Edifier R980T Bookshelf Speakers Review

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So who doesn’t love great sounding speakers? Edifier has been specializing in premium sound systems since 1996 and since has created a large following. We stumbled upon the Edifier R980T speakers when searching for a good 2.0 or 2.1 speaker system for a new office setup.

Edifier can be compared to other brands such as Audioengine, KEiiD, and Pyle Audio. They strive to achieve a studio quality speaker set, while offering them at an affordable price. Additionally, Edifier adds a modern and elegant design that is made to show off on your desk.

The R980T’s are perfect for a lot of setups due to their size, power and sound quality. But, are they right for your setup?

Well, in this review, we’ll be taking a look at the features, design and performance of the Edifier R980T 4″ Active Bookshelf Speakers. In addition, we’ll give you our opinion and recommendation on if these are worth your hard earned money.

We also found the Logitech Z333 speakers as well, but you’ll see that the Edifier R980T’s might outperform them in a lot of ways.

Features

Starting off with the features of the Edifier R980T bookshelf speakers. They are dual 12W speakers that are designed to be used with a computer (PC) or as bookshelf speakers. They have an auxiliary input, but can also take an RCA input. Included with the R980T speakers is a RCA cable and 3.5mm cable.

On the back of the main speaker, there is volume and bass control knobs. These allow you to consistently control just how much power is coming out of the speakers. The speakers include all of the necessary speaker wires and power supplies needed as well.

In addition to a solid build quality, the speakers are finished in a classic black wood style. The 100% wood design helps to minimize acoustic resonance and improve sound quality. Also, the speakers are magnetically shielded.

Each speaker has a 13mm tweeter and 4-inch bass driver. Compared to other speaker systems, like the Logitech Z333 speakers that only have a 5-inch subwoofer. These speakers have dual 4-inch woofers. Which, as you can expect, provides a lot more punchy bass.

The speakers are active and passive speakers maintaining a frequency response of 70 HZ-20 kHz +/-9db. In addition, they have an input sensitivity of 700?50mV for PC input and 550?50mV (THD+N=1%) for auxiliary input.

Performance

So, how do the R980T’s perform? Compared to other speakers in their price range, very well. We were very impressed with the amount of sound that speakers of this size can produce.

Drivers & Sound Performance

The highs are crisp, bass is tight without being overpowering and mids are clean. However, without a mid-range dedicated driver it can be difficult to reproduce accurate mids. But, Edifier accomplishes it well.

Controls

In addition, the controls on the back of the speakers work well. But, we’d recommend just keeping the volume knob at 100%. Then, adjust volume individually via the device thats connected to the speakers (for us a desktop PC). For us, the bass knob in the middle gave us just enough punch without being extreme. However, without a dedicated subwoofer, it doesn’t get extremely overpowering anyway.

Installation & Setup

Installing the Edifier R980T’s was a fairly simple process. Just plug in the necessary power cords, attach your audio source and you should be good to go. For mounting, you can place the speakers directly on the surface where your audio source is. However, we choose to do a custom wall-mounting solution.

By taking two small pieces of wood and angle brackets, we made makeshift speaker stands. These held the R980T’s up with no issues, because they are fairly lightweight speakers.

Cons

There are a few cons that come along with the R980T’s. Firstly, the volume knob is virtually useless for anything less than 25% volume. But, there is an easy fix (as we mentioned before). Keep it at 100% then, control the volume with your audio device.

Second, the controls are in the back of the speaker. This isn’t a major issue because we didn’t touch them after initial set up. But, for some people they might get frustrated with this design choice. The choice was obviously made for an improved clean and modern look.

Finally, make sure to plug them into the same outlet as whatever their source is plugged into to avoid any AC hum.

Final Verdict

To conclude the Edifier R980T Review (link), we have to say that these are some awesome speakers for the price. If you’re looking for bookshelf speakers that are reasonably priced, then the R980T’s might work perfectly for you. As for “studio monitors”, they will work, but it’s definitely worth it to upgrade to one of Edifier’s higher-end offerings.

They do have some flaws, but as mentioned above, can easily be amended. There is not a lot of competitors that offer the sound value that these speakers do. Edifier cuts out some of the unneeded features to improve the quality of not only the speaker cones, but the build itself.

The build quality is great, sound is impressive and the overall experience is superb.