Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers - 2.0 Active Near Field Studio Monitor Speaker - Wooden Enclosure - 42 Watts RMS Power

I'm writing this review on behalf of my family member who needed a new pair of speakers for their PC. Since their old one died after almost a decade of use, we were looking around for a good pair that will work, and deliver the requirements they were looking for in a pair of speakers. Thankfully, a friend of mine overseas recommended to us Edifier, citing them as one of the best for good quality speakers. Their recommendation was spot on. The minute we got it in our hands, we noticed something nice with this setup: it came with a workable remote, and it hooked up nicely to the PC. The size was acceptable for the desk the PC was on, and the sound... that was the best part. The remote allowed control over the sound, which speaker it came from, and volume of the sound with ease. I mentioned the sound was the part; the sound was beautiful and did not miss a beat. My family member tested this by playing a couple of songs on YouTube (we made sure the songs were HQ before playing), and you could hear every note crystal clear, and it was just right for my family member. We've had this for a few months now, and it has yet to slow down on its delivery of sound for various music videos and podcasts. Edifier did not disappoint on the construction of these speakers, and the price was just right, so if you find a set at a reasonable price, get it. Don't sleep on it. Do research on them beforehand, of course, but normally, anything from this company is not cheap, but it is worth every penny. Hope this helps!

I have enjoyed good music in my 70 years on earth. I started like many others, when I was a young teenager with the Stones, Beatles and The Who. My mind was treated to new audio sensations when I started listening to Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues and the like. I have NEVER stopped enjoying music. I appreciate many styles of music from Classical, New Age, Piano Solos to Classic Rock, Hard Rock and screaming guitar solos and heart trobbing drum beats (AC/DC) You can't begin to enjoy the nuances of these songs without the proper equipment.Over the years I have gone thru the 33 1/3 era, buying many different turntables & cartridges, looking for the perfect comgination for that just right sound. Then came Audio Cassettes, then Mini-Discs, then CDs, now MP3s, each getting better & better. Of coarse my bank account got smaller and smaller as I insisted on having the best quality I could afford. I always updated my entire sound system so it kept up with the new technology. Not the most expensive but good enough. I ran a small Mobile DJ business for 15 years back in the 80's I carried about 500 lbs of the biggest and baddest sound system I could get. My client reviews always came out with high marks cause the sound system kicked ass.What does all this babble have to do with these speakers that I have never heard of in my life? Well.... THEY KICK ASS!!!I was setting up an exersise gym in my livingroom (Wierd?) and wanted some self powered bookshelf speakers to listen to a few tunes while I used the new Nautilus Treadmill. I came across the Edifiers R1280T's and started reading the reviews and was slightly dissapointed with some of the negative reviews. BUT.... there were plenty of satisfied customers to convince me to order them.I set them up on a piece of furniture with my 32" Visio TV & trusty Tivo. I plugged in a few wires & cables turned on the TV, pulled up the concert on the Tivo of John Fogerty: The Long Road Home and it starts off with "Playing in a Traveling Band" I cranked those speakers up so loud I thought they were going to melt. The bass notes were clean and solid. the specs on these speakers say 75 to 18k frequency response but It sounds like a much bigger range than that. The vocals are clear, the guitar breaks will give you chills. The audience cheering makes you think you are there. It almost makes me want to smoke some of that wacky stuff. When finished I logged on to Pandora music streaming to the "New Age Piano Solo" channel and lowered the volume down to a whisper. Beautiful, Beautiful clean full music!!These Edifiers are the best bookshelf size speakers I have ever owned!! I am really impressed. I wish everyone could come over to my house and I'll put on a thrilling rock party for you. (even at 70 I still get the itch for a party) Next test, I'm gonna plug in my Samsung Galaxy S7e and crank it up on a song by Golden Earring: "Radar Love" and let it work it's way thru the other 1000+ songs. It works great on Smart Phones Tablets & Laptops.I am very pleased with these speakers. I wish you could hear what I hear. You can!! GO BUY YOUR OWN. PLAY IT LOUD and ENJOY!Hope this helped.

I originally bought some Alesis M1 speakers because I had a set of their higher end monitors and was very pleased with them. I was looking for nearfield monitors that were less on the thud side and more on the midrange side of town, since I'm using them for production. I wrote a review about the Alesis. Alesis are a great company, but those speakers were absolutely dreadful. I spent $91 on those used. Unlistenable.I was resigned to having to shell out the bigger bucks to get some NS10's.. which of course do the job better than anything, but are hard to listen to for long periods of time. I wanted something that was accurate, small and musical.So I started listening to tests on youtube through my Sony MDRV6 headphones (5hz-35khz!) of every monitor I could find that might fit the bill for what I was looking for.I had not heard of Edifier, but my research started with discovering the 1280db's, which sound great, really. But in another test I listened to 1280db against the 1280T that made me opt instead for the 1280T. The 1280T's were more balanced to my ears.Then I listened to every single other test I could find of the 1280T's against a paragon of great speaker manufacturers., JBL, Genius, Behringer, Alesis, Pioneer.. even a few Bose models, the bookshelf and multimedia speakers specifically (NEVER use Bose for monitoring).I did the test in HD with my eyes closed so that I could truly determine which sounded not just better, but that seemed to offer a response you'd expect from nearfield monitors rather than loudspeakers. I'm not looking for thudders - I'm looking for lots of detail and accuracy in the midrange.The 1280T's kept taking the proverbial cake. They have a very musical characteristic about them without coloration. There is no wonk on these speakers. I think what these guys really got right was the balance. Even against higher Edifier models, this one really was more pleasing to my ears, again looking for detailed midrange response and to be used as near field monitors.They sound way more expensive than they are. (I owned a few $300-$600 monitors including Alesis and JBL). I paid $79. Unreal. I feel like a bandit.The balance as I say is really exquisite. Someone really gave a damn about how these things sound. I was already impressed with the 1280db, but these are more balanced in the 200hz-400hz range. The detail in the midrange is really superb. The bass response, going AB between these, some Rockit 5's, car speakers and a Yamaha stereo system with a sub, is pretty accurate, leaning slightly on over emphasis. So I went back to the speaker, dialed the bass response down 1 click, and voila! Accurate (or as accurate as you could hope for $79) bass response. The treble response is accurate with no compensation required on the speaker. The treble balance is very musical. Well blended. These speakers sing like one unit, not like 2 woofers and 2 tweeters. I also gave the Treble and Bass a good push to 10 and the speakers just got sweeter and beefier. Really pleasant, although I plan to keep the speakers flat. I think the boost and cut is set at 6db each way.. but I'm guessing. Again I have no real need for those but it was nice to hear these things really kick. You can make them thud if you want. 75hz-18khz is where they're rated and more than enough for my purposes.They look nice to me (they don't look cheap anyway.). The construction appears to be quite solid. The grills are straightforward and aesthetically, while not the sexiest looking piece of gear, makes up for it with unassuming awesomeness. My friends had no idea the speakers sound that good from looking at them. They look a bit vintage even. I'm down with that.I've read some negative comments about the dials on the speakers. I didn't mind them at all. The Bass and Treble have a nice click for the 12 o'clock setting so you don't have to eyeball it and the Volume knob is infinite. Doesn't stop rolling in either direction, which is fine. I set it and leave it there. I did give them a good crank (listenably loud) and they handled it no problem. No audible distortion or clipping. For near field monitors, these things have a TON of power. WAAAY louder than I'd ever need them to be. The company rates them at 42W (21 a side). These speakers have no bluetooth connectivity, which I could care less about since I would never use that feature when working on music production. You've got an Aux input and a "PC" input and that's IT. Both are RCA. A USB connection or a SPDF connection might be nice, but if they omitted those to keep the price down while focusing on giving you a great sounding speaker, then I'm all for it because they succeeded in that regard.One of the best purchases I've made this year. Will definitely look Edify up first next time I want to buy some speakers. I hope they maintain their emphasis on simplicity and quality. Unreal value for $79.. AWESOME!!