A white box was handed over to me by the folks of Inter-Asia Technology asking me to do a quick review of the new Edifier R1600TIII. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the brand, Edifier is a Chinese-based company that specializes in producing high-quality consumer audio electronics.

Truth be told, I was impressed with their W670BT Bluetooth Headset that I reviewed back in April so as part of the Edifier Studio Series, I’m expecting nothing less from the R1600TIII. Retailing at RM339 SRP, lets head right into business.

Specs

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The Speakers

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The R1600TIII is certainly a handsome unit, encased in MDF wooden enclosure the combination of natural wood-grain texture with grey accent in the middle really makes the speaker units stand out, a total refresh from the all black finishing from Edifier’s classic Studio-series speakers. There is also an angled design to the speakers that adds to the aesthetics.

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Taking off the front bezel, you can see the 19mm silk-dome tweeter driver at the top followed by a 4-inch subwoofer unit with the bass reflex port right below; of course, this is the same for both speakers.

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Taking a look from the sides, and again, most will appreciate the natural wood accent that the R1600TIII has.

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In terms of control, the right speaker will have three knobs at the side of the right speaker which lets users adjust the treble, bass and of course the volume. A small green power LED right below the volume knob will light up when the system is turned on.

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Included is a handy-dandy remote for mute and volume control, I wish that I could control the Treble and Bass from here as well but being no bigger than a bar of Kit-Kat it’s already enough of a convenience.

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Edifier has kept it simple for connectivity. At the back of the left speaker you will find only a single “speaker-in” connection that you plug in from the right speaker.

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The ‘command centre’ are over at the right speaker. Inputs are at the top with dual RCA-in giving you the option of dual RCA inputs at the top and a left-speaker-out connection right below that. The power button is situated at the bottom left while the cable you see protruding out is the power cord.

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Needless to say that the cables you need are provided, an RCA to 3.5mm cable and a proprietary connector for the left-speaker-in.

Testing

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Like I said before, I’m not a full fledge audiophile per-se but I do enjoy good sound quality, so I’ll try to explain my experiences as best as I could in layman terms.

Having used to my ageing entry level Logitech S100, the size of the R1600TIII is huge in comparison but the setup is very easy as essentially you only need to route 3 wires in total. The control knobs feels “classy”, rest assured it’s not one of those plastic knobs we find on cheaper offerings and the volume knob has that tactile bump to every degree you turn it; increments are very subtle as well.

From what I understand, an output of 60W RMS is plenty powerful even for a living room, and I was right. At about 50% volume (software control) the R1600TIII drowned out the noise from the construction nearby and I pretty much have to shout to communicate in the house, needless to say I dare not raise the volume any more unless I intend to annoy my neighbours. But even after all that, I am impressed by the sound quality that came out of these boxes.

Vocals are clear and crisp, mid tones are good and the bass is punchy; the R1600TIII even manages to surprise me with new elements that I’ve never noticed from my song collection. The 4-inch bass drivers delivers explosions and low rumbles in movies adequately and gaming with the speakers replicates the experience (of course with the volume up some notch), sound positioning is just as good too, so no troubles hearing the direction of enemies in an FPS game before you see them.

I’d have to admit that it does take up quite a bit of space, it’s easily the largest component on my desk so make sure you have the space for it, home theatre systems will have less problem space wise. I’d also would love to have a 3.5mm output straight from the speaker itself so that I could plug in my headphones as not everyone has a pass-through from their keyboard like the Gigabyte Aivia Osmium I am using.

Conclusion

The Edifier R1600TIII is a very versatile set of speakers. Be it for music, movies or games it all sounds very impressive indeed. And if you have a large display monitor or even a portable projector, the R1600TIII is a very good contender for a home entertainment system. Top all that with good looks and quality build, Edifier have another great product for the masses.

Pros

  • Great aesthetics
  • Good sound quality
  • Excellent build quality
  • Easy to setup

Cons

  • A little big for a PC setup

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