Edifier R1280T Powered Speaker Review

[fragzone]

Wish amir would measure swan m200mkiii

 

[Kustomize]

The S series (S2000Pro and the superior S2000MKII) is definitely way ahead of the R series. If you can get the S2000MKII for that price, you can rest assure that you have onr of the best Edifiers to date. What I like about the R1700BTS and R1850DB/R1855DB is the sub out option, they dont have it on the S series. If you dont mind not having a sub out and can afford it, go for the S series.

If you meant you could get the R2000DB for an extra 50 bucks, it really depends as it sounds a wee bit better than the R1700BTS but do not have a sub out.

Thankyou so much for all your replies!

i will see if s2000mkii is available. If not, id probably just take the 1700bts!

 

[MarkWinston]

Thankyou so much for all your replies!

i will see if s2000mkii is available. If not, id probably just take the 1700bts!

The s2000mkii is easily 3 steps ahead of the r1700bts!

 

[xaviescacs]

What is that? You are sick of my gardening stories and you didn't come here to read stuff like this? Well, donate some money for heaven's sake so I can't have to tell you these things to get inside your pockets!!!

xDDDD To me, this is the second best joke for now, only behind the unbeatable "the only thing that filters, is your bank account".

 

[hexinho]

Just bought the Edifier R1280DBs yesterday (would be pretty similar to the 1280T I would assume). Applied @Maiky76 's eq settings and they do indeed sound quite a bit better. I am considering adding a sub to my set up (prob the Edifier T5), would my current EQ settings need to be adjusted on the back of doing so? Sorry, am not the most knowledgeable person when it comes down to audio settings :S

Also, does @amirm have EQ settings that I can load into Peace as well for me to do an A/B test? Would be interested to understand the differences!

Thanks again and I must admit this community I just discovered is really awesome!

 

[Doodski]

I am considering adding a sub to my set up (prob the Edifier T5), would my current EQ settings need to be adjusted

Welcome to ASR. Yes, the EQ/PEQ setting will need to be recalibrated.

 

[hexinho]

I just got the T5 sub and hooked it up to my 1280DBs, must say they sound really good together! The same EQ settings @Maiky76 suggests sound pretty good as it is but I just slightly reduced the mid cuts now that there is a heavier bass presence.

 

[Daniel Simion]

Hi,

Here is my take on the EQ.
The resulting EQ is very close to the initial seed i.e. flat LW with also abounds to the "easy to EQ" direction.
Using EQ APO or similar to keep with the low cost may result in a very cost effective system, within the SPL limits of the speaker.

No EQ score: 1.97
View attachment 84001

EQ design:
the EQ version needs to be boosted quite a bit for A/B tests so the overall max SPL may be lower than the raw speaker

Type       Freq        Gain    Q
PEQ      95.5,    -3.50,   2.72,...
PEQ     168.5,    -1.00,   1.45,...
PEQ    1167.0,    -3.50,   4.25,...
PEQ    1550.0,    -3.40,   2.57,...
PEQ    2086.0,     1.71,   3.37,...
PEQ    3371.0,    -1.71,   2.62,...
PEQ    4718.0,    -5.80,   3.88,...
PEQ    7704.0,    -4.12,   2.98,...
PEQ   10002.0,    -3.16,   2.00,...
PEQ   12017.0,    -0.71,   3.00,...
PEQ   16397.0,     3.50,   3.49,...

View attachment 84000
Score with EQ: 5.80
View attachment 83997
Great gains:
View attachment 83998

But the vertical directivity is rather poor because of the high Xover point (similar to the Dynaudio LDY 5) :
View attachment 84002
best to listen off axis at +15/20deg
View attachment 84011

The rest of the data is attached.

Hello! I know this is an old topic, but how do I add this EQ settings in APO?

 

[tecnogadget]

Its nearly impossible to buy this UltraLite MK5 thanks to the god damm worldwide shortage...could this be replaced with an UltraLite AVB for DSP multichannel purposes? The only downside I could think of is the AVB looses 2 analogue line out outputs vs MK5.

I would appreciate additional feedback.

 

[hexinho]

Hello! I know this is an old topic, but how do I add this EQ settings in APO?

You can read from this post onwards!

 

[kiwipaul]

Greetings. I have these speakers set up with a raspberry pi running Moode and apply EQ via the parametric equaliser provided by Moode. However looking at the speaker itself I see that Edifier uses a TI chip with built in EQ and the ability to tweak it using provided software. Here is a link to the TI user guide -

https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slou281/slou281.pdf?ts=1641806864993&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.ti.com%252Fproduct%252FTAS5713

Before I start my own hacking, had anyone looked into this? What is unclear is how difficult it will be to set up the needed usb connection...

 

[infinitesymphony]

Greetings. I have these speakers set up with a raspberry pi running Moode and apply EQ via the parametric equaliser provided by Moode. However looking at the speaker itself I see that Edifier uses a TI chip with built in EQ and the ability to tweak it using provided software. Here is a link to the TI user guide -

https://www.ti.com/lit/ug/slou281/slou281.pdf?ts=1641806864993&ref_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.ti.com%252Fproduct%252FTAS5713

Before I start my own hacking, had anyone looked into this? What is unclear is how difficult it will be to set up the needed usb connection...

Pretty cool find. Looks like if you get the TAS5713EVM (Evaluation Module) up and running, you should have access to 7 biquads rather than the two presets (Bass and Treble). You will also need the MC57xxPSIA board:

"The MC57XXPSIA Controller board includes a USB interface, a digital input (SPDIF), analog inputs via the ADC, power inputs, and other features like a mute function and power down."

The two connect via the J1 interface as seen in this terrible photo (EVM is the small board on the right):

 

[kiwipaul]

According to the author of the following teardown video the other chip on board is a pcm9211. I was hoping just to find a way of hooking this to a PC via USB. If an expensive TI board is required it's not worthwhile imho.

 

[somebodyelse]

You could look for a TI equivalent of AD's sigmatcp - that runs on a linux machine like a Pi Zero and provides a network to i2c bridge to use between SigmaStudio and their DSP hardware instead of their USB adapter.

 

[C-H]

I signed up to this forum just because of this review. The short version of the post is basically a big thank you for doing the test and an even bigger one to Maiky76 for providing the EQ!

I bought these as a replacement setup for my old Creative Labs Inspire 2.1 Inspire 2400 from ~15 years ago hoping for a better sound. This is for my computer setup (office & simple 'studio' setup for noodling with synthesizers). I got going and was initially very unimpressed with the R1280DBs speakers. The bass was boomy and the mid to mid/high was very 'in your face'. There was something very harsh and exhausting about the sound. I was going to return them and go back to the Creative setup. Don't laugh too much, they actually sound very pleasing with a nice punch in the bass once dialed in properly. The Sub is not awesome. It's light-weight but works.

Anyway, once I found the EQ curve everything changed! The speakers came to life and the rough edges were gone but the bass was not there and I wanted a bit of punch down low. I went ahead and threw the old Creative Sub in the mix and after some tweaking of levels and EQ it actually worked out nicely.
I used my DAW (Reaper) to apply the EQ curve using the native Reaper effects plugin 'ReaEQ' (also available as a VST plugin). The Q factor had to be converted to a Bandwidth (octaves) setting. I used the site 'https://www.doctorproaudio.com' for the conversion. Full link: 'Q to Octave conversion'

I listen to music using Foobar2000 on the Win10 machine and wanted a way to implement the EQ. Turns out it is possible to use a VST as effects. I finally found the 'Foobar 2000 VST Wrapper' by Yohng.com (Full link: Foobar 2000 VST Wrapper). I downloaded the 32bit version of the ReaEQ VST and just popped it in. Another great EQ plugin is EasyQ. Either one works great and allows for an arbitrary number of bands so it was easy to use the provided EQ curve.
Links to EQ plugins: EasyQ & ReaEQ.

After some tweaking I made two changes to make the Edifier 1280DBs + Sub sound good. I added a low shelf band at 50.7 Hz with a Gain of 2.7dB and Q (octave) of 0.53 and adjusted the 168.5 Hz band to -3.5 dB instead of -1. There is a clear resonance in that area and this knocked it down a bit.
The boost at the low end works pretty good. I used a sine wave from the DAW to check the response by ear playing different notes. The Sub actually produces sound at 25-30Hz and with some care in setup it works.
I am now really enjoying this setup at lower volumes. The 1280 speaker is good in the near field but falls apart in the far field and at higher volumes. Not all of my CDs sound great. The Mixing/Mastering of the source makes a huge difference. Older CDs from the 80's & 90's sounds the best by far. Highly compressed releases (usually newer) sound really bad. The speaker just can't handle it.

The EQ curve made all the difference!
I later found 'Peace' and 'Equalizer APO' to get the EQ curve applied system wide. It works but it seems like the Gain can only be adjusted in steps of 0.5dB. Is this actually the case or is it just a rounding error on the GUI?

Anyway, in the end I'm happy with the result. Without the EQ curve I would probably have sent these back.

 

[TheNewUnion]

Hi all.

I've bought a pair of these speakers, finding the reviews in this thread to be a great help in the decision making process. I am finding that, in the main, they sound really good for the lighter pop stuff I have been listening to: bands like Prep, Steely Dan and such sound super light and "breezy". Even something a bit more bass heavy like The XX has been sounding good*. All in all the light breezy sound is very enjoyable and I am certainly hearing things in the music I'd not previously heard.


That being said, the likes of Pearl Jam has sounded a bit muddy to my untrained ears. I wanted to tweak the sound with the info provided here so installed APO and Pace and imported the files that have been kindly shared in thread. I did not notice any impact at all, and as such don't think APO/Pace was actually working. So to my question. Is there any way to definitively tell if APO is having any impact and to trouble shoot if not? I am on Windows 11 and have a USB SoundKey acting as the DAC from the PC to the speakers.

Many thanks in advance.

TNU
*I'm coming form plastic Logitech speakers with a big under desk sub that made everything super bassy. I'm not a full on audiophile but I think I might be starting that journey

 

[SimpleTheater]

That being said, the likes of Pearl Jam has sounded a bit muddy to my untrained ears. I wanted to tweak the sound with the info provided here so installed APO and Pace and imported the files that have been kindly shared in thread. I did not notice any impact at all, and as such don't think APO/Pace was actually working. So to my question. Is there any way to definitively tell if APO is having any impact and to trouble shoot if not? I am on Windows 11 and have a USB SoundKey acting as the DAC from the PC to the speakers.

I think what you're noticing is the lack of bass (or bass capability). If you have room for a small sub, that's what I'd recommend.

 

[TheNewUnion]

I think what you're noticing is the lack of bass (or bass capability). If you have room for a small sub, that's what I'd recommend.

Thanks. I have the T rather than the Ts, so unfortunately there's no option to add a sub. I do think part of the issue is just how different they sound to the old kit. I was hoping to mess with the EQ a bit just to tweak the sound to my ears, but currently to no avail.

 

[somebodyelse]

If you want to tell whether APO is working then try a filter that will be massively obvious like 400Hz high pass.

 

[SimpleTheater]

Thanks. I have the T rather than the Ts, so unfortunately there's no option to add a sub. I do think part of the issue is just how different they sound to the old kit. I was hoping to mess with the EQ a bit just to tweak the sound to my ears, but currently to no avail.

You can use a sub with RCA IN/Outs. Instead of connecting the RCA's to the inputs of the Edifiers, you connect them to a sub, then output from the sub to the Edifiers.

Here is a low cost sub that has the option (many don't):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Z36RZNW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1