Edifier R1280T vs JBL Studio 530

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

These things make a wonderful sound in a way that others just can't seem to produce and is just hard to explain. The other most important thing to me at least, is that they produced absolutely zero listening fatigue.

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

These are exciting speakers to play and they really suck you in. I have Usher, PSB and NHT here and I like these a lot. Sound quality compares well with the NHT Classic 3 overall which were once called the best speakers under a thousand dollars. At the price difference I strongly favor the JBLs and the very tight bass helps make these speakers way more exciting and fun than the NHT

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").

The height is perfect and my wife likes the look of these far better than the old Yahama towers these replaced.