If you’ve got the budget to spare and want a reliable bookshelf speaker that delivers great overall sound quality with good bass and treble output, the Edifier R1700BT (see image) is for you.
With the advancements in audio technology, the standard for today’s bookshelf speakers has become exceptionally high.
One brand that rose to fame with its bookshelf and tabletop speakers and has been developing and implementing innovative technology is Edifier.
This well-established, global brand delivered several high-quality audio systems like the R1280DB and R1700BT, which we will compare today.
In summary, if you’ve got the budget to spare and want a reliable bookshelf speaker that delivers great overall sound quality with good bass and treble output, the Edifier R1700BT is for you. But if you’re after something cheaper that still holds some nice qualities, then the Edifier R1280DB is a good option.
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Now although their drivers are enough for most people’s daily use, keep in mind that they don’t produce earth-shattering heavy bass.
If you’re looking for speakers with better bass handling perfect for home theater or bass-heavy music, consider checking out these products instead:
- Polk Audio Legend L200
- KLH Kendall Floorstanding Speaker
- Sony SSCS5 3-Way 3-Driver Bookshelf Speaker System
Now let's dig deeper.
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.