Edifier R980T 4" Active Bookshelf Speakers - 2.0 Computer...

Most Helpful Review

"*Note: The terminals will take up to about 14ga wire. Not that it is needed for this low power near field set up. Just an FYI. And the cable that comes with is only about 18ga.So, these things are hard to nail down there is a lot of good and bad which for 60 bucks you have to keep in mind that real studio monitors or hifi speakers cost 6 times this much for the entry level usually. Also my review comes from a stand point of using them for computer desk speakers at work vs two other pre built 2.1 systems I have had in the past.If you are considering going this route and then maybe adding a powered sub vs a logitech or similar 2.1 system let me just say that if you aren't super concerned with a flatter presentation and medium better sound clarity, skip the hassle and get the Logitech Z625 instead. It is louder by itself, THX certified and comes with a sub so at 100 bucks you will save some money gain some volume and not have the headache.BUT... if you like clean music more than volume and bass these are an ok starting out point for a pair of powered speakers. Normally I would never buy the lowest end set of monitors a company offers but I needed some new sound for my work desk and I can't really listen to music at a billion decibels anyway so I went ahead and picked these up.I would compare them out of the box to a Logitech z333 system as far as bass level, volume and presentation of sound. They aren't much louder at 12w per side than the logitechs that are only 5 or 6w per side. The difference being though is these are powering a woofer and tweeter in both cabinets vs just one smaller all purpose woofer like logitech satellites. So they are sharing the power and that kind of makes sense.HOWEVER, unlike the logitech garbage, you get the entire range of volume with these. The logitech sets claim all this power etc in ads but when it comes to cranking it up to 11 you are going to get some significant distortion out of any logitech set. These are the opposite. You can crank these to 11 and run them all day and you wont get any distortion assuming there is no problems with your signal etc. AND the sound is much cleaner and much flatter of an EQ than logitech stuff. Now that doesn't mean these things are true monitors and really a flat EQ because they aren't. You can tell they have still been front loaded a little bit to make a subtle swoop into the range but... much flatter than other multimedia speakers made for computers under 100 bucks. Right now the better set of Edifier speakers is also under 100 bucks and if I wasn't trying to spend as little as possible I would have picked up the R1280T instead that is a no brainier those things are phenomenal speakers for their price point.The other positive about these speakers is, their amps are really under powered for what the cones can actually do. Some people would view this as a bad thing or like they are cutting corners or something but no, its them making sure you can crank your volume all the way up without getting distortion and making sure their product sounds good. A lot of companies do it. With that in mind if you have a tube preamp or DAC that you can feed into these things holy moly do they explode with volume. With a cheap pre amp these things go from bout the same level volume as a logitech z333 system to something i would expect to run at 40 or 50 watts rms just for the satellites. You can get some serious sound out of these speakers with the right add ons.Thats why for most people, they can get more bang for their buck out of a pre built 2.1 system but if you are like me and you dabble in audio, maybe you have a dac or pre amp or mixer or things like that laying around that you could experiment with these they can sound really good FOR THEIR PRICE. Never forget these things are 59 dollars right now. And just plan on adding a small sub. They are ok on low end but to get them there you have to put the bass up over neutral and I don't like that. Monoprice has a 8 in 60w powered sub for only 60 bucks right now. Well worth it to add to these and make a legit entry level 2.1 system."