You sacrifice a bit on the brand name side (no Sonos or Bose here), and you’re not getting modern features like Bluetooth, diverse inputs, or variable EQ controls.

If you look after the Edifier R1280T, R1280s, and R1280DB well, then they will serve you well for many years to come. As you can see, there's not that much of a difference between the Edifier R1280 and their subwoofer-series counterparts.They’re not immune to distortion—if you like to blast your music or you’ve got a penchant for small house parties, these won’t be up to the task.

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Personalize your listening experience with the bass, treble and volume dials on the active bookshelf speaker. All four of these models are made of quality materials, making them more durable than most small speakers on the market. This speaker is very bright, which causes the PIR to be very flat and thus overly harms the score, I could just do a pseudo 30° horizontal offset (to emulate no toe-in). There is a flared bass port out the front of each cabinet that measures just slightly larger than the tweeters, which seem to be doing a lot of work on the low end of the spectrum.

com and PC Magazine are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission. If you’re looking for affordable and versatile bookshelf speakers with uncompromising sound the R1280T bookshelf speakers is your go-to 2. On Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild," the kick drum loop is delivered with a solid high-mid presence, allowing its attack to retain its sharpness and slice through the layers of the mix. There are 12 buttons on the remote control of the Edifier R1280DB compared to three buttons on the remote control of the Edifier R1280T.

It certainly did justify to any track I threw at it, leaving me wanting to sit there and keep listening to it! Is it possible to connect the Edifier R1280T powered bookshelf speakers to a sub woofer ( I have a subwoofer from my Altec Lansing VS 2421 setup and also a Sony SS 4GWD passive subwoofer) without the use of an amp? Through the R1280T, the drums sound fairly natural—boosting the bass doesn't really send them into serious thunder territory either.

The subtle wood tone and a unique light-gray grille will be right at home on a bookshelf in your main living room. I also share reviews and information about some of the best speakers currently available on the market. It's possible to push them to the brink of distortion depending on how loud your sound source gets, but they can get plenty loud before that comes into play—the speakers can definitely deliver some high volumes and thunder.

The bass is not as punchy as the bass of the R1280T, but it still offers enough frequency response to feel it. Just set the speakers’ input to Bluetooth using the remote, and go through the usual steps connecting via Bluetooth on your device.