The Edifier R1280T (see image) and R1280DB are very chic and good-looking bookshelf speakers. Each speaker has a matte top panel with grills made of removable gray cloth material.
Edifier is a well-respected speaker manufacturer recognized for its reasonably priced, high-quality speakers. There is a major difference between the R1280T and R1280DB speakers when it comes to connectivity options. The s-series speakers - R1280Ts and R1280DBs, on the other hand, feature an external subwoofer.
In summary, the Edifier R1280T and R1280DB are extremely similar. The most noticeable difference is that the Edifier R1280DB has two RCA inputs, Bluetooth, and two additional inputs for optical and coax in addition to the two RCA inputs. In contrast, the Edifier R1280T has just two RCA inputs. Additionally, the Edifier R1280DB remote has more control than the R1280T remote. However, you'll have to fork up an additional $30 to $40. If you want to splurge, though, the R1280Ts and R1280DBs feature an external subwoofer for added audio power - for an added price, of course.
So, which Bluetooth bookshelf speaker set is better? Let's take a closer look.
Sound Quality
Let me tell you something right off the bat.
The sound quality performance you'll end up getting from a speaker will always depend on your room acoustics - particularly room dimensions and speaker positions.
The impact of the combination of these two is actually so strong that in most cases, it doesn't even make sense to utter a single word on sound quality without speaking of them.
This is also why it's not unusual to see completely different reviews of the same speaker.
In one case the speaker might be placed in a sweet spot inside the room and hence the user might be satisfied. In other cases the same speaker might be ill placed and hence user might even have returned it.
The point most people miss here is that it mostly isn't even about the engineering behind the speaker itself. It's about where you place the speaker inside which room.
So, in order to solve this problem, I've partnered with Acoustics and Audio Engineering PhD Andrea Cicero from AC Acustica and created Soundton - a simple, 2D, browser accessible online speaker placement calculator.
With Soundton, now there's a way to figure the sound quality of most speakers before you buy them.
Read more about its working principles at soundton.com/documentation/.
The end colormap provides you the locations with the best (green) and worst (red) acoustics.