Powered Monitors - Edifier?

[terryj47]

Anyone try these for home studio monitors?

My requirements (besides flatness and accuracy) are:

1) Speaker grille covers of some kind. Don't want to poke holes in them.
2) Front bass port (they will be next to my 28" monitor in a computer "hutch"/desk. A rear port would be affected by the computer hutch.
3) RCA unbalanced inputs preferred. Will use a Focusrite Solo for the PC "sound card".
4) Not ugly. I know, subjective.
5) Reasonably priced (these are)
6) Small-ish. The R1280T and R1700BT are about as large as I can use. Room is 11 ft. sq. Office/Exercise room.

https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-R1280...ifier+speakers

https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-R1700...ifier+speakers

I have listened to these on Youtube from the Focusrite with pretty good Sony headphones. They are A-B'ed against various competitive speakers as well as each other. I know there is the mic and the headphone response but I can't try these in the stores. The only practical source is Amazon.

These are a little larger and would probably be better but the bass port is in the rear and would face right into the hutch back.

https://www.amazon.com/Edifier-R2000...ifier+speakers

I'm currently using Creative T20 MM speakers. Not very good. And headphones of course.

Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks.

[KevWind]

Never heard of them but I would be highly skeptical just because of the price point


Your requirements ? humm ? consider

#1 few if any monitors have grill covers ( not a matter of want), just simply do not poke holes in them

#2 backed hard against a wall is not a good position regardless of port direction.

Seems unlikely the Edifier will be much of an improvement (if any) over the T20's . Personally I would wait until I could triple or way more that price point, and see if you can get the speakers a bit further away from the wall'
If not you might be better off with better open back type Headphones

[Rudy4]

Ditto KevWind's comments.

My thought is that they put a LOT of thought into the number of bells and whistles they could use as sales bullet points and a lot of work into making them have eye appeal. something's gotta give somewhere for the price point and I'm betting that what's behind the mask isn't nearly as great, and that's what I'd want my dollars to go towards.

I doubt seriously if the quality of the drivers and the electronics match the eye appeal. I'd love to be proven wrong, but there's a whole lot of powered monitors out there just beyond the warranty with cooked power amps, noisy electronics, poor sound, noisy pots, etc.

There's a reason many of the lower end powered monitors are so competitively priced. It's a rough market to hold any dominance in for less than $100.

[sdelsolray]

I do not have much experience with inexpensive near field monitors, and in the last 10 or 15 years, virtually none.

Still, and take this with a grain of salt, two brands which seem to get excellent reviews for their price points are Equator and Audio Engine.

[Tele1111]

11 square feet? That's what you list as your room size. That would be five and a half feet by two feet. Smaller than most bathrooms. Is that correct?

At any rate, I bought a pair of the Edifier R1700BT for my spouse last Christmas. As to the quality issues raised, fit, finish and quality are top notch. The drivers and electronics are very good quality. Sound, although subjective, is very good as well. This model at least, has only a 4" driver, a 1" tweeter (I think) and the bass port. Sound is well produced throughout the range. The only exception being in the lower bass frequencies. At sub bass and bass
frequencies (20-250hz), you hear little.

I think they're great little speakers. Bluetooth connectivity, quality of sound and quality of components actually appear to be very high. For what it is.

I would not even consider these for anything like near field monitors.
A decent set of powered monitors designed for the purpose would be completely different than what these are.

Mark

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Tele1111

11 square feet? That's what you list as your room size. That would be five and a half feet by two feet. Smaller than most bathrooms. Is that correct?

He said "11 ft. sq." ...so 11 feet by 11 feet.

[terryj47]

Thanks for the comments.

I was considering the iLoud Micro Monitors at $300. Good reviews but the few bad reviews scare me. I found that the Guitar Center near where I work supposedly has them. I'll go there today and see if I can listen to them. 3" woofers are pretty small.

And yes 11 ft. sq. is 11 x 11.

Thanks again.

[ChuckS]

I'm not familiar with the speakers you are considering. I use a pair of Equator D5 for near field monitoring. I've had them for around 3 years and feel they are very nice for acoustic guitar work. The stereo imaging seems really good. Mine were around $400 including accessories. This model has been updated since mine were produced.

[terryj47]

Originally Posted by ChuckS

I'm not familiar with the speakers you are considering. I use a pair of Equator D5 for near field monitoring. I've had them for around 3 years and feel they are very nice for acoustic guitar work. The stereo imaging seems really good. Mine were around $400 including accessories. This model has been updated since mine were produced.

Thanks Chuck. I'll look into them.

[MikeBmusic]

No matter what monitors you end up choosing, get them out of that hutch. It's going to pick up the low end sound and screw it all up.

[terryj47]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

No matter what monitors you end up choosing, get them out of that hutch. It's going to pick up the low end sound and screw it all up.

Good advice. I actually went for Yamaha MSP3 powered monitors. They arrive today but the cables I ordered don't show up until tomorrow. I'll be able to keep them back in the hutch but pull them forward to put them in the optimum "rendering" (Reaper terminology) position.
Thanks again to those who commented.

[Ty Ford]

Please read slowly.

"CLASSIC WOOD FINISH - High quality MDF wood build finished with wood effect vinyl serves as a great compliment to any home decor."

not an attribute.

Everyone before me has already covered the points you need to consider, or reconsider.

Save even more and get a pair of Minimus 7 on Ebay. (I'm actually quite serious.)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...7&_sacat=50597

Regards,

Ty Ford

[Steev]

Originally Posted by Ty Ford

Save even more and get a pair of Minimus 7 on Ebay. (I'm actually quite serious.)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...7&_sacat=50597

Regards,

Ty Ford

I love the sound of my Minimus 7s through an old NAD amp in my loungeroom.
I read recently that Bob Katz has them for home use too...with a NAD amp! (so they must be good right?)

[RedJoker]

Originally Posted by Ty Ford

Save even more and get a pair of Minimus 7 on Ebay. (I'm actually quite serious.)

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...7&_sacat=50597

Regards,

Ty Ford

Not to belabor a point but I also am looking for low cost monitor options and came across the edifier speakers. Would the minimus 7s work as low cost monitors? I have a pair of semi-open headphones that I've been mixing in but would love a pair of monitors. Having said that, I'm a relative beginner that is never going to mix a studio album. For me, the option is really less than $100 or I simply won't buy anything at all. I'd love to hear the Minimus 7 is aa viable option for me!

[Ty Ford]

I have a pair on each of my workstations as secondary monitors. They don't have the low end of bigger speakers, but do very well given their size.

Regards,

Ty Ford