Edifier R1280T vs Dayton Audio B652

The S3000 do a fine job covering all the based from music, movies, and games. I’ve only ever had the S3000 pros, Edifier R1280T, and the Edifier R1700BT (I have a brand loyalty issue I know) so I don’t really have anything to compare them to. I was lucky enough to attend RMAF in 2019 and got to listen to a bunch of *really* nice speakers and this was one of them. The S3000 Pros happened to be in my price range ($400 on Black Friday ‘19) so I picked them up

That said, they do produce stereo sound so if your sound system currently consists of a sound bar, or something similar, you will definitely notice a night and day difference in sound quality because they will produce true stereo separation. In addition, the B652s may make excellent rear surrounds in a surround sound system but I have never used them in this manner. If you have never listened to better speakers and you have only used computer speakers or the cheap speakers that come with MP3 player docks in the past there is no reason you will not enjoy these speakers. Sound quality is up to the listener and the listener's experience is what often dictates what that person thinks about the quality of a pair of speakers

What makes a more noticeable difference is the position of the speakers. I made some stands out of scrap particle board shelving to get the speakers off the surface of the desk and angled upward. This may reduce the impression of "warmth" that many listeners notice first but the bass is tighter and the overall tonal balance is improved. Getting the tweeters directed more towards my ears also cleaned up the top end and helped imaging substantially

The cabinet is simply too small for this size woofer. That means there's not enough air volume to allow the cone to move as it should. This hurts bass response and also low frequency volume. Since these are not ported, I decided to remedy that

These edifier speakers still represent a great value for the cost, they won't get super loud, but they will sound really good, especially if you're using a decent source and not a terrible integrated computer soundcard.or a cheap cd player..

Ultimately, as you could probably figure, they were returned because I did not feel like having a set of speakers sitting in a brown box in my attic. I give Amazon 5 stars for their customer service and return process. I am giving these two stars only because of the price and are suitable for many who want to start out cheap and work their way up as funds become available. Sorry for the ranting and raving but I had to get this off my chest

They are still small enough to not take over your desk, but are big enough that you'll actually want to listen to them (unlike smaller "computer speakers").

One small, but nice (and important) touch is the rubber de-coupling pads on the base of each speaker. Instead of felt pads or thin rubber stickies, they put decent thickness rubber pads on, which help to reduce sound transmission and reverberations (I usually use florist's clay or a square of dense camping mat to accomplish the same thing). For someone (me) who overspent on underdelivering speakers in the 70's, '80's, and early '90's, it's amazing the sound that comes out of these speakers. It goes to prove that careful design and consistent materials and manufacturing are about 85% of what it takes to produce musical speakers - the many "exotic materials" and "new technology" speakers that fell by the wayside just go to show that cost (in the past) doesn't guarantee better performance than mass-produced China-speakers from a parts company

Keep in mind however, always match your speaker size to your room size. The reason these sound amazing for me, is my bedroom is only a 15' by 15' room. If you want speakers to fill a 18' by 25' living room or larger, I would recommend the Edifier S1000DB speakers. These speakers do have removable grills, but because of the strange placement of the drivers, I think the speakers look better with the grills on

If size is of your concern, it might be worth looking into the Micca MB42, or soon to be released MB42X (with a proper crossover), for small desks and office uses. Otherwise these will do nicely on a bigger desk, or even nicely for a home theater set-up. All-in-all I'm greatly satisfied with the speakers. If there was only one major complaint, it would be that they are kinda big, but that's a tradeoff of having good sounding speakers

Don’t forget to adjust the volume (gain) on both your media player and desktop computer. Higher gain makes the speakers more lively. But too high adds distortion and affects the speaker’s volume control range. Enjoy!

All just simply hung against the drywall by the hook already attached. I'd feed them with Lepai 2020Ti's, each pair, and that would be it !! For $200 bucks, it sounds as good as an HK sound room. At 1/2 volume, it will blow you out of the seat, and the kids will be screaming because their ears are bleeding. As anyone knows, a well matched set blows pure watts and amps out of the water anyday