Review: Decent home studio monitors for under $100

[deevey]

So a few weeks ago I decided I was getting a little peeved needing to spend all my time in sweaty headphones or at the mercy of a crappy 2.1 system which everyone else but me in the building but me could hear properly no matter how low the sub was set. It was time to invest in some "studio" monitors on a budget.

Having scoured the local secondhand market (everything is pretty dang expensive here even second hand!) I finally went with a brand new set of the Edifier R1600T iii after reading glowing reports on some of their other models (the original 1600 included). I probably would have gone with their Studio 6's but space was a big concern.

Who the hell are Edifier ? .. they are a Chinese company who's been focusing on pushing high sound quality products for Low prices the past few years with tuning help from Phil Jones Pure Sound who has worked on some of their speakers and headphones.

So $85 spent and 24 hours later they arrived and was pleasantly surprised, firstly by the weight and secondly the build quality. They are solid little MDF boxes and have nice machined aluminum knobs, all the cables you need to get running rca-minijack/rca-rca and came with a very basic remote with up down or mute. The mkiii does appear to be Bi-amped 17watts x2 and 13watts x2 which is a major upgrade over the old model. Need to open them up and verify, but the cable to the slave speaker does indeed have 2 pairs.

Theres dual RCA's on the rear, which can act as input for another device or output to a sub - guess they are just linked in there (they are only marked input though) - I used it as a sample record input to my MPC no probs

These little baby's can certainly crank it out, even from their little 4' woofers which push 34 watts of goodness (excluding tweeters) and no way I could turn it up to full volume in a condo if I wanted to... Well maybe I did just to test a little, they had me grinning ear to ear.

One of the nicest things about them however is their shape which is designed to sit flat either side of your desk they are set at a slight incline so they aim right at your ears rather than your chest, unlike so many other similar size monitor style speakers which miss your ears completely unless they are raised up 8 or 9 inches.

The sound is pretty darn flat when the tone controls are all center, meaning you hear things you might rather not hear (especially up top), overall they do not appear to enhance anything to any great degree, what you put in, is what you get out and there is plenty of bass despite their small size and at the distances they are designed for, you can of course add a sub if you feel the need to shake the neighbors windows.

All in all, You'd be hard pushed to get a better quality system for the price, even far above the price. I'd highly recommend them if they are available in your area and you need a smallish near field monitor with plenty of balls that won't break the bank.

[Patch]

Nice review.

Bl00dy great value for money by the sounds of it...

[SlvrDragon50]

Edifier is a pretty big brand. Fantastic sound for the cost.

[deevey]

Edifier is a pretty big brand. Fantastic sound for the cost.

I concur, very very happy with them and would love to hear the Studio 6's.

While their Multimedia/gaming speakers are available in Walmart and Best Buy, I cant understand why it seems so difficult to get your hands on their studio models outside Asia and the r1600T iii seems almost impossible to find to purchase online anywhere (even reviews are scarce).

[MalcolmDeXXX]

I bought my Edifier PC speakers in around 2004, 11 years later and one of them is still going strong, with the bass box still producing quality sound. Amazing brand.

Would these be suitable for DJing at home, but for internet broadcasting?