Edifier E25-RED 74W 2.0 Bluetooth Speaker 3IN Bass Driver w/ Touch Sensitive Controls - Red

Comment:
TL;DR: Well made, good looking, can play loud. Definitely not audiophile grade, but compromise in sound is made up for by other aspects (e.g. size).I was really excited to get these out of the box. I wanted something for the bedroom that is semi-portable for running where I don't have speakers already and I wanted something that sounds decent. I didn't expect them to stand up to any of my proper component systems, but I would not settle for tinny horrible speakers.First, the packaging was excellent. Very similar to what you'd expect from Apple (speakers have cloth drawstring bags to protect the finish, every item has it's perfect place with 0 movement allowed). So off to a good start. Set up was simple. One power cable, one cord between the speakers and a remote. Bluetooth pairing was quick and painless. Only downside is the proprietary cable between speakers which means you won't be hacking your own length cable for these. The length was sufficient for me.These speakers look great and are super solid (quite heavy). They look awesome against the grey walls and white/yellow accents in the room they are in. Some people would buy them for that alone. They were definitely aiming for architectural with these and I think they hit the mark.The sound? Good but not perfect. I'd have to pull out my measurement mic to confirm what I think I'm hearing but it appears they have a lift on top (lot of sparkle top end) and there is definitely a hump around 90-120hz (not surprising with a 3" driver in an small enclosure). Mids seems a little laid back for a 3" (an un eq'd 3" would most likely be shouty). I'm guessing they selected to have relaxed mids since they are the drivers are biamped and (presumably)using a dsp to cross them over (so they can essentially have them sound however they want). You're average person likes the "gullwing" style eq, so my guess is they leaned that way instead of neutral (bit more treble, bit more bass). Pity it's not user configurable. The nice surprise is how extended the bass is for drivers this size. The passive radiators are definitely helping with that and they probably dig as deep as some sealed Mission bookshelf speakers I have with 5 1/4" drivers (at a fraction of the size and they look 10x better).Playing around with listening axis it appears these were made to sound good on a desktop. So nearfield, desktop sitting axis they should have much better midrange. That being said most music sounded quite good, there were just some songs that really showed a hole or dip around 3000-3500hz (vocals somewhat hidden by the rest of the music). Of course that can be due to listening axis combined with the crossover (which is presumably in that range). You are already taking a hit on sq using bluetooth, so it's a nitpick. I have yet to try them with direct input, but I suspect they will sound better and for what they are they do sound good. Definitely a step up from cheaper self powered speakers (and any portable bluetooth speaker setups I've heard).The speakers can play quite loud without distorting, so you could potentially use them on your patio or similar (if you have an outlet).For the sale price I'd say they are worth it. I've heard better out of smallish speakers (e.g. CSS EL70 in a Mar-Kel70 Planet 10 Hifi box), but even DIYing those speakers you are up to the price of these speakers without amplification. For non-critical listening they are good and I'd suspect would suit most people in an apartment or condo for everyday use.

Comment:
Bought these because Thunderbolt Display sound was not good. Difference is night and day. I'm sure you can find better speakers, but at this price ($40 cheaper than at the apple store) they seemed a bargain. These are my second set of Edifier speakers - the old set was 5.1 analog and didn't work directly with the Mac setup - these complement it well and I can use them with other bluetooth devices too.