Edifier R1280T Powered Speaker Review

[wwenze]

Another guy's measurement:
https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/442874/how-to-prevent-my-audio-amplifier-cutting-out

 

[Xyrium]

I used to have those speakers. They were very decent sounding subjectively. I was impressed actually.
I believe the angle is for desktop use as that is one of the main targets.
There is zero need to angle the baffle for time alignment when you are using DSP - as that speaker does use.

FYI here is a review of a similar model, different tweeter but you get the idea that perhaps Edifier makes some decent stuff in their line.
https://www.audioholics.com/computer-speaker-reviews/edifier-s2000-bluetooth-powered-speaker

Absolutely agree on the time alignment with DSP. However, Thiel didn't exactly have that luxury when they were crushing the Stereophile pages back then.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/thiel-cs5-loudspeaker-measurements-0

 

[xarkkon]

quite a streak of interesting reviews this week!

used to use these for my computer before replacing them with my C notes. was overall pretty happy especially given the price and the intended target market.

the ****** measurements come as a huge surprise, i was expecting below average but not THAT atrocious. but the larger surprise is amir's subjective response. is there anything from the measurements that could have foretold his response? I'm struggling to see it.

 

[MZKM]

the ****** measurements come as a huge surprise, i was expecting below average but not THAT atrocious. but the larger surprise is amir's subjective response. is there anything from the measurements that could have foretold his response? I'm struggling to see it.

I’m assuming he did use full toe-in, so that would calm the treble, the peaking between 1000Hz-2000Hz would stay though.

I haven’t posted graphs because I don’t have my laptop right now, but here is the Horizontal Directivity graph as it looks on my phone:

You can see that 30° (yellow) is better, which would be about the angle with no toe-in.

 

[wwenze]

I used to have those speakers. They were very decent sounding subjectively. I was impressed actually.
I believe the angle is for desktop use as that is one of the main targets.
There is zero need to angle the baffle for time alignment when you are using DSP - as that speaker does use.

FYI here is a review of a similar model, different tweeter but you get the idea that perhaps Edifier makes some decent stuff in their line.
https://www.audioholics.com/computer-speaker-reviews/edifier-s2000-bluetooth-powered-speaker

I was under the impression that DSP is only available on their higher end speakers - well, relatively speaking. But somebody's teardown did reveal a TAS5713.

Which adds to the mystery - Why are the 1kHz and 5kHz bumps left alone when they could be easily EQ-ed away.

 

[Benedium]

Horrible on-axis response, horrible polar responses both horizontally and vertically, horrific distortion level. So what's not to like?

I have the R1280DB (probably same thing, different country) in my bedroom connected to chromecast audio. Its warm sound signature never fails to lull me to sleep especially at low volumes. Loving it, especially for the price.

Although... I found the speaker feet transferred a great deal of resonance/vibration to the table during playback, so had to isolate from the table with some unused foam pads that I had. Which was abit mind boggling because i actually felt little to no vibration on the side of the speaker cabinet.

 

[amirm]

but the larger surprise is amir's subjective response. is there anything from the measurements that could have foretold his response? I'm struggling to see it.

The scoring is without EQ. My subjective experience is with EQ. Some speakers are harder to EQ than others. This one was easy. I took out the obvious resonances, peaking treble and results were very good.

Let's remember that I am bothered for speakers that hit limits too quickly. This one has a very gentle limit. This is not something frequency response measurements show.

Finally as noted, predictive scores are for far field. A survey of various listening rooms were used to compute a statistical average of what ratio to assign to each reflections. That doesn't apply to near-field listening.

 

[sweetchaos]

Excellent review, Amir!

This is #1 best seller on both US and Canadian amazon currently.
Nice to see measurements to understand what people are buying these days!

On a similar note, Edifier released an alternate version (on May 2020) to these, called R1280Ts (notice the s at the end), which includes a subwoofer out. Price is the same at US$100.

Spoiler: photo

Notice the new name and subwoofer out.

 

[Cahudson42]

Teardown might be interesting. As would voltage measurements at each transducer during a fr sweep to uncover any DSP applied..

 

[Maiky76]

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

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,...

Score with EQ: 5.80

Great gains:

But the vertical directivity is rather poor because of the high Xover point (similar to the Dynaudio LDY 5) :

best to listen off axis at +15/20deg

The rest of the data is attached.

 

[ROOSKIE]

I was under the impression that DSP is only available on their higher end speakers - well, relatively speaking. But somebody's teardown did reveal a TAS5713.

Which adds to the mystery - Why are the 1kHz and 5kHz bumps left alone when they could be easily EQ-ed away.

I was referencing the previous posters comments about the S1000 mark II.
Sorry not the model tested here but a more expensive model.

 

[pozz]

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.

Excellent demonstration of your tool.

 

[jae]

Seems like for $40 more there is also a version that comes in black with bluetooth and digital in and also the sub out

 

[Deleted member 17820]

Thanks for the Review Amir!
I assumed this speaker is a woofer running at a tweeter with a small inline cap.
I was going to write a post about how a lot of smooth off axis and good directivity speakers I've heard did not sound as "good" or pleasing to me as some that measure worse.
I come from the pro audio world and system design and integrated is all about proper use and coverage, but in hifi sometimes a "sound" is better that good sound all over the room.
Blessings!

 

[xarkkon]

The scoring is without EQ. My subjective experience is with EQ. Some speakers are harder to EQ than others. This one was easy. I took out the obvious resonances, peaking treble and results were very good.

Let's remember that I am bothered for speakers that hit limits too quickly. This one has a very gentle limit. This is not something frequency response measurements show.

Finally as noted, predictive scores are for far field. A survey of various listening rooms were used to compute a statistical average of what ratio to assign to each reflections. That doesn't apply to near-field listening.

that's helpful sharing to better understand how the numbers tie in and what their limitations are. hadn't realised that the predictive score doesn't entirely cover the nearfield experience... also potentially explains why the predictive score doesn't entirely reflect my positive experience with them.

 

[3125b]

For the price it's not too bad.
These have long been recommended in the ultra budget cartegory, and performance is about what can reasonably be expected.
For 75€ or so these are decent multimedia speakers, not more not less.

 

[Maiky76]

For the price it's not too bad.
These have long been recommended in the ultra budget cartegory, and performance is about what can reasonably be expected.
For 75€ or so these are decent multimedia speakers, not more not less.

I'd say for the price it's pretty good indeed.

I made a comparison with the Vantoo T0, both with my EQs as it's reasonable to expect them to be paired with a digital source that can accommodate a bit of EQ (APO EQ):

Radar Plot:

Same comparison with Dynaudio LDY 5

Radar Plot

One could make the following calculations, within the SPL limitation of the Edifier:
- The Edifier is 94.3% the performance of the Vantoo for 28.4% of the price
- The Edifier is 91.9% the performance of the Dynaudio for 9.9% of the price

 

[Koeitje]

I really don't understand this review. Maybe the r1850's I had were much worse than these even though they were more expensive? The low-end was just a bunch of distortion and the rest felt unbalanced. I just used them for Youtube plus a bit of gaming and they were adequate for that.

 

[daftcombo]

The sound was still bright so I put in a quick hack to roll of the highs:

Once there, this was a delightful little speaker! I

Hi Amir, and thanks for this review!

What was the slope of your 10.000 Hz low-pass?

 

[Eetu]

Hi Amir, and thanks for this review!

What was the slope of your 10.000 Hz low-pass?

'Quick hack'. If you're looking to EQ these, I would check @Maiky76 settings above.