Nowadays, it is quite difficult to choose the right speaker for our PC or home TV. There are a lot of new brands that we see in the market lately, offering dirt cheap price for speakers that have all kind of features such as Bluetooth, radio, USB slot and many more. However if you are a true music lover, you will find that these speakers are nothing great in terms of performance. Well, I am not saying all but most of the brands are like that based on my personal experience.
I recently bought speakers of a new brand that I’ve never heard before, just to give it a try as it was quite cheap and has all kind of functions. Although it was okay at first, eventually I started to hear the vibrating sound of speaker and hissing sound from the speaker. At one point it got so annoying that I have to get rid of them.
So my next option was to look for a branded (a well known brand) yet affordable speaker due to my tight budget. That is why I got myself the Edifier R1280T bookshelf speakers. To be frank, this speaker offers no bombastic features such as Bluetooth, USB slot or SD card slot. Even the price is slightly more expensive than the local branded speakers that I bought earlier but to save myself from unwanted hassle in the future, I’ve decided to get settled with something more reliable. The Edifier R1280T is above RM 200. You can usually get it for about RM 260 – 270 from the shops.
- Total power output – 21W x 2.
- SNR – ≥85dBA
- Input sensitivity – 750mV ± 50mV
- Subwoofer / bass unit – 4 inch (106mm), 6Ω
- Tweeter unit – Φ13mm silk domed tweeter, 4Ω
- Weight – 4.9Kg Net | 5.65Kg Gross
- Dimension – 146mm x 234mm x 196mm (WxHxD)
The unboxing is pretty straight forward. You will find the following items inside the box :
- 2 speakers (active and passive).
- Remote control (with one coin battery inside).
- A cable to connect both the speakers to one another.
- Dual RCA to dual RCA audio cable (to connect to TV etc).
- 3.5 mm to RCA cable.
- User guide & warranty card.
Thee is a tiny plastic which you need to pull out from the remote to get it working. Once you’ve turned on the speakers and before connecting them to an audio source, please ensure that you’ve reduced the volume of the speakers so that you don’t get any ‘shocking surprises’.
The first thing that caught my attention was the speaker’s look. It has a nice wooden finish which reminds me of the speakers that I used when I was young. It is so beautiful and vibrant. The speaker is neither too big nor too small. It is just nice to fit on my computer table. In case I want to use it for my TV, it also blends well (although I have no plans to use it for my TV).
The speaker is actually very simple looking. There is nothing fancy such as bright colourful light or digital LED on this R1280T. There is only one lime green LED light which lights up when you turn on the speaker and blinks when you adjust the volume via your remote controller. Above the LED, you will find 3 knobs in a vertical row. The first one (from the top) is the treble, followed by bass and then the volume.
The front panel (the grey net area) can be removed from the speakers and some people do that because it gives another different look. When I removed that, it gave a retro and rugged feel. Also, when I played some music with high base, I can actually see the speakers beating if I remove the panels. So basically it is a matter of preference. Probably you may like the panel to be intact.
The speakers produce good music but it depends on the quality of the source. When I started listening to my first music via the Edifier R1280T, I felt like throwing away the speaker but I am glad I did not do so. I got some high quality music and that totally changed my impression towards this speaker. It is very nice and the bass level was exactly how I wanted it to be (it is neither too high nor low). In short, the levels were perfect mix.
Of course, I am not saying that the Edifier R1280T is the best speaker in the world. All I am saying is, it definitely produces much better music compared to those unknown branded speakers that I’ve tried.
To those of you who are spoilt by the high bass and ‘boom boom’ sound of other speakers, you might probably have a problem with this one because you might feel that the bass is just not enough for you. The bass and treble knobs can be adjusted to a maximum of 5 levels up (+) or 5 levels down (-) and some of my friends felt that the bass were not enough even at the maximum level although the treble was still fine for them. Just for your information, these are the people who always listen to music via headsets (some expensive ones).
It will not be fair to compare the sound quality from a speaker vs headset because the headset will definitely give you a better experience as it is blasting right on your ear and eliminates all the surrounding sounds. So that is something that you need to take note of.
Remote control – this one is a disappointment. Firstly it does not work as how I expected it to be. Somehow the response is poor compared to the remotes from my unbranded speakers. Luckily I am using the Edifier R1280T for my PC and I can still reach them without depending on my remote.
Well, the problem that I am having is, when I want to increase or reduce the volume, I need to press the button so many times before I can see the difference in volume. If I press and hold the button, I don’t see any change in volume. It should not be that way.
Secondly, the remote is so basic where you can only increase, decrease or mute the volume. You can’t adjust the bass or treble. Although I don’t have a problem with this (again, because I was using it for my computer), you might have an issue with this especially if you are going to use these speakers for your TV.
The Edifier R1280T is definitely a good quality speaker. It produces good sound with natural bass and treble. If you compare with some popular RM 1000 worth of speakers, this is probably no match but if you are looking for a decent quality, straight forward, affordable + branded speaker, the R1280T is a good option to consider.