrounds in a medium room?..Five matching speakers and some rca to xlr converter s for under 300. Not bad for explosions and gun shots and zombies.
happy holidays for dad
 

Vict0r

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The truth is these are not active, they have a stereo amplifier with passive crossovers in the speakers so they lose the benefit of an active design like the "proper" monitors one finds in the market. I think there are way more decent options in the used market: perhaps the (very often indeed mentioned) JBL 305 used can be found for a little more, like 150-170 bucks? But those are considerably larger, so if size is a consideration they are not ideal.

And that distortion figures even at 90 db SPL are atrocious. Remember that even for desktop speakers meant to be listened to in the nearfield, for a playback level of 80 + db you need enough headroom for clean reproduction of peaks of even 20 db. Power handling and SPL capability are the weak points of small speakers in general, I think, and this includes even acclaimed monitors with superb FR and performance on and off axis like the Neumann KH80, Genelec 8020 or to a lesser degree the aforementioned JBL. I personally have a pair of Adam T5V with a Topping EX5 as a desktop setup and with the gain on the backplate set at 0 db, very often feel the need to crank it up to almost full volume in the dac if I want to listen really loud. And that is at a listening distance of 1.2 meters. If I distance myself to 2 and 3 meters I find them almost unusable and would certainly not recommend them to anyone for big spaces and LD of more than 1.5-2 meters.

Ah, they're powered, not active. Thanks for correcting me!

About the ##db SPL; it reminds me of the review of the iLoud MTM monitors, which retail for $700. And I quote:

"I should note a serious deficiency here: there is just no dynamic range here. Turn up the volume a hair beyond average and the clipping indicator blinks red. Go up a bit more and you are greeted with awful distortion from the little woofers. And that gap is very small. While I can get just about enough volume out of any active speaker, here I could not. I had to run the volume down to avoid clipping. A pair of them may still be satisfying but I only bought one speaker so can't test that hypothesis."

Amir's main complaint was the lack of headroom. Note where he writes "Turn up the volume a hair beyond average". While he still recommended these speakers, he noted that he couldn't push them to his prefered levels without them clipping and distorting. Now if you read that thread, the people that bought the MTM's (including me) found that they (subjectively) go pretty ear-blisteringly loud without distorting. I use them at about 30%-50% of what they're capable of, volume wise, and am more than satisfied with the sound I'm getting. There are two reasons why I don't need them to go louder; my neighbours and my ears. I don't need more than average volume levels. :)

What I'm trying to say is; maybe (and I don't know this since I haven't tried them) this will be the same with the Edifiers.
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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There are two reasons why I don't need them to go louder; my neighbours and my ears.
It also has to do with content you play. My stress list of tracks has deep bass which upsets many powered speakers. As I noted in this review if you listen to music that has higher frequency bass (e.g. techno), then it does much better.
 

Vict0r

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It also has to do with content you play. My stress list of tracks has deep bass which upsets many powered speakers. As I noted in this review if you listen to music that has higher frequency bass (e.g. techno), then it does much better.
Absolutely true, I suppose! I listen mostly to metal, and that genre often doesn't have much information below 50hz. :)
 
Last edited:

sarumbear

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Wow, a score of 5 after EQ is pretty good!
That is why I cannot value that score. I respect Dr. Oliver's research but assigning an objective value to a subjective phenomena is bound to create a result like this.

Are we really going to say that this speaker is better than the JBL 708P which scored the same or just lost to the Genelec 8010A with a tenth of a point?
 

Vict0r

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That is why I cannot value that score. I respect Dr. Oliver's research but assigning an objective value to a subjective phenomena is bound to create a result like this.

Are we really going to say that this speaker is better than the JBL 708P which scored the same or just lost to the Genelec 8010A with a tenth of a point?

Should figure out a sort of standard or calculation to have the score reflect its position within the realm of competitors near its pricepoint. That way it could score even higher than a JBL or Genelec, but not in direct comparison to those.
 

sarumbear

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Should figure out a sort of standard or calculation to have the score reflect its position within the realm of competitors near its pricepoint. That way it could score even higher than a JBL or Genelec, but not in direct comparison to those.
Or we can stop scoring a subjective phenomena. Why are we obsessed with rankings? It is not to our benefit, it is for the benefit of the manufacturers. They are the ones who support this type of research.
 

Vict0r

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Or we can stop scoring a subjective phenomena. Why are we obsessed with rankings? It is not to our benefit, it is for the benefit of the manufacturers. They are the ones who support this type of research.

But... but... what about the ranking-panther?? :(
 

grapengrainmix

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Can the people that voted "Not terrible" and "Poor" point the rest of us towards a better pair of active micro monitors with balanced inputs for $130?
I guess, if one already has equipment with balanced outputs, he can afford to add little bit more to buy LSR305.
 

sarumbear

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But... but... what about the ranking-panther?? :(
@amirm knows best. He is our guru and we obey his values. Don't you know that? :facepalm:

:) Joke aside, I value the round-about ratings of an experienced person than a number generated by a computer.
 

tomtoo

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That is why I cannot value that score. I respect Dr. Oliver's research but assigning an objective value to a subjective phenomena is bound to create a result like this.

Are we really going to say that this speaker is better than the JBL 708P which scored the same or just lost to the Genelec 8010A with a tenth of a point?

Why you not just enjoy the Panther, some fun, thats it.
 

sarumbear

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Can the people that voted "Not terrible" and "Poor" point the rest of us towards a better pair of active micro monitors with balanced inputs for $130?
Many on ASR are obsessed with Dr. Olives value ratings. They do not care what the price is. Their reasoning is something can always be found used at a much lower price. MRP has no value.

Maybe we should call these scores, Olives. with a capital O. How many Olives this speaker has? :)
 

sarumbear

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Why you not just enjoy the Panther, some fun, thats it.
I am talking about the score, not the panther. Panther is not used in the rankings, score is. Look at the last two columns on the speaker rankings table.

Panther is indeed just for fun. Score is presented as objective value, which I disagree.
 

tomtoo

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I am talking about the score, not the panther. Panther is not used in the rankings. It is indeed just fun. Score is presented as objective value, which I disagree.

Uhhps sry I thought you talk about the Panther. The score can give a littel of orientation. I prever to see the data an make my personal score.
 

sarumbear

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Uhhps sry I thought you talk about the Panther. The score can give a littel of orientation. I prever to see the data an make my personal score.
The speaker score is not data, it is a score, as the name implies. It is a calculation based on a statistical model. We have all seen on TV how wildly different COVID19 spread values were between various models and the field values after.
 

tomtoo

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The speaker score is not data, it is a score, as the name implies. It is a calculation based on a statistical model. We have all seen on TV how wildly different COVID19 spread values were between various models and the field values after.

Did you read my post?
 

sarumbear

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